NEW PORNOGRAPHERS

Continued from pg 35 songs that tell stories in the third person — everybody does that. It’s what so many classic songwriters have done, but for me it feels kind of new. For me, it’s experimental on a personal level even though on a macro level it’s not at all.

Do you consider Continue as a Guest a concept album?

I think there are themes that came out from writing during the pandemic. Just the fact that it’s called Continue as a Guest, which is something you always see when you’re buying something online. It’s about how our lives are tied into being online and how it connects us and isolates us the way that COVID isolated us. When you’re out in your house in Woodstock during a pandemic, you feel very outside of society, and you start asking yourself if this is a good place to be. How connected do I want to be to things, and how much do I want to just ride off into the sunset?

How about sonically or compositionally? Is there anything you’d consider a departure for the band?

I think there are songs on this record that sound very new for us. Like I think the title track has a very different vibe from anything we’ve done. Or like the second song, “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies.” Because we’re going on tour, we’ve been working out how to play the songs, and I was noticing that that song doesn’t have any keyboards. Like, is this the first song we’ve ever put out that has no keyboards? It’s got two bass guitars, a mandolin, a saxophone. That is a different setup for us.

I’m digging the presence of the saxophone on this album. That’s Zach Djanikian. He’s a jazz guy. He’s one of those guys who didn’t start listening to pop music until he was like 18. I was playing him “Love Plus One” by Haircut 100, and it blew his mind. He was like, “What? I’ve never heard this.” I was like, “Yeah, it’s cool New Wave pop. There’s tons of it, Zach.”

How did Zach get involved on the record?

I’ve known Zach for years, and he’s just a really great musician. Even though we can do a lot of long-distance stuff with the band, I wanted somebody here with me. I wanted a great musician and sounding board, so that’s why I asked Zach. He had the soprano sax, tenor sax, alto sax. Soprano sax is a fun one to use. The song

“Angelcover” — the main little melodic hook at the beginning of that is two soprano saxes — and that was fun.

I was listening to “Last and Beautiful” the other day, and my daughter thought a dog was barking outside, but it was something in the song. That’s me making that sound! I was thinking of like old Ennio Morricone stuff from spaghetti westerns, like someone just makes these weird yelping sounds. Serge Gainsbourg also did it. I like that thing where someone would make a weird sound. If you go back and listen to some of that old classic Ennio Morricome, there’s a lot of that. It’s a classic example of something you might do in the studio by yourself that you probably wouldn’t do if someone else was around. But then the idea was to take that sound and put it through so many effects that you can’t tell what it is.

Your vocal performance seems to have evolved this time out. I think I was just trying to be more of a crooner on this record and less precious about melodies. I used to be really into the idea of composing melodies — the part of me that was really into Bacharach and David. I felt like, “This is the melody, and we have to sing it exactly like this.” Now I feel like the melody is much more malleable and look to see if there are any notes I can move around to make it more fluid or smoother. Again, it’s probably something all singers have been doing throughout history, but for me it’s kind of new. If something’s not working, instead of re-singing and re-singing, I just say, well, maybe the melody should change. That felt new.

What are you most looking forward to on this tour?

I’m just excited to play the new songs. I put on the record last night to take notes, and I was like, “This is going to be cool.” When you haven’t toured in a while, you have to get together and figure out how to be yourself again and how to play your own album. So that feels like a challenge, and I’m looking forward to it. n

The New Pornographers play The Sheldon Concert Hall (3648 Washington Avenue, 314-5339900, thesheldon.org), at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 27. Tickets are $39 to $56.