For those of you who don't know the band Kai, they're a trio from the lovely seaside town of Brighton. After reading that they'd been voted for and won the BMA Music Award for Best Emerging Band 2010, we decided to check these guys out and were not disappointed. Their music is a sign of good things to come - they've put the freshness back in to rock music.

We had chance to catch up with Jacko, to discuss the concepts behind their music, upcoming plans and what it was like to share the same stage with some of the hottest bands around.

R13:So, talk us through the band name; you changed it from IAM: YOUR HERO to Kai, why was that?
J:Well, we had been playing under that name for a couple of years and when Josh joined the band we were already called IA:YH. His musical influence on the sound has been a big one and we felt we needed to show this with a name that was fresh for all three of us. Oh and our old name sucked too.

R13:How did you guys get together as a group?
J:Me (Jacko) and Rudi met when we were about 9 and 11 years old, he moved over from Ireland and happened to move down my road, we started jamming in his living room and the noise hasn't stopped coming. As for Josh, who joined a couple of years ago, I've known him through school all my life and we were good mates before he joined, it all slipped together pretty well.

R13:You're currently not signed to any label, which label would you like to be signed to?
J:Hrm. That's a tricky one! I'm not sure I could say which I would like to be signed to but we're certainly fans of labels like Ninja Tune and XL. It's a strange one though, some of my favourite bands aren't on labels, or just seem to vaguely work through them...

R13:At the beginning of the year you won the BMA Music Award for Best Emerging Band 2010, I bet you guys were stoked!?
J:Yeah, it was pretty mad to be fair. Meeting such legendary artists such as Jimmy Page and Roger Daltrey was pretty amazing. The whole night was a brilliant experience, from actually winning and collecting the award to the after party, hopefully we will be in a situation like it again one day!

R13:You've had quite a few shows this year, which has been the most memorable?
J:For me it would definitely have to be our recent show with Young Legionnaire (and our first show under our new name Kai). Legionnaire is made up of the drummer of the automatic, the bassist of bloc party and the vocalist of yourcodenameis:milo. The latter being a huge influence on me personally when I was younger and still now as I'm writing music, to share the stage with those guys was quite the compliment I felt.

R13:You played Meadowlands Festival, how was that?
J:Windy.
R13:You also played Redfest?
J:An amazing weekend but unfortunately for us we had a fair few technical problems...to put it mildly. We should be back up there next year I believe so we will certainly put things right come 2012.

R13:You had the same stage festival appearances as Jumping Ships, Three Trapped Tigers and Young Legionnaire; I bet that was an honourable experience?
J:It was indeed. Three Trapped Tigers played the same stage as us at Meadowlands and they've got to be the best live band we've ever seen, let alone shared a stage with. Phenomenally tight, huge sounding band, and there a three piece which always goes down well in my books. Yeah, we've played with Jumping Ships a few times, they seem to get better and better with every show I see, there certainly doing the Brighton rock scene proud, people should certainly check 'em out.

R13:Which other festivals are on your to-do list?
J:Would of course love to do Glastonbury (that way I can actually afford to go to it too...) but would love to play 2000 trees festival, line-up is always the best of any festival in my opinion and I've heard such good things about the kind of crowd they get. I think we would go down pretty well at a festival like that.

R13:So, explain the song writing process; do you all contribute?
J:Yeah, we certainly do. Sometimes Josh will write a song and we bring it into the studio after he demos it at home and we work through it and fuck it up and make it Kai. Or sometimes we barely fuck it up at all and we just work through our own parts and get it right. The same applies with myself, before Josh joined I was the primary songwriter and would bring a track to the studio and we would work through it, now its more shared between us or we write things together, which is great as I love the music he writes and we gel well together in the writing process I think. It's cool to experiment with too, for example I write the lyrics so I might put them to a track that Josh has got guitar parts for or vice versa, we get more interesting results this way. Rudi is also in the process of sorting out his own home set up so he can start demoing things and instigating ideas and tracks. There isn't really a weak link in terms of contribution or writing, it really is a sound created by all three of our tastes and influences.

R13:Which bands or musicians influence you?
J:It's such a massive mix it's hard to narrow it down. A rough list would be artists such as Aphex Twin, Idiot Pilot, Efterklang, Biffy Clyro, Flashbulb, The Xcerts and a load more. Anything that is a bit set aside from the norm I guess. Or done so well it can't be denied.

R13:Your music has been very well received by the press and you as a band, how does this make you feel?
J:Very flattered. It's really cool when people say nice stuff or we get a good review. It's a weird one though, I'm sure we'll get battered in a review at some point. Got to take everything with a pinch of salt to make sure you don't get carried away, even the good stuff. We're still getting there musically I think, the newer stuff is more exciting. (as it should be).

R13:As a band, what has been the best compliment you've received so far?
J:Winning the BMA Award was quite a compliment as that was voted for by listeners of JuiceFM and to actually come out on top was a big compliment. Plus, Jimmy Page saying 'as soon as I saw you, I saw the energy and enthusiasm coming off of you' – I wee'd myself a little bit at that point I think.

R13:For you all, has it always been music or had you considered other career paths?
J:We've been doing it so long and from such a young age I'm not sure we've even had time to think about other career paths. It's just what we've always done really. We all have different interests of course, me and Rudi are quite big into our theatre and acting and Josh is pretty nifty with a camera. But I'm not sure really... I don't plan to ever be doing anything else.

R13:What would be your ultimate goal as a band?
J:To release an album we were proud of and people seemed to like and to take it to more and more festivals, going abroad and playing amazing places.

R13:Which bands would you like to support?
J:To actually support Three Trapped Tigers at a gig rather than a festival would be cool but I think I might be too scared as they would just absolutely destroy us. Maybe wait a few more years before that one. Would love to do a show with The Xcerts, followed them for quite a few years and seen them grow into a pretty big force, it would feel kind of nostalgic to do that show I think.

R13:What can fans expect next from Kai?
J:More music, more shows and a video to accompany a single sometime rather soon.

R13:What's hot on your iPod playlists right now; any bands you feel we should be checking out?
J: BLK JKS
Jumping Ships – 'Talisman'
Baths
And So I Watch You From Afar
Tipper
The Physics House Band (one of the best live bands in Brighton at the mo)
Cheers for havin' us!