THEY were the metal band that took the Welsh scene global.

Pontypridd’s most famous rockers Lostprophets are back with a new album and out to prove that their appeal is as strong as ever.

Despite the doubters, Lostprophets have remained popular for more than a decade, spending the majority of the noughties storming the charts and playing massive festivals across the world.

Now ahead of their UK tour, which comes to Leeds and Manchester Academies later this month, keyboardist Jamie Oliver spoke to WoW about the challenge of turning out their fifth record, Weapons.

He said: “It’s supposed to get easier but in all reality we’ve got to bridge an even further gap and for every year that goes past that bridge gets further.

“Going into the studio for the fifth time it could become formulaic and we could say, we’ve done this before let’s just repeat the process.

“But we’ve got six creative people in this band and it was important that we challenged ourselves in order to keep it interesting and remain current; so it was difficult from that point of view.

“We’ve changed management and we’ve got a brand new feeling.

“We’re feeling pretty amped as we’ve got a new model, a more hands on approach.

“It’s a fluid model which we’re going to grow with, it’s almost going back to the beginning like how we approached our first album The Fake Sound of Progress.

“So we’re very excited for a number of reasons.

“We’re excited for this particular record but we’re also excited that we’ve made it to our fifth studio album, which is something we never dreamed we’d manage when we first started out.

“Twelve years down the line, we’re like ‘are we still doing this?’.”

Jamie said he was aware that rock music had lost the dominance it had on the charts during their hey days of the mid 2000s, but he said they were not influenced by what was popular at the moment.

He said: “I don’t think we went in to the studio saying we’re going to do that, it was just us responding to everybody’s instruments and coming up with a sound.

“We really mixed it up this time, some songs were recorded from start to finish in two days, we didn’t get caught up in the detail so it’s not contrived.

“We know what we like and if it’s good it’s good, if it’s bad it’s bad.

“We’re not going to question it – it’s a true reflection of our music.

“Personally I’ve only bought one or two albums this year.

“Yes rock music is taking a bit of knock in terms of the mainstream but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

“Rock thrives when it’s out of the spotlight, when bands can concentrate on making albums rather than focussing on the first 30 seconds of a single.

“I feel like this album is back to the late 90s rock, it’s meat and potatoes, a no frills solid album.”

For a band that have headlined major UK festivals their comeback tour of medium sized venues may seem rather modest.

But Jamie said they were not of the opinion that they could walk straight back into the big time.

“We don’t feel we have the right to go straight into stadiums,” he said. “It’s good for us to get out and learn the songs.

“It’s good to get back and play that intimate environment and pay back the fans who’ve been waiting patiently for us to come back.

“To have almost sold out the UK tour is very humbling and it’s our opportunity to get out there and pay back everyone who has supported us.”

The band are also a surprise omission from this summer’s major festival line-ups

But Jamie said they needed more time from last Monday’s release of Weapons to build up some momentum.

He said: “It seems a bit close to putting out our record to get on a UK festival.

“We’re focusing on the groundwork and getting back in the public consciousness.

“Everybody’s been calling for us to play Reading and Leeds but we’ve done it a number of times and have some very good spots in the past.

“We just want to move forward and I think it would be premature and doubt that we would get a good booking when we’re unproven.

“We need to get out there and prove ourselves and we’re totally prepared to do that.”

Lostprophets play Leeds Academy on Saturday, April 21.

Support comes from live dance four piece, Modestep.