In terms of pop, 2003 was Busted's year. They scored number one hits, and stormed straight in at number two with their second album, A Present For Everyone. In March 2004 they're set to embark on a 24-date arena tour. Are they loving band life? Every scissor-jumping minute of it. Just don't ask them to take their clothes off..

How's the past year been for you?
Matt: It's been ridiculous. You don't ever expect this to happen to you, and when it does.. Some people take it for granted but it's such an amazing time for us. We really appreciate it.

Which bands impressed you in 2003?
Matt: The Black Eyed Peas single Where Is The Love? is such an amazing song. I want us to do a kick-arse version of it. I really rate Funeral For A Friend as well. I think, as far as rock goes, music is in a really good state, although there's too much of this Pop Idol crap, I hate it. It's boring. They're playing pop stars. They take people and change them and make money out of them, and then dump them. I hate it.

Simon Cowell said you're the one band he wishes he'd signed in 2003. How do you feel about that?
James: It's really flattering. He's been in the business for a long time and he knows what he's talking about. When we were deciding which record company to sign to it was between him and Paul Adam from Universal, and we went with Paul Adam because he had a lot more experience in dealing with guitar bands. We went to see Simon when the first Pop Idol series was reaching its peak, and he was obviously very involved in that, so for us it wasn't right. But that's no disrespect to Simon.
Charlie: Simon Cowell is a really nice guy, but it would have been wrong for us to sign to him.

You're the pop band it's okay to like. How do you think you've managed to attract an older audience?
Matt: We don't take ourselves seriously and we're not looking for credibility. But I think that in some ways we deserve it because we do write and play, and I think that's good in itself. We get a lot of s**t for being a pop band because people think we're trying to be a rock band. But we're not. We're a pop band and we write pop songs, so we don't expect people to take us too seriously. We're light-hearted and our music is fun to listen to. We're not trying to be anything we're not.
James: It's not un-cool to say you like us. There's a small bracket of blokes who are about 16-20 who like extremely rock sounding music, and they don't really like us. But that's pretty much it. We're not serious and depressive. I think it's easy to enjoy us.

Does writing your own music set you apart from other pop bands?
James: I really think it does, yes. I think it shows when you perform. You can tell if someone is feeling what they're singing, and you really feel it when you've written it.
Charlie: We work with the record company in much the same way as a guitar band might work. We don't get told what to do. We even come up with ideas for the artwork, which a lot of bands don't get to do. Things like that set us apart. We have a lot of freedom.

When did you each begin writing songs?
James: We'd all been writing for ages before Busted - we were all involved in music before. I had a band called Sick Puppy when I was twelve and we played around in pubs. Charlie was in loads of bands and Matt was in his brother's band.

It must be a relief to know that you're not just judged on how you look?
James: Totally. We'd never do the whole topless photo shoot thing. We're not going to take our clothes off to sell records. We get asked all the time, but theres no way. If anything, we want to stay away from that even more. We want to write songs, not take our tops off.

Do you get annoyed by the boy band tag?
Matt: I used to, but I don't give a s**t anymore. We're not a rock band and we're not a boy band, we're a pop band. It's only because there are so many bad boy bands out there that being called a boy band has become such a bad thing. There were some great ones in the past, but not many now.
Charlie: I think we're too band orientated to be a boy band.

Were you offered deals which would mean you would have to get your kit off and hang out with glamour girls in celebrity bars?
James: Oh yeah, all the time. We know we're a pop band, but there are ways of doing it properly. People associate pop music with marketing and getting your face in magazines, which is sad. It should be about the music. If you just want to sell calendars, go and be a model.
Charlie: We're not into the whole showbiz scene generally. I find it really annoying and pretentious. You get the feeling that people are just looking around to see who else is in the room and it's crap. I'll sometimes go to celebrity places with my mates for the laugh, but I'd rather be down the pub.

What are your plans for the future?
Matt: We want to do this for as long as possible because we're having a great time. If I can carry on doing this every day I'll be happy.
Charlie: And we want to win a BRIT award. That's the pinnacle of success in this country. Getting a BRIT award for your music is the highest accolade you can get.

Were you nervous about releasing your second album, A Present For Everyone?
Matt: I was excited because I was getting bored of the first one. I like most of the songs on it, but I really hate Year 3000. We've got 15 new songs to perform now, which is wicked.
Charlie: A Present For Everyone has more of a Good Charlotte vibe to it. The last album was quite poppy, and this one is how I always envisaged Busted sounding.
James: I think it's better than the first one. All the people we worked with totally got us.

Are you planning to take on America?
Charlie: Yes, we're going over in May and we're going to be releasing half of the first album and half of the second album. I'm excited.

Who would you like to see win a BRIT award this year?
Charlie: Apart from us, it would be cool if Feeder, Muse or Placebo got something. I think Dido is really talented, so it would be cool for her to win. We went to the BRITs before we'd even signed our record deal and I stood next to Brian May. That was so cool. The man's a legend.