The Shins frontman James Mercer is rediscovering the joy of playing in a band, a month away from his Australian tour.

About ten years ago, the US singer-songwriter parted ways with the original Shins line-up. It was a bold move considering this was the group with whom he had found success after their single New Slang was used in Zach Braff's 2004 movie, Garden State.

Since the split The Shins' albums have been largely Mercer's creations, including this year's release Heartworms which he wrote in a shed at the back of his house and self-produced.

But he says he is enjoying collaborating with his current line-up, which includes guitarists Mark Watrous, who has played with The Raconteurs and Casey Foubert who plays with Sufjan Stevens.

"I got to experience being in a band more again and there's huge pleasure to be gained with that. It's huge fun to play with other musicians and for them to have a real voice," Mercer told AAP.

The band have already completely taken apart and re-recorded his most recent release, Heartworms.

"We wanted to do strange and very different versions of the songs and it turned out really really cool," he said.

"I think we all agree some of these new versions are much better than some of the ones on the record so we're going to put that out as a collector's thing called the Worm's Heart."

For the live performances, they're sticking to the original recordings but Mercer says he's been given some guidance about what to play by his wife.

"It's a lot of old stuff. When we first started playing the new set my wife and Jon's (Sortland, the drummer) girlfriend both were telling us 'I think you're playing too many new songs' so we cut it back a little bit," he said.

"I think it's a fair share of all the records. We're only playing the most engaging stuff off the new album and the same with all the records."

*TOUR DATES

December 2 - Fidelity Festival, Perth

December 4 - Palais Theatre, Melbourne

December 5 - QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane

December 8 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney

December 9 - Fairgrounds Festival, Berry