Lower Than Atlantis have headline Brixton Academy, Leeds and Reading Festival, been on TV and have been played on the radio.

Despite all of this, frontman Mike Duce is nervous about their gig in his hometown of Watford on April 13.

“This gig is all on me,” he explains. “There wasn’t going to be a London show I insisted there was a Watford show.”

The bands current tour, which includes gigs across Europe and Australia, will have 22 dates across the UK but things will be a little bit different from their usual circuit.

“The whole premise of the tour is that we’re playing smaller venues instead of big places in the major market,” Mike tells me.

“For the last five years or so we have only played major cities and big shows, so we wanted to play some smaller venues that were out a bit further so that people who can’t afford to come to cities or can’t get there, we can come to them instead of them coming to us.”

The four-piece also includes guitarist Ben Samson who grew up in Hemel Hempstead and met Mike while studying music at the Watford Campus of West Herts College, as well as bassist Declan Hart and drummer Eddy Thrower, both from Winchester.

While speaking to Mike I discovered he writes all the songs – music, lyrics, everything.

“I always do the music first,” he tells me. “Then the vocal melody and then I’ll write lyrics to fit that. I have a notebook, I’m on my fifth or sixth, that I write in. I always have what I think are good one liners so I’ll go through them with a glass of red wine.

“Lyrically it is just life, everyday life. I’m quite normal so it’s about everyday stuff that people can relate to.”

I wondered how the pair found the music scene in Watford while growing up here and they loved it.

“It was great, we were spoilt for choice,” Mike tells me, enthusiastically. “There was always gig going on, at Pump House or Watford General or the rugby club. Then obviously you can jump on the train and you’re in central London in 20 minutes where there is a million of gigs on every night. I was always at a show in Watford or heading into London when I was a kid.”

It turns out that it was a gig in his hometown that inspired Mike’s entire career. He tells me: “In Watford there was a band called Captain Everything, they were older than me. I went to a gig at Watford Rugby Club and that was a defining moment in my career, before it had even started.

“I always thought people in bands were huge, godlike celebrities and gigs had to be in areas with fireworks and stuff. After the show they were just walking around and I realised you could play a gig and have all these people singing along, but just be a normal person from Watford. That really inspired me, going to those gigs back in the day.”

Later when he met Ben at college and they started Lower Than Atlantis, they did so with Ben’s brother Luke on vocals and bassist Richard Wilkinson and drummer Matt Britz.

In 2009 they toured with We Stare at Mirrors, which contained Declan and Eddie.

“Later when our drummer left we remembered Eddie was pretty good so called him up and asked him to join, so he did,” says Mike.

“Declan, our bass player, used to go everywhere with Eddie, drinking the rider and stuff like that. When our bass player left he seemed like the obvious choice.

“He plays guitar but got hold of a bass and filled in, that was about eight years ago and he’s still filling in really,” he jokes, I hope. So now it is just the four of them (Ben’s brother left as well).

Watford Colosseum, Rickmansworth Road, Watford, WD17 3JN, April 13. Details: 01923 571 102