Mike Kerr is sitting in a Worthing seafront cafe drinking tea and ticking off the days to Royal Blood’s debut album release.

“It’s like counting down the days to Christmas,” he says, deadpan.

In reality, there should be none of the December suspense for Kerr.

Royal Blood’s latest single Figure It Out – the first track the band recorded a little less than two years ago for £200 – was Zane Lowe’s hottest record of the week.

“It’s the best tune on there,” reckons Kerr, talking about the fourth single from the eponymous ten-track record.

“It’s my favourite and now is the time to deal one of our favourite cards. There is a lot of tension around the album and we were holding that card. Now is the time to use it.”

Back in May, bass player and singer Kerr from Worthing plus drummer and old mate Ben Thatcher from Chichester, were handpicked by Arctic Monkeys as support for the Yorkshiremen’s Finsbury Park shows.

At the beginning of the year the duo were nominated in the BBC Sound Of 2014 poll. They later blew away the competition at industry showcase The Great Escape in Brighton,, and SXSW in Texas. A critic covering the latter for Canada daily paper The Star wrote, “If there’s a band to beat at South By Southwest this year it might be thunderous Brighton bass/drums duo Royal Blood.”

The eponymous debut album captures that live fire, but has no overdubs or extra vocals, which is some achievement.

“The band started as a live band, so we did it the same way in the studio,” explains Kerr, who produced and engineered the record in house with Thatcher, plus long-term friend and co-producer, Tom Dalgety, whose other credits include Band Of Horses and The Family Rain.

“Tom is behind everything I’ve ever done in a studio. He understood the band and what we were doing and was happy for us to take a big part of the production.

“It works much like me and Ben in the band. It’s comfortable and I don’t think you should mess with those things.”

Royal Blood was recorded over a year and a half with tracks laid down as they were written. The singles, or “commercials for a body of work” as Kerr calls them, were put out as they were recorded and banked for the album. The final sessions were done in Rockfield Studios in South Wales.

Kerr and Thatcher have been in Brighton/Worthing/Chichester bands for years: Kerr played keys in Hunting The Minotaur and Thatcher once drummed in five-piece Joey Nightmare; the pair were even in a wedding band together.

“Ben was doing session work and I was writing songs and thinking about what to do next. That is how we ended up coming to be. We thought it would be a good idea to start a new band – and it was.”

Kerr only took up bass three years ago. He might admire Sting and Muse’s Chris Wolstenholme’s playing but his heroes are guitarists: Josh Homme, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jack White.

“I like guitarists who have a style over sound. Those guys who when they pick up a guitar you know it’s them.

“All of those guys have a calling card and a way of doing things which is their own.

“I would argue they are all unorthodox players. They have a way of playing which has no respect for genre, no respect for technique; almost no respect for their instrument.

“They want to try something f**ked up. That is why I love them.”

Royal Blood’s origins and sound – thumping blues-tinged rock with clever melodies cooked on Queens Of The Stone Age, The White Stripes and Muse - comes from experimentation. When Kerr borrowed a bass from a friend he started to play around with effects.

He has subsequently honed a bass sound which can produce beefy low end frequencies and high end frequencies which cut through. In Royal Blood the guitar is redundant. Kerr needs only four strings. Others such as Death From Above 1979 have tried to make it happen and never quite made it click.

“It started off as making weird noises and ended up being the platform of the sound of Royal Blood.

“It’s a product of trying stuff out like anything creative. It’s like when someone invents a new dish or food. It often comes out of a mistake or something they were mucking around with.”

Still, the idea of being a two-piece did not appeal at first. They never set out to be bass and drums.

“On paper I didn’t think it would work. It was not until we were doing it that I realised it could work. Now it’s easier to make decisions. It’s a lot more primitive.”

Kerr, who only began singing three years ago, wears his influences thickly. Vocally, he says, blues-rock powerhouse Robert Plant is the man. But early singles Out Of The Black and Little Monster owe more to Jack White and Josh Homme.

“Robert Plant has so many different styles – and I hear so much Robert Plant in Jeff Buckley’s voice and Jack White’s voice and I love those two as well.”

Jimi Hendrix is anotherhero. “He wasn’t really a singer. I relate to that. I’ve only done it for two or three years.”

But it’s Josh Homme’s trick of being in a heavy band and not having to scream to be heard which really inspires Kerr.

“Before them I didn’t realise it existed where you could have this crooning smooth vocal over demonised guitars.”

The juxtaposition of rock and tenderness is reflected on Royal Blood’s artwork, which Kerr spotted in May. He latched on to its “Victorian twist and mysticism,” which builds on the artwork from their singles.

“You have to put a face to the music,” he says, before adding, “I like that is always looking at you and it is feminine; I like that juxtaposition - we are a heavy rock band and I wanted it to have a girly image, something a bit more gentle.”

Before he disappears to watch the kite surfers skipping across the sea, he has a few words for the downers on rock music.

“I’m not sure if rock and roll is dying or needs saving. I can’t work out if it is either. If you imagine every genre in a room where there is one spotlight.

“It seems to me that spotlight just changes. Even if rock and roll isn’t under that limelight it doesn’t mean it is not there. There are great rock bands out there. You just have to look.”

• Royal Blood is out on Warner Music on August 25