Artists, they can be so touchy these days. Mention something they don’t agree with – in this case that Antipodean music is little known – and they erupt. “Little known!” exclaims an almost disgusted member of Australia’s rising indie stars Lost Valentinos who rapidly justifies his outburst. “AC/DC is from our hometown of Sydney and they're pretty much the biggest band of all-time after the Beatles. They've sold over 200 million records!” Note to self – more research please.

The rant doesn’t end there… “Actually I think at the moment Australia is having quite an impact on the global stage. More international artists are touring Australia than ever before and acts like Cut Copy, Wolfmother, Empire of the Sun, Midnight Juggernauts and the like are certainly making waves. And we are going to ride those waves to a town near you...”

Here is all you need to know about the bad you need to know about.

Lost Valentinos are Pat and Andrew Santamaria, Jono Ma, Simon Parker and Nik Yiannikas and they’ve invented their own genre
Conquistadisco, it’s music that makes you want to dance, while reminding you of your past life as an Inca warrior trying to fend off the inevitable Spanish conquest of South America.

They bonded over Fifa ‘95, the Ramones and James Brown
Most of the kids we went to school with had BAD taste in music or none at all, so naturally we gravitated towards each other.

Collectively they are like Voltron: Defender of the universe, or at least the music industry
Our band is made of up of five equally important and vastly different personalities. We can't always get it together, but when we do we’re an unstoppable force.

An eclectic heritage of Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Greek, Portuguese and Chinese has led to an epic image
Our image has an Inca/Shaman vibe, derived from the South American heritage of the band. In the video for our debut track Serio we’re wearing very colourful and tribal outfits. We even have elaborate animal head-pieces representing the Condor, Jaguar, Coyote, Snake and Piranha.

Their Shaman influences go beyond their attire
We like to conjure our spirit animals – Jaguar, Condor, Piranha, Snake and Coyote – for guidance and inspiration before a show. They require us to devote half an hour of Shamanic chanting and a focused drum circle before they show us the way...

Each had their own unique musical callings
Pat, Andrew and Nik went to a school where classical music was seen as very important and most students played or were forced to play an instrument at some point in their schooling. Pat played double bass, and Andrew violin. Nik dabbled in oboe, piano and the chamber choir, but never really got good at any of them. Jono was one of those crazy guys who taught himself how to play everything in high school. Simon came out of the womb playing drums.

Music was never at the forefront of their career aspirations
We never really intended to become "musicians". Most of us took the standard path of leaving school and going to straight to university. Pat did a media degree and is a graphic designer, Andrew studied biomedical science, Nik has a law degree and Jono went to film school. Then one day, sometime after we had all graduated, we woke up and realised we were in a band together. It’s crazy, seeing as some of us have known each other for over 15 years and for most of that time we never even considered starting a band. So, we have no idea how we ended up here. We should be young professionals on huge salaries, instead of broke musicians...

What can we expect from them in the future?
One word – Hoverboards.

Los Valentinos have also collaborated with Pigeon Combine for a range of t-shirts called 'Los Trece de la Fama'