The Zutons make great music. So why doesn't anybody outside their hometown know who they are? On the eve of the release of their second album, lead singer David McCabe tells Brian Boyd that, when it comes to success, flying just under the radar suits them fine

HERE'S this bizarre urban myth about music groups in Liverpool. The story used to go that because the city was so poor, the people could only afford to buy second-hand records. This is supposed to explain why Captain Beefheart is such an inspiration for the newer wave of scallydelica bands.

The story's provenance can no doubt be traced back to the city's bitter rivals in Manchester. But then, when you consider it's Oasis vs The Beatles, who's laughing?

There is a bit of Beefheart to be found in the name of The Zutons, the five-piece group who have apparently usurped The Coral as Liverpool's foremost band of recent times. They took their name from Beefheart guitarist Zoot Horn Rollo.

"Forgive me if I throw up at the use of the term scallydelica," says chief songwriter and lead singer, the likeable and engaging David McCabe. "It's almost as bad as 'quirky', we're always getting quirky. It's just because we don't have typical reference points or play plodding pub rock. People go on about all the different time signatures and all of that, but that's not a reason to call us quirky. At least we're not one of those spiky guitar bands who are everywhere these days. If that makes us unusual or quirky, then that's great."

In these days of celebrity rock stars coughing up their innards to trashy magazines to get on the exposure express, the great thing about The Zutons is that you'd pass them by in the street. But you know their songs even if you think you don't. The titles You Will You Won't, Pressure Point, Remember Me and Don't Ever Think may not mean anything to you, but you'd recognise them if you heard them on the radio. And The Zutons get as much daytime as evening play.

Those four songs were all top 40 hits. But not top five hits. It's the same with their debut album, 2004's Who Killed The Zutons? It's sold close to a million copies, but never once been in the top five of the album charts.

"That's what I like about this band," says McCabe. "We're there if you want to hear us, but we're not in your face. We don't really do Smash Hits stuff and we've never had one huge radio song, which you need to break into America. But we're constant, we're there somewhere, just not usually at No 1."

The band described Who Killed The Zutons? as "voodoo rock" only because they thought it sounded like Dr John with tambourines. "I think that was a better phrase than saying it was a mix of skiffle, funk, ska and pop, don't you?" McCabe says. "No two songs were alike on that album. But that's what happens when someone in the band is big into Talking Heads, someone else Sly and the Family Stone and someone else Devo."

"The great thing about the first album doing so well is that it vindicated our belief that you can do this without being cool and fashionable and, believe me, we're neither. I know it sounds wanky, but it kind of makes us a popular band without us being popular, if you know what I mean. It's like that old saying: you can't go out of fashion if you've never been in fashion, and that's us."

The Zutons, who come complete with a female saxophonist, Abi Harding (hold the Lisa Simpson references, she's heard them all), got their first taste of enormodome gigs when both U2 and REM invited them on their tours. "It's great," McCabe says. "You get to play to huge audiences without the pressure of them waiting for you to play Losing My Religion or something."

A US tour with The Killers provided McCabe with most of the songs for the second album, including Valerie (one of their strongest tunes to date) and Oh Stacy Look What You've Done.

"I also found that playing to bigger and bigger audiences meant we had to beef up the sound and drop a few of our idiosyncrasies. We're playing much better as a band these days. There's no messing or joking anymore - at least with the music. We've done all that.

"One of the strange things that spending so much time in the US did for me was to really switch me on to country music, which is a bit more sombre than what we usually do. But then the original rock'n'roll was only country and blues. I like to think that we've added some soul to the country, blues and rock strains in our sound. I do really like Hank Williams and Jim Reeves - he's great - but you don't want your band sounding like that!"

The differences between their debut album and their new one can be summed up by their different producers. Who Killed The Zutons? was produced by the man who is practically Liverpool's inhouse producer, Ian Broudie. The new one is produced by Morrissey/Blur man Stephen Street.

"We wanted to take Street away from all that cockney-wockney stuff he had been working on," says McCabe. "Seriously though, we were just really impressed that he bothered coming up to Liverpool to watch us rehearse. Not a lot of name producers would do that."

The new album labours under the title Tired of Hanging Around. "I still don't know whether to put a question mark at the end of that or not. A lot of our stuff has a question mark at the end, so I don't think I will. I used that title because it can be both a positive and a negative. It's about being tired of hanging around when we've done so much over the last two years. You want to keep going, get out there and tour more and more. I've always liked the phrase, with or without a question mark."

There's a whole new swagger to the songs: the first single, Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? (another question mark) is a big glam stomper. "It's funny that people take that as being glam," McCabe says. "Because when we've consciously tried to be glam, it always sounds something like Curtis Mayfield instead."

There's more than one song about stalking. Any issues there? "That's only because I don't want to write happy songs. I think I was just inspired by reading about crazed stalkers. I couldn't even stalk myself."

McCabe is serious about saying the new album has been "de-scoused", meaning the band have thrown off their early weird voodoo rock image. "The only way I can say it is that this is The Zutons but better. I still don't think we've nailed the sound; I still think there's a Remain in Light in us. That's the great thing, knowing we still have to nail the sound but getting closer all the time. That's why I don't really worry too much about reviews and that - and we have always got good press so I can't complain.

"Being in a band . . . it's weird. Sometimes you feel like you're standing half-naked on the top of a mountain. And people are either throwing roses or daggers at you."