When neighbors Alex Turner and Jamie Cook of Sheffield, England, both asked for instruments as Christmas presents in 2001, the two ended getting just what they asked for - yes, they both learned to play guitar, but also the two were able to make their dream of starting a band come true.

Their very first two singles - “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance floor” and “When the Sun Goes Down” -from the album “Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I?m Not” (2006), were hugely successful and both reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart. The band’s lyrics, sung by Turner in a thick Yorkshire accent, mostly contain references to social realism, working class life and the indie culture. The song “When the Sun Goes Down” tells the tale of prostitution in the Neepsend district of the group?s hometown.

When asked how he thinks up such poignant and witty lyrics, front man Turner, 21, said it just comes naturally, according to a 2006 interview with the band leader in The Phoenix.

“I’ll think about something and I?ll be writing, penning something down and I?ll keep building on that,” Turner said. “The best stuff comes when I’ve got a melody and a rhythm so I know how many syllables each line is going to have and then build it up from there, and make it a whole thing, and try and pay attention to every aspect.”

The group, which won UK’s 2006 Mercury Prize for best album, is known for their sing-along nature at concerts, often letting fans sing the chorus of songs, and are also recognized for special effects at their performances such as pyrotechnics and lighting. Arctic Monkeys headlined for the Glastonbury Festival and at Dublin’s Malahide Castle in 2007, as well as playing two shows at Cardiff International Arena and headlining their own min festival at Lancashire County Cricket Ground with openers Amy Winehouse, The Coral, and Supergass.

As the group works toward releasing a new album and tours more in the U.S. for its ever-growing new fan-base, Turner and the band hope to achieve the same emotion and sound as their previous recordings.

“What we write right now is just about our surroundings,” Turner said. “It’s the same as it was before, but the surroundings are a bit different. We still get angry about things, we still get sad about things, still get jubilant about things; it’s just that the things are different.”

To learn more about the Arctic Monkeys, visit the band’s official Web site.