IT’S A fairly safe bet you won’t have come across many bands like Superorganism.

The eight-piece act contains members from the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Japan, all of who now live in a shared house-cum-studio-cum-international utopia in East London.

Untangling how the band formed is a convoluted process involving email collaborations and a trip to the zoo – more on that later. The main thing is that this seemingly disparate bunch of artists make a brand of music that is thoroughly distinctive and, it could be argued, definitively modern.

Superorganism are a kind of unorthodox pop group, their songs infused with electronic glitches, indie guitars, melodic hooks and a ton of inventive samples.

It would be simplistic to say that this diverse approach caters for the limited attention of milennials, but it has certainly struck a chord in an age where playlist culture reigns and less and less youths feel allegiances to certain genres.

“It gives you a freedom,” says songwriter Harry, from New Zealand (confusingly, his real name is Christopher Young).

“When you’ve got eight people in a band there are lots of differences and you are often brought out of your comfort zone.

“We’re all open-minded people and the enthusiasm of doing it this way is infectious.”

Noisey, the music arm of Vice, wrote that the band’s music would “mess with your brain, turn it inside out, make you question what you knew to be possible from the art of using instruments to make music”. Last year NME called them “2017’s buzziest new band”.

Just a few weeks after Superorganism released their first head-spinning single Something For Your Mind on Spotify, expecting little fanfare, the likes of rapper Frank Ocean and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig were playing it on their radio shows. The group’s debut self-titled debut album is out today.

“We thought we had some cool ideas and that we should put them together and see what happens,” says Harry.

It’s not that he is being deliberately nonchalant, more that Superorganism had no long-term plan for their music and certainly no expectation of the plaudits they have received.

The seeds of Superorganism were sown on the internet. Some of the group’s members met each other online, on forums and message boards where young music obsessives go to discuss their favourite bands and artists. They began to send song ideas back and forth to each other via email, a method that would become evermore important to the fledgling band and their idiosyncratic sound.

According to Harry, collaborative e-writing is not only a good means of making music but one that more groups employ than we might think.

“It’s so easy to do it that way because you’re not bound geographically,” he says. “You’re not reliant on the one guy in your class who just happens to play bass.

“You might as well seek out other artists with similar philosophies or who bring different things to the project.”

As much hype as Superorganism were receiving – boosted by being signed by esteemed record label Domino last summer – it takes a leap of faith to jack in your day-jobs and pursue music as a full-time career.

With Superorganism, that dilemma was even more pronounced as most members realised they would have to relocate to make the band work.

In Australian backing vocalist Soul’s case, that meant moving to the other side of the world.

Did some members take some persuading to turn their remote online connection with their bandmates into the daily reality of a shared living space?

“Everyone was on board pretty much straight away,” says Harry. “There are different experiences and personalities coming into it and that’s what it’s turned out so well.

“Whether it’s pop, electronic music, indie rock, whatever, everyone has their own influences and there’s something really invigorating about that rather than just getting in a room and plugging away.”

One of the first things Harry and co did in the house was to set up a communal Spotify playlist, which eventually became “far too big” but is a “great way to get into each other’s headspaces”.

The final piece of the jigsaw was Japanese vocalist Orono Noguch, who was studying in Maine, USA, until last summer before joining the gang in London.

In a roundabout way, Harry and Orono go way back. Orono had been a fan of one of Harry’s previous rock bands The Eversons, which also contained other members of what is now Superorganism.

When The Eversons toured in Japan, Orono attended the gig. “She came to our show with a friend but was too shy to talk to us,” says Harry. “She was only 15 at the time.

“Her friend talked her into introducing herself and after that we went to the zoo and hung out. We became friends and kept in touch.”

In the years afterwards Harry had noticed Orono posting her own songs onto SoundCloud and, when the time came to get a singer for Something For Your Mind, he sent the track to her. Very soon she sent a vocal recording back: “I know you think I’m a sociopath, my lovely prey, I’m a cliché,” she whispered with menace but also self-awareness.

Harry knew it was a pretty unusual song in the context of modern pop and rock music but he wasn’t prepared for the attention it quickly got.

“Suddenly it started getting written about a lot and we started having a lot of calls from record labels and managers. We realised there was a lot of interest there – then Frank Ocean played it.”

The songwriter is wary, though, of too much exposure.

“You see so many projects rise and fall on one song, and we tried to insulate ourselves from that interest and not consider it too much. If you go into a new project expecting you’re going to attract labels around the world you’re going to be disappointed.”

Harry considers Superorganism a band with an optimistic mindset, albeit one that also explores the anxieties of the modern world.

“We could be construed as a reaction to music that is more depressed and navel-gazing and pessimistic,” he says. “But we still address a lot of darkness.

“We try and hold up a mirror to society but it’s like a fun-house mirror which is a bit warped and strange.”

Harry acknowledges some luck along the way but the real secret of the band’s success is their unique approach.

What started as an internet hobby has blossomed into one of Britain’s most exciting new acts.

“A lot of pieces have fallen into place fortuitously and there has been a lot of good timing,” he says. “It’s allowed this to become something really ambitious and bigger than we could have thought.”

SUPERORGANISM, The Haunt, Brighton, March 9, thehauntbrighton.co.uk