Maintaining a side project in music is nothing new, of course, but the way the N.E.R.D. boys have done it certainly turns heads.

Then, as production gurus the Neptunes, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo have never been far from multi-platinum success.

Joined by Shay, the pair ventured beyond the usual pop and RnB brief that has helped Jay-Z, Usher, Britney and Timberlake on to global stardom to make music without agenda.

And where debut album In Search Of... encapsulated an uninhibited appetite for doing what others might not expect recent follow-up Fly Or Die ran further with the impulsive streak.

Call it alter ego, time out or simply restless chemistry, the results have struck gold and made N.E.R.D live stars as well – they make their Carling Academy Sheffield debut on August 18.

"We learned a lot from the first album – we've opened up more," explained Chad on the sophomore album's release. "I think we're going places we haven't gone before."

Aside from a free-wheeling style subject matter pushed into new folds, largely fuelled by life experiences past, there was some suggestion the lads were pre-occupied by their school days. Many of the songs tapped into the anxieties, awkwardness and aspirations of adolescence.

"We didn't write these songs like that because we're obsessed with high school," says Chad. "But there are real memories from that time that shaped our lives and it just comes out naturally."

Shay echoes what many adults tied to tedious desk jobs declare: "Those were some of the best years of our life, truth be told."

One thing is for sure, he and the others have made the most of not being stuck on the nine-to-five treadmill.

"It's evolution, for real," says Shay of the latest record. "There's an entire dimension to music and life that we touched on with In Search Of…, but that was only the beginning. Those were only doors to this other dimension and with this album we are there."

Where the debut utilized Skymob, a band from the Neptunes' Star Trak Records, to articulate their sound, the follow-up's live instrumentation was handled by Chad and Pharrell turning their out-of-the-box ideas into a third dimension.

"We've always played our own instruments in everything we do, but we convert them into programming for the final tracks," explains Chad. "For Fly Or Die we decided to pick up the instruments and play and leave it like that. It's more honest and people don't know this side to us yet."

What the public does know after a recent Radio 1 interview is N.E.R.D. can be anything other than humble. In the chat before their Jo Wiley session they were awkward, ignorant, rude and mono-syllabic.

Fortunately the music is more exciting, although not necessarily compliant.

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