TORONTO - With just enough flourish to remind listeners it's still rock 'n' roll, Relient K's fifth album - "Five Score and Seven Years Ago" - presses pause on singer-lyricist Matt Thiessen's typically carefree puns, to end with an 11-minute meditation on life and death.
"I like to write introspective songs," Thiessen explains over the phone from Indianapolis.
"There are definitely elements of 'Deathbed' that are happy and poppy," the 26-year-old adds, "but every song has its own characteristics and it's fun to change things up a little bit."
Propelled into mainstream popularity after the commercial success of 2004's "mmhmm," Thiessen and bandmates Matt Hoopes (guitars), Jon Schneck (guitars), John Warne (bass) and Dave Douglas (drums), spent a good chunk of time on the road with acts like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan, before notching a main-stage slot on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour.
"When we did the last record, we had a niche fan-base," acknowledges Thiessen. "We'd never done a Warped Tour, we'd never been out with a band like Hawthorne Heights, so we didn't know how it was going to go over."
But as "mmhmm's" "Be My Escape" and "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" became staples on MTV's TRL, performances on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live followed, and the Ohio-hatched quintet found themselves part of a growing group of Christian rockers whose music was catching on across the continent.
"We were really pleased that kids got into us," says Thiessen. "It helped us find a home with the Fall Out Boy's and the My Chemical Romance's of the world."
So, with their anonymity no longer a given amongst the HMV-set, the band retreated to Los Angeles with fabled producer Howard Benson (Chris Daughtry, My Chemical Romance) to begin work on the 14-song set.
Immediately, Thiessen sensed a change.
"It was great working with him, 'cause he's straight to the point and doesn't beat around the bush.
"As a songwriter, I wanted to have somebody who would tell me what to do. When Mark (Townsend, who has produced all the band's previous records, and contributes three songs to "Five Score...") and I work together, he's very cool about letting me do what I want to do."
Figuring that the disc's musical departure is best sampled on that "long commute home from work," Thiessen says the band had a couple of things they wanted to try this time around.
"For our fourth disc, I really wanted to use banjo, so we bought one and put it on the record," he says. "For this album, I wanted to put some lap steel on it. Who knows if it will make it onstage, but it'll probably be on more records."
From the sunshiny country strains on "Faking My Own Suicide" to the Beach Boy-like a cappella snippet "Plead the Fifth" to the wistful boy group-vibe of "Must Have Done Something Right," "Five Score..." stretches Relient K's musical palette beyond the pop-punk puns that got them noticed in the first place.
"We decided to keep our songs ADD-friendly," laughs Thiessen. "But I feel like it all does work together somehow."
Packaged with a DVD full of extras ("We wanted to give fans a reason to go out and buy the record as opposed to downloading it," says Thiessen), the band is about to embark on a multi-city trek following today's CD release
And as Relient K readies itself for another year of incessant touring, Thiessen says the band is going to continue to court music lovers everywhere.
"Maybe we're ignorant, but we try to view music as music, and ignore the fact that there's a Christian marketplace and a regular marketplace," he says. "If you look at Green Day, they're writing songs that appeal to Democrats, but they don't put it in the Democratic section at Wal-Mart.
"That's the way we do it too. We write songs about our faith, but we try not to do it in a way that only people who share our beliefs can listen to our music."
"Five Score and Seven Years Ago" is in stores today.
Here are the dates for Relient K's upcoming North American tour:
March 2007
9 - New York, NY - Nokia Theatre
10 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
12 - Boston, MA - Avalon Ballroom
13 - Montreal, Quebec - Club Soda
14 - Toronto, Ontario - Opera House
16 - Detroit, MI - State Theatre
17 - Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion
18 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room
19 - Milwaukee, WI - The Eagles Club
23 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
24 - St. Louis, MO - Pageant
April 2007
4 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
5 - Oklahoma City, OK - Bricktown Events Center
6 - Arlington, TX - Six Flags Over Arlington
7 - Houston, TX - Club V @ Verizon
10 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
11 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
12 - Anaheim, CA - The Grove
13 - Los Angeles, CA - Avalon
14 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
16 - Seattle, WA - Showbox
17 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Croatian Cultural Center
18 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
20 - Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
21 - Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium
23 - Kansas City, MO - Beaumont
May 2007
4 - Rochester, NY - Water Street Music Hall
5 - Albany, NY - Northern Lights
7 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
8 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
10 - Norfolk, VA - NorVa Theatre
11 - Charlotte, NC - Amos'
12 - Jacksonville, FL - Freebird Live
14 - Lake Buena Vista, FL - House of Blues
15 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
16 - St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Landing
18 - Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
19 - Nashville, TN - Rocketown
20 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
