Last week, influential second-wave emo act Braid released their first full-length album since 1998, entitled No Coast. The record is both energetic and mature, offering subtle hints of their classic sound along with a range of new influences. Simply put, it doesn’t sound as though the band was ever on any kind of a hiatus. We caught up with singer/guitarist Bob Nanna shortly after the release of No Coast and discussed the album at length. We talked about how it was written, the recording process and the motivation behind some of its lyrics. We also spoke about the band’s new partnership with Topshelf Records, touring and more.

Bill – Having last released the Closer to Closed EP in 2011, at what point did you guys decide to start working on a new album?

Bob – It was pretty soon after that. Pretty much after we recorded and released that EP, Chris, (singer/guitarist Chris Broach) and I kept writing songs. At first we weren’t sure what we were writing for, whether we were going to start a new band or have it just be Braid, but it became pretty clear after a few months that the songs we were writing couldn’t be anything else than Braid songs. So we asked the dudes if they wanted to do a full album, which is always something that has been in the back of our heads. They said “yes” and then we kept writing songs and working on songs with the knowledge or goal of putting together a full album of songs.

Bill – Tell me about record’s title and how it doesn’t necessarily reference the fact that the band is from the Midwest.

Bob – Well, of course it does a little bit. What was important to us was that we not make sort of a blasé, haphazard attempt at making a fourth Braid record. You know, being a little lazy about it, and that would have been kind of easy for us to do because Chris and I live here, Todd, (bassist Todd Bell) lives in Milwaukee and Damon, (drummer Damon Atkinson) lives in Nashville. I’m not saying that I’m unhappy with how the EP sounded, because the way that we did that was Chris took a song, I took a song, we got together and sort of jammed on a song and then we did a cover. We all sort of did our parts in these boxes and these kinds of silos. In fact, when Damon did the drums for the songs he’d played them a little bit, but he did the drums for those in Nashville. We basically didn’t write those songs together like the way that we used to, so when we went into writing No Coast, we used that phrase as a guiding principle to make sure to work hard at every single part, every single movement and every single melody. And not be like, “Oh, that’s good enough,” or “If these songs don’t come out the way that we want, we’re cool with whatever.” That was sort of the principal behind the writing of the record.

Bill – More so than in the past, you and Chris share a lot of the vocal responsibilities on No Coast. You guys also wrote a lot of the lyrics together. How did this kind of collaboration end up happening?

Bob – It was very much a planned thing. There were a few songs that we split up and said, “You can take the lead on working on the melody and the vocals and the lyrics, and I’ll take the lead on these other ones.” A few we straight up collaborated on. Even the ones that we took over individually, we still would get together and sometimes at practice not even plug-in our instruments, we would just make sure that we were happy with all of the lyrics, even the ones that the other person wrote. When we would figure out back-ups or extra lyrics for each song, we would make sure that we were both on the same page. We were constantly sending each other drafts of the songs over email, like “Here’s a draft of the verse and the chorus of this song, what do you think?” We were just critiquing each other a little bit and talking about each line. It was pretty extensive work, but I’m happy that we did it that way. It feels like more of a group effort.

Bill – A lot of the album’s lyrics were inspired by serious topics, like your battle with lymphoma or Chris becoming a father for the first time. Was writing these songs a cathartic experience for you?

Bob – Yeah, definitely, but it always is. Writing any song is. Even what would seem like the most mundane song still offers a little bit of that, sort of a release for lack of a better word. A lot of the lyrics were taken from old notebooks and old lines and things that I had sort of saved up for when this time came or when the next record came. Just putting them together and making them fit into songs, or vice versa, was fun and rewarding. Like I said, it’s always that way, it always feels good to write about what’s happening in your life or in the world or around town. It makes you feel better when you finally get it off your chest.

Bill – What was it like recording with producer Will Yip?

Bob – It was great. We didn’t want to record a comfortable record, that’s one of the reasons why we decided to go with someone who we hadn’t worked with before. Will was super enthusiastic about working with us and really wanted to do the record and make it sound like a great Braid record. We’re happy we made that decision. In terms of working with him, it was work. He really kicked our asses to make sure that the takes were right and the energy was right and the pitches were right. There were times during the recording where I wanted to scream and wreck something. It was like, “Alright, we did this line like 15 times and I was sharp five times and flat five times and my energy was bad five times, probably because it was my 15^th time doing it,” (laughs). But in the end it was all for the best, because I think he managed to get the best performances out of everybody. We all sort of got tested and challenged throughout the whole process. Like I said, that was good. We had a short period of time to work with, but I sort of hope that the urgency comes out in it.

