GLASVEGAS are used to playing gigs in sweaty rock and roll venues.

Yet the local quartet found themselves performing for a very different crowd recently - a tribe in an Ecuadorian jungle.

The appearance was part of an upcoming TV show, mixing up Western musicians with tribal music across the world.

That meant Glasvegas found themselves in Bameno, alongside the Huaorani tribe.

"We became integrated with the tribe and it was one of the best things I've ever done," says Glasvegas guitarist Rab Allan, who's back on home soil for an Old Fruitmarket gig on Sunday.

"It was such a humanising experience.

"They don't have a lot of money, and what they do is hunt for food, look after each other and have a good time - that's the extent of their worries.

"It was really nice to see that, and not seeing people worried about work and paying their bills.

"We had to take our equipment over, so it was put on boats sailing down the Amazon.

"We performed Geraldine, and then they performed one of their songs, which was a chant with bells.

"Their songs are stories from their ancestors about hunting, looking after the tribe and things like that, and then we worked together on a song."

Such a show will likely attract critics who'll claim it's exploiting the tribes, but Rab insists that it will have benefits for the tribes people, who are under constant threat of losing their land.

"We were a little worried that we'd be stepping onto their toes and they wouldn't want us there, but there's people going in and trying to drive them out, because there's oil there.

"Hopefully this will give more attention to their cause."

There were some practical difficulties for the group, though.

"There were tarantulas, scorpions and snakes," says Rab.

"The worst were the bullet ants, when they bite you the pain was incredible, like you've been shot and we had things like that to deal with that."

Now back in Scotland, the band is plotting its fourth album, the follow-up to 2013's Later... When The TV Turns To Static.

The group's previous records have always shifted direction from what's gone before, and it seems their new songs will once again change things up

"This is the most far out album that James (Rab's cousin and Glasvegas singer) has envisioned in terms of sound, and the demos don't sound anything like we've done before," he adds.

"James has been listening to a lot of Philip Glass and a lot of instrumental music, so what we're thinking is how to record this and how to do it live.

"We don't use backing tracks and there's only four of us, so it's James trying to make things as difficult as he can for the three of us."

They're planning to debut at least one of those new songs on Sunday, as they wrap the year with a Fruitmarket gig that will see the band dip into some of their rarer tunes, like 2008's Christmas mini-album A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss).

"At these gigs James likes to take requests and then we'll just go into it," says Rab.

"So that keeps us on our toes.

"I love the Barras because it's still the best venue in Glasgow but there's something about the Fruitmarket that seems to suit us. It just seems a comfortable place to play."

And the guitarist will be filling full of festive cheer too.

"Over the past few years I've got more into Christmas because my girlfriend becomes a big kid at this time.

"She gets so excited about it that it makes me get into it more, and a couple of my friends have had kids now, so that always adds something when you see the kids getting excited."

Glasvegas, Old Fruitmarket, Sunday, £18, 7pm