Take Liverpool mavericks The Zutons.

Two very different albums under their belts already but the third could have found them out.

So they get one of the biggest producers in the business – without knowing it.

"I'll be honest with you," says frontman Dave McCabe of Johnny Cash and Black Crowes button-presser George Drakoulias: "I'd never heard of the bloke, but I had been told he was good.

"And, right enough, he was.

"Admittedly, he was a little nervous at first, but then I'd be nervous if I was a happy American facing five moody Scousers.

"Wouldn't you?"

But the combination, plus recording in Los Angeles, seemed to work for You Can Do Anything, even if the Californian city didn't always seem like a good idea.

"Sometimes you've got to go a million miles from home in order to discover yourself, you know?

"It was time for a little soul-searching, I think, and we also wanted a different vibe this time.

"L.A. certainly gave us that."

Among the results was Always Right Behind You, a lead single that sounded more like a leftover from '70s glam-rockers Sweet or T-Rex.

But then after Who Killed The Zutons? and follow-up album Tired Of Hanging Around two years ago, little should surprise us about The Zutons' random mix of the charismatic and shambolic.

In a business that likes snappy phrases and packaged marketing, the quintet presented a challenge that equated to commercial rewards, largely courtesy of some good old fashioned hook-driven pop such as Why Won't You Give Me Your Love and Valerie which went off "and had a completely independent life of its own" courtesy of Winehouse/Ronson and James Morrison.

Wonder if Bumbag or Freak, about street scroungers and male prostitution respectively, will get similar treatment.

"We were always a band who existed in our own little world, so to have the wider world accept us – well, it was unexpected.

"But good unexpected – the best."

"That said, there was a lot more pressure to deliver this time around.

"It's all a gamble, isn't it? It's like bingo, music. Grab a ball and hope it's a good one."

As much as Dave's melodic skills there's an inertia within the line-up that produces their sometimes odd energy. Four Walls Cry, for example, is an honest examination of inter-band disharmony.

"It's about us doing one another's head in," he confirms. "We're always getting on each other's nerves, but then we've always had tension.

"After six years in each other's company, it's inevitable you end up noticing the negatives much quicker than the positives.

"We're still going to argue and bicker like the big kids we are, but we also know we've got enough going on here to want to make a fourth album, a fifth, a sixth..."

On June 21 The Zutons play al fresco at Sherwood Pines Forest Park, near Worksop, as part of their summer festival fixtures.

A week today reunited Aussie stars Crowded House occupy the same stage.


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