NORMAN Blake is enjoying his home comforts.

The Teenage Fanclub man has set up a side-project with Joe Pernice, the New Mendicants, and has recorded their debut album - all from the comfort of his living room.

"We just pushed the settee back, set up some mics and a drum kit and have worked on it over the last year, just whenever we've all been around," explains Bellshill-born Norman, who now lives in Toronto.

"It's good fun, you start these projects with no real intent to do anything, it was really just to keep ourselves busy.

"Joe's an expat too, from Boston, and while he's got a few mates here he wasn't making any music here, and it was the same for me.

"It was a good thing creatively for us to have someone else to work with."

And Norman's relished having the chance to do it all without leaving his house.

"The album's costs are entirely fuel for Joe to drive here and then buy some coffee," he says with a laugh.

"Recording an album at home has been quite exciting, although when we were playing a song 50 times in a row to get the mix right my other half started to find a bit much.

"She was walking around with some headphones on - she says she didn't want to get sick of the songs."

Now the New Mendicants will perform together in Scotland for the first time on Monday July 15, when they play at Glasgow's Mono.

Norman was put in touch with Joe, of indie rockers the Pernice Brothers, through a mutual friend and the two hit it off straight away.

That means next year's album will have a variety of styles running through it, along with a dash of the melodies Fanclub followers know and love.

"It's a pretty eclectic mix of songs," says Norman, who moved to Canada nearly four years ago.

"There's a couple of punk rock ones, a couple of Guided By Voices-style pop songs, some Jimmy Webb style songs - there's a song of Joe's called Sarasota that's about the film Midnight Cowboy, and it's got a big twangy guitar in there."

Although their album won't be out until early next year, they have put together an EP, which includes a couple of acoustic originals, a version of Fanclub track I Don't Want Control Of You and, surprisingly, a cover of INXS song This Time.

"When we went down to Australia we thought it'd be a good idea to have something to sell," Norman says with a chuckle.

"So with the songs on that EP, we thought we should do an Australian cover, live. We were doing the Go-Betweens but Joe suggested trying someone really big like INXS, jokingly. We ended up trying it and although I don't know them at all it turned out OK."

While the band's album sessions have featured a variety of instruments, and drummer Mike Belitsky, their upcoming gigs will see them perform as a duo, paring things back down. For Norman it's a chance to take in a road trip, too.

"When Euros (Childs, who plays with Norman in the band Jonny) and I did our first tour it was like this will be, just the two of us with acoustic guitars and a keyboard in a car driving around.

"Euros took care of the merchandise and I was the tour manager and we'd stay in Travelodges. This will be a similar thing, it's like The Trip with Steve Coogan, with guitars."

Yet after the tour wraps up in Mono, Norman will be staying on in Glasgow for a few weeks. And in news that will gladden the hearts of the band's many followers, he'll be remaining in the city to polish off another Teenage Fanclub record, due next year.

The bulk of the album is already done, with the group having relocated to the South of France to work away on their first new material since 2010's Shadows.

"Raymond [McGinley] found this amazing studio there with an old-style mixing desk, and we spent a few weeks down there," says Norman.

"It was very productive, we recorded about 14 songs.

"We tend to like to get out of Glasgow as it can be very distracting, although we're going to finish it at Raymond's house.

"But we like getting into a different environment, it can be a bit inspiring."

There was a bonus to their French fancy, too.

"We drank lots of wine and ate cheese after recording, although not during the sessions.

"We can't keep up the pace now we're getting on a bit!"

n The New Mendicants, Mono, Monday July 15, £12, 7.30pm