Great Expectations

“My aim for this band is to get our music into as many households as possible,” says David Glasper, lead singer of the British pop trio Breathe. “Some people find that obnoxious, but to me that’s what being a pop band is all about.”

Glasper, 24, is off to a good start in his commercial quest: Breathe’s first American hit, the romantic ballad “Hands to Heaven,” is No. 2 on the national pop charts for the second week.

“The song works for little girls because it’s mushy and it makes them feel sweet, but older guys and women are responding to it too,” says Glasper, sitting poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “That’s what I want. I want us to appeal to a wide spectrum of fans.

“A lot of people use the term pop group almost in a derogatory sense, but a popgroup, by definition, is a band that plays popular music, a band that wants to appeal en masse and sell a lot of records. I want us to be commercial . That’s another word that’s thrown around like you’re selling out. I want to sell as many records as George Michael and INXS.”

Glasper, 24, is the oldest member of the trio, which also includes guitarist Marcus Lillington and drummer Ian Spice, both 21. Glasper notes that when the three musicians first started working together a decade ago, it was with the idea of becoming a teen-oriented act. But as their songwriting has developed, they have made a conscious effort to broaden their appeal.

“We originally wanted to be the next Duran Duran or Wham!,” he says. “It was only in the last stages of recording our album (“All That Jazz”) that we realized we could be more than just a teen band. Some of the tracks on the album that we recorded early are very poppy, very bright and shiny, and not representative of where we want to go. The later tracks have more of an earthy, real feel. We were probably signed too early, before we realized what we could become. Now we’re more focused on what we want.”