It's just after 1:00 a.m. and the Fall of Troy, a local piercing hardcore trio, are a long way from home, sitting in the middle of a noisy Nashville restaurant. Thomas Erak, the band's 20-year-old singer/guitarist, is cozied up to the table with a fork in one hand and a cell phone in the other. "I just got the best pesto pasta," he exclaims into the phone with a mouthful of food. "It's seriously so good."

Aside from a couple of West Coast jaunts, this is the band's first tour, and so far it's far more than they could've ever imagined—and not just because of the food. "[Tour's] been amazing," says Erak between bites of pasta. "There's consistently been a lot of kids reacting very strongly and we've done really well, surprisingly. We've never been out to a lot of these places before and to have so many kids know who we are and react the way they do... it's been so surreal."

At home, Erak and bandmates bassist Tim Ward and drummer Andrew Forsman have grown used to kids freaking out over their intricately structured hardcore. The band finds influence in modern artists like At the Drive-In and Botch, but they lace their sound with tinges of jazz and even blues to create a unique twist. As their live shows have grown increasingly popular (filling up venues like El Corazón and the Vera Project), it's not rare to see a boiling pit of gangly bodies thrashing by the stage for the duration of the band's sweaty set. But, Erak says, to find that same result in some East Coast town you've never been to before is even more incredible.

The boys from Mukilteo are obviously in a pretty sweet situation. They're sitting on a well-selling record, Doppelgänger, which debuted at number 22 on Billboard's new artist chart when it was released this summer, and they're playing sold out shows in New York and New Jersey. On top of that, they're home for just a couple days in October before heading back out on the road for another three-week cross-country sprint with Fear Before the March of Flames and Bear vs. Shark (which kicks off on October 6 at El Corazón). And once that's through, they've got 20 European dates to play Italy, France, and beyond.

"I don't even believe it yet," Erak says of the upcoming tours with sincere disbelief. "I mean, I will when it happens, but right now I'm not even thinking about it. This is a weird lifestyle to live. And it gets more and more weird. You think you're going to figure things out and then it goes this direction instead."

The early years of the Fall of Troy are a familiar story. Erak grew up in a musical family listening to everything from Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to Nirvana and Ray Charles. He met up with Ward and Forsman in high school and it "quickly became something we wanted to do," Erak says. The boys started writing songs and rehearsing, eventually booking shows at the Paradox and 2nd Avenue Pizza. Kids immediately took to their sound. "It's really technical and it's really thought out," he explains. "We're spazzy and out of control, yeah, but it's all planned. It's all meant to feel a certain way and do certain things to the listener and to us."

The band released a self-titled full-length on Lujo Records in 2003. With growing crowds increasing with each gig, the band caught the attention of Equal Vision, a label that's home to bands like Converge, Boysetsfire, and Coheed and Cambria. After a few months of courting, the trio signed to Equal Vision in early 2005, which released their second full-length, Doppelgänger. The album showcases the band's intricate song structures better than ever before, bringing them where they are now—which is everywhere in the country and completely stoked on the future.

"This is our push to really do our thing," says Erak, still sitting in the noisy diner. "We waited it out to get on a really good label and now, I don't know, to have people behind you like that... it's just really good. At the same time, we have a long fuckin' way to go, we're just starting out. This is the real beginning."

megan@thestranger.com