As the singer of the Florida-based indie-rock outfit Surfer Blood, frontman John Paul Pitts has spent the past year fielding an endless stream of questions about '90s rock icons including Weezer, Dinosaur Jr., and Pavement. Tiresome though these comparisons must be for the 23-year-old songwriter, his patience was rewarded last month, when the band received a call from the king of '90s college rock himself.

“Stephen Malkmus selected us to play his All Tomorrow's Parties in London this year,” Pitts gushes, speaking on the phone from outside of a German restaurant in Los Angeles. “That was the biggest affirmation, to know that someone I've idolized since I was 14 years old has listened to my music and actually likes it enough to want us to play his festival.”

This was the highlight in a year full of triumphs for the band, whose current four-piece lineup has been together for just 12 months. While Pitts says that he and drummer TJ Schwarz “have been playing together forever”, the pair only met guitarist Thomas Fekete and bassist Brian Black last spring, after the majority of the debut album Astro Coast was already complete.

“We keep completely surpassing our own expectations. We were just starting out booking our own tours and no one wanted to play with us and no one would book us,” recalls Pitts. “The next thing you know we're playing [Spanish music festival] Primavera with Pavement.”

Listening to the 10 songs on Astro Coast, it's easy to see why Surfer Blood has caught on so quickly. Familiar yet never derivative, the group's refreshingly unfussy sound centres around hard-hitting guitar pop and immediately hummable choruses. On the lead single “Swim”, this takes the form of barn-burning riff rock, while the sunny “Floating Vibes” pairs its breezy guitar licks with baroque violin flourishes.

The album takes a dark turn in its final three songs, especially on the confessional “Catholic Pagans”, in which Pitts bemoans his “weakness for cocaine and liquor”. It's in marked contrast to the rest of the disc, one that Pitts explains was inspired by his dissatisfaction with his life in Florida.

“I was having some rough times, man,” he says. “I was not doing well in school, I was totally flunking out and not going to class and my parents were yelling at me. All my friends would come home from college in the Northeast and tell me about these great stories and these internships, and I was kind of stuck in Florida. I was definitely drinking too much and a lot of my personal relationships were falling apart.”

Although Surfer Blood has considered relocating to New York, Pitts no longer feels the same sense of desperation to get out of his hometown of West Palm Beach. After all, he and his bandmates have spent most of the past six months on the road and are fully booked until the end of May. “Sometimes you just want to go home and see your friends and family,” admits Pitts, “even if home is like Timbuktu.”

Surfer Blood plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Monday (April 5).