A chat with Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell is every bit as intriguingly downbeat as you might expect.

The singer with the Glaswegian six-piece admits that as a lyricist she has a tendency to be introspective and “a bit gloomy”; but at the same time exudes all the effortless, melancholy charm of some of her band’s most memorable songs…

“I don’t think it’s something that I go out consciously to do though,” she tells me. “I think it’s just in my make-up to be a bit sort of cynical and a bit sort of melancholy I guess”.

And is that gloomy outlook something inherent in a lot of Glaswegian bands (I’m moved to ask, having recently interviewed Glasvegas)? “I don’t think I would say that all Glaswegian bands write like that, but I think it’s obvious that a lot of them do,” she tells me. “I guess we certainly do, and maybe it is something that comes out in Glaswegian music. I really like Glasvegas at the moment. I really like his lyrics and I guess that’s just because they appeal to me.

“I guess it depends where you’ve been bought up and what kind of background you’ve had you know. I guess Glasgow is quite a tough city. It depends on your background though.
“All the writers from Glasgow come from different parts of the city and have different backgrounds; but I can see why some people would write about the darker things.”

Clearly, for Tracyanne Campbell, the lyrics are a massive part of the writing. It’s something that comes across on all Camera Obscura’s music. In songs like ‘Lemon Juice And Papercuts’ and ‘Lloyd I’m Ready’, Campbell discusses love and heartbreak with an endearingly down to earth charm that characterises the singer as both a writer and as a person.

Having just finished recording their fourth album, the band has been together for ten years but have somehow remained largely under the radar (and to a certain extent in the shadow of contemporaries Belle and Sebastian) in the UK.

Despite this, their bittersweet indie-folk-pop has – particularly in most recent album, 2006’s Let’s Get Out Of This Country – been critically acclaimed and Campbell is recognised by many as one of the most interesting writers to come out of Scotland in the last decade.

“I think lyrics are very important,” she says. “I think I would have trouble just having a tune and then trying to make up some words that rhyme or something. I don’t keep a diary but I write little sentences and jot ideas down constantly and when I’m writing music I always refer back to those notebooks to get the words for the songs.”

Camera Obscura have just completed their latest album with Swedish producer Jari Haapalainen (The Concretes, Ed Harcourt).

Campbell tells me that – lyrically – the record was no great departure from her usual subject matter. “I think I always write about the same things, you know. I’m always writing about people and how you never know what’s underneath,” she says.

“You can look people in the eye and get a sense of them but you’ll never really understand what people are going through. I guess on this album I’m writing about specific things.

“You know, this time I’m writing a lot about one particular relationship that I’ve had and also, I guess, dealing with being true whilst also feeling a bit mental.”

The band’s last album, Let’s Get Out Of This Country, was the first time they worked with a producer – Haapalainen, with whom they also worked on the latest record.

“It’s good,” says Campbell, typically underplaying her thoughts on the as yet untitled latest album. “Somebody said to me that it was like the second and the third album meeting in the middle, so I guess it is not as extreme a departure as the last one was compared to the first two.

“I mean, it’s still to be mastered so we are really going through the whole process of finishing it at the moment really – deciding what’s going to go on and what’s going to be left out, so it’s not actually technically finished I guess. It won’t be coming out for a while. We are looking for a label at the moment – shopping I guess.”

Though virtually unknown in the UK, producer Yari Haapalainen has worked with a lot of Swedish bands. He was recommended to Campbell by Stephen McRobbie from Glasgow band, The Pastels, when Richard Hawley pulled out of producing CA’s last album because of other commitments.

“We’d never had a producer before really,” says Campbell. “We’d done it ourselves, just pressed record and said ‘aye, that’ll do’.

“But it’s much better to bring someone in from outside. I mean, I don’t know what it would be like having someone else - we’ve yet to try that - but in terms of him (Haapalainen), we really enjoy working with him. I guess all different producers are different and you have different experiences with everyone you work with, but he just got stuck into it you know. He’s really hands-on. He’s very involved. I really like that.

“Yari has obviously been in a lot of different studios and he has a lot of good relationships with a lot of different engineers and people that work in studios so he is very comfortable and easy to be around I guess.”

When they recorded the much-celebrated Let’s Get Out Of This Country, CA were literally desperate to get out of the country. They recorded the album in Stockholm and Campbell tells me that getting out of Glasgow and feeling like they were – to an extent – “away from their own territory” gave the band a new energy.

With the latest record they again went to Sweden. Campbell says that for technical reasons she prefers working outside the UK. “I think the studios in Sweden are a lot better than what you get in the UK,” she says. “I mean, I haven’t been in millions in the UK but you just have a real sense of equipment in Sweden and for giving the artist a lot of choice. The studios are really well equipped.”

One thing that has remained a constant in the Camera Obscura story is their low profile in Britain compared with that of the US. Though the band emerged alongside other Glaswegian acts like Belle And Sebastian, Arab Strap and Mogwai, they never enjoyed the same success.

Campbell tells me they always “felt one step behind” Belle And Sebastian and slightly detached from the music scene in Glasgow in the 90s – being more influenced by bands from a generation before like The Pastels, The Cocteau Twins and The Jesus And Mary Chain.

The reason for their big following stateside, though, remains a mystery… “It’s a weird thing really,” she says. “It’s kind of odd. I guess in the UK we are kind of under the radar really. We’re much bigger in the states than in UK or Scotland. It surprises me as much as being popular anywhere I guess. Who knows what people want to tap into? Who knows why they go for it and why they like us?” Modest to the end…

Camera Obscura play the 229 Club on 6 September 2008.