Athlete: On top of their game

"I say you can never go wrong with Starship," says Athlete frontman Joel Pott. He brings his mug of tea to his lap with the finality of a judge banging his gavel. "No way!" says drummer Steve Roberts. "'Ghostbusters' every time! That always gets the whole place singing along."

Athlete, it seems, are karaoke connoisseurs. The band's on-tour addiction began in one of Tokyo's karaoke dens with Iceland's purveyors of ethereal post-rock, Sigur Rós. "Just imagine," laughs Pott, "Sigur Rós singing Bryan Adams songs. That's what I love about karaoke. You can guarantee you're going to have an experience."

Athlete's pursuit of Stars in Their Eyes thrills has apparently yielded many of those. One fondly remembered yarn involves the band serenading a roomful of rednecks on an anger-management course in a Sacramento bar. The course must have been in its early stages, because the burly men reacted unfavourably to Roberts' rendition of another Bryan Adams classic, "I'm Gonna Run To You", and several were thrown out. The four childhood pals giggle at the memory.

The Deptford boys are clearly in high spirits. They've just heard that their surging single "Hurricane" has been A-listed on Radio 1. And the band have returned to their Greenwich studio for the first time in weeks. Situated on an industrial estate flanked by garages and bodyshops, its doors are obstructed with bent and battered cars. As the bandmates squeeze past the racks of bruised metal, their pleasure at being back is palpable.

This modest studio is the home from home where Athlete recorded their belting third album, Beyond the Neighbourhood. Pott and his gang greet the space like an old friend, casually kicking wires out of the way. The white walls are bare ("we still haven't got round to decorating yet," explains bassist Carey Willets), but there's a lived-in vibe that's enormously welcoming.

Guitar-cases sit like kids at story-time round a glossy upright piano. Up the stairs to the mixing desk is the band's Mercury Prize nomination trophy, awarded in 2003 for their debut, Vehicles & Animals. "The Swirls", as Pott calls it, is flanked by the band's newest doorstop, their Ivor Novello statuette for best contemporary song, affectionately christened "The Goddess". Athlete won the prestigious songwriting gong last year for their 2005 hit "Wires", beating more critically lauded fellow nominees Gorillaz and Kaiser Chiefs. After often being dismissed as little more than Coldplay wannabes, it's a feat the band are understandably proud of.

"We went to the award show telling each other all the reasons why there was no way we were going to win," says keyboard player Tim Wanstall from the tatty sofa facing the mixing desk. "Then suddenly all the lights were on our table. It was incredible, a massive acknowledgment; it was like, thanks, I think we deserve this."

The song, inspired by Pott's newborn daughter's struggle for survival, was Athlete's breakthrough. It turned the promising indie upstarts into full-on mainstream unit-shifters and drove sales of their second album, 2005's Tourist, to well over half a million copies, easily outstripping their platinum debut. "We had a first album that did really well and got nominated for the Mercury Prize – things you dream of," says Pott. "But then our second album actually built on that. So many bands these days get really hyped up and release a debut that sells loads. But by the time their second comes out, the interest has passed." Even fêted bands like Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys have seen their second albums sell significantly less than their first. "I feel really proud that we were one of the few to buck that trend," says Pott.

"Had 'Wires' been on our first album, we might have felt in the shadow of that one song," admits Wanstall. "But because we were already established as a band, it was a different story. We were ready to take everything in our stride and enjoy it." Athlete's promotional offensive stepped up a gear and the band embarked on a year-long tour that saw them support U2 and hang out at the Grammys.

"Things kicked off so quickly with Tourist that we hardly had a chance to catch our breath," says Wanstall. "And then it didn't stop for well over a year. After Vehicles & Animals, we were back in the studio writing tunes within a few months. But this time we went 18 months without recording any music. By that point, we were absolutely desperate to get back into the studio."

With Tourist, the band had booked into residential studios away from London. This time, having been separated from their young families for so long, they decided to record closer to home. They found the unit on the Greenwich industrial estate and set about building their own studio.

The band confess that during the recording of Tourist, their relationship with their long-term producer, Victor Van Vugt, crumbled ("We're friends again now, though," insists Potts). Rather than risk going through that again, they took on production duties themselves. "I think that's one of the best decisions we've ever made," says Potts. "There was none of that tension we had making the last record. It was just us, with this great vibe. It felt fun again."

Freed from the pressures of rented space and a producer's whims, the band began to rediscover the playful flourishes of their debut album. "That was the nice thing about being alone in our own space," says Willets. "We could take our time and try things."

That they did. The album crackles into life with the soaring electro instrumental "In Between 2 States". It's a bold, 140-decibel statement of intent: inspired by a love of leftfield acts like Múm and Aphex Twin, Athlete have injected a heady dose of electronica into their swooning guitar rock, giving the album an edge that Tourist sometimes lacked.

The new album had its genesis on Reason, an electronic music program that the band spent hours tinkering with on tour. Once back in the studio, they continued to experiment: dropping objects, flicking switches and shutting doors to capture creaking, clicking noises that they could amplify, contort and loop into "organic beats". Glitchy electronic rhythms and bleeps now dance mischievously beneath Athlete's uplifting guitar hooks. It's striving and vital, the sound of a band re-invigorated.

Lyrically, too, the album marks a progression. Spearheaded by "Wires", Tourist was intensely personal. This time, as their album's title implies, Athlete have looked beyond the security of their close-knit Deptford community. "There's been stuff going on in the world over the last couple of years that's been pretty mental," says Pott. "How, for example, should I respond to the fact that birds are singing their mating song at the wrong time of year because the weather's so messed up? That sort of thing concerns me, but what on earth am I meant to do about it?"

Global warming, war and the consequences of modern living are recurring themes. "The album is a questioning one," says Willets. "It's not saying what we should do now. It's asking, what do we do? How can you live with integrity knowing what you know about the world's problems? I think that's the quandary facing our whole generation."

Pott still glances inward, too. "This Is What I Sound Like" dwells on human fallibility; "Best Not to Think About It" is inspired by a documentary about those who leapt from the burning Twin Towers, turning the tragedy into a metaphor for love.

"Shit things do happen in this world," Pott says, "but there are ways you can choose to look at them. Some bands like to write about things that are just depressing. But in our songs, there will be always hope. I think ultimately we're a pretty positive bunch of people."

Athlete are well aware that they're never likely to be critics' darlings. Cheery, wholesome bands with great, breezy pop tunes seldom are. But they seem unconcerned. "We sometimes get this snidey criticism for having songs that would sound good in a stadium," says Pott. "But I'm like, how is that not a good thing? Ever since we started, we've set out to write great pop songs. And if we get to play those songs to big crowds of appreciative people, we certainly won't be complaining."

Pott's phone bleeps. It's a picture message from his wife of his two kids enjoying a picnic. "We've got a really good thing going here," he says. "It's the best of both worlds. We've got all our families close by to our studio and, when we tour, we have these great little experiences and hear thousands of people singing our songs back to us every night.

"I don't mind boasting about this," he adds. "We're really happy."

'Beyond the Neighbourhood' is out now on Parlophone; the band tour from 2 to 18 October (see www.athlete.mu for details)