Punk duo Slaves reckon they know they’re on the right path – because they’re attracting more hate than in the past.

The Kent twosome have earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination for debut album Are You Satisfied? while their wild, daft and raw tunes have seen them leap into the mainstream, with an O2 ABC gig sold out tonight.

But they’ve also been attacked by the likes of Sleaford Mods, while there was an online storm earlier this year over their name and whether it had racist connotations.

“Haters are always going to hate, and they’ll always find a reason to hate on you,” says Issac Holman, their singer and drummer.

“You have to take the rough with the smooth – the more hate you get the more it shows you’re doing something right. The bigger you get the more people are slagging you off but I’d much rather people absolutely hated our music than didn’t think anything about it and just thought we were average.”

There’s plenty of supporters of Slaves too. Issac and his partner in crime Laurie Vincent didn’t intend to just to be a two-piece, but they struggled to find anyone else in Kent who shared the same interests or was dedicated enough to join up.

Although 2015 is the year they suddenly soared in popularity, going from King Tut’s to the ABC in just a few months, the band have been slogging away for the past few years. Their stripped back sound swam against the tide of overly produced indie rock, while the deliberate daftness of tracks like Feed The Manta Ray also stood out.

“I think it’s important to involve humour,” says Issac.

“We’ve got some very serious messages and we’re very serious about what we do, but it’s also a bit of a laugh – we started the band to have a laugh and a bit of fun, and I don’t think that aspect will ever disappear.”

Don’t expect the band to mark the step up to bigger venues by adding more members, either.

“Right now I feel that more musicians would kill any chemistry, so for now it’ll just be us two,” added Issac.

“We don’t want to over complicate it, because it’s working pretty well right now. Me and Laurie are both over thinkers about everything, so the band is probably the only thing that we don’t over think – we just do what comes naturally.”

A sign of their rises comes from the fact that this will be their second visit to the ABC this year. Yet while an earlier trip saw them as the second band on at the NME Tour, performing in a venue nowhere near full, this jaunt has already seen tickets snapped up instantly.

It also gives the duo a chance to catch up with pals BabyStrange, one of the more exciting guitar groups on the Scottish scene.

“I don’t think we’ve really realised how far we’ve gone and how far we’ve gone,” adds the drummer.

“Glasgow’s always a good crowd and we have good friends there as well. We’ve been friends with Babystrange for quite a while.

“I think they’re somewhat overlooked as they’re an amazing band – we played King Tut’s a while ago and they just came down to watch us as they knew the support band. We got chatting to them and have been mates ever since.”

Key to the band has been their DIY ethic, doing things their own way right from the start. They’re hoping some of their fans are taking that onboard too.

“We only see it from our perspective so I don’t know how everyone is really reacting to it all, but it seems like we’re getting somewhere – our message is all about personal politics and being self-sufficient, and I’d like to think that people could take something from that.

“If you want to do something then do it.”

Slaves, O2 ABC, tonight, sold out, 7pm