Maximo Park need a 'weird space'

Maximo Park's first album was nominated for the Mercury Prize

Maximo Park say they're waiting for their music to be pushed into a "weird space" before they release a new album.

The band performed a new song, The Kids Are Sick Again, at the V Festival at the weekend.

It was their first showcase of new material since the release of their second album, Our Earthly Pleasures, which reached number two in 2007.

Singer Paul Smith explained: "I once saw a burnt out car at the bottom of a cliff and I just wondered what happened and I wrote a song about it."

"I guess I thought society as a whole is bombarded by advertisements and to me that's why the kids are sick again.

Drummer Tom English added: "They can't express themselves anymore and this is for them."

Smith agreed: "It's a funny sounding phrase but it's a serious song so it's a nice blend of being amused but I hope people sit up and take notice of it."

'Weird space'

Maximo Park are on a tour of Ireland and reckon they will get in to the studio later this year with a view to releasing an album in early 2009.

Smith said: "We've finished 20 songs and we've done another three or four over the last six months that we just can't seem to get right.

Singer Paul Smith is known for rocking a range of hats on stage

"Over the next couple of weeks we might get those right, we might not but we already have an album that works."

The band say they are looking to do more interesting work with percussion on the new album, after criticism that their last record didn't sound "scratchy or fuzzy" enough.

English said: "We've got a bit more room on the songs to play with and Lukas, our keyboard player, is starting to discover many more weird things he can do.

"We're gonna root around the percussion cupboard as well."

Smith chipped in: "We want to push ourselves in to a weird space."