Novelty's over: Ricky Wilson and company admit to a sense of rage when they realised people saw them as a joke band

You would think that, over years of rock star interviews, Spinal Tap moments are two a penny. But they're not. And that's why when one comes along, you have to bottle it – or write it down at least.

So, Ricky Wilson, lead singer of indie pop heroes the Kaiser Chiefs, here's to you, my good man. Did you have a vision for the Kaiser Chiefs' new album, entitled Off With Their Heads?

"Yes, and it came very early on. It was orange. It wasn't even an orange. Just orange."

Quite a long stretch of silence follows this remark in an otherwise lively interview with Wilson, who's in town to promote the band's third album. Days spent talking rubbish to journalists with rubbish questions. Wilson, who looks quite like Rik from the Young Ones, complete with CND badge, snaps us out of it.

"I don't think me and Nick have ever said that out loud to anyone before," he continues, referring to Nick Hodgson, the drummer who writes most of the Leeds band's music and lyrics. "It sounds very pompous saying we had a vision of orange. We've never made a record in the first half of the year before: Jamaican market stalls, sunshine – these were all in my head when we were making it..."

Two aspects of the above exchange are worth noting:

1. Wilson's openness and reflectiveness meant he was able to pull himself out of a potentially embarrassing situation and

2. A couple of years ago, I probably would have left out the explanation bit and enjoyed embarrassing Wilson and his stoopid little band.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, just like in the Wizard of Oz, the Kaiser Chiefs have found their courage and some journalists are finding it in their hearts to forgive their mindless posturing. Like I said, ahhhh. "People were saying how miserable we were around the second album [Yours Truly, Angry Mob]," says Wilson later. "We weren't really but we felt like we had to pretend to be. We went into lockdown in terms of not giving anything away. The interviews became defensive and boring because we didn't want to read anything."

Now, like an alcoholic in early recovery, Wilson and the band are trying to learn how to be good celebrities. Because they're no longer particularly worried about sales and the commercial side of the business, he says, this bit has taken care of itself.

"We have been guilty of being too self-conscious before. I hope we do get that big again. At the time we said we didn't care but..."

Wilson then describes how he watched the Mercury Music Prize being presented to winners Elbow the week before last and you can sense the regret. Wilson has a lot of work to do to be even thought of in the same sentence as Elbow. And you can feel the sense of rage the Kaiser Chiefs experienced when they realised that they were seen as a joke band. A novelty.

"We got annoyed when people perceived us as being fun," agrees Wilson.

"Now I see bands on the telly – let's say The Wombats [who sing 'Let's Dance to Joy Division'] – and I think 'Oh God, I hope no-one thought of us like that'. We didn't know not to be like that. We were just having a good time. But for people to see it as being that throwaway is awful."

Wilson's contrition is in full flow now. He recounts how the band were in the sunset of their 20s and felt they had to compensate for their relative seniority. The Arctic Monkeys were only 18 or 19 years old. "Yeah, we lied about our ages," says Wilson, "but we got a record deal."

And it was big, bigger than they could ever have imagined. Big enough for them to have a bit of a dud second album and recover for the third.

So, is Off With Their Heads any good? Just discussing that brings an awful amount of neurosis. Wilson wonders "are we distinctive enough?" or "do people know us and our sound?"

I think they'll get over it but inquire as to why it's called Off With Their Heads. Like, whose heads? I wish I hadn't asked. "We thought it was funny. The phrase comes from Lewis Carroll." Then we're back to the orange concept.

I can tell you that, having had Mark Ronson and Lily Allen do a job on 'Oh My God' from their first album, the pair are back for a song on the new record. Ricky and Nick, the two most recognisable members of the Kaiser Chiefs, were recording a video with Ronson and Allen, the latter of whom is pretty much constantly followed by paparazzi these days. "We were a little disappointed at first because we thought the paps had put two and two together and discovered that we had all made a song together," says Wilson. "But the worst thing that would happen would be a bit of publicity for us and the album. So I went to the shop the next morning, opened up the paper and all it said was 'Lily Allen helps Mark Ronson move into new North London flat – but the removal men refused to help'."

It kind of sums up everything about the Kaiser Chiefs these past few years. Where it all goes from here is up to them.

'Off With Their Heads' is released on 10 October on Universal Music