For most bands, an appearance on CBS’s nationally syndicated Late Show With David Letterman is a sign they are finally breaking through in the tricky US market.

And The Orwells certainly made an impression earlier this year, with a stunning run-through of their punky anthem Who Needs You.

After a performance which saw livewire frontman Mario Cuomo rolling about on the floor and taking a break on Letterman’s famous couch, they denied their gap-toothed host an encore as guitarist Matt O’Keefe had busted the strings on his guitar.

“For the past week all I’ve heard from friends and family when I go online is ‘Letterman, Letterman’,” says O’Keefe.

“I don’t think it’s the changing point in our career – it’s something that’s happened that’s boosted us a little bit.”

Perhaps the changing point can be marked down as the song Who Needs You itself – the first to be written for the Illinois five-piece’s forthcoming second album, and the title track from their November EP.

A high-octane rallying cry for freedom built around a deceptively simple guitar line and a powerful marching rhythm, it has an addictive energy that leaps out of the speakers and grabs the listener by the throat.

“We’ve had that song for the past two years,” says O’Keefe, only four days after the band completed their album sessions.

“When I played it for my dad to listen to, he said, ‘You guys have got something here.’”

It proved to be the starting point for their second album – although O’Keefe says they weren’t keen to write more politically charged anthems, instead focusing on recreating the track’s energy.

The band started out as “the five kids that played instruments in our school”, based around O’Keefe, cousins Cuomo and guitarist Dominic Corso, and brothers Grant and Henry Brinner, on bass and drums respectively.

“We grew up learning our instruments together, almost teaching each other how to write songs,” says O’Keefe.

“I consider myself a songwriter before I consider myself a guitar player. When it comes down to musicianship, I don’t really know how to play guitar. I will pick it up and write a song rather than learn a Stones solo.”

Having formed in 2009, he admits The Orwells took a while to get comfortable on stage and create the sort of fiery show that wowed a packed Haunt during last year’s Great Escape festival.

“For the first year of playing shows, getting on stage was still a petrifying thought,” he says. “A lot of the time we would walk out there as nervous as hell.”

The turnaround came when the band decided to take a break from the downtown Chicago scene and throw an impromptu show for their friends in Cuomo’s garage.

“We were playing a show in front of our friends and realised there was nothing to be worried about,” says O’Keefe.

Their full-length debut, Remember When, was released in 2012, followed by Other Voices, the first of two EPs ahead of June’s forthcoming, as yet untitled, album.

“With the new album, we weren’t afraid to drive into different territory,” says O’Keefe, who worked with top producers Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio), Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys/Adele) and Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Gang Gang Dance) on the finished product.

“It wasn’t like it had to sound like it does when we play live – we added a third guitar or laid down an organ track.”

The new songs now form the backbone of The Orwells’ set, which included support slots with Arctic Monkeys earlier this month.

“I can’t wait to get on the road when I’m off and then two months in, usually a week before we come home, I hit a wall,” says O’Keefe.

“Touring is the most fun thing I have done in my entire life. Bands say it’s difficult but even when I’m just in the van with the guys howling down the highway it’s the most fun thing to do. I’m never going to get sick of it.”

Support from Silver Palms.