FIVE-PIECE rock band The Maffa Kings might look like they've been taking it easy for the past couple of months but in fact they've been grafting harder than ever on their upcoming EP.

The band started 2011 where 2010 left off – with a packed schedule of gigs throughout Derby and up and down the country.

They eased up on the gigging for the second half of last year but they've been far from resting on their laurels. They've been writing and recording new material.

A selection of those new songs is about to be released as singles before a three-track EP arrives shortly.

Singer Lee Moran says the EP, called Abbey Knights, will be a great way for the Maffa Kings to get back to the forefront of the music scene in their hometown of Derby.

"We had a bit of a quiet second half of the year in 2011," he says. "We'd done so much gigging throughout all of 2010 and the start of 2011 and it got to the stage where we had been on top of each other so much that we needed a bit of a break.

"Our drummer, Owen, decided to take a bit of time out and we quietened down a bit for the rest of the year, did some acoustic gigs and started writing new material.

"It worked out pretty well because we were able to get a few new songs together for the EP and it put us in a good position to start planning the release of the new stuff."

Abbey Knights is a diverse EP made up of three distinct songs – Two Years Gone, I Miss You and Crying For My Enemy. It's the third EP the band have released and follows Every Black Cloud and Writing the Wrongs.

Lee says: "The first two tracks on Abbey Knights were recorded last August but we decided to sit on them for a bit while we figured out what we wanted to do with them.

"Then we did a bit more recording over Christmas and got three more tracks down. The end result is a bit of a mixture of styles.

"One of the tracks has a real stratospheric sound to it; another one is heavier than the others, while the third one has quite a soulful feel to it.

"So it's quite difficult to describe the overall sound of Abbey Knights but each song does have our identity on it, they all sound like us, so listeners who know our music will recognise that it's the Maffa Kings."

The Maffa Kings is made up of Lee, guitarists Craig Johnson and Rich Wosik, bass player Daz Hollingworth and drummer Owen Walton.

Late last year, drummer Owen hooked back up with the band and the five-piece set about picking up where they left off, heading to the recording studio to put together the EP and organising gigs.

One of the upcoming gigs is at The Victoria Inn, in Midland Place, where the band will officially release Abbey Knights and include the three tracks in their set list. Then in April, they will play at The Venue, in Abbey Street.

Lee says: "When Owen came back it was full throttle again. We've been recording and we're planning a few gigs in the next couple of months.

"We're hopefully going to play a couple of the festivals around Derbyshire, too. Last year, we played the acoustic tent at the Y-Not Festival and it was great – we'd love to go back and play there.

"It was my first time at the festival and first time performing and I really enjoyed it. It was a great little tent, a lot of the acts were local people who we knew and it was a nice, relaxed atmosphere."

WHAT: The Maffa Kings

WHERE: Victoria Inn, Midland Place

WHEN: Saturday, February 26, 7pm

TICKETS: £4 advance, £5 on door

CALL: 01332 204873 (The Victoria Inn) or visit thevictoriainnderby.co.uk