MAXIMO Park singer Paul Smith is looking forward to revisiting their first album this Friday – if he can get his voice sounding the way it did 10 years ago.

The Newcastle rockers will play its debut album, A Certain Trigger, in full at the Barrowland, marking a decade since they first bounded on to the pop scene with a clutch of smart, catchy guitar-pop.

But frontman Paul, who was recently in Glasgow to play King Tut’s with his side-project, believes his singing style has changed dramatically over the years.

“When I listened to the first album again it was weird,” he admits.

“I think I started singing better on the second record (2007’s Our Earthly Pleasures), and the first one is more how I speak, which isn’t particularly melodic.

"I feel like I can do different things with my voice now and the lyrics are better in some ways, but I don’t deny any of those lyrics on the first record.

“I could have done better on it vocally, but I didn’t have 18 months of singing every night behind me, which I did on the second record.”

Trouble with his voice or not, A Certain Trigger certainly did OK for the band.

Boasting hits like Apply Some Pressure and Going Missing, it eventually went platinum in the UK.

Coming at a time when there was a new wave of guitar groups coming through, it placed Maximo at the top table. The years since have seen them achieve consistent success, and they’ve gained a loyal following, as shown by the fact they can still sell out the Barrowland so quickly.

Marking a decade since that first album also means Paul has had the chance to look back over their career as a whole.

“In some ways I still feel like we’re starting out,” says the singer.

“At other times I think we’ve been around the world a few times and experienced a lot together.

"You look back at photographs and think ‘wow, that was a long time ago’, but in your mind you still remember the hotel you were staying in the night after that show, or a conversation you had with so and so.

“It’s nice to have a party and say we made it 10 years.”

Many of the other groups that appeared at the same time were not as fortunate, and have vanished for one reason or another.

Paul reckons one reason for the group continuing to be successful is that there remains a strong bond between all of the five-piece, even as their lives have all changed.

“You’ll always have creative differences in a band,” he says.

“As you get older, the things that bond you in the beginning change, and yet we’re still rooted to the same things as well.

"A few of the band live in different places now, so we’re not going out and talking about music every night, but we do that on tour and you renew those bonds and share your enthusiasm, just by playing records to each other and talking about the next one.

“It can be harder getting people together now, because people have to leave their families and homes to come to Newcastle, where Dunc (Lloyd, Maximo guitarist) and I still live, and so it takes a bit more time management. But I’m glad that’s one of the only difficulties.”

Paul has been able to keep busy with both Maximo and his other projects. Last year saw the group roll out their sixth album, Too Much Information, while side-project the Intimations came out with Contradictions earlier this year, a collection of dreamier and more upbeat pop.

It’s making pop music that still seems to interest Paul the most.

“Even on our last album, we trying to write some aggressive songs, some punky ones, but keeping that cohesion there,” he says.

“There’s songs like Braincells or Leave This Island that are still pop, but more experimental pop or electro-pop.

"It reminds me of the Blue Nile, who write songs with choruses and emotions that you can grab onto.

“That emotional content and energy is something we’ve always grabbed onto and I think there’s an edge to our records, whether emotional or something sonically.

"I think there’s a lot of energy in our records which I hope we don’t lose, and if we do ever lose it then maybe we should stop.”

Maximo Park, Barrowland, Friday, sold out, 7pm