You might wonder why it took Muscles five years to release a follow-up to ‘Guns Babes Lemonade’. It’s not really that mysterious.

“I’m just writing up a diagram at the moment," the one-man party machine says, describing just one of the many projects that have been keeping him busy, "for how people with different personalities should listen to the album. Listening from tracks 1 to 12 might work for some people, but for people with their iPods on shuffle… if you’re that kind of personality, it might be better to listen to these tracks in this order. And if you’re another kind of personality, do it this way.

"So I’m putting this diagram together… I don’t know what it’s called, it’s like a yes/ no diagram [flowchart], where you arrive at what personality you are. It ties into the album artwork. We have these four characters that I’ve designed in my mind. We’ve called them Father Muscles, Future Muscles, Past Muscles and Evil Muscles. So I’m writing up a guide, and I think everyone will fall into one of those four categories."

I attempt to ask Muscles a serious question about the diagram, and how someone would be able to tell if they were an 'Evil Muscles'. Thankfully, he interrupts. "It’s going to be completely ridiculous," he laughs, somewhat reassuringly. "It’s going to be really dumb and stupid and fun. But that’s what Muscles is! There are no rules... there are no boundaries, really. It’s just me. Let’s just do something as big and as epic as possible, and continue to evolve that."

Evolution is at the heart of his long awaited second album, ‘Manhood’. The title is a loaded word for the controversial talent. "When I made my first album, I knew my second album was going to be called ‘Manhood’," he says matter-of-factly, "but I didn’t really have any idea what the songs were going to sound like. I’ve just had that word in the back of my mind for the last five or six years. I’ve been growing older and maturing very quickly and, I guess, I want to become a father one day.

"[The definition of 'manhood'] changes every week for me, every time I get a haircut or shave my beard and my moustache. It’s always evolving. It’s about experience, I think, just being out there and and working with different people. I’ve been doing a lot of travelling in the past few years and experiencing different cultures and different languages.

"It's a constant process. I didn’t wake up one morning and think, ‘okay, today I’m a man; yesterday I was a boy’. But compared to the first album… [‘Manhood’] is a lot darker, and a lot more representative of who I am now. The first album was very naïve, and not very self-conscious, and now I have a greater idea of the larger picture of who I want to be as an artist."

Muscles thinks of ‘Manhood’ as a "transitionary" album, with the first four tracks (including new single 'Ready For A Fight') bearing a close resemblance to ‘Guns Babes Lemonade’ and the last eight veering off in a new direction. All the same (and regardless of personality type), he'd prefer you viewed them as a cohesive whole.

"You need to listen to everything on there to really gauge it. I feel like it is an over-arching story, from start to finish. I’m an ‘albums’ kind of guy, and a storyteller. It’s not just a dance album, like... not to say Calvin Harris, but it’s not one of those albums where there’s three singles and the rest of it’s kind of crap. I feel like every song is special in its own way and could be its own single in a different universe, in a different world.

"As a fan of music, when I go to buy an album, and it costs maybe 15, 20 bucks, unless it’s a big top 40 artist like Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj, you expect to find at least five tracks that you really love and maybe five or seven other tracks that aren’t so good that you don’t really want to listen to."

Muscles will be introducing his precious new creations to the world via his elaborate stage show, which has probably changed a little since you last saw it.

"I’ve got some customised Muscles sunglasses made for me that I wear on stage," he explains. "Then I’ve got this thing… we call it the brain, the party brain. It’s this giant space helmet that lights up and syncs up with Ableton. Different notes on the keyboard light up as different colours on the helmet, and there’s an ‘M’ shape for Muscles on the helmet as well. Then I’m standing inside this giant four-metre-by-four-metre thing… we call it a diamond; the geometric name for it is an icosahedron. It’s made up of 30 equilateral triangles, all even and symmetrical. It looks really cool on stage. The last couple of months I’ve been designing this thing and taking a big risk, and we’ll get to test it out on the album launch tour.

"When I started playing live it was just me and a keyboard and a laptop. Sometimes I had two keyboards and a mic. I never thought people would really go for that as a live show, so I just feel really blessed and lucky that I’ve been able to build such a strong fanbase. The live show, over four years, has stepped up its game. You don’t want to change something that isn’t broken, but you do want to give your fans a new experience."

Of course, his live show's not the only thing that's changed. "It’s been a strange five years," he reflects. "I mean, the amount of dance music and dirty basslines and epic trance pop that's been in the top 40… it’s a totally different music landscape to when I started. I listen to lots of different types of music, and try to get influenced by different decades and different artists, but when I was writing this album I was never like, okay, I need to do a dubstep breakdown in the bridge and have all this hyperactive vocal editing, Nicki Minaj-style, where it’s just so over the top and so over-produced.

"Keeping that warm sound and listening to old vinyl records is the way… I recorded and mixed this album in my home studio, and then we took it to 301 in Sydney and pretty much ran it through all this amazing, expensive, really great sounding equipment. These tracks sound really big. You can really hear the kick drum and the snare. It’s a big, epic album, I think."

He's not wrong. And the best part is that you won't have to wait too long for the next one. "I’ve started working on album three, and I’ve got an idea for album four. It’s definitely not going to be a five year wait until the next album. I’ve got a very clear idea in my mind... Music really is survival of the fittest. If I keep going out there, as long as people keep coming to my gigs, then music is my number one priority. If a day comes when people stop coming to my tours and people stop caring about Muscles, I’ll just say goodbye and start a new project."

‘Manhood’ is out now. Muscles plays Cobra Kai Club at Oh Hello! this Friday June 22.