For his first album, Glasgow singer Chris Duncan took inspiration from the city around him.

His new release Midnight Sun takes a different route – cult TV show the Twilight Zone.

The record’s name comes from an episode of the sci-fi programme, while the whole album, which is out on Friday, has a very different tone to Architect, the Mercury Music Prize nominated debut that Chris released last year.

There’s haunting synths and a cold, mysterious air running through the record.

“I’ve really loved the Twilight Zone since I was a teenager,” says Chris, who records as C Duncan.

“There’s one episode in particular that sort of inspired this album, called The Midnight Sun. It was the atmosphere surrounding that episode and the Twilight Zone in particular, that appealed to me as a starting point.

“There’s that 50s sci fi thing, where it’s all incredibly stylized. The Twilight Zone has always had this very brooding atmosphere, which I think always drew me to it… The first album was me just finding my feet, whereas I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this one.”

Originally from near Stirling and the son of two classical musicians, Chris always had music in his blood. He moved to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire, and while there started developing the ideas he used on Architect, of dreamy chamber-pop that loved classical and the Cocteau Twins in equal measure.

Staying in Kelvindale, he wrote the first album with Glasgow as a launching pad for his ideas and recorded it for around £50 in his home studio, complete with an album cover that featured a painting of Byres Road. This time around he’s gone even closer to home for the cover, using the stairwell for the flat he lives in.

“I wanted to do the artwork again, but zoom in a bit,” says Chris, who launches the new album at Stereo this Saturday.

“With Architect it was general places that mean a lot to me, whereas this is where I record and where everything in my life goes on when I’m not touring.

“I smoke, so I spend a lot of time in the stairwell – I’ll go out from recording the album, have a cigarette and gather my thoughts, so it’s an important place to me.”

Although Glasgow hasn’t been as direct an inspiration as it was for his first effort, the city still has a presence throughout Chris’s work, while he resisted the temptation to work in a big studio and settled for his flat again.

“Glasgow is home for me and it will be for quite some time,” he says.

“It’s a very inspiring place to be around, and although it’s not as in the forefront as it was on Architect, I did write and record Midnight Sun in the middle of winter in the city, which can be a bit bleak, so that maybe inspired the shivery, stark sound I was going for.

“After the first one I thought it’d be fun to at least go into the studio for some of it, use a string quartet and all these big ideas. Then I started recording at home, and thought, ‘oh, there’s still more I want to do here’ and there’s no point moving on until I’m completely satisfied.”

There were other, more direct inspirations too. Architect might have been recorded at home on the cheap but it was a critical smash and earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination, while Chris found himself touring around the country to promote it.

At the same time he had a break-up to deal with.

“It’s quite a sad album but not a depressing one,” he reflects.

“I was trying to express some coldness on it as well – basically I was going through a break-up when writing it, and although it’s not a break-up album, there’s a lot about dealing with tricky relationships and with people on it.

“A lot of it deals with big changes in my life and coming to terms with everything that’s happened since the first album. It sounds downhearted but it’s not to listen to.”

Although music might now be the main source of income for Chris, he’s not treating it like a job just yet.

“I look at writing music as a hobby, and everything that goes with it, the admin side, as being the job. The playing live and being onstage, and recording music at home, that’s still like a hobby to me.”

C Duncan, Stereo, Saturday, £10, 7.30pm.