"I nearly died so many times!"

Exploding out of West London like fireworks out of a paper bag, The Clik Clik have stunned us all with their wry lyrical eye and nifty knack for producing bouncepop belters like current single ‘My Dunks’.

With this - and the song’s release - in mind, we spoke to Stefan and Maya, aka The Clik Clik, about a few things (namely: jazz, penny sweets, cockroaches, stalking, Milky Bars, nuclear weapons and Alvin and the Chipmunks).

Here is what was said.

Hello there. How long did it take for The Clik Clik to click?
Stefan: Well, we met in September 2005 and we formed the band about five months later, so it didn’t take long at all! I started an electronic project; then I met Maya, who at the time was singing jazz. I asked her to write over a couple of my beats. Eventually we wrote enough songs to perform a set at Sound Café in Leicester Square; then, finally, we added a live bass player and a drummer.
Maya: That’s all true, apart from the jazz bit.

How do The Clik Clik get their kicks?
Maya: Eating sweets. Penny sweets are the best but sadly they seem to be getting rarer these days, and more expensive. I can’t go into a newsagent without buying them. All that music malarkey is quite fun too.
Stefan: Yeah, songwriting. Even when I think I’m bored and have nothing to write about, something new always comes up. I can’t get enough of it.

Where do you like to go on holiday?
Maya: I went to Croatia and they had odd beaches that were like concrete! But I like that because sand annoys me. Camping in Devon and Cornwall is always good too.

Not at the same time, presumably.
Stefan: I have a thing about cities. Sunny holidays are nice and everything but I’m much more happy when it’s hectic. In New York, my cousin noticed a cockroach climbing up a wall in a restaurant. When she told the waiter, he just looked at her like she was crazy and said, ‘That’s New York!’ It’s brilliant!

If the whole of life was a Facebook News Feed, which elements of it would you be most interested in and which bits would you edit out in the preferences?
Stefan: It’d be nice to know whenever someone talks about me, even in a bad way! And it’d be good to know when a club plays ‘My Dunks’. I wouldn’t be too interested in knowing anything to do with sports though.
Maya: I don’t think I’d want a life News Feed. It’d probably cause a war or something, everyone knowing everything about each other. Though it would be nice if you moved away and needed to stay in touch with friends.

Or if you just wanted to stalk people, eh Maya?
Maya: Oh God! Just to clarify, I AM NOT A FACEBOOK STALKER [goes on a lengthy tirade about ‘mis-phrasing’ things in a recent interview]. What I meant to say was I love the way you can find people you haven’t seen for years and get in contact with them and see how they’re doing and whether they look same. No stalker shit. And that’ll be that!

Hmmm. What is the most dangerous job you’ve ever done?
Stefan: Being the Milky Bar Kid was pretty dangerous, like I’d be surfing and there’d be these seagulls just trying to steal my Milky Bars, so I’d be fighting them, and then I’d be chilling out at home watching TV and a cactus would try and steal them. I nearly died so many times!
Maya: When I was little I used to tell my friend I was a professional tree climber. Of course I wasn‘t, and she didn’t believe I was either…don’t ask.

Okay, we won‘t. What is the worst fashion crime you’ve ever seen?
Maya: Gosh that is a hard one! What about girls with yellow - not blonde - hair and bad roots? Oh, and girls wearing tops as dresses, that’s a tasteful vision.
Stefan: A pregnant woman in a belly top walking down a high street.

If people could hear only one song before making their mind up about the Clik Clik, which song would you want it to be?
Stefan: [’My Dunks‘ b-side] ‘I Can’t Take You Anywhere’. It’s got everything: fast vocals, harmonies, guitars and our Game Boy orchestrations too. I’d be happy enough with that!

Finish this sentence in the most elaborate way possible: “The Clik Clik sounds like…”
Stefan: …a Super Nintendo wired to a band of chipmunks being held hostage with thousands of nuclear weapons so everything is played really, really fast and perfectly - but if one person stops, the whole world is doomed.

Bloody hell. If the Clik Clik was an 80s cartoon, which 80s cartoon would it be?
Stefan: I’d say Alvin and The Chipmunks, they were amazing. Especially the one with the baseball cap. He’s definitely the inspiration for my baseball cap wearing.
Maya: I like the idea of us being Gem, but Stefan wouldn’t really fit into that as there were no boys in it. Gem was cool. I liked her hair.

Thank you very much, The Clik Clik.

‘My Dunks’ is out now. Order it here.