Dick Valentine is too candid for his own good.

Asked how Electric Six’s latest tour is going, the lead singer replies: "It’s going well – for every bad show we have there are five great ones."

But there are bad shows, I ask?

"There have been a couple, we have nobody to blame but ourselves," he says, in his nonchalant Detroit accent. "We’re middle aged and we’re having a midlife crisis’."

Were his PR agent listening, they’d surely be wincing at his candour. I put it to him that most people having a midlife crisis run off with a blonde or buy a Harley, not self-destruct on stage. What’s the problem?

"Our crisis is that we’re not playing our music on a Harley," he jokes, evasively. "We’ve never stopped, that also might be part of the problem," he says.

"We look at it as though if we stop it will all be taken away from us, so we continue to move."

And move they do. Since releasing their debut album, Fire, in 2003, the Detroit disco rockers have rattled out six more albums and are currently on tour promoting their latest record, Zodiac.

"It’s more bouncy and poppy than some of the other ones," explains Dick.

"Tables and Chairs is one of our happiest songs ever, it’s about marriage – before I got married I’d never thought about buying tables and chairs and now I do."

So is this a coming of age album?

"Yes, we’re about to turn 40 so we’re coming of age."

The new material is a far cry from their debut singles Gay Bar and Danger! High Voltage, which pigeonholed them as a bit of a panto band. Were they stymied by these early songs?

"It certainly took a dip [afterwards]," he admits.

"If one of your lead singles is Gay Bar then there’s going to be a lot of people out there that think these guys clearly aren’t capable of doing anything else – and that’s a fair point because I do that to other bands."

However, Dick (real name Tyler Spencer) feels Electric Six have curried favour once again.

"In America we have become a kind of cult act and we’ve bounced back here as well," he says.

"We’re back on top."

I ask him what he attributes this to.

"I think the music industry has changed. It seems that over here you’re catching up with the American ethos that just because you’re not in the charts doesn’t mean people can’t pay attention to you," says Dick, a Spurs fan.

"I think England has changed, not Electric Six."

I challenge him that Electric Six has changed, especially in terms of band members – there are recruitment agencies with a lower turnover of staff.

"It’s because I’m a complete a**hole," he says, deadpan. "It’s got to be me."

Although we get on amicably, it’s easy to see how people could fall out with Dick. Forthright and curt, he isn’t afraid to expresses unpopular opinions.

"We are a profitable organisation," he’d said earlier, suggesting the band’s relentless touring was for the money rather than the love.

"We’re money motivated and hungry for the good life."

Before the straight talker hangs up, he regales me with a tale from Electric Six’s last gig in Bournemouth.

"We played the Firestation," he says. "The security guards were pulling us into the crowd saying ‘come on man, they’re here to see you’ – I was like, that’s not your call to make."

Nevertheless, he’s looking forward to returning to Bournemouth.

"I can’t wait to come down, I heard it’s a beautiful venue. We need that, we’re in Wales."

• Electric Six play the O2 Academy on December 17.