Indie-pop darlings Scouting For Girls are the musical equivalent of sharing memories of school or your favourite children's TV shows over a few pints in the pub.

Childhood memories, teenage angst and the pain of first love appear to be the themes running throughout the trio's self-titled debut album.

In Elvis Ain't Dead, the much-repeated mantra is I wish it was me you chose'. New single Heartbeat, released this week, has the line I'll walk you home safe, from the dark. I'll give you my jacket, I'll give you my heart.' The B-side is called A-Level Pain. I'm guessing it's about the angst of late-night geography revision and trying to get over the straight-A student who broke your heart.

Scouting For Girls have a distinctive radio-friendly sound; the effervescent catchiness, the piano-led stop-start and the endlessly repeated melancholy chorus lines.

They've certainly struck a chord with anyone who really is going through the angst of late-night revision and adolescent crushes.

"Our songs are about the kind of memories everyone has, the stuff we all identify with," says bassist Greg Churchouse. "Great pop songs are about emotional experiences; falling in love and breaking up. A lot of our songs were written ten years ago. They reflect our lives then and what a lot of kids are going through now."

He adds that A-Level Pain mentions his old technology teacher. Was he one of those teachers who said he'd never amount to anything? Pop stars always seem to have had those teachers.

"I think they all said that about me," laughs Greg. "I guess I'm having the last laugh."

They may sing about things like A-level pain, but the Scouting boys always sound chirpy.

"We're three happy, upbeat guys and we produce happy, upbeat music," says Greg. "It's fine to have moody, quiet bands staring down at the floor while they're singing, but that's not us. If you're staring at the floor you're not interacting. We like to jump about and have a good time with our fans.

"We grew up with Britpop, bands like Blur, Oasis, Supergrass. The first band I saw was Suede, they blew me away. I had that funny feeling in your tummy you get when something exciting is kicking off.

"We were also influenced by upbeat music from earlier on - stuff like Madness, Motown and ELO."

Meeting the fans is one reason Greg enjoys touring. "They're the loveliest people," he says. "It's great to be back on the road. Playing live and having a chat with fans after the shows is my favourite bit of what we do."

The band will be in Bradford next week, but the tour was thrown into jeopardy when singer Roy Stride was struck with a recent bout of laryngitis.

"We had to reschedule some gigs - it was a killer," sighs Greg. "We were gutted to cut things short for a while, but now we're back on track."

Greg, Roy and drummer Peter Ellard met at school in Ruislip and formed the band in 2005. Their affection for childhood clubs stems from their own experience; Roy and Pete met in the cubs when they were eight and Greg was an air cadet. The name Scouting for Girls was inspired by the Scouting for Boys handbook.

Having spent most of their lives together, do they ever tire of living in each other's pockets?

"There are 14 of us on the tour bus so me, Roy and Pete can go a whole day without actually speaking to each other," says Greg.

"We get on fine though, I don't think we've ever really quarrelled. We know each other's quirks. Bands that formed as mates early on and grafted together over the years tend to have a pretty solid bond.

"We have shared experiences going back years. I can't imagine being stuck in a manufactured group and having to get to know the other members."

It'd be like the first day at a new school - something I'm sure the lads will write a song about, if they haven't already.

They'd amassed a loyal following by the time they were scouted' by talent-spotters online. "We're a ten-year overnight success," laughs Greg.

"We'd been gigging and putting our stuff on the internet, spending years building up a fanbase, then our future management contacted us on MySpace. It's vital that bands use MySpace to get themselves known."

Signed to Epic in February 2007, the band's first single, It's Not About You, was the highest-charting limited edition EP in pop history. It was followed by Top 10 hits She's So Lovely and Elvis Ain't Dead. Debut album Scouting for Girls reached No. 1 in January and went Platinum.

"The past year has been mind-blowing," says Greg. "We've done some fantastic gigs and recorded with some amazing people. There have been no downsides to what I'd loosely term our job.' He's looking forward to playing the festivals this summer. "We're back at Glastonbury, which is cool," he says. "When we got there last year we were gobsmacked, it was like a shanty town! We had a couple of days to ourselves so we wandered around in the mud with our guitars, I can't wait to go back."

  • Scouting For Girls are at Leeds Uni Refectory on Saturday and St George's Hall next Wednesday. For tickets for the Bradford gig, ring (01274) 432000.