Updated (10.17.13): See the band's new "Afraid" video below. Note: It contains imagery which may trigger seizures. A previously released version of the video featuring frontal male nudity has now been censored, but viewer discretion is still advised.

Editor's note: The piece first appeared in its original form in the new issue of Variance. For the full version, click here.

Every year like clockwork, the blogosphere explodes with a slew of bands that are supposed to be everything, bands everyone is going to be obsessed with. Many of these acts usually rise and fall with the seasons, but some of them end up proving they’re actually much more than just some so-called “buzz band.”

With a mysterious, uncredited track titled “Female Robbery,” which surfaced last year online, The Neighbourhood seemingly came out of nowhere. Fueled by the extensive hype, the Jesse Rutherford-fronted quintet began dropping additional samples until the release of its debut album, I Love You., which arrived earlier this year.

Despite all the acclaim, this California-born outfit hasn’t escaped some rather harsh criticisms, even being taken to task over miniscule details such as the “British” spelling of its name.

“It’s funny but also kind of strange,” Rutherford says of the naysayers. “They’re going to say what they want to say. I can’t change that. The fact is, we’re trying to do something different.”

One review last fall took aim specifically at Rutherford, calling him a Thom Yorke-, indie-wannabe who’s instead more like the very commercialized-pop Chris Martin or Adam Levine, whose band mates are largely in the background. Rutherford, however, takes issue with that.

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“For one thing, we’re not trying to be Coldplay or Maroon 5,” he says. “I don’t keep tabs on what Chris Martin or Adam Levine are doing. I really don’t even like their music.”

Instead of being brought down by what others have said, the young musician is motivated by it. “So many bands are doing the same tired shit and not enough people are pushing boundaries,” explains Rutherford, offering his own take on the criticism. “Many of the critics don’t know enough about me or the band. I don’t think they see who I am yet, and that’s OK. And I can’t complain about being compared to [Martin and Levine], and maybe they don’t realize it, but they’re saying, ‘This guy is about to be really successful.’ So I’ll take it.”

Having acquired such a great amount of press in such a short amount of time, one would assume this group of friends might be feeling a heightened level of pressure right about now. Not so, says Rutherford.

“It’s great to know that me and my friends got together and started making music that has people’s attention,” he admits. “But I don’t believe there’s pressure to perform or anything. I think we just came together at the perfect time and released this music. We feel we have something special to offer and that’s the reason we’re doing this. We want to make pop music. That’s it.”

While many of his musical peers might shudder at that three-letter word, Rutherford is very straightforward about his intentions: “We’re a pop band,” he says confidently. “We make music for pop culture. It’s pop, it’s catchy, it’s melodic, it’s current. But when you think about pop radio, Michael Jackson has been on pop radio, and Dr. Dre. I see pop music as being current, relevant—not the candy-coated shit.”

Rutherford’s dreams of overtaking mainstream music may not be that far off in the horizon, but in the meantime, The Neighbourhood has actually received a huge boost from alternative radio. Although it’s the same format that has successfully launched acts like The Lumineers and Imagine Dragons into the stratosphere, Rutherford jokingly admits having a love-hate relationship with it.

“I can’t say I don’t like alternative radio, because look what they’ve done for me and my friends, our band,” he explains. “They helped us get noticed by a lot of people. If I’m being honest, though, I don’t really like a lot of the stuff on alternative radio. When we first signed, I wouldn’t have said, ‘Yeah, put us on the rock stations!’ But I think the definition is different now. It’s kind of like the term ‘indie.’ Back when it was first used, you could assume it was independent music. Then it sort of morphed into a thousand things to where no one even knows what ‘indie’ means anymore. What does an alternative band even sound like? I think it’s very much the same situation.”

For someone whose band formed only a couple of years ago, Rutherford is clearly ambitious and remarkably candid. Sure, that may not help him win over some of those early critics, but it’s hard to imagine Chris Martin or Adam Levine losing much sleep over what some pundit said 15 years ago. Besides, The Neighbourhood has its sights set on a much different prize.

“We want to reinvent the word ‘band,’” Rutherford confesses, with a firm resoluteness, as if he’s thought about it a million times. “It’s the same thing all the time. You think of five dudes in a rock band. Same story, same formula. Or now you have One Direction, which—they can do whatever they want, of course, but whose idea was it to put these kids in a 2003 production? The whole One Direction format, with that overdone production, is outdated. That entire concept is lame. But I think The Neighbourhood is the modern-day boy band. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.”

The Neighbourhood is currently on tour with plans to add more live dates through early next year.

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