Catch a live stream of the show 8/25 at BMH via Yahoo Live here.

Everyone has been to a concert that completely blew them away. A friend and I were discussing shows that we will never forget, dropping a lot of big bands and under-the-radar names, but no story stuck out to me like his about seeing The Polyphonic Spree. He was passing a small venue in Boston, saw their named stuck to the marquee, and figured he had enjoyed what little of their music music he had heard in the past. Why not go?

What he reported back was an evening of insanity and pure joy. There was the crazy light set up, the frenetic bouncing of their songs, and, of course, the strength of more than two dozen angelic human voices sweeping over one room. He entered as the most casual, if not less than, fan, and exited as a Spree convert.

That’s because there is no in between. The Polyphonic Spree have cultish fans and passing fans. It’s the fact that the happy-go-lucky indie pop band can rope together all the hearts in one room and capture them for eternity that makes them so remarkable. Well, that and their self-designed robes, detailed orchestration, and commitment to shaping Dallas’ music scene over the past 14 years as a band. Frontman Tim DeLaughter took a moment to chat with us over the phone about how they make it all possible.

Allston Pudding: How often do you have to wrangle everyone together to practice? Getting four people together in a room is tough enough, nevertheless 20.

Tim DeLaughter: Luckily we play quite a bit so we don’t have to rehearse too much. In between tours, we just need a couple days. We stay a pretty well-oiled machine because everyone’s such an amazing musician.

AP: Does everyone pretty much live in the Dallas area?

TD: The majority of the people live in a Dallas and we have a couple that live in Austin and one that lives in Midland, but pretty much everyone lives in Texas.

AP: That being said, you guys see a lot of people turn in the towel over the years because of life’s inevitabilities. How do you find all the new people to join the band? What’s the process of taking in someone new?

TD: Well, it started happening at the very first show. People would come up and say, “Hey, I play this instrument if your ever need it,” and I’d take their numbers down. Now there’s so many people that, luckily, want to be a part of the Spree that if a position opens, it’s not that difficult to fill. They learn the parts prior, then we let them know which ones we’re playing. It wasn’t as difficult as it was putting it together. I didn’t know a lot of these people who played these instruments because I came from a rock background, but now I’ve gotten to have my pick.

AP: What was it like when you were first starting out? How did you find people to join?

TD: Friends and family put the word out there. In Denton, which is outside Dallas, we have Texas University which is predominantly a music school, so I was able to get 13 people there. Then it quickly grew to 28 people, and we stayed at that number for about five years.

AP: With a group that big, does it still feel like a family? Does everyone mesh well together?

TD: That’s what makes it work. There’s so many different personalities and they all work themselves out. You can have different subgroups in your band, and socially it works. It seems like it’s a lot more functional than the four-piece band I was in. The sound is all these different instruments and voices and it’s amazing how well it works. Everyone thinks it’s pretty difficult doing The Polyphonic Spree, but it actually runs a lot smoother than you might think. It’s a testament to the people in the band and them being incredible musicians. It’s financially so expensive to operate the band. We get paid like a four-piece band, but we have four bands in our band.

AP: Last year you put out Yes, It’s True, which was your first album in six years, not including the holiday album. How long did it take you to write the songs? I’m assuming they were accumulated from that time period?

TD: Yeah, they’re from a five year period. I worked in another musical project, had my fourth kid, Felix, and saw a lot of other things, but the songwriting was bits and pieces from those years.

AP: There’s so much that goes on in the span of five years, too. What sticks out to you in that time frame to write about, be it big or small?

TD: I don’t write that much like what you would think. Everything on that record is everything I wrote. All of my songs are written while improvising. I start playing music and sing whatever pops into my head. Then I flush it out afterwards. When I sit down to write, I’m sitting down to write a record. I don’t write stuff to put away. In this case, I was just writing songs, and it was different because in the past I would sit down to write a record. I did do five of the songs over the course of a week, but the rest were over a period of five years that I put to the side.

AF: Do you find it hard?

