THE VINES have revealed details of their eagerly-anticipated new album exclusively to X-Ray - and Say it's more “laid back” than their explosive debut.

Bass player Patrick Mathews said they'd recorded four tracks - ‘Amnesia’, ‘Fuck The World’, ‘Evil Town’ and ‘Drown The Baptists’ - in a Sydney studio last month just before their Big Day Out gigs .

He also set the record straight about a host of rumours plaguing the band, particularly those concerning the wayward behaviour of frontman Craig Nicholls.

Commenting on the new songs, Mathews said ‘Evil Town’ was a “heavy comedy rock track”, and ‘Fuck Tha World’ - which the band have been playing live for some time - was “sounding pretty slammin’!"

Of ‘Amnesia’, Patrick said: “Live, it’s just like three chords and harmonies that Craig made up. But when we recorded it, it’s much more lush. We tried to recreate this really cool demo Craig made with a really old Casio keyboard, a bodhran (traditional Irish drum - Ed) and by kicking the four track to get a kick drum sound.”

‘Drown The Baptists’, meanwhile, he said was a “sweet song” with a menacing undercurrent.

Other songs slated for the album, which they hope to release in December, include ‘Autumn Shade II’ and ‘Sunchild’. The Vines are looking to finish it in the US with Rob Schnapf who produced their self-titled debut of last year. Of the new material as a whole, Patrick expanded: “I'd say it was a bit more laid back...very melancholy.”

Meanwhile, Mathews reiterated that the band had scrapped all dates outside Australia - including their London Astoria gig on February 12 and dates in Japan and the US - due to exhaustion and not because of the onstage bust-up between himself and Craig in Boston in December.

He stated that he'd wrestled Craig to the ground after mistakenly thinking he'd hit him over the head with his microphone deliberately. ‘We didn't actually come to blows,” he continued. “I assumed he'd done it on purpose. So I tackled him and threw him off the stage.” They made up immediately afterwards.

Mathews said it was exhaustion that lead to the scrapping of the dates, coupled with Craig's increasingly severe fear of flying which culminated in the band’s getting thrown off a plane in Boston en route to LA.

Mathews explained that the anxious singer swore at a flight attendant and, after he refused to apologise, the band were shown off and forced to wait for the next flight.

He conceded: “You never know what Craig's gonna do next. It’s like Brian Wilson, or like Aerosmith's drug addiction or something like that.”

However, Patrick said the sometimes strained relations between himself and the band’s frontman had mellowed of late. “I used to get a bit sick of that. But now because it’s gone on for so long, I've relaxed a bit more. He’s just a bit of a show-off. Which is part of being the singer. He just gets bored.”

The Vines plan to return to the UK to play a string of dates with You Am I in April.