ONE OF the surprises of this year's Reading Festival, and a treasure unearthed by the band of rock enthusiasts who made it down to the Festival Republic stage on Friday Afternoon, were Otherkin.

Taking their name from a sub-culture of people who socially identify as partially or entirely non-human, Otherkin are a Dublin four piece with a talent for mixing pop and grunge.

Their backstory is as suitably low-fi as their music.

The four boys, guitarist and vocalist Luke Reily, guitarist Conor Wynne, bassist David Anthony and drummer Rob Summons began playing in college dorm rooms and house parties before larger live shows around the Irish capital cajoled them to lay down some early tracks.

It would be single 'Ay Ay' that first got the band noticed by the Rubyworks label and subsequently propelled them onto the British and Irish festival scene.

At the end of an intense summer pounding up and down the tarmac, checking into hotels and solidifying themselves in the tight and regular festival rock scene, Otherkin found themselves at Reading Festival.

“The show was great,” said Connor, sporting a big bottle of beer in their still smallish trailer.

“Going from BBC Introducing to this stage is massive for us.

“Before playing last year we did one show in Reading. It was at the Oakford Social Club. The crowd was mostly made up of men having after work drinks. It's quite a refreshing place.”

Rob takes over to explain that Reading was the band's first festival, laying the way for the 40 they have done in the last year alone.

Exhaustion and the practicalities of haring it up to Leeds for the next day aside, the perks of becoming a settled presence on the summer time rock scene are evident.

Not only have the band bagged significant playtime on Radio 1 and MTV Rocks, they have their own groupies.

“We have a small group of fans that turn up at least 40 minutes before and to a lot of our shows,” said Rob.

“At one point they flew over from Europe just to come and see us.

“It is an amazing and quite scary thing.”

Perhaps buoyed by the passion that is pointed towards the band as they sound check and a growing musical fraternity that now includes Slaves, Otherkins future direction is positive.

“It would be great to come back to Reading next year,” said Connor. “To move up a stage again.”

“12 months ago it was like 'wow, this is a dream come true',” said Rob.

“But now we just keep shifting upwards.”