IF THE figures add up, as they surely will, York band Elliot Minor will be celebrating a fourth successive Top 40 single on Sunday with Still Figuring Out.

Principal songwriter and singer Alex Davies believes this could be the song to broaden their fan-base, at present perceived to be schoolgirls with a crush on an even posher version of Busted.

"I think we do need to grow and get bigger; a lot of people still haven't heard of us and that's down to the fact we have quite a specific fan-base, " says Alex.

"At the moment it's predominantly younger girls, though more guys are getting into us."

Elliot Minor have been on the road since January 25 - they play Sheffield Leadmill tonight and Leeds Metropolitan University on April 5 - and Alex believes that a combination of live shows and the May release of their debut album should spread the word.

"I think once the album is out, it'll make a difference for us. It's quite diverse and different from the singles so far, " he says. "The album is more piano based and there more strings on there."

Recorded with producer Jim Wirt in Los Angeles last year, the album has been mixed and mastered in America by Neil Avron, who has worked with Fall Out Boy and Avril Lavigne, and the songs now fuse American and English influences.

"I think because it's very American hopefully it will appeal over there, though you can hear the English parts as well: like the accents, and some of the harmonies are very Renaissance and you could imagine them being sung in a cathedral, " says Alex, a former York Minster chorister.

Still Figuring Out leaps out as a single, and yet Elliot Minor had another song in mind for single number four after Parallel Worlds, Jessica and The White One Is Evil.

"Funnily enough, we really wanted to release Time After Time, but because The White One Is Evil was such a dark song, the record company wanted something completely different, and Still Figuring Out is very happy and it's written in a major key."

Alex and Ed Minton wrote the song in their public schooldays. "We were in our last year at school and it was pretty much about how we didn't know what was going to happen next, just having fun in our final year, " Alex recalls.

Three hit singles already, a fourth on the way, and an album to follow, Alex and Elliot Minor now know exactly what's happening next. "It's going really well and it's just what we hoped for.

When we went off to university, we wondered if we would ever get the breaks, but we did get that lucky break, " he says.

"I was studying music at Leeds University and I'd come home on the train and start rehearsing and I never accepted that I wouldn't be full time in the band? and I don't think I'll be going back to university now."

  • Elliot Minor's new single, Still Figuring Out, is released on Repossession Records/Warner this week.