Two Ivor Novello nominations for Everything Everything

Manchester band Everything Everything have been "surprised" by their two Ivor Novello award nominations

The band have been nominated in the Best Song Musically And Lyrically and Album Award categories.

Band member Jeremy Pritchard said they were proud and "hadn't even thought of what winning would be like".

The annual awards, to be presented on Thursday 19 May, celebrate British and Irish songwriting and composing and are voted for by songwriters.

Relative unknowns Everything Everything, whose debut album Man Alive spent one week in the Top 40 at 17 in the charts, are one of only two acts to receive two nominations at the 2011 awards.

The other is rapper-turned-soul singer, Plan B, who saw his album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks, become the fifth best-selling in the UK in 2010.

Mr Pritchard said they had been "continually surprised" at what they had achieved when first informed by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors about their inclusion.

"Initially, we heard that had [been nominated for] best lyric, so we were saying 'oh, well done Jonathan' (Higgs, the band's lyricist).

"Then we heard it was best song musically and lyrically, which we thought was great and a bit more egalitarian.

"And then we heard we had best album as well, so it's been a case of being continually surprised."

Outside the Top 100

Everything Everything made the BBC Sound of 2010 longlist after being championed by BBC Introducing

The band are nominated in the Best Song Musically And Lyrically for the single MY KZ, UR BF, which, when released in August 2010, peaked at 121.

Despite missing out on the Top 100, it was the best performing commercially of the three singles nominated, as Foals' Spanish Sahara peaked at 145 and Villagers' Becoming A Jackal failing to chart completely.

Mr Pritchard said he was not worried about the low chart position, as the awards were about "songwriting craft and not just currency or impact".

He said that the Ivor Novellos were a "less general awards", which were of importance to his band.

"It's the most prestigious one - along with the Mercurys," he said.

Considering the band's chances of winning the awards they were nominated for, Mr Pritchard said he thought Villagers "will have the best song one and best album, who knows, but it won't be us".