Bill – How did you end up partnering with Topshelf Records for the release of the album?

Bob – It was probably similar to how we hooked up with Will. We decided to do a new record and we had recently done a bunch of shows with some Topshelf bands. We had become familiar with the label, both the bands on the label and the guys who ran the label. When the word got out that we were working on a new record they immediately contacted us and said they would love to do it. They already have this great fan-base, especially for like a younger generation of music fans with their roster. They really understand what those folks want in terms of a release or in terms of promotions or even like merchandise. They’re way more in-tune with that sort of thing than we are, if we were to self-release it. We had Polyvinyl on our mind too, and even Matt from Polyvinyl, (label founder Matt Lunsford) who is a dear friend of ours; we saw him the other day and hung out with him. He sort of gave us his blessing and sort of thought that it might be better if we did the record with Topshelf. He knew Polyvinyl had changed a little bit since we did Frame & Canvas with them. They’ve got a little bit of a different sound, and it’s not a bad thing, but it’s just not something that they felt we would fit in with. It’s not bad, but just like in their whole promotional cycles and stuff. And I sort of agree and we love and appreciate him for being honest about it. So, I’m really happy with the way the release went and everything. Everything looks good.

Bill – Given that Braid’s last full-length came out 16 years ago, how does it feel to be releasing a new album now?

Bob – Fantastic, I really do feel like this is Braid’s fourth album. We played a bunch of shows this past week and you set up merch and you see all the albums in a row, and it’s like, “Cool. This just fits right in.” Just to hold it and look at all the artwork and look at the vinyl colors and stuff, it just feels really good. It sort of gives me some chills. And the fact that I’m really happy with the way it sounds, the way it turned out, and that for the most part people are as well. It’s great, it makes me feel younger, (laughs) to put it bluntly, but it also gets me excited to write more music. We have at least one more new song that we did record with No Coast that’s going to come out at some point. Then we recorded four extra tracks, so those will come out at some point too, but I’m also looking forward to writing new Braid songs.

Bill – What were some of the highlights from your recent Chicago show at Double Door?

Bob – Well, at that show the album wasn’t out yet, so pretty much no one knew any of the new songs. Other than “Lux” and “Many Enemies,” which we’d played before, there were three songs, we played “Bang,” “No Coast” and “Damages!” and we had never played those live before. It was really cool; I mean we’ve been playing the same set or similar sets for many years because we just didn’t have any new material. Every now and then we would throw an old song in there, but we’ve been playing songs like “A Dozen Roses” or “Milwaukee Sky Rocket” over the course of many years and we have like fun little changes or embellishments that we do live, just because it’s fun to do and change it up a little bit. Even after playing those new songs for I think now we’ve done six or seven shows since then, there are already little things I’m hearing in the new songs where I’d like to maybe do a little fun embellishment. I don’t know, once you play the song live it sort of gives it a new life almost. It changes; it’s different than the recording. Playing it live, you feel everyone’s energy and your energy changes. Back to the original question, I was really psyched to play those new songs in front of new people. Then I just have to give props to Smoking Popes. I think I decided that night that they’re one of my favorite bands because every single song they played was like a hit, you know what I mean? They’re incredible.

Bill – After your next tour wraps up, what sort of things do you envision for the future of Braid?

Bob – We’re going to have a little bit of time off because Todd teaches in Milwaukee. So, his free-time sort of ends once the semester starts. We may do weekends here and there, where we can fly in and fly out of a place, but there won’t be any major touring, mini or otherwise until December. At that point we’ll work on the spring touring and next summer’s touring. But given that we’ve got this downtime, I would love to just start writing more stuff with Chris, so I think that’s what the plan is. We haven’t really talked about what the plan will be between August and December, but that’s the idea. I’m actually getting married in September, so that’s going to take up most of my August for planning and then my honeymoon in October. Then I’m doing a few City On Film shows, my solo thing, so there are things happening. In Braid’s world, I think it’ll be back to the drawing board for album five.