He couldn't rely on '90s classics like Alright and Pumping On Your Stereo to sustain him forever. Nor did he want to.

When Supergrass announced their break-up in 2010 - after six albums, which included the No.1 debut I Should Coco (1995) and the hit follow-up In It For The Money (1997) - he decided it was time to re-set.

On his 2012 debut solo album Here Come The Bombs Coombes seemed afraid to step too far away from the punchy and zany brand of indie-rock Supergrass were renown.

But by the time Coombes made his Mercury Music Prize-nominated 2015 album Matador, he felt brave enough to experiment with a darker sound.

The 2018 album World's Strongest Man earned Coombes more acclaim for its exploration of masculinity as he continued to plot a fresh course as a solo artist.

In the five years since we've seen the reunion of Supergrass come and go and COVID. Fourth album Turn The Car Around finds Coombes confident and buoyed by a sense of freedom.

"I'm really glad those records did well and I think Matador, for sure, did lift the confidence a lot," Coombes says. "More knowing that I approached that record just being myself. I kind of removed any of the pressures of what record I should make or what people were expecting me to make."

Turn The Car Around arguably finds the sweet spot between the experimentation of Matador and the pop hooks of Supergrass. Songs like Feel Good (Lizard Dream) sounds like Radiohead built around a bass groove, while the anthemic Long Live The Strange would sit comfortably next to Supergrass' finest moments.

"I always like the battle of winning people over, to be honest, and I never expected to bring all the Supergrass fans over to the solo stuff," he says.

"It's a totally different thing and I'm starting from a totally different point.

"I've been solo for 10 years, but in terms of my whole career, I'm still learning the way to do it on my own. It's been a really exciting journey."

Supergrass finished their brief reunion last September when they performed a three-song set at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium.

Coombes thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing again with brother Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn (bass) and Danny Goffey (drums).

"We were excited to get on stage and play those songs," he says. "We weren't disappointed. The fans were amazing. We were playing as well as we ever had, if not better.

"The songs still sounded great, which was a really good feeling to play songs that were 25 years old and they still feel fresh and contemporary in some way."

But, as Coombes says, "reunions can't go on for years and years" and his Supergrass itch has been scratched.

Coombes always wanted to get back to his solo career and complete the album trilogy he began with Matador.

"I said it [was a trilogy] a few months ago in some art-school exercise to put myself in a corner, so I have to make some decisions after this one," he jokes. "The process and the approach and the way that I write, and how I've been writing on this record, it all began in 2015 on Matador.

"[It's] where I took a certain approach with the writing and recording. In a sense, this is part three of that approach."

Coombes last toured our shores in 2018 and hopes to potentially organise an Australian run later this year.

He has fond memories of the 1997 Big Day Out where Supergrass toured around Australia with electro-punk legends The Prodigy.

"We had some pretty wild times, especially with the Big Day Out, that travelling circus of insane musicians," he says. "It was the mid-90s so it was pretty bonkers."

At 46, life is far more relaxed for the man whose most famous song, Alright, celebrated being young and reckless.

"It's just life, man," he says. "Different things come along as you get on.

"Different parts of life happen, which means it's harder to be selfish, do your own thing and get off your head all the time or live with much excess.

"I think that's a cool thing. I think life gets more colourful as you get older as things come in and more complications, perhaps."

Gaz Coombes' Turn The Car Around is out Friday.