Produced by Morrisey collaborator Stephen Street, the album is stripped down and laid back, relaxed almost. "I suppose that was a reaction against the very dense production of Calenture," McComb admits. "We wanted to have Calenture sound the way it did, but once we'd done that we didn't really want to do it again."

Still The Black Swan is no less poignant or intense in its delivery, bringing further tales of delirious amour. Take Fairytale Love: "By the mill and the willow, we made fairytale love." Does he ever fear over-exposing his soul?

"It's a very hard question this," he opines, "and I don't really think that I can give you a decent answer. Of course, it's personal experience - partially. Of course some part of it's fiction.

"It's not like going to the pub, and telling someone your woes, or your trials and tribulations. It's writing, and your personal life has to come into it.

"It's only in interviews where I've felt over-exposed, never on the records. I've read interviews, and I've had to physically throw up, and be sick. It's just horrifying because, a) they've misquoted you, and b) it's just a horrible situation to see it in print."

And what of the writing? "I do it anywhere, it doesn't matter," he says. "I write constantly in a sort of book, then I just cull a few things that I like.

"I don't know whether it's worth saying, but I've had some of my poetry published in European countries like Sweden and Switzerland. There's a book by a guy in Switzerland called The Judas Jesus, and some of my work is in it. He's doing another book, and I'm doing more in that."

He is quick to correct the misquoted notion that he hates living in London.

"I reckon the guy's batteries broke down in his tape recorder, because I never said that," he scorns. "I don't care where I live, work is important."

It appears there are a lot of 'extras' on the album, … "Actually," he interrupts, "this is a common misapprehension. In fact, Calenture has far more different people on it. Black Swan has far more contributions from band members than Calenture did. We never did a record saying what each person played on every song before, so no one ever knew. Consequently, we did all these records and people assumed they knew who was playing on each track, but they didn't. It's been all over the place."

Relations within the band, says McComb are 'better than ever,' but the singer still has found time to record with offshoot group The Black Eyed Susans, featuring the likes of Phil Kakulas (an early Triffid), Ross Bolleter and Rob Snarski (ex-Chad's Tree). "We've done an EP's worth of material. I've no idea if it will ever be released. We've been planning to do this since 1985, and we wrote a few songs like Falling Over You, The Spinning Top Song, Willie The Torch, I Don't Need You and When A Man Turns Bad. In fact, we've done quite a few other songs, but I thought Spinning Top Song and Falling Over You were such good songs they should be used for The Triffids."

Plan are afoot to release a live album of early material. The current single Goodbye Little Boy, controversially includes a swear word. "We knew that," smiles Dave. "We've had two versions of the song from the word go. There's always been a version with the word 'damn' in it, so we can give that to Radio One, and everyone else can have the one with the word 'f***'."

The vagaries of Radio One playlist may prove irrelevant though, as The Triffids are soon to receive more prestigious exposure when their song Bury Me Deep in Love is aired at the Neighbours wedding of Harold and Madge.

And does Kylie really have a soft spot for Trick Of The Light? "Yeah, it was on the jukebox or something, and she said, 'Gee isn't this just lovely!"