MTV: What are you most proud of about this record?

Matthews: That it's badass.

Tinsley: I am proud of the fact that we set our minds to recording a body of work in a pretty short amount of time and accomplished it well.

Matthews: It was efficient. The songs are concise, the playing is good, and it's captured our attitude more strongly than any album before. I hear a lot of people saying that it's very different for us, but as far as I'm concerned, this album is right on the money. That's how we play live, and we've always been reaching to squeeze that into a record. That's where this record is. It's just — bam! Knockout punch!

MTV: What's going to happen to the tracks you laid down with Steve Lillywhite?

Matthews: They're great songs, and we still know them. There's nothing wrong with any of those songs, but there's nothing wrong with what we came up with in L.A., either. A lot of people think that these songs haven't grown the way the songs on other albums have, but that's because they're new. A year from now, they're not going to be the same songs. They'll have their time.

MTV: There have always been elements of loneliness and loss in some of your songs, but do you feel that tenor was taking over in the Virginia sessions, with songs like "Grey Street" and "Bartender"?

Matthews: Yeah. But normally the vibe lyrically around the band is sort of a bounce back and forth. You know, nothing means anything, I'm not worth anything, and isn't that great? Oh what a wonderful thing it is to be alive and know that you're going to be dead as a doornail and be worm food one day. There's this "Whoopee I'm going to die!" kind of a vibe. But it was sort of taking over. I was feeling very afraid about the music I was writing, feeling like I was failing in a lot of ways. And that's not a good thing to be up against. We were up against ourselves rather than anything. We just needed someone to come up and take us away, and Glen did it.

Lessard: I like the idea that that places like L.A., New York and Charlottesville lend different vibes for the album. You're living in a new place, so the energy is different.

MTV: Was it heartening to find a reinvigorated Dave when you came out to L.A.?

Lessard: Definitely. And I was really excited that Dave went on his own to work with Glen, because that was what needed to happen. I heard bits and pieces of everyone in the band in the demo, before we were recording on it, so I wasn't feeling gypped or anything. I got excited because I was like, I can really be a bass player. I don't have to work on, "This bridge sounds a little weird here, we should try to shape it differently." It was, how can I be the best, put out the best basslines possible? It was a really nice change. Everyone felt that way, which is why it breathes this freshness.

MTV: You guys did a lot of experimenting on this album with instruments, sounds and formats. How did that come about?

Tinsley: There was freedom like that. Glen said, "I want to try some different sounds and just try to layer this with as many different sound as possible." So we were pretty wide open in the things that we tried.

Matthews: The good thing about this album is that we went in open — focused, but open. Like the reason I picked up the baritone guitar. When I went into Glen's home studio, there was this funny-looking guitar. It was a baritone. So he said, "Pick it up." The first thing I did on it was play the opening chords for "The Space Between." And then we played the next section and the song came out. That's why the baritone's on it: because you can't play that on acoustic guitar and have it sound the same way. And the baritone is a fun guitar; it's got big balls.

MTV: Have you picked a single to follow "I Did It"?

Matthews: I think it's "The Space Between."

MTV: That phrase comes up in a couple of your songs. Why did you gravitate to that idea?

Matthews: It's that connection we can never make. It's accepting that we're basically alone. That's kind of what life is about, trying to bridge the gap between us. But we can't ever, really. That's why it comes up a couple times. It's just a nice image.