Lower Than Atlantis singer Mike Duce is determined tomorrow night’s show at the O2 ABC will be a cracker – because he feels he let down the band’s fans last time.

The frontman was ill when the foursome last rocked Scotland, and he believes he didn’t do himself justice onstage.

“We played ABC on the last headline tour and I was really sick,” he says.

“I was literally vomiting on the day of the show, but I was sure I had to do the show. I felt like I was terrible the whole way through it and didn’t deliver, that I’d let people down a bit. So I’ve got a lot to prove personally this time coming back to Glasgow, and I am going to make it the best one on the entire tour.”

The band are bringing their fifth album, Safe In Sound, to Glasgow. The record cracked the Top 10 earlier this year, a milestone for the group. It capped years of hard work for the quartet, and Mike admits to having a real sense of satisfaction when he heard about their chart hit.

“Most of our peers aren’t even bands, or making music anymore,” he explains.

“They all peaked four or five years ago, and if they’re still around then they’re trying to claw back the success they’ve had in the past. Whereas we’ve always been the underdog, and it’s been a slow burn – we’ve been bubbling underneath and it’s built a foundation that’s sturdy enough for us to stand on now.

“It’s also nice to know that after 10 years people still care, and we’re picking up new fans of a different generation.”

However this isn’t a case of a band splashing out cash to make sure they had a successful record. After their self-titled fourth record saw the group focus more on an arena rock sound, the band didn’t want to spend ages in a big studio.

So they ended up recording in some smaller spaces – including a pal’s dining room.

“We took everything back to basics,” stresses Mike.

“The vocals for the main single (Work For It) were recorded in my flat, some other things were recorded in my mate’s mum’s dining room, things like that. The drums were done in a big London studio to get that huge rock drums sound we wanted, but the rest of it was all back to this little studio in Watford, where we are all from.

“We tried to be an unsigned band again – and I think all the mums loved us recording at home, they’re very proud (of the band).”

Trusting their own instincts and doing it themselves is something the group have learned the hard way over the years.

“We’ve done big studios before and spent loads of money on making an album, and it was probably the worst of all our albums,” says Mike, referring to 2012 release Changing Tune.

“With technology nowadays, you can hire big studios and put yourself under all these time constraints, and under pressure, or you could just spend a fraction of the money, do it yourself and you’ll learn a good skill set (about production) as well.”

Mike’s own songwriting habits remained the same, though. He tends to start with the melody and work from there, keeping the music and words separate until later on.

“I’ll ask what does this song make me feel, does it make feel angry, things like that,” he says.

“Then I’ll try and write around that feeling. I have to be in two different headspaces to write the music and the lyrics, they’re very different worlds for me. I have to concentrate on making the music as good as they can and then focus on the lyrics – I’m like a robot, programmed to do one thing!"

As for the album title, there’s a personal reason the singer wanted to call the record Safe In Sound.

“When I was younger, I would be up in my room listening to my favourite albums,” he says.

“Music was a way to shut out the rest of the world. Everyone does it, even in your car on the way to work, because a song can make you forget everything else happening in your life for three minutes. You can feel safe in sound I guess, and I’d like this album to be that for the people who listen to it.”

Lower Than Atlantis, O2 ABC, tomorrow, £16, 7pm

JONATHAN GEDDES