Around Christmastime last year, viewers of The Colbert Report were witness to the guitar summit to end all guitar summits. Classic rocker Peter Frampton went fret to fret with indie-rock champ Chris Funk of the Decemberists, while Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen showed up to lend one of his double-necked guitars to the host. Dropping by to sing a tribute to Colbert—called, appropriately, "Stephen Stephen" (sample lyric: "Who's the television host/That matters most")—was Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider.

"It's my favourite TV show, and I just wrote this silly song," says the singer-guitarist, reached on his way to a show in Ohio. "It seemed like a psychedelic thing to do, writing a song about a television personality—like something the Kinks or the Who would do."

In a way, Schneider's appearance on the late-night comedy news show signalled the re-emergence of Apples in Stereo. After a five-year absence of new material, the group recently released its fifth album, New Magnetic Wonder. Giddy pop-rock tunes like "Energy" and "Can You Feel It?" mark a return to paisley-shaped form that finds the madcap Schneider and company sounding as carefree as junior scientists with their first set of test tubes. For sheer grandiosity, it's hard to imagine them topping "Beautiful Machine", a symphonic four-part suite making use of 96 tracks. It almost goes without saying that you'll never hear the word studio-phobic in relation to Schneider.

"The [studio recording] experience is never frustrating for me, and that's because I never go in with a plan," he says. "I just do what hits me. Also, the studio is often my bedroom, or house, or garage. It's not a place I go to work, it's a place I go to play."

Schneider's ambitious, resourceful recording approach hasn't changed, but other things have. After recording two breezy, melancholic tunes, "Sunndal Song" and "Sunday Sounds", for the new record, drummer-vocalist Hilarie Sidney left to concentrate on her band the High Water Marks. As well, New Magnetic Wonder sees Apples in Stereo leaving SpinArt for Simian, a newly formed label run by Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood.

"He's as obsessed with music and sounds and production and obscure artists as my friends and I are," enthuses Schneider. "When word got out we were starting our new record, he called our manager and said he would really love it if Apples would be the first record on the label."

Which, it must be said, sounds almost as exciting as being on The Colbert Report.

Apples in Stereo plays the Media Club on Tuesday (March 27).