If you're looking for a "new" name for 1996 then look no further than Melbourne's The Earthmen. They've been together for more than four years with literally dozens of line-up changes. But now with a major label recording contract and a punchy new single blaring out from your nearest radio, The Earthmen seem likely to blast off sometime this year.

The revolves around the songwriting partnership of Scott Stevens and Nick Batterham who have been writing together since the start of 1992. Having just signed to Warner Music, their new single is the upbeat Scene Stealer which, with its delightful pop feel, has already gained prominent attention on Triple J. Nick agrees that their quick success has seemed like a long time in the making.

"It's been a growing up period for discovering our musical tastes and reading the dictionary of music and gaining a vocabulary - just learning all the long words we want to say," he says with a touch of humour. "It hasn't been very productive as far as output goes, but it's been pretty much a steep learning curve."

Surprisingly, the single's bonus tracks reveal a band with plenty of promise. The delectable Call My Name (featuring some fine guitar playing from Steve Moffat, formerly of The Plums) is a good indication of how well they perform with a more melancholy sound. With an album being worked on at the moment and scheduled for release later this year, Nick promises it won't be a pop album. Considering their early material, the new songs mark a change in their approach. When I mentioned hearing a radio programmer criticising the swing towards the current trend of bouncy pop music, it definitely struck a nerve.

"I really find that fucking annoying to be honest. Four years ago we were playing pop music but everyone saw us a being a Boo Radleys kind of rip off band. And then we got parceled in with this Buffalo Tom thing and I don't know who we're gonna be parceled in with now. Anyone who does that can go get fucked frankly.

"There's a lot of musicians who've been playing music for years and obviously you go through your "noise" fetish because it's fun and then there's teen angst you've got to get rid of. But you realise it's all about writing songs and that to express what you want to express is to write a really good song. There are plenty of bands that are writing a-tonal crap because they're reacting against the fact that other people are writing songs that are actually good.

"Obviously we've developed how we want to sound and for us it's finally what we want to do."

This is their first release in two years and yet they still haven't nailed down a permanent line-up. Derek John Yuen, who played drums on the single (as well as the rest of the album) plays drums first and foremost with his band The Underground Lovers and hence has other commitments. Over the last four-and-a-half years, Nick estimates that 15 or 16 members have passed through their ranks.