Hamfatter are a trio from Cambridge consisting of Eoin, Jimbo and Mark.
They formed five years ago and have released three albums, but earlier this year they decided to audition for the BBC Two show Dragon's Den.
After a gruelling interview process, entrepreneur Peter Jones decided to invest £75,000 in the band to help with costs of recording, touring and promotion.
To capitalise on the publicity, the band are re-releasing their third album, What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand?, on August 18.
Their single The Girl I Love is available to download now, and gets a physical release on August 11. Go to www.hamfatter.net for more information.
We talked to Eoin about the show and what comes next for the band.
HOW DID DRAGON'S DEN COME ABOUT?
Essentially, it was our manager's idea. I don't have a TV, so I'd never seen the show before we went on it. It was all a bit confusing. The idea was we were trying to get funding in a way that would still allow us control over what we do. I thought it was great if we could get a load of money and just give a percentage of profits in return. The other guys in the band were really against the idea, initially, but they've since come around.
WHY WERE THEY AGAINST THE IDEA?
I think they thought we'd go on and get ridiculed, because that happens to a lot of people. In the end what we decided was that we might as well do the audition, and if we got turned down, then that was the decision made for us. When we got the offer of the show, everyone thought we might as well give it a go, and if we got panned, we got panned.
IS FUNDING THE MAIN PROBLEM YOU'VE BEEN HAVING SO FAR?
I think that's the problem most new bands have. We've released three albums so far. The first one was home-recorded, and it's great, but there's only so far you can go with that. The second one was recorded in a day, and the third one, we managed to scrape enough money together to afford a couple of weeks in the studio, and the amount you can do in that time is amazing. We thought if we got a bit more money and spent a bit longer, then imagine how good it can be.
HAVE YOU NOTICED A DIFFERENCE SINCE THE FUNDING CAME IN?
Yes. There's definitely a buzz about us now, even though we couldn't publicise it before the show had been on TV. There are a lot of people in the industry who are very interested in us, and we've got a lot of things in place, TV and radio. The big thing is having people to book our tours and things like that. It used to take me or our manager a year to sort out a two-week tour in Europe. Now somebody else does that and it takes them 20 minutes because they know what they're doing.
THE BANDMATES THAT WERE NEGATIVE, HAVE THEY CHANGED THEIR TUNE NOW?
Yes. I think by the time we'd done the show, everyone was pretty much on board. We can definitely come out of this looking good, essentially because we think our music is really good and we think people will like it. The worst case scenario going in we knew, and that was that they'd say we like the music, but it's not what we invest in. And that's not really a bad thing to happen is it?
HAS PETER JONES HAD MUCH TO DO WITH YOU SINCE?
We got to see him at some business meetings, and also hung out with him a bit more socially too. He came up to Cambridge as well for a photoshoot, and we went punting. He was going to be in our music video as well, but he pulled out at the last minute. I don't think he wanted to be involved on a visual level.
HAS IT IMPROVED YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THE INDUSTRY?
No, not at all, we're still pretty clueless. I think it came across in the programme that we only half knew what we're doing. Saying that, we've had dealings with lots more people involved in the industry now, and it seems no one knows what's going on. I think we're in good company. The idea of some shadowy record label guy laughing at everyone from behind his desk is just a myth.
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT BEING KNOWN AS 'THE DRAGON'S DEN BAND'?
Yes. Yes we are worried, and we're sure for at least a month after we will be. I just hope we can settle down, and journalists will write things like 'Let's not mention the DD word' and they'll just write about our single which is coming out. The show was completely a means to an end.
DO YOU THINK MORE BANDS WILL WANT TO GO ON THE SHOW NOW?
I think they'll be inundated, but I don't think any other bands will get on. I read a huge online debate about whether we should've been allowed on or not, with some saying it'd be great, and some saying it would make the show like Pop Idol. That's why they auditioned us before we went on, to prove we could really play and that it wasn't just someone singing badly and getting panned for it.
WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT DRAGON'S DEN?
We would have kept gigging and making other small advances. Maybe we would have had another big break in a year's time or something. If you keep getting better, someone's got to take some notice.