It’s been 16 years since dance maestros Leftfield released an album.

And five years have passed since Neil Barnes resurrected the group, following a 2002 split.

Yet Neil believes new record Alternative Light Source was spurred along by finally setting a deadline to work to.

“A deadline helps because when you know you’ve got eight weeks to work on finishing the album, it ends where it ends,” he says, ahead of a Barrowland show tonight.

“You can get lost, when you’re doing music or any kind of art and then you’re never finished, so you need to have an end result in your head and then you can actually finish things.

"A lot of the three years (working on the new album) has been trying to sort out what I wanted that end result to be.”

The likes of Phat Planet and their John Lydon team-up, Open Up, brought Leftfield acclaim and fame in the 1990s.

The brainchild of Neil and Paul Daley, the duo enjoyed a testy working relationship before breaking apart in 2002, but their ferociously loud sets made them a must see act (famously, a gig at the Brixton Academy saw the noise cause plaster to come off the ceiling)

In 2010 Neil brought Leftfield back, but minus Daley, who decided to focus on his solo DJ work.

Now he’s brought out Alternative Light Source, featuring collaborations with Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods, Channy Leaneagh from synthpop band Polica and soul singer Ofei, amongst others.

And a Barrowland return was always on the cards.

“The Barras is the gig for me that I love the most,” he raves.

“I love the room, it’s a magic environment and it’s going to go off.

"We love playing it - my heart has always felt that gigs lead there.

“What’s so brilliant is the fact it you can feel that it hasn’t changed in 50 years.

"The dancefloor when it moves is amazing, and there’s no balcony, so everyone is ready to dance.

“We played the Forum in London last week, and that’s another old style venue - it’s a shame there’s not that many of them left.”

While Neil feels it’s a shame to see the end of some of the older venues, he continues to be as progressive as he can with his own music.

While technology has advanced hugely since Leftfield first emerged in the early 90s, he feels music will always return to the ideas behind it, rather than whatever is being used to create it.

“Music is only as good as the ideas you put into it,” he explains.

“The idea of turning the computer on and it’ll do everything for you is ridiculous.

"Look at someone like Hudson Mohawke - the amount of work that he has to put in, and what he does, is great.

“I still love minimal dance music and it’s still possible to do something unique and brilliant there but it’s up to your ideas because the tools are still just tools in the end.”

Mention of Glasgow DJ Hudson (aka Ross Birchard) leads Neil to rave about his talent.

“I’m a big fan of Hudson, who wouldn’t be?,” he adds.

“I’ve been listening to him since the beginning.

"There’s a lot of fresh ideas there in what he‘s doing.”

Neil is an enthusiastic talker, which belies the fact he’s previously spoken about struggling with depression over the years.

His relationship with former partner in crime Daley also cooled considerably, but making the new album wasn’t a solo experience.

Adam Wren, who plays keyboards in the live band and has previously engineered the group’s work in the past, delivered an important contribution.

“Adam was the other part of the jigsaw and proved a major part of it,” explains Neil.

“He was a different voice, and has that sort of engineering head, or technical head, so had some really good ideas about sound and could step back to really develop them.

“I enjoy having another person to work with, but there are a lot of times when I sit on my own to come up with concepts.

"Then once it gets past a certain stage it becomes a lot more of a collaborative thing.”

And the 54-year-old finishes the interview on a wry note, while looking ahead to a year that should feature further touring.

“I’m enjoying working again, it’s pushing me in different ways, which I always like,” he says.

“I’m lucky to be still doing it, especially at my age!”

Leftfield, Barrowland, tonight, £29, 7pm