TD: It’s not that I loath the idea of writing songs—which sounds ridiculous—but I almost have to be forced to do it. Once I do, though, I dive into it. I’m not one that holds a guitar and piddle around on chord progressions. I only write when I need to write. I need to do it right now for the next record, and I kind of have a general idea of where I want to go, but I need to do it. That’s’ where my wife comes in.

AP: Meaning she keeps you on schedule?

TD: Yeah, she forces me to do things. I get anxiety. Once I dive in, I get comfortable, but it’s so scary to actually start.

AP: Is the anxiety regarding your expectations for yourself and exceeding past work?

TD: Yeah, I think it’s that. You want to be great and do great work, and I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself when I go to write songs. I’m not one to crank out fluff. I don’t think I have songs I haven’t put out. I’m real specific, so I put a lot of pressure on myself.

AP: You mentioned before you have kids. Four?

TD: Yeah.

AP: Do they ever help you with songwriting?

TD: No, but I’ve used my kids’ voices in recordings before. As far as helping me, they’re kind of getting at that age where I could. Oscar is a songwriter and he’s constantly banging around on the piano—he’s a really good songwriter—but I haven’t reached out to him in that sense. Now they’re at that age where we could collaborate, though. Oscar is 15, Julius is 13, Stella is about to be 16, and Felix is 7.

AP: Maybe on the next album! On Yes, It’s True, you used Kickstarter. How much did that play into the sound of the record?

TD: It was really good to have the finances and not give your work away to a label. It also gives you great insight into your fanbase and an intimacy you can’t’ get from a retail store. They’re involved, so it creates band-fan relationship you normally wouldn’t have.

AP: It seems like you guys have a cultish fan base, too. Do you often see the same people when you head out? Do you remember your fans?

TD: Oh, definitely. We have a strong fanbase, but it’s not as large as you would think after being a group for 14 years. It’s been there from the get-go. They’re loyal. They’re from all walks of life and ages. It’s crazy.

AP: You guys really step things up at your live show, and I think that’s a big part of why people love you. How much planning go into the shows? Do you spend a lot of time looking at the costumes and effects?

TD: We have to be really frugal because we don’t have much money for production. Hell, I’ve run the lights onstage myself. What we put thought into is the flow of the show. We’re playing songs off five different records, so you try to make a nice flow to the whole thing. We want the feeling to work for the evening. The clothes are fun and we’ve been doing that from the beginning. The band will always be unified, but the clothes change per record.

AP: Where do you come up with the costume designs?

TD: We design them and pick the fabrics and then get someone to make them for us. What inspired it was that I thought that many people in street clothes would be distracting for the audience, that they would be trying to sum up what an individual is by what they’re wearing. I wanted all the attention on the music. I thought, “What’s the easiest way to clothe this band from head to toe? Robes.” The first tour we went on, the robes were white. We had images projected on us, so the robes were basically like a screen. On the bottoms of each one were different colors for each person. Then it took off from there.

AP: There’s a lot of variation between albums. Is that what you style the robe after?

TD: Basically, yeah. It’s a reflection of the record.

AP: So you said you’re working on a new album right now?

TD: Yeah. Well, I’m supposed to be at least.

AP: Do you have ideas for what it will be about, conceptually?

TD: It’s basically going to be a psychedelic journey. I don’t think it will be more song-y, but who knows. I say that now. I think it’s going to be a concept record and it will probably throw people for a loop.

AP: Often times I think people are thrown when they find out you’re from Dallas. They know you’re from Texas and automatically assume you’re from Austin. Do you like repping Dallas? What makes the music scene there?

TD: Dallas is always going to be second fiddle to Austin. Austin’s blown up immensely in the last 10 years, but Dallas has always had a really eclectic scene. I’m born and raised here and started my bands here, so it works for me. Deep Ellum is our music scene in Dallas–it’s an area here–and it’s on an upsurge.

AP: Did you know the venue you’re playing has a bar across the street named Deep Ellum?

TD: Oh, wow! It’s called Deep Ellum?

AP: Yeah!

TD: That’s totally named after our spot in Texas.

AP: You guys should go before or after your show.

TD: Oh, you know it.