Currently somewhere between Orkney and Edinburgh, York-based four-piece The Howl and the Hum are ready to take Glasgow by storm this week with their trademark eccentricity.

The band play Stereo on Wednesday, hoping to tap into Glasgow's prominent arts scene after a successful show in the city last year.

They are fronted by Sam Griffiths, one of the most engaging new frontmen to emerge over the last twelve months. His "unique stage presence" helps make The Howl & The Hum such a compelling watch.

The band deal in darkly elegant, intense guitar music to create rich, cinematic songs with nuanced, lyrical songwriting.

Having only embarked on their first tour in 2018, travelling across Scotland, they remain an unknown quantity to many.

But according to the band's singer, they have not completely gone under the radar north of the border.

The frontman said: "We were in Glasgow last year and it was the first time we had played up here. The crowd was mad, it was great.

“We love coming to Scotland, it has held a real place in our hearts since our first tour and we have made some friends who are coming back to see us.

"Obviously Glasgow has a big arts and university scene so that helps us.

"This is by far our biggest tour and run of shows.

"We were expecting the first week leading up to the bigger shows to be quiet and just hoping a few people would show up.

"But either our parents are buying all of the tickets or people are coming to see us. We are surprised and excited about it.

“We are familiar with Scotland as our first tour was in the Highlands. I suppose we used it as a chance to earn our stripes, we didn’t really want to be seen at that point.

“Now we are hoping to appear like zebras having earned them."

Over the summer the band sold-out Camden Assemby Rooms and were added to the Radio X playlist. They played a string of festivals, including Latitude, Citadel, The Great Escape, Live at Leeds, Standon Calling and the BBC Biggest Weekend.

Following their performance at this year’s Great Escape, the band have been announced as one of the First 50 for the event on 2019, and as part of this will be performing at The Macbeth in London on November 29.

And later this year they travel to Austin as part of the South by Southwest festival showcase, something the group are extremely excited about.

The current tour kicks off an exciting year for the band, which will see them spend most of their time on the road or in the studio.

After the tour end in March there will be a quickfire release of a brand new single, with a further track to follow in the months ahead.

This is all working towards 2020, where The Howl and the Hum are expected to put out their debut album and make an even bigger impact on the music scene.

Having not long since given up their day jobs, the pace of full time music work is still somewhat alien to the band, who remain closely tied to their roots on the folky streets of York.

But their newfound following comes with its own challenges, including trying to please a following from far and wide.

Sam said: "I was a folk singer originally, starting at open mic nights and that developed into The Howl and the Hum.

"York is a very folky city. We all met each other through all of the pubs there.

"It's a bit like Greenwich Village, but will a lot more Wetherspoons and open mic nights. It is all very romantic.

"I was a barista, but I always told my parents friends I was a barrister.

"We have recently all quit our jobs and are embracing the bohemian lifestyle of a shed-slash-studio in the Yorkshire moors.

"We are in the process of making the album so we will see how that does.

"We are playing South by Southwest in Austin in March, we are being taken over and that is an amazing opportunity.

"As soon as we are off the tour we will have two singles ready to go looking forward to an album next year, but we have a lot to get out of the way first.

"Spotify has actually been very good to us.

"We have been added to a lot of playlists and that sort of thing so we have listeners all over the world now.

"It's weird having people in Tel Aviv and Kazakhstan asking when we will be playing shows there. It's bonkers.

"It has all been a bit overwhelming but we have a team around us who have been super supportive."

The band are currently a few nights into their UK tour, which has so far seen them play across Scotland.

A busy opening night in Dundee, as well as shows in Aberdeen, Inverness and Kirkwall, have seen a big following turn out.

The band have high hopes for the subsequent stops in Edinburgh on Tuesday before taking to the stage in Stereo on Wednesday night, with a few new faces in the crowd likely.

For the band, the pressure is on to make sure those first-time fans are not disappointed.

The singer added: "Everything is looking good for the tour, we are just getting last minute preparation in and then driving up to Scotland from York.

"If anyone hasn't seen us before our sets all have a story line or a narrative running through them.

"But for anyone who has been to a show before it will be a different story we tell - and we are much better looking now. Everyone loves a good story.

"The sound is our own, we have been described as goth pop, hypno pop - which I am sure is a Pokemon - but we love melody and the folk tradition of story telling.

"It's probably closer to miserable pop but as long as people are moving along we are happy."