SEXY, vibrant and lurid, New Young Pony Club were the sassy cheerleaders of the technicolour nu-rave scene.

Never knowingly understated, their brash shows and disco-electro-pop have made them a live favourite.

Now, they are returning to Oxford – three years after they launched the city’s new Academy, after its £2m post-Zodiac transformation. And while as feisty as ever, they return as a darker and more mature proposition.

As frontgirl Tahita “Ty” Bulmer explains, the Ice Cream stars have certainly not been sitting around since the heights of debut album Fantastic Playground.

“I hope we’ve managed to push ourselves a bit,” she says, relaxing at home, getting over the vestiges of a cold before hitting the road. “We haven’t lost any of our pizzazz, but we have gained an amount of depth – and people who didn’t get us before, will like it.

“I like the chameleonic thing, and am interested in those artists who change their person every time they do an album.

“We’ve grown creatively and inspirationally. The songs might be in the same vein, but we’ve moved on.”

So does this mean that the four-piece of Ty, guitarist and producer Andy Spence, keyboardist Lou Hayter and drummer Sarah Jones, have grown up?

“Fantastic Playground was about an idealistic version of ourselves – party animals who went out to play all the time,” she says.

“But we spent three years touring the album and were tired and burned out.

“We were really unhappy about the attitudes of some other bands, too. It was all about consumption. But we wanted to retreat and go to a slightly different place.”

She was also burned by the break-up of a decade-long relationship, which, she admits, left her devastated.

The result is follow-up album The Optimist.

“It runs the whole range of emotions from the depths of despair to the heights of joy,” she explains.

“I don’t know what people want from NYPC; there’s no guidebook. But if some thought the last album was frivolous, this one offers more.

“As a music fan you often fear your favourite band is going to do something you don’t like, but it can also broaden your palette and mind.

“I remember being 14 and a fan of Blur, who would change their sound every two albums. At first you listen to the new stuff with trepidation, but then grow to love it. Damon Albarn is one of our heroes and we want to follow that path by always challenging.”

Now coolly dressed in black, it seems odd to equate them with the spangly, day-glo nu-rave kids running around with The Klaxons, CSS and Sunshine Underground, and, Ty admits, it was a scene they weren’t altogether comfortable with.

“It came as a surprise to be a part of nu-rave,” she confesses. “After all, we were not four boys in brightly-coloured T-shirts from the Home Counties. But there was no scene for what we were doing at the time. We were playing art-pop and electro-pop ahead of the game. Now you’ve got people like La Roux and Groove Armada and Goldfrapp all doing it.”

Half-Trinidadian Ty would be the first to admit she has an interesting background. Her father, Ready, Steady Go snapper Rowan Bulmer, was a familiar face on the ’60s scene, and shared a flat with the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones. She grew up in London, New York and Cairo, mostly staying in (her mother was strict and protective) and reading heavily – up to 15 books a week.

Her clean-living lifestyle put her at odds with some of the wilder exploits of nu-rave. “London was a seething party back then, and didn’t have a lot of substance,” she recalls. “It was just an excuse for people to get high and spend a lot of cash. But I came from a different background to a lot of those people. I found it perplexing and offensive.”

And it takes effort for her to adopt her extrovert stage persona.

“I feel I’m two different people most of the time,” she confides. “Part of me wants to stay in, hang out and do homely stuff, then there’s the ‘stage me’.”

The new album, though, has helped iron out a lot of her issues – including her relationship bust-up. “There’s a lot of that on the album, she sighs. “It was a cathartic experience – it was my life raft. I’ve had bouts of depression, and music has always been my way of getting through.”

But, be under no illusion, Ty and the band are as raunchy as ever. “As long as we are doing these songs, we are also going to be sexy,” she laughs. “But when we play the darker tracks, We’ll go somewhere else.

“I am a fully-fledged human being rather than a Blade Runner-style sex doll in hot pants!”

New Young Pony Club play the Oxford Carling Academy on March 18. Tickets cost £11.50 from ticketweb.co.uk