Madness in court of Louis XIV

GLAM rock kings LOUIS XIV have created a masterpiece, but they pushed themselves to the brink of INSANITY to do it.

The flamboyant US rockers - who count DAVID BOWIE, THE KILLERS and SEX PISTOLS among their most devoted fans - recorded over a HUNDRED tracks for their brilliant new Slick Dogs And Ponies album.

But during the three years it took to complete, the sharp-dressed four-piece were driven to dangerous levels of obsession and paranoia.

Frontman JASON HILL said: "We just kind of went out of our minds."

The band, who play Edinburgh's Cabaret Voltaire on August 18 as part of the city's new Edge Festival, holed up in their San Diego HQ after 2005's acclaimed debut The Best Little Secrets Are Kept.

Jason said: "Up until then I didn't have a place to live, just a place to record.

"We called it The Grand Apartment, but it was just a little room, crammed with two pianos, a drum kit, my amps and guitars and a recording console in a warehouse.

"I had a bed in there for a while, but eventually I had to put that up against the window so the neighbours couldn't hear the music. I showered out back with a hose."

But after the band's brilliantly inspired Finding Out Love Is Blind was used in an episode of Californian soap The OC, their success spiralled.

Hookers

Jason revealed: "Suddenly I had money in the bank and I moved into a house. Suddenly I had three bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.

"There was just me, a piano and a bed in this big house. It felt weird."

Louix XIV also moved out of The Grand Apartment and set up their studio in a disused chapel.

Jason explained: "It was called the Eastside Church Of Christ but it was in a really rough area - it was where all the transvestite hookers would hang out.

"Since I produced and engineered all the songs, it was just us in a room that had no air conditioning in the hot weather and no heating when it got cold.

"The idea for this record was to do something really colossal because the first one was so raw.

"But it wasn't like a normal thing. We kind of got a little crazy with it."