When Maximo Park were freshly formed, their singer Paul Smith had a habit of singing while looking intently at a book, as if confirming that they were an artier bunch than their contemporaries.

The reason, however, was more banal.

“I used to have the book for singing Once, A Glimpse just because I didn’t know the order of the words properly,” recalls Smith, chuckling.

“And because I always used the book, I never did get the order of the words right, so the book might come out of the cupboard for the next tour!”

Those next shows will come in November, as the Tyneside group head out for a run of dates to celebrate 10 years since their hugely enjoyable debut album, A Certain Trigger, was released.

A wildly energetic and lyrically deft record, it set up the fivesome as purveyors of rousing and literate guitar pop, a template they’ve never abandoned over the years, and four albums, that have since followed.

The concept of the pop song is something that Smith, always a talkative and thoughtful interviewee, has remained keen to explore.

He’s doing that with both Maximo Park and various side-projects, one of which is the Intimations. He’s just released a second album with the project, Contradictions, and will bring it to King Tut’s in Glasgow next Wednesday (September 2).

There’s a more reflective, softer feel to the album than the helter-skelter pace that often runs through Maximo releases, but the heart underneath it is still beating to a pop pulse.

“There are songs I wrote that I thought ‘this isn’t a Maximo Park song, it just doesn’t feel like one’. The lyrics could be quite personal, and there’s a line I maybe wouldn’t cross there with the band, whereas a song like All These Things I’d Like To Be is about my grandparents growing up.

“I was thinking ’does this apply to the rest of the lads’ and if the answer was no it didn’t get through. I wanted them to be dreamier, upbeat pop songs that remind me of the simplicity of early rock n’ roll like Eddie Cochran or Buddy Holly, but with my own kind of lyrical identity.”

There’s also been room for Smith to indulge his axeman fantasies and play several guitar solos throughout.

“Mark Knopfler doesn’t have anything to worry about with the guitar solos, “ he cheerfully admits.

“You do indulge yourself and the things that you want to do (with a solo project). One of the rules that we used to have with Maximo was that the songs had to be as concise as possible - no guitar solos and no clichés like that.

“I love Neil Young records and the solos there, but we wanted our own identity and something that felt fresh and new, and then expand from there. After 10 years those rules are there to be broken if you feel you can add something new.”

Smith has always been the sort of writer who wears his heart on the sleeve, with plenty of his songs tapping into various romances over the years. For the Maximo anniversary tour, which includes a sold-out Glasgow date at the Barrowland, he’ll be revisiting past emotions.

“One of my main guiding principles is to try and get into the meaning of the song every time I sing it live. That helps me project the correct emotions and believe in the song, and when you’re doing something night after night it’s difficult but essential that you engage with the song on a primitive level.

“Sometimes the meanings change and so do the images in your mind on a certain line, they become more about recent events or someone you care about now rather than the person it was written about. And sometimes you might cast your mind to that time or person in your life when you wrote it.”

Many a band from 2005 has since broken up, or faded away in obscurity. Yet Maximo are still going, having released their fifth album last year and headlining decent-sized venues.

“It’s nice to think we still have a bond together and make music that we’re really proud of,” concludes Smith.

“Time seems to have flown by because we’re enjoying it and enjoying being creative - somehow it’s become our living as well.”

Paul Smith plays King Tut’s in Glasgow tonight[Wednesday, September 2]. Maximo Park play Glasgow Barrowland on November 20.