Fans of dance-pop outfit Passion Pit are in for a treat at their Glasgow gig on Saturday – as they reckon they’ve only just worked out how to play live!

The Boston group enjoyed a hugely acclaimed debut album with Manners last year, and steady touring has seen their popularity grow to the extent they’re now playing the ABC.

But keyboards and guitar wizard Ian Hultquist believes the band’s own live shows have only recently come up to scratch.

“We weren’t always suited to playing live,” he says. “We’ve been working to try and make it sound like we belong playing shows, so we’ve been practising on filling up the stage sound and now I think we’re ready for bigger venues. But it’s something we’ve been working on for a while.

“When we first started, we didn’t know how it would work, as our songs were so heavy on keyboards and samples. But now we’ve established the song parts for live shows, so we know who should be doing what.”

And when the band recently played their biggest ever shows, in New York’s Terminal Five, Ian felt that was when the band finally arrived.

“We couldn’t believe that amount of people had come out to see us. But we felt we actually performed the way we should, for once – we were finally the band we’re supposed to be.”

With that added experience, they’re coming back to Glasgow on Saturday, for a gig at the ABC, having played Scotland several times last year. They’re experiences that Ian recalls fondly.

“Scotland and Ireland are always our favourite places to go to – the crowds are always really good, and really fun!” he enthuses.

“I’ve heard the ABC is a pretty cool venue too. I remember we played the Captain’s Rest the first time, and then The Garage. We enjoyed T in the Park too, although it was a very quick experience – a lot of the festivals from last summer blended together, because we were only there for a matter of hours.

“But I remember doing Oxygen and T back to back – it was quick, but great.”

But the band themselves have good reason to dislike the live stage, as their past tours have been jinxed by so many problems the five-piece think they’re cursed.

“We’ve had really bad luck touring, especially with vehicles”, he says, with a somewhat rueful tone. “Any vehicle that Passion Pit get in will eventually die, I think. It’s not like we trash them, it’s just like all our energy put together kills the motor or something.

“We had three vans completely die on us last year and I don’t know how many buses have gone out on us.

“We lost our luggage for about a week on tour last year too, so we only had our actual gear with us – I ended up buying a Lily Allen T-shirt to wear, and that was the only shirt I had. I actually met her recently, at the Big Day Out in Australia, and she was really sweet.”

With such luck, it’s understandable that the group perhaps prefer the safety of the recording studio.

That’s where they worked day and night to create Manners, last year’s debut album. Passion Pit’s background goes further back than that, however, with vocalist Michael Angelakos writing songs on his laptop while at university in Boston, and intending to work as a solo artist.

It was then that Ian approached him about forming a full band.

They then worked away on the Chunk Of Change EP, but it wasn’t until last year’s Manners that Ian feels the band hit upon their own sound.

“We didn’t really have an identity as a band, because after Chunk Of Change everyone thought we were just a Hot Chip or MGMT rip-off, so, Manners was us making our own voice” he says.

“We wanted an album that was cohesive. As writers, if you work for six months on one thing, it should flow together and because you’re doing it at the same time it works.

“I’m a fan of both that approach and a more ragged approach to be honest, but for Passion Pit we needed to make something as solid as Manners, because we needed to let people know who we were.”

The actual recording process was intense and fractured due to the band members splitting their time between Boston and New York.

“We were in the studio for two and half months, and it was very intense.

“It wasn’t supposed to be that long but we were in the studio and realised we were close to something. Mike and Nick would just stay in the studio for about 18 hours and not go home – it was stuff like that.

“We kinda of have a different way of working – they were at the studio in New York, and we working from Boston, then we’d travel there on weekends.”

And Ian admits that the group won’t be rushing back into the studio for a wee while yet, as they find it quite difficult to write new material while out on the road touring.

“We’ve so much touring going on that we can’t really look into another album yet – hopefully there will be something next year, but I can’t say for sure. We’re the sort of band who can only focus on one thing, so while I write on my computer a lot for doing remixes it’s really difficult to write actual songs.

“I’ll be lying in my bed with my laptop on my lap – I can’t think of a more uncomfortable way to try and write music!”

• Passion Pit, ABC, Saturday March 6, 7pm, sold out.