DARK pop merchants Insect Guide have been quietly building up a cult following across the world.

The Leeds based trio have already bounced around a few labels, toured overseas and released a critically acclaimed debut album.

Now with their second album Dark Days and Nights done and dusted, the likes of BBC 6 Music have lined them up for a session (April 21 Mark Riley show – check it out).

But while two thirds of the band (guitarist Stan Howells and drummer Chris Cooper) may call the other side of West Yorkshire home, the band’s roots and voice are most definitely from Huddersfield.

Singer Su Sutton went to Salendine Nook High School and still lives in the area.

After she left school she went to Huddersfield New College and played in a band called Tink.

And the band’s name was born from a chance encounter at Huddersfield Library where Su worked.

She explained: “One time I was doing some shelving of books and a man walked up to me and said ‘have you got the insect guide?’ and I just looked up and went ‘ooh’, so that’s where it came from.”

Insect Guide’s dense soothing tones evoke memories of 80s shoe-gazing fused with some of the 90s’ cooler female-fronted alt-indie efforts.

Think My Bloody Valentine meets Echobelly meets Saint Etienne.

And while Insect Guide have admitted they are “unashamedly pop” their atmospheric sound does come with brooding undertones.

Su said: “Most good pop music is dark; you’ve got the surface level where there’s a catchy tune but underneath the message is quite dark.

“We’ve got such different influences on things, that kind of helps.

“I take a lot from books and films, obviously music as well.

“I love Run DMC and the Beastie Boys and it’s more the beats that are coming off that than anything else.”

After being locked in dark studios for the past year recording their second album, Insect Guide are now buzzing at the prospect of some spring and summer touring and are hopeful they can play a few festivals.

Stan said: “It’s all come together well. We’ll hopefully get back touring abroad in Europe and America like we did on the last album.

“We’ve got Live at Leeds coming up.

“It’s getting bigger every year. We’re on, on the Saturday when most of the bands are on we just don’t know the time or venue yet.”

“There’s nothing more fun than travelling round and seeing a few places,” added Su. “When you’re in the studio you get a bit lost in that kind of world where you suddenly open the door and daylight hits you and you’re like ‘oh my god we’ve been in here for 72 hours’.”

No gigs are lined up for Huddersfield but Su said she would love to play in her hometown if there was a suitable venue and would jump at the chance of playing Huddstock.

She added: “It would be nice to see some really good venues back again. I used to play Abrahams a lot when that was there – I really loved it.

“Now Abrahams is shut so it would be interesting to see what else is around.

“Our gigs are very audio-visual. We have videos for every song that are streamed up to what we’re playing and they’re linked onto our drummer’s click track so you can see all the visuals happening in film form.

“We spend a long time making all the films and they play behind us as we do the set.

“We keep the sets kind of short and sweet – about 26 minutes.

“We have the keyboards on the backing tracks so we play those before each gig.

“Chris plays the drums and I have drums at the front that link up to him. I think it makes it more exciting, it makes the sound so much bigger.”

Dark Days and Nights is out on May 3 on Dead Penny Records.