Metronomy singer Joe Mount will breathe a sigh of relief before going onstage at the O2 ABC next Tuesday.

The frontman’s band took a couple of years off to focus on family and then songwriting – and he worried their fans might have disappeared.

“I guess the gamble we took was that maybe we’d come back and be forgotten, or playing small venues,” says Joe.

“That was the calculated risk but we’re back playing the sort of places we were doing before. My love has always been for recorded music but what I’ve realised over the past couple of years away is that only touring will put you in the same room as your fans and let you see a physical reaction to your music.

“That’s what I’ve missed, seeing people enjoy the songs, and what I’m most excited about is seeing our fans again.”

It wasn’t an epic hiatus the band were on, but after the release and tour of 2014’s Love Letters they did vanish from sight, before remerging with last year’s Summer 08 release. It marked a return to the electro-pop of the band’s early days, and was recorded entirely by Joe on his own.

That also harked back to the group’s beginnings. As Metronomy have got bigger the group expanded to include other musicians, but this time Joe wanted to get something recorded quickly (the rest of the band will be back in place for next week’s gig, though).

“It was largely a practical thing,” says Joe.

“I started recording it a couple of months after the birth of my second child, and I wanted to get back to doing some music. Doing it on my own meant I didn’t need to check when everyone else was available, I could just get on with stuff.

“Love Letters had been this quite involved studio thing that was difficult to make, and I wanted to do something that was off the cuff, quick and easy. I was writing the whole time that we were off and I’m already trying to get together a new record for after Summer 08.”

He already has some ideas for what that album might involve.

“The next record will probably quite simple because I feel like I’m at a point where all the self-indulgent studio stuff I wanted to do is out of my system, and I want to make a really successful pop record now.

“I know that taken on face value it sounds like a really cynical thing to say, but when I give myself a path to go down it never ends up as cynical as that. It changes the way you write and think, but I guess I’d like to welcome some new fans to the Metronomy world, and cast the net a bit wider.”

Joe is already sampling some of that pop world though. Swedish star Robyn lent her vocals to new track Hang Me Out To Dry, and Joe is already working with her on further material.

A side effect of working with the Body Talk songstress has left Joe discussing his lyrics more, occasionally with a red face.

“What I’ve found working with Robyn is that you have to open yourself up to talking about stuff,” he says.

“When you’re dealing with the lyrics of a song or the intention of a song, it can be embarrassing to talk about it – when you take the lyrics of any song ever, and imagine having a conversation about it, it can be a very strange experience.

“She’s also been in this chart pop world and I maybe have a more relaxed approach. The things I find really appealing are the sort of things that would get smoothed out in the pop world, so we’ll try and find a medium between my roughness and her popness.”

Whatever happens, Joe appears quite settled now, and simply eager to get back on the road.

“Glasgow is a nice place for us to start the tour in,” says the singer, who now lives in Paris.

“It’s a city that we have been playing in since the very beginning of Metronomy. I remember the first time we went there, it might have been King Tut’s, and it all seemed very exotic, just being that far away from London and playing a gig.

“My sister used to be at uni there so I visited the city a lot outside of playing music and it’s a great city. It’s going to be nerve-wracking but ultimately wonderful.”

Metronomy, O2 ABC, Tuesday, £19.50, 7pm

JONATHAN GEDDES