It’s often said you should never meet your heroes.

Luckily, Paws singer Phil Taylor never listened to that idea.

The Glasgow-based rock band have just released their third album, No Grace, with the record being produced by Blink 182 singer Mark Hoppus.

And getting one of the kings of pop-punk to work with the band was something that meant a lot to Phil.

“The first show I ever went to was Blink 182,” he recalls.

“I came through to Glasgow, aged 14, with a friend chaperoning me and I remember my mum wasn’t keen at all on me going through on the bus! I remember I’d been playing guitar for a couple of years and I learned their whole back catalogue – being at that show was a genuine, overwhelming moment.”

The teenage Phil would never have believed he’d then be working with one of the band several years later. However, that’s a testament to Paws themselves, who over two previous albums (2012’s Cokefloat and 2014’s Youth Culture Forever) have shown themselves to be one of Scotland’s most exciting rock acts.

They’ve combined a punky energy, some huge hooks and thrilling live shows into a formidable combination. It also brought them to the attention of Mark Hoppus, who then offered to produce No Grace.

Although working with one of the band’s icons was surreal at first, he soon fitted right in with Phil and the rest of the trio, bassist Ryan Drever and drummer Josh Swinney.

“We found we had a lot of the same humour,” says Phil.

“We’ve always wanted someone that fits in with us – we don’t care about reputations or who you are, when it comes to working with the band I just want people on the same level. I want them to be people that have a passion that we share, or the same ethics or views, or similar music tastes.

“When we first started talking it was about shared interests in music. People talk about Blink 182’s massive hits, but they came from nothing – they were teenagers that started their own band, made their own tapes and just toured and toured, playing to no-one until eventually they had a break. That’s something we could relate to.”

Touring is something Paws have been doing a lot over the years. Their current tour includes a show at Stereo this Saturday night, but it was actually taking a break from the road that helped the songs on No Grace come together.

The time at home gave Phil a chance to really work on the new tunes, and think over the past few years for the band.

“I didn’t want to rush anything and I wanted the songs to come to me more naturally, rather than sitting down and going ‘right, I’ll write an album’”, he explains.

“So instead I was reflecting on the tours, and everything else.

“No Grace, the song, is about how touring can be so polar. One night you can be in a city where there’s a lot of people there, and that’s what you work for – people coming out and responding to you. Then some nights there’s no-one there.

“So No Grace is about having the energy towards both of those crowds – it can be hard to keep your chin up when there’s so few people at a show. Your mind starts playing tricks and you think ‘what are we doing with ourselves?’. Then a week later a show comes along that makes it all worthwhile.”

Phil’s hoping one of those shows will be Saturday, where they’re set to be joined by Edinburgh band the Spook School.

“It’s a really big deal for me, because our first ever show was at Stereo,” he says.

“That was a special night as we were playing with a band we already liked, the Dum Dum Girls. We had no idea what to expect, and it was a sold out show – I remember being insanely terrified because we’d never played a show properly before.

“It was really scary, but it was one of my favourite memories, because after that gig we started to wonder about what else we could do. We’ve never headlined there before, so it’s nice going full circle.”

Paws, Stereo, tomorrow, £10, 7pm