No guitar, tremendous hair and bags of talent – as good a way as any of describing Dan Smith, front man and lead singer of Bastille, a band who might be indie, could be pop but either way deserve a damn good listen.

But why the name? Is it because Smith has an interest in the French Revolution? Well, not exactly.

“It’s because my birthday is the same day as Bastille Day,” he said.

“Me and one of the other guys were out and saw it on a poster and he was like ‘why don’t you nick that?’.

“Once a journalist asked me if I’d chosen that name because I was trying to revolutionalise music.

“I was like ‘not really, it’s just my birthday’.”

It all started for Smith during his time at university as an English student in Leeds when friends entered him into a music competition. He promptly won, ‘forcing’ him to do gigs.

On returning to his native London he began recording tracks on a laptop in his bedroom, that became the Bastille songs.

It was then that new single Flaws was given its first airing, complete with a video made by film fanatic Smith using images from Badlands, Terrence Malick’s 1973 movie starring Charlie Sheen. That got more than half a million views on Youtube, leading to fans sending Smith their own cover versions.

“I wasn’t expecting anyone to like our music and then people are making their own videos,” he said.

“Suddenly there was this window into a whole world of people that is quite personal. It was bizarre and a massive compliment.”

And people really do like the music, with thousands watching a studio version of single Bad Blood on BBC Three during the Reading festival. Laura Palmer has been used on an advert for Channel 4 show Audiences, while Other People’s Heartache - a free compilation of cover versions that include Haddaway’s What Is Love, What Would You Do by City High, Lana Del Rey’s Blue Jeans and Snap’s Rhythm Is A Dancer - has been eagerly downloaded online.

But what sort of band is Bastille? Smith, who plays the keyboard, violin and percussion as well as using all things electronic, isn’t too bothered.

“Genres don’t really matter to me – there’s such a plethora of sounds we can use which means anything is possible. I just want each song to sound different.”

For tracks and tickets to Bastille’s gig at Liverpool’s Stanley Theatre on October 12 visit bastillebastille.com.