They've sold three million albums, won Ivor Novello and Brit Awards, become festival favourites and sell out arena shows but London Grammar have managed to maintain an air of mystique and anonymity over their 11-year career.
They aren’t likely to get mobbed in their local Tesco Express and that’s just the way the UK trio of Hannah Reid, Dan Rothman (31) and Dominic "Dot" Morris (30) like it.
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"It’s pretty great to be honest," says Dot, the trio’s resident multi-instrumentalist. "We’ve spoken about this with Hannah and she even doesn’t get recognised when she goes out," adds Dan, the man who adds tasteful flickers of guitar to London Grammar’s spectral electronica.
"Consciously or unconsciously, Hannah decided when we were very young not to go for the fame thing. I think the opportunity was there for us to become that kind of band and Hannah would have been the one to deliver that to us by indulging in a celebrity lifestyle but she was never interested.
"We’ve always believed that mystery is important for the brand of the band and not many people do it that way anymore."
Like a more approachable The xx, the lowkey but highly successful act have just released their fourth album, The Greatest Love, and it sees the trio immerse themselves even deeper into their orchestral electronica and melancholic soul.
And that air of mystique is still intact on slow burning tracks like the trip hop pop of You And I and House.
however, 34-year-old front woman Hannah has always been the main focus of the band over their four-album career on hits like Wasting My Young Years and Strong but today she is absent from promo duties as she has far more important things to attend to.
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Earlier this year, she gave birth to her first child, Joshua Cillian, with her partner, Irishman Sean O’Connor.
The band’s roots go back to 2009 when a teenage Dan met fellow Londoner Hannah during their first year at the University of Nottingham.
"I was always in and out of bands like Bombay Bicycle Club and Cajun Dance Party," he recalls. "Me and Hannah had both been in bands and we were always trying to get signed and were looking for a new band to start."
Since their hit 2011 debut album If You Wait, the band’s atmospheric and propulsive chill-out music has hit a sweet spot with audiences and it’s hard not to get the impression that London Grammar are studio perfectionists who spend years finessing their sound.
"Probably because it takes us four years to make each album," laughs Dot. "We are definitely studio rats for sure," adds Dan. "Just before this interview I literally sent Dot a picture of us in the studio from years ago.
"We were very young and making our second album and we were working in a studio called State of The Art by the guy who wrote What’s Love Got to Do With It? by Tina Turner and with the money from that he built this studio as a homage to Abbey Road so it was a miniature Abbey Road.
"The picture I just sent Dot is us working on a song called Big Picture and Dot is playing a Prophet keyboard and I’m messing around with all these pedals and there’s stuff everywhere and in a sense we didn’t know what the f*** we were doing.
"Well, we did and we didn’t . . . the equipment was there and we had the opportunity so we were studio rats before we even knew what that was and now that we know what it is, we really are studio rats."
Dot adds: "Our first album did really well and we’re in a better position with ticket sales and album sales and we are doing as well as we have ever done. We’ve been really lucky."
Largely self-produced and partially recorded in The Eurhythmics’ old studio The Church in London, The Greatest Love ranges from the tricksy percussion of stand-out track Kind of Man to the more aggressive LA.
Their sound and mood is the canvas for Hannah’s lyrics (fittingly, she is also a painter), which have always had a confessional quality, largely dealing in personal relationships, romantic or otherwise.
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With the release of The Greatest Love, people have been zoning in on new song, a glacial throwdown called Fakest Bitch, in the hope of gleaning some gossip around the band’s carefully curated sound and image. Lyrics such as, "You’re at the bar with my boyfriend behind my back/You’ll say that you were bonding over your panic attacks," certainly feel more than just imaginary.
"I think Hannah’s lyrics are about herself and imaginary situations," says Dan. "We were talking to her about Fakest Bitch, which a lot of people have asked her about and she has said it may be about a lot of people who have maybe exhibited those kind of characteristics but least of all herself.
"I think that’s what the greatest love is in essence - she’s talking about self-reflection, loving yourself and hating oneself and those more negative things she talks about in that song.
"I think Hannah’s lyrics are very stream of consciousness. I’ve watched her do it and it’s almost trance-like. She will go into her zone and start scribbling. She just gets out of the way and lets it pour out."
The band hit the road in October for a European tour that will see them play Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and London and they promise there will be an Irish date soon. "We love it there," says Dot. "The Irish are the best audiences."
They also supported Coldplay earlier in the summer on the band’s seemingly never-ending tour, which, of course, sold-out four nights in Croke Park recently.
"Something that really struck us was their level of professionalism. It’s crazy," says Dot. "It’s pretty obvious and self-explanatory that they wouldn’t still be going if they didn’t have that professionalism.
"It’s like a travelling universe they’re created and when you’re in it. they’re fundamentally very kind people and that runs through to the crew. With any business or culture, it comes from the top down and they’re created a really lovely vibe and when you come into it, you feel very welcome.
"However," Dot adds with a grin. "It’s also pretty terrifying playing in front of 90,000 people but the feeling Coldplay create makes you feel very calm."
The Greatest Love is out now
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