HURTS singer Theo Hutchcraft believes music today is too unadventurous – and he wants more bands to stop playing it safe.

The Manchester synth pop masters recently returned with their second album, Exile, and play a sold-out gig at the Garage next Tuesday.

Theo says: "There are too many conservative bands now.

"We operate in a world where music is, in Britain in particular, very like a business and a job.

"People think they have to play safe and not enjoy it. A lot of pop stars have this weird sense where they have to prove they are conscientious.

"That's not what being in a band's about – it's about blowing loads of money and getting drunk. I got into this to have fun."

Alongside synthesist Adam Anderson, Theo has helped Hurts succeed not just in Britain, but across Europe and beyond.

That's partly because of their dramatic, lively stage shows which tend to wring out as much emotion as they can get from their towering pop anthems.

But Theo reckons it's vital to work hard too. "You've got to make an effort, it's show business so it should be fun and you should give people something they'll remember," he says.

"I don't see the point of bands standing on stage staring at their feet. That's lazy or cowardly. I don't really get why people would do that, it's up to you to give people more and entertain them."

Yet he feels the duo's second record, Exile, also saw them challenge themselves. Happiness, in 2010, was an enormous hit but they tried to bring in different influences, including the heavier likes of Nine Inch Nails, and created a darker record.

Theo adds: "It was nice to express that side of us more this time, and songs like Mercy were how we tried to do that."

The record cracked the Top 10 on release, suggesting the heavier tone hasn't put off their fans.

It's also an album that Theo argues captured more emotions than Happiness did, as the band tried to supersize their sound.

"There are different emotions in Exile," says the frontman. "It's bigger, even more dramatic and bolder than Happiness – that's all the things we wanted to try. We thought being more ambitious was the way to go with it.

"The overall mood of the first record was quite contained, so this time was quite dynamic.

"We could have made things very easy with this record, but we specifically went back to Manchester to a tiny apartment and sat there for six days a week trying to write songs every day.

"It was tough, but we had to have the hunger to move on."

It was in a tiny apartment, while on the dole, that their break-through hits such as Stay and Wonderful Life were written, yet everything else has changed.

They roped in Kylie Minogue to help on their first record, have played huge gigs and are now proper pop stars.

Theo says: "Everything about the band is our whole life.

"We worked hard for years with nothing, so when the chance came we were ready to take it."

l Hurts, Garage, Tuesday April 2, sold out, 7pm