Joe Mount delays the start of our interview by a few moments.

"Sorry, I'm literally changing a nappy," explains the father-of-two. "And they say men can't multitask... Argh! They we go. Done. Let's go."

Many artists have to balance parenthood with their day job, although rarely is it quite so finely-tuned.

Mount is about to release his fifth album, Summer 08, with Metronomy. The band is essentially just him - he's written and recorded everything on Summer 08 - but there are regular touring members Oscar Cash, Anna Prior and Gbenga Adelekan.

His children are three and 18 months. "If neither I nor my girlfriend had any aspirations, then it would make things a lot easier," he says, half-joking. "I certainly realise why people end up giving up their jobs."

He's decided not to tour the new album, a decision he took after going on the road with previous record Love Letters with a one-year-old.

"That was interesting. Around the same time, one of the band had a baby but managed to miss the birth because we were on tour. That was really tough. Ask any young couple who want to do a job and have kids and they'll tell you it's hard.

"I could go on tour again, and get a nanny to help so it's not too difficult, but I've got to the point where I don't want to be away from home," he says.

"I definitely want to continue releasing music at a decent rate, and so much of modern music involves touring. We'll just have to see how it goes putting out a record without immediately hitting the road."

The album harks back to, as you might guess from the title, the summer of 2008; a time when Mount had a lot less responsibility, and the idea of touring with a nanny was a long way off. It was the year Nights Out, the early album that put them on the map, was released, and they were the toast of the music press and one of the most-talked about new bands going.

"When I think about that year, we were touring a lot and travelling the world. Now we do the same stuff, but in a much more civilised way. I don't really miss it in that sense, but it's nice to think about that time as this germination," Mount reflects.

"Without that time, I wouldn't be so content now, and I've had a successful run at it. This is an acknowledgement of that."

While those days were "great", he says he avoids being "too nostalgic", and "I much prefer things the way they are now".

And, well, life moves on - Nights Out was, Mount notes, "based on the loose concept of going out and having a crap time".

Each of the albums that followed since have also been framed around one idea.

The English Riviera conjured up a world of slick, poolside romance mired in slightly wonky, British electronic pop. It was duly nominated for the 2011 Mercury Prize, and announced Metronomy's success was no one-time thing.

Next came 2014's Love Letters, which saw Mount record Sixties psych soul-inspired, personal songs in a primitive London studio favoured by Jack White, and love-sickness was the main theme.

With Summer 08, he decided to take it slow, and not give himself such a hard time with the concept.

"It's all incredibly broad, which is a big departure from Love Letters, which was so rigid. And this time, it was a very different way of working," he explains. "I was way more relaxed about it, and after all of my albums so far, I felt I'd fulfilled myself in that creative way, so this time I just wanted to make a dancey, unthoughtful record, in the best possible way.

"It hasn't been that long since the last album, but I don't really time these things. When you're making something, time doesn't equal quality. To a point, if you give yourself a load of time, it just doesn't matter.

"I started it when we were on tour, and I did bits when I could grab time away from the kids. I built up a load of time at home in order to earn some time away to record."

We've already seen two tracks premiered from the album, Night Owl and Old Skool, while a third, featuring a duet with Robyn, called Hang Me Out To Dry, is easily the album's best song.

Scandi-pop superstar Robyn, Mount says, is someone he's known for a while and has been interested in working with for some time.

"We've been working on various things together, and with this song I thought it deserved something more meaty. I've waited 'til the fifth album to get a celebrity in, so why not? She's an important figurehead in the pop world, and she was a perfect match for it."

The song itself, in embryonic form, has been around since 2008, so it seems fitting for it to make it onto this album.

Each of the singles released so far has been met with a wave of online chatter, showing just how far Metronomy have come. Each of their albums has charted higher than the last, with Love Letters peaking at No 7.

Mount hopes Summer 08 will go Top 10 but doesn't expect it to, as he's a pessimist.

Critical appraisal has also grown with the audience, although it's something Mount tries not to think about too much.

"That said, I do have a responsibility to the record label, and to the fans that have either been there for a long time or are just arriving. I don't see it as negative pressure, and I don't even feel it as anything greater than the pressure I put on myself to do something good.

"I guess being aware of that is healthy. Ignoring commercial pressures, and treating it as something not important is old-fashioned and disingenuous."

He feels his songwriting hasn't changed that much in the intervening years, although now he is better able to realise his ideas, and his music has a much slicker feel.

"I was listening to Nights Out recently, and it hit me just how naive it all sounds, and there's something unique and pleasurable about that, but if I was to try to do that again, it would sound contrived. I'd have to get a crappy old computer and unlearn all I've picked up along the way.

"What I hear is the sound of youth," Mount adds, "and I'm not so young any more. What I hope to do is capture the spirit of that."

:: Metronomy's new album Summer 08 is released on Friday, July 1