Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos seems slightly distracted when he speaks to The Guide on his mobile phone.

It is only when he mentions at the end of the interview that he might have to move because there's a lot of smoke that the story comes out. Their tour bus has burst a tyre on the motorway somewhere between Birmingham and Gloucester.

For a tour-seasoned band such as Art Brut, it seems vehicle breakdowns are nothing too unusual, though.

Their first album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, was released on a rolling three-month schedule across the world, starting out in the UK in 2005, before being released in Germany, France and then the US.

"We ended up being on tour all the time," says Argos. "We would think it was time for a rest and then we'd be told that the album was now out in Mexico and we had to play there."

The long-awaited follow-up, It's A Bit Complicated, came out in June of last year.

Whereas Bang Bang's subject matter covered the exhilaration of being in a band for the first time and cocked snooks at the music industry in general with songs such as Formed A Band and Moving To LA, the second album wears its heart on its sleeve.

"The first album was like everyone's first album, just a collection of songs we had," explains Argos. "With the second album we were able to sit down and write it as a whole. We wanted to make a pop album. All the best pop songs are about boys meeting girls so there is quite a lot about relationships."

As long-term fans of the band know, Argos' lyrics are about real situations, such as his first album paean to his lost love Emily Kane, or an embarrassing bedroom malfunction in Rusted Guns Of Milan (with the immortal line "Don't tell your friends").

"People come up to me after the show saying I had that problem," says Argos. "It's quite cathartic, I've worked it out of me through song.

"On this album they are all true stories, they are all about different girlfriends. I am very vague about details but they are all about me."

The five-piece is hoping to get back into the studio once this tour is over.

"We are going to start writing more songs," he says. "We don't want to leave such a big gap between the two albums this time."

Like many great lyricists, Argos is a compulsive writer, with his own big book of lyrics ready to fit with the music created by the rest of the band.

The finished songs are then presented in his own distinctive singing voice - or rather speaking voice - which reverberates over everything else on the first album.

On the second album, Argos admits there was more of an effort to bring the music to the forefront rather than his unusual tones dominating everything.

"It is all I can do," he says. "I can't really sing, I'm doing my best but it is the way it comes out.

"I think I have got a bit better on this album. Perhaps people will be saying on the tenth album that I have a lovely singing voice."

  • 7.30pm, £10, 01273 673311
  • Support comes from A Human