Did you hear the one about the Canadian pop star who hit the big time and bought a new car? Neither did Dave Thomson.

"I just bought a 1987 Corolla," says Thomson, one-half of Niagara Falls duo Wave.

Suffice to say fresh-faced popsters Thomson, 22, and Paul Gigliotti, 21, aren't living the stereotypical rock-star lifestyle, despite striking gold with one of the most popular songs in Canada last year.

The lightweight single California, from their debut album Nothing as it Seems, put Thomson and Gigliotti's names on to the lips of thousands of teenage girls, while the video for the track -- the No. 2 spun track by a Canadian artist in 2001 -- undoubtedly put their images on to an equal number of junior high school lockers.

Perhaps just as importantly, California earned the group a best single nomination at this year's Juno awards, where they are also nominated in the best new group category.

"We knew it was a good song and we always knew it would be a lead single, but we didn't expect that would happen, but it did," Thomson says.

But their sudden success -- which included two cross-country tours opening for soulDecision and manufactured boy-band O-Town -- hasn't earned them guitar-shaped pools or Cadillacs. Both Wavesters still live with their parents and drive cars almost as old as they are.

Thomson admits he does get followed around the mall by girls and asked for autographs by fans who -- to put it nicely -- often want to get closer to the band.

"We do autograph sessions after concerts and a lot of times they pass you their number and it's like, 'OK, I'd love to call you, but I don't even know who you are and I've got a girlfriend,' " he says.

That's right girls, both members of Wave have girlfriends. Thomas has been seeing his for two months, while Gigliotti has been with the same girl for two years.

Although the duo, who play Pantages Playhouse tonight, get lumped in with boy bands such as O-Town and 'N Sync, Thomson says Wave is more of a rock band -- they write their own songs and play their own instruments.

"It's just one of those things, what are you going to do?" he says of their pop-star image. "Whatever they're going to call us, they can call us. We write our own music, I've got a guitar in my hands and we're playing."

One thing you won't catch the duo and their backup band doing anytime soon is choreographed dance routines, Thomson says.

"Not unless the music thing doesn't work out and I've gotta work in a dance bar or something," he laughs.