THEY’RE known for trying out every style under the sun, but Edinburgh outfit Django Django reckon they’re always a pop band at heart.

The group have just released third album, Marble Skies, throwing indie, dance, electronics and pop into the melting pot.

“Pop is not a bad word around here,” says Tommy Grace, the band’s synths man.

“We always try and imagine what it’s like to listen from someone else’s point of view, and that means we’re keen to keep it poppy.

“We love stuff like Joe Meek’s productions in the 60s, just these huge tunes that were mad and creative too. We’re just trying to do something that feels creative but still paying attention to pop and not being too self indulgent.”

Originally meeting while studying in Edinburgh several years, the Djangos ended up properly starting a band after meeting up again in London. Their first album, mainly recorded in drummer Dave MacLean’s bedroom, was critically adored and earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination, before 2015 follow-up Born Under Saturn took them into the Top 20 of the charts.

However the band’s sophomore album was a tricky one for the quartet. They struggled with being in a bigger studio and with writing together, meaning that a fresh approach was needed for Marble Skies.

“It took us a while to get going with Born Under Saturn,” reflects Tommy.

“We didn’t help ourselves by going into a big studio and we just weren’t familiar with a big mixing desk or even ProTools – we had just been used to plugging into a laptop and recording. So we required a middle man with the engineer and it felt like we removed ourselves from the making of part of it.

“Halfway through recording in this big studio complex we found ourselves a wee room and started trying to record there. It was all a bit back to front. This time it felt like we had the confidence to not go to a big studio, but with the knowledge that we picked up on Born Under Saturn to know what we wanted to get.

“It felt like a nice balance between the first album and the second, where we cherry-picked the best bits from each.”

The band were also writing the new record in a different way, with Dave MacLean back up in Scotland early on, resulting in Metronomy drummer Anna Prior helping out.

“We just went into the rehearsal room with no baggage this time,” says Tommy.

“We thought we’d just mess about with Anna on drums for about 10 days, and I was really surprised at what we’d come up with, because at the end of it we had loads of ideas. A lot of them were rubbish and we discarded them, but some of them were really cool, so we sent them to Dave in Scotland, and it went from there. It didn’t feel like we were retracing our steps.”

For Tommy, making sure the band react to what they’ve done before is important for the group’s creativity.

“When we write songs they’re often a contrast to what came before. It’s partly all because we have short attention spans! I just feel we’ve been stretching and developing as a band rather than knocking out more versions of Default.”

Now they’ll bring both new and old songs to SWG3 a week tonight (March 1), a venue where the club environment should suit the Djangos down to the ground. It might not be the last time Tommy’s here, either.

“I’m actually thinking of moving to Glasgow,” he adds.

“We’re in Tottenham now, but our kid is getting to school age, and the idea of having a Cockney kid would be weird, and it’d be nice to live nearer my family again. Watch this space…”

Django Django, SWG3, March 1, £17.50, 7pm