At the beginning of 2002 The Datsuns - Dolf De Datsun - vocals & bass; Christian Datsun - guitar; Matt Datsun - drums; Phil Datsun - guitar; were busy languishing in Cambridge, New Zealand, contemplating their future.

Putting their money where their mouth was, they jacked in their jobs; took out a loan and headed west to tour the States with good buddies The White Stripes. After a much-scrawled-about slot on the annual music biz convention South By South West they hit the UK. And then things snowballed.

Topping off a remarkable 12 months for the band, they also scooped the pool at this year's New Zealand Music awards taking home four gongs: Album of the Year, Export Gold Best Group, Outstanding International Achievement and Breakthrough Artist of the Year.

During their recent Australian tour Joe Matera spoke to guitarist Christian Datsun.

Joe Matera: Both the band and yourself proudly wear their musical influences on their sleeves?

Christian Datsun: Yeah I'm very much a huge Deep Purple fan. I used to have this video of the MK 3 version of Purple playing at a concert called the 'California Jam - Live in 1974'. It's an amazing video and I basically wore the tape out as I liked it so much.

JM: There's more than a passing nod to Led Zeppelin in your live performances too?

CD: The first band I ever saw live was Led Zeppelin as part of the footage in the video 'The Song Remains The Same'. I saw Jimmy Page rocking out onstage and I thought that was what everybody did. I love to perform and when you're playing something good, the music makes you move. If it doesn't make you shake your ass then there's something wrong. If we don't get excited enough to move on stage then how can we expect other people to be excited enough to jump up and down and enjoy the show?

JM: The band have a Gibson guitar frontline?

CD: Yeah I play a '78 Gibson Les Paul which has been my main guitar for 8 years now and I've used it on everything we've ever done. Phil has a '74 Gibson SG while Dolf plays a Thunderbird bass. It's very much a Gibson attack!

JM: With all the success you've achieved, you still seem to be well-aware of the pitfalls inherit within the music business. I mean, your record deal for example is all in the band's favour?

CD: When we went to England in April of last year, there were like 20 record labels that were chasing us. We realised at that point in time that we better learn how the business worked - and fast! Otherwise, we were going to get screwed. I had read stories about bands doing really bad deals and getting screwed over. So we were really cautious and made a conscientious effort to learn about the business. So when we did our deal we did what we considered was the smartest and best thing for us to do, and that was to retain control and ownership of all our material. We have creative control and can call all the shots which I think, is important for any band.

JM: So has success changed The Datsuns in any way?

CD: No, we just do what we always have been doing, the only difference to us as a band now is that we do a lot more of it and play a lot more shows. Now rock and roll is our full-time rather than a part-time job. But the pace and intensity of everything is a lot more now.

JM: You recently debuted a few new songs during the Australian tour?

CD: Yeah we did three new songs. Obviously we're working towards another album so we're trying out a few in the set here and there. But we're not going to put too many songs in the set because we're getting bootlegged quite a lot with stuff on the internet. We don't want the whole album to be released before we've even recorded it! We're so flat out at the moment it's very difficult for us to find the time to go into the studio to put down tracks. But we're trying to set aside September/October so we can hopefully go in and record the next album to release early next year.

JM: Finally what has been your greatest lesson you've learned in this rollercoaster of success?

CD: To appreciate and enjoy what I do because not everyone gets a chance to travel around the world and play rock and roll. Sometimes it's a lot of hard work and you wish you were somewhere else but at the end of the day, you're getting to do what you love and you should always appreciate and remember that aspect.