Electronica band Vaults can’t wait to return to Glasgow on Sunday night – because they love a night out drinking whisky in the city.

The trio are best known for soundtracking last year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, with their cover of Randy Crawford’s One Day I’ll Fly Away.

They also released their debut album, Caught In Still Life, last December, after being tipped as ones to watch for the past couple of years.

And their success is certainly worthy of a drink or two…

“We’ve been to Glasgow a few times now,” recalls their main songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ben Vella.

“The last time we were there was supporting Paolo Nutini at the Hydro and that was amazing. But my wife has worked for BBC Scotland in the past, so I’ve got quite used to Glasgow as a city and it’s a great place to go out in.

“Last time we managed to get our manager into whisky, because I’m a big Scotch fan – we took him to the Pot Still and managed to win him round to whisky there. We were there till the early hours of the morning persuading him, though…”

Those support shows with Paisley superstar Paolo were an interesting experience for the group, who also include singer Blythe Pepino and Barney Freeman on synths.

“Paolo was very nice,” says Ben.

“It was kinda odd for us to be playing these 10,000, 15,000 type places because you can’t see anyone in the crowd from the stage, but he was very accommodating, and his fans were pretty good, especially given that our music is quite different.

“They were open to us. It can actually be almost harder when you’re a support band in smaller venues because at least in big places you can’t see the whites of their eyes and you can’t really hear any abuse shouted at you!”

That Paolo tour came at a time of huge difficulty for the trio, though. Ben and Barney had known each other for years, working on various projects, including scoring documentaries. They added Blythe on vocals and their smooth synthpop soon caught the ears of EMI, who snapped them up.

A huge publicity boost followed when their track One Last Night wound up on the soundtrack to 50 Shades of Grey. However just as their career appeared to hitting full stride, Ben was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

“I was lucky,” he admits.

“Testicular cancer is treatable these days – if it had been 10 years ago it would have been a matter of months to live, but I was lucky that the NHS was there to help me out, and they were amazing. It was around the time of the Paolo tour, because I had to wear a hat for the whole tour because I didn’t have any hair.

“There was an incredible amount of work on with the band, so I felt more frustration at missing out on all of that over anything else. If I hadn’t had so much going on it would have been worse in a way, because I would have dwelled on what was happening a little bit more . As it was, I was desperate to get back to gigging.

“It does put things in perspective somewhat. I was reassured by the oncologist that there would be unpleasantness for six months to a year but the odds of it being anything more were unlikely, and I took them at their word.”

Once he was fit enough to resume musically, the group pushed ahead with their debut album. And they found themselves with some more attention, after being chosen for the John Lewis advert last year.

So, how did Ben find soundtracking a dog on a trampoline?

“The experience was one of the best musical experiences I’ve ever had,” he enthuses.

“We recorded in Abbey Road and that day will always be one of my main memories from the band, just spending it in a room with a 100 piece orchestra. Listening to them rehearse and then hear Blythe sing on top of that was everything I’d wanted to hear.

“It was odd to get it because we’d pitched for it the year before, the one Aurora did (Half The World Away), and we just decided to go for it again. Blythe loved the original, so it just fell into place very quickly.”

Vaults, King Tut’s, Sunday, £10, 8.30pm

JONATHAN GEDDES