The twisted sounds of Liars have never been made for labels, the New York via Berlin once-four-now-three-piece having long eschewed convention. Throughout their various manifestations – dance-punk, bewitched electro, tribal shoegaze – the critics have loved, then hated, and then loved again. The casual listener may have had reason to be confused, but not any more, says Angus Andrew.

The six-foot-beyond, Melbourne-born, singer and general noise-bringer has just finished band practice and downed a few hot dogs from the local L.A. spot, before coming to the phone. Satisfied, he gets down to talking business, specifically the impending release of the group’s self-titled fourth album.

Liars marks yet another dramatic change in trajectory for Andrew, Aaron Hemphill (percussion, guitar, synth) and Julian Gross (drums), and is arguably the biggest u-turn they have taken yet. Early consensus, courtesy of a leak months in advance, has deemed it Liars’ most straightforward and rockist effort, and yet Andrew is far from frustrated that his little surprise has been prematurely unveiled.

“It’s actually a pretty nice thing to happen,” he drawls, the Australian accent still prevalent. “It’s cool that people care enough to want to get in early, I suppose. It used to be like you were excited that a record was coming out so you’d go to the store and buy it straight away. Now people are excited about when they can get it leaked first. I think it’s just the changing way that people look at music.”

Nor, it seems, is he so sure the new direction should come as such a surprise.

“Some people say that with each record we’re killing off our fanbase, like it’s time to find another one or something,” he recoils mockingly. “I kind of disagree with that. I think the people that like Liars, you know, can handle the kind of changes that we go through, and I think that’s kind of what makes a Liars fan. They’re interested, just as much as we are, in the progression. At this point it starts to make less sense to me that we would lose people by doing something different.”

The change, Andrew says, was brought about by frustration at being perceived as purposely inaccessible. They Were Wrong So We Drowned and Drum’s Not Dead disillusioned some with their appropriations of obscure concepts (witchcraft and, er, drums) and non-traditional instrumentation, and the band, he says, wanted to rectify that.

“I think sort of the concepts in a lot of ways help us more than they help the people understand it, you know. It is something we use to make a record but I don’t think it’s necessary that people know about everything that we’re thinking,” he pauses. “I do think our intention was to make it a little more direct or something so that more people get it. I think I’ve been a little frustrated in the past with people not really understanding what we’re doing.”

Strangely enough, it appears Andrew and co. decided the best way to take out their collective frustration was to tap into some teenage melodrama.

“Part of it for us was going back in time and seeing what we were really into when we were younger. When you didn’t have a job or you weren’t really concerned about anything except music and the girlfriend or whatever, you know, what music were you into at that point and why? For me it was totally like Guns ‘n’ Roses. Appetite for Destruction was huge for me. I certainly was never concerned with a song title or who was playing what, I was just ‘wow, that’s a cool guitar riff’ or something that simple,” Andrew laughs. “We were looking to really get back to that gut instinct rather than that sort of brain one.”

The band members were liberated by the lack of pretences and the album, which, like Drum’s Not Dead, was recorded in Berlin, came together more organically.

“What happened was that it ended up being a lot more personal. In a way we followed that idea of the younger years: what we were thinking about at that time, what was important, and for me growing up in Australia, I just always felt like I had to get out and explore the world,” Andrew explains with specific reference to first single, the falsetto-driven behemoth ‘Plaster Casts of Everything’. “It’s just that feeling you have when you’re younger of ‘get up, get out and find yourself’ or whatever.”

Some may be at pains to figure out just what sparked this new grown-up/dumbed-down Liars approach. Andrew, pointing to the eerily familiar sounds of new songs like ‘Freak Out’ and ‘Cycle Time’, is remarkably candid in revealing his moment of epiphany.

“There was this point where I was just fooling around and I played something that kind of randomly sounded really familiar, like a blues riff or something that you’ve heard all your life. And that was a real sort of eye-opener for me because I never though I could play something that kind of sounded familiar or sounded like it’s supposed to sound. For me it was the idea of getting to the point where I could actually play stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to be abstract. It really kind of blew me away – just, you know, pulling out a Led Zeppelin riff, I never thought I could do that. I’m not saying I can, really, I just suppose I’ve always approached instruments and music as a bit of an experiment, you know, like always just learning to make sounds that I want, but I’ve not necessarily ever thought about chords or notes or anything like that!”

Like the awkward teenhood it recalls, Liars is the sound of trying to fit in. A US tour with Interpol awaits and, then, who knows, but at least they are being honest about it.

“They’re all, in weird ways, attempts to write a pop song,” Andrew explains, “and I think this time we really sort of let out a lot of our influences, which aren’t really that crazy or weird or different. They’re kind of like the same as everyone and I think for once we just wanted to make a record that showed some of that. You know, we do like The Ramones, just like everyone does.”

Liars is out 18/08/07 on Mute Records/EMI.

Note: Anyone fearing for the band’s (in)sanity should take notice of the forthcoming split 12” with Blood Brothers where both acts cover tracks by The Doors. It promises to be “embarrassing” but “fun”.