Glasvegas frontman James Allan has trouble dealing.

The fame and adulation, the pressure and passion, the expectations and ambitions -- sometimes it's more than the singer-guitarist can cope with.

"There's days I feel too down to face it all," the Glasgow native says quietly in his nearly impenetrable brogue. "And then there are other days I feel strong enough to do it all. I'm just that difficult. But it helps that I'm an idiot. Did you know that singers are idiots? It's this disease that all singers have got. We're just idiots. But I think I'm getting a little better as time goes on."

At the very least, he's getting better at expressing himself. The band's expansive sophomore album Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\ -- the slashes are meant to represent the emotional rise and fall of a romantic arc -- has critics once again swooning over Allan's Phil Spector-inspired brand of passionate, epic and introspective indie-rock. Meanwhile, the British tabloids love him for his bipolar persona and rock-star antics -- his exploits include everything from allegedly overdosing on cocaine at Coachella to going AWOL for several days in 2009.

With the hard-touring band headed to Canada on its latest North American jaunt, the 31-year-old ex-footballer got on the phone from what he believed was Norway -- "I don't know exactly where we are, but I think it's Oslo, yeah" -- to talk about beating the sophomore slump, keeping things in the family and putting his cards on the table.

Sophomore albums are notorious stumbling points for bands.

I've seen it so many times before. A lot of people maybe made one record and that was it, really. And some of them didn't really even have anything to say in their first album. It was important to me to prove to myself that I could make two albums. Just making one good rock 'n' roll record is a really difficult thing. I don't think there's ever an easy song, never mind an easy album. Maybe it's about ambition. Maybe it's about passion. But yeah, that's where a lot of other bands have f---ed up and ended up being one-trick ponies.

How do you avoid being one of those bands?

I don't think there's any plan. I think only time will tell, resilience will tell and hard work will tell. I think all of those things, we have unnatural amounts of. Apart from skill, of course. But I think we have a lot more resilience and passion and luck than we have skill. That's just my perception of it.

Speaking of passion, these are very personal, emotional songs. Was this a difficult album to make?

I feel bruised. I feel bloodied. I'm still feeling the repercussions of it. In the end, it was probably quite unhealthy. But I'm surprised that isn't a more common reaction among artists and bands. I don't know how other people can feel fine after they make an album. Having said that, I'm already looking forward to the next album. I'm quite insatiable, quite obsessed. I guess I'm a little mad.

Is celebrity what you thought it was going to be?

No. It's more than what I thought it was going to be. It's been a learning experience. We all go through stuff in our life. I think I'm becoming a little bit more open-minded, a little more sensitive to things. Sometimes I still feel really insecure and sometimes I feel really confident. It's complicated trying to sum up your existence in a few sentences.

Your brother Rab plays guitar in the band. Your sister is your manager. Your mother appears on the album. How important is it to you to have family around? Could you do this without them?

I don't think I'd have the strength. You know that saying about how some people complete people? I know it sounds obvious, but they do that for me. Maybe I should tell Rab more often. There's a lot of things they do that they don't get credit for. They're in my thoughts all the time. They're always at the front of my mind, maybe too much. But it seems like such a natural thing.

Where do you want to be in five years?

Right now, I've got a long list of things I'm working toward, a long list of ideas. It's just finding the time to do them. And finding the strength to do them.

You've toured North America several times already. How important is it to you to find success here?

I have to be honest with you. We've been lucky enough to find our passion in life. There are loads of people who don't. And on top of that, I've been blessed with the ability to write these songs. It's not Tchaikovsky, but these are very special songs. I don't even think of them as being my songs. I think of them as being a gift. So the fact that we also have the odd person who wants to come and invest their time in ours when they have other things to do -- it doesn't matter if it's five people, 10 people, 100 people or a million people, it makes me the luckiest person in the world. And the day I lose sight of that is the day I walk away.

Glasvegas Canadian tour dates:

May 28 | London | Call the Office

May 29 | Toronto | Lee's Palace

darryl.sterdan@sunmedia.ca

@darryl_sterdan

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