HANGING out at Priestley College, Andy Makin and Drew Procter used to chat about their love of All Time Low.

So it must feel surreal that less than two years later their band have drawn comparisons with the American rockers and have worked with the band's engineer, Phil Gornell.

Drummer Andy, from Padgate, and guitarist Drew, from Burtonwood, formed alternative band Milestones with frontman Matt Clarke, bassist Mark Threlfall and guitarist Eden Leviston in 2014.

In a short space of time, they have achieved what many bands can only dream of after securing a record deal with Fearless Records and releasing their debut EP, Equal Measures.

Andy, 19, said: "Everything we’ve been doing has been working towards this moment. The record deal has been a massive highlight so far.

"We sent our demos off to all the people we would love to work with and luckily enough our favourite one got back to us and wanted to hear more."

It took a gamble and a lot of belief in what they were doing though. The five-piece gave up on their plans to go to university and recently quit their jobs to put everything into the band.

Andy, who used to work at Earnest Jones in Golden Square, said: "This is the first tour we’ve done where none of us have any ties at all.

"We’re just doing Milestones fulltime. That has been the dream for everyone involved. Music is the only thing we’re happy doing all of the time."

Matt, a former lifeguard and Manchester music promoter, added: "One thing that attracted us to working with each other is we’d been in bands prior to this where some of the members weren’t necessarily committed.

"So when we heard the music really coming together we came up with a plan of what we wanted to achieve. We had a budget, a timescale, who we wanted to work with and everything like that."

Milestones' first gig was at Studio2 in Liverpool supporting Roam – and they have not looked back since.

Andy, who attended Padgate High, said: "I think if you apply yourself you’ll always achieve what you want to do.

"Funnily enough a few of bands we have been inspired by like Mayday Parade, All Time Low and You Me at Six are managed by the same people.

"To get the recognition that we’ve had is massively inspiring. It’s really helped us do what we do at this level.

"We always wanted to write music that people would connect with so to see people coming to shows and saying they like it is the best feeling.

"There wouldn’t be a record deal if it wasn’t for the fans."