Artist name – Mk III

Line up – Sherwyn Appadu (lead guitar); Daniel Lukes (lead singer); Shane Gilkinson (drummer)

Online – www.facebook.com/MkIII band

Live – Purley Festival, The Rotary Park, Purley, on Sunday at noon

Where did you get the name of your band from?

Sherwyn: "Well, 'Mk' stands for Mark, and I'm sure everyone's seen Mk II or III or anything like that written on some product somewhere, so it's easily remembered. The reason why we chose III as a number was because there's three of us in the band, and for Dan, the lead singer, it was the third band he'd been involved in, so it made sense."

How would you describe your sound in five words?

Sherwyn: "Young, dynamic, driven, catchy and new."

How long have you been going and where might we have seen you?

Dan: "Me and Sherwyn have been going for over a year, but as a band including Shane, it's only been since last July. We've played all around Croydon at schools such as Archbishop Tenison's and Whitgift, as well as The Clocktower.

What are your greatest achievements to date?

Sherwyn: "Probably getting into the finals of Testing123 and playing in Germany this February as part of the two day music festival, Clara Rockt. Both were really great experiences."

Who are your influences?

Sherwyn: "Many of the three-piece bands out there, such as blink 182 and Green Day, as well as classic bands like Radiohead and Oasis."

Dan: "I take inspiration from Foo Fighters and 30 Seconds to Mars, but what's interesting is how other unsigned bands we've met at gigs have inspired our songs."

What inspires you to write music?

Sherwyn: "When we feel like we need to make something new and catchy we jump straight to it and start jamming, sometimes it turns into a song, and lyrics come out of that.

What do you think of the Croydon music scene?

Dan: "We think there's a load of great musicians around in Croydon – we saw that when we played at Testing 123 – and it's really diverse, but it's often not given a chance to get noticed. Musicians in Croydon need to get their names out, go down to London and bring some people back ."

What advice would you give to other musicians?

Shane: "The main thing that's helped us has been rehearsing. The two guitarists (Sherwyn and Dan) rehearse every morning at school from 7am to 8am. This has helped a lot both in skill and musical awareness."