Hard-Fi's bass player Kai Stephens has revealed that the band's new album is more "spiritual" than its predecessor.

The group are releasing their second album Once Upon a Time in the West on September 3, and are hoping that it will match the success of 2005's Stars of CCTV, which reached number one in the UK album chart.

"It's more introspective and kinda spiritual as well," Kai told the Manchester Evening News. "We know what we've got is original, we've got more of a unique sound than most of our contemporaries and more variety within styles from song to song."

The band tested out some of their new tracks by playing them at secret gigs, before making the final decision on which songs to put on the album.

Stephens explained: "They went down quite well, there was a lot of standing with folded arms, you know, 'Hmm what's this then?'. The party started when we played 'Cash Machine' and 'Hard To Beat', but I think once people get used to it it's gonna be a real winner live."