They are named after a mischievous Pokemon character who can lay curses on foes, but judging by their track record London band Gengahr may be the ones with a jinx.

I chat to lead guitarist John Victor as he is relaxing at home in Highams Park after finishing a four-date tour supporting The Maccabees. So far, so impressive.

But things did not go well for the 28-year-old.

“I got food poisoning on the first night so didn’t have the greatest of times. I couldn’t really stand up so I had to perform hunched over.

“And then our singer Felix got tonsillitis for the first night. It was a slog.“

And it doesn’t stop there.

“Our drummer Danny fell over and broke his collarbone on our first proper tour last year with Wolf Alice and did the rest of the tour with one arm,“ reveals John.

The good news is the band have never missed a gig and in between touring have recorded their début album, A Dream Outside, which is due to be released on June 15 via Transgressive Records.

“We recorded our first demos in late 2013 and four of them made the album, so I guess we started it then. We have been working on it when we have not been on tour or damaging ourselves.

“We tried to keep it as short as possible. We don’t want to bore anyone with the first one, and I think a song needs a very good reason to be much over three minutes.“

Breakthrough track Fill My Gums With Blood is a tale of “a little boy vampire who falls for a girl“, whilst Powder is a pondering on death, and She’s a Witch has lyrics ‘Maybe she’ll sink, Maybe she’ll fly’, so supernatural forces seem to be at work again.

“When we did our first demo it was over the Halloween weekend, so maybe subconsciously there was a theme going on,“ says John, who describes their sound as “Reverb, guitars, psych and pop“.

You’ll be able to hear their new material when they play Field Day festival and Barclaycard British Summer Time 2015 in Hyde Park this summer, and John is excited to be at both as despite growing up in Waltham Forest he has never attended a London festival before. They’ll also play Latitude and Reading and Leeds, before heading out on a 13-date headline tour in October, which will include a date at Scala.

John, who went to Handsworth Primary School and Highams Park School, says he first got into music at the tender age of five thanks to his fellow Waltham Forest musician Damon Albarn, “I remember dancing around my living room to Blur. Then me and my friends all became angry teenagers and got into rock music.“

He began learning bass guitar and forming lots of “terrible punk bands“ and then went to Thames Valley University to study popular music and formally learn electric bass.

“All the theory comes over to normal guitar but my technique is really cack-handed and I do everything the wrong way,“ he says of his transition to lead guitar.

Impressive then that he has been called a virtuoso and already compared to greats like Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and Graham Coxon of Blur, something he says is “flattering“ but “very strange“.

He met the other three members of Gengahr at The Rochester in Stoke Newington High Street a few years ago.

“We bonded over cheap beer and they were looking for a new guitarist. At this point I was playing bass in wedding bands so was looking to do anything and it turned out pretty great.“ All of them have given up their days jobs now but John has fond memories of slapping his bass for newlyweds.

“The money was really good and it was very easy work. I have been to so many weddings now – about 50.

“But there was one where the groom had run out on the bride and we were stuck playing to all these incredibly uncomfortable people. I felt like I earnt my money that night.“

The band was originally called RES and toyed with synthesisers for a while, but after a New York rapper of the same name contacted them, and they realised none of them could play keyboard, they switched back to guitars and Gengahr was born.

“Pokemon, it’s the best one, he’s a ghost and purple, which is the best colour,“ states John without a hint of sarcasm when I ask the inspiration for the name.

“We didn’t put that much thought into it,“ he admits.

Their first gig was at Café 1001 in Brick Lane to about 20 people so they decided to get out of London and have toured with a string of high profile bands such as Superfood, alt-J, Dry the River and the aforementioned Wolf Alice and The Maccabees.

On the rare occasion he’s not on the road John is back with his parents in Highams Park and says “sometimes the last year feels like a dream".

“Playing with alt-J at The O2 Area was surreal, " he adds. "And supporting Circa Waves at Shepherd’s Bush a couple of months ago was amazing – I have always wanted to play there.

“I bled all over my guitar though as I cut my finger,“ he chips in, just as I’m thinking the jinx might have lifted.

But with big things predicted for the four-piece, and with tour dates in Australia and Hong Kong, it looks like John may soon have the mansion in Stoke Newington he dreams of.

Just as long as he can stay in one piece.

A Dream Outside is out on June 15.

Gengahr play Field Day on June 7, British Summer Time Hyde Park on June 18 and Scala on October 8. Details: gengahr.com