The world seemed to be Patrick Watson's oyster after the Montreal indie rock-chamber pop band's 2007 album, Close to Paradise, won the Polaris Music Prize and sold 100,000 copies.

So why not put as much of the globe into their next album, Wooden Arms, in stores tomorrow, as the band -- named after singer-songwriter-pianist Patrick Watson -- worked in studios in both Iceland and France, as well as at home.

"We were touring so much that I don't see how it couldn't be a travelogue," said Watson, seated beside drummer Robbie Kuster in their record label's Toronto offices recently.

"Your stories come from the road and your experiences influence so much of your music that at some point while you travel you pick up little pieces of the inspiration and then at the end they make a big puzzle."

Wooden Arms' title track (featuring longtime friend and guest vocalist Lhasa de Sela) was recorded over a few days in an old mansion outside Paris called La Frette, which has previously hosted sessions by fellow Canucks Feist and Gonzales. The song Fire-weed came after a week of recording in The Land of Fire and Ice a.k.a. Iceland.

True to the group's seemingly nomadic nature, Watson said he never wanted to record the entire album in just one location.

"I think little stints out there (are good)," said Watson, whose band begins their Canadian tour tonight in Quebec City before arriving Saturday at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre in Toronto.

"I don't think we need to do the whole thing out there. I think you go out, you fish, you find a couple of ideas and then once you have a good spirit of things, you can come back to the main studio."

To say that Wooden Arms is one of the year's most anticipated Canadian releases is an understatement.

It was a genuinue surprise when Watson beat out the likes of better-known artists like Arcade Fire and Feist for the Polaris -- Canada's answer to England's Mercury Prize -- and now the band is expected, under a lot more scrutiny, to come up with the goods again.

The result is a more dramatically percussive record, with the band saying their mandate was to capture what they do in a live settting.

"We didn't think about what kind of success Close to Paradise had, but we definitely thought about what we wanted to do musically, as opposed to what Close to Paradise was," said Kuster of Wooden Arms. "For me, it was more about ourselves, though, making something good for ourselves that we were really proud of. And I think if we do something that we really love, then that's all you can really ask for. And then I got nervous once it was finished 'cause I knew I liked it."

Watson himself also further built his international reputation by collaborating with British jazz-electronic collective, The Cinematic Orchestra, on their 2007 album, Ma Fleur.

His sweet-sounding falsetto could also be heard on To Build a Home, which was subsequently used on episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Ugly Betty, and Without a Trace.

"People are like, 'Oh, I can't wait for your next record!' " says Watson of the buzz building for Wooden Arms' release.

"And you feel a little nervous. For sure I think the team -- the band, the sound guys, everybody who works on the record -- in general felt a little bit anxious because we knew people were excited about this record ... We put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We just wanted to make something really good. I'm not so nervous anymore. I'm more excited. I'm really curious about what people are going to do when they listen to it."