Brought together by their mutual appreciation of the Beatles, XTC, Todd Rundgren and Brian Wilson, Santa Carla have been trafficking their finely-crafted art-pop on the fringes of the Liverpool circuit for just over 2 years. Although their name evokes images of sun soaked Californian beaches where surgically-enhanced Baywatch beauties flash Coca Cola smiles at buff surf nazis, reality for the quintet is all 9-5 office jobs and swollen credit card balances.

Catholic school drop-outs Simon Barber (lead vocals/guitars) and Brian O'Connor (bass) met up with drummer Chris Pye when he placed a lonely hearts ad in a music shop window. Since then, they've recruited another pair of educated 20-somethings: Vicki Dempsey (vocals) and Pete Watson (keys). On weekends they annoy the neighbours in their suburban badlands with noisy home studio experiments.

"When you're out in the 'burbs, you're not part of any scene, you're not part of what's considered cool" explains Brian. Adds Chris, "It seems that optimism has become a forgotten notion of the 80's, Santa Carla are a band just waiting for a dare-to-be-great situation."

People are paying attention though, certainly enough to keep Santa Carla's cottage industry ticking over. The band comfortably shifted a couple of thousand copies of their home-brewed début CD Motion Picture, the proceeds of which went straight into producing their latest EP, Earworms.