It’s hard to sum up why Built to Spill are so important. They’re the band that inspired Isaac Brock to start Modest Mouse. They’re the band that gave Brand New their footing. They’re the Idaho dudes that make Boston kids cry. They teeter on the edge of emo and indie rock, dicing the two up with the crystalline blade of their guitar strings for listeners to both fall in love, get over love, and rip apart love to. Built to Spill reach diretly into your heart — but only after you’ve come to them asking for help figuring out where to go next.

When the band released There Is No Enemy in 2009, it seemed like they were going to go into hiding for good. So when they announced they had a new album on the way, fans were ecstatic. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t let down. This year’s excellent Untethered Moon sees the band back on their feet dealing out pure, infectious indie rock. The biting lyrics of “C.R.E.B.” to the fake start of “Living Zoo” all calm the rising fear any fan has with a band that’s been around for over 20 years: Do they still have it? In the case of Built to Spill, that answer is yes.

Frontman Doug Martsch talked with us over the phone to celebrate the album’s release on Record Store Day. Untethered Moon came out exclusively on wax this past weekend, giving vinyl lovers a leg up on the digital generation. Martsch told us about why they went this route, what records are in his personal collection, and why not caring makes music writing a little bit easier in the long run.

Allston Pudding: This is the first time in a while that I’ve heard a band’s album that fits right in with their older work while still sounding fresh. How conscious were you guys of maintaining your earlier sound when you went to record this one?

Doug Martsch: I had sort of an idea when we first started working on this record that I wanted to make it a record that was a resemblance of where we are at this time and place. In the past, I’ve tried to make an album that had nothing to do with the time or place. It was just something that had to do with my thoughts. It tried to push beyond what we were capable of. This time was more about putting down on tape what we actually are capable of.

AP: Did Steve Gere and Jason Albertini play a big part in that?

DM: They were amazing, yeah. They’re two of my favorite musicians that I always wanted to make music with. They definitely helped in that.

AP: This is your eighth studio album. What have you learned over the years while creating your past records? Was there anything you wanted to do differently?

DM: I don’t know. Of course you learn some stuff, but it’s amazing how little you think you know when you’re doing this stuff. It still feels really stressful and, well, I don’t really know what I’m doing in the studio still, or even making the songs. I’m messing around. It takes a long time to find stuff that I like. I feel like I’m never certain. I just fumble around until something comes out.

AP: Does that mean you spend a lot of time in the studio without a lot of written material?

DM: Well, that depends on the record. We definitely had everything ready to go when we went in there. There were a few loose ends we left for us to figure out in the studio. In the studio, the experience is spread out over months. We’ll spend a week in the studio, go home for a month, mull it over, and then go back and work on it again. You know, when I say in the studio, I mean once we’ve entered that realm, then I work on stuff at home as well.

AP: Do you set most songs aside when you’re done and leave them there until they need to be mixed? Songs like “Living Zoo” have numerous sections to them that could easily be the work of revisiting and splicing.

DM: It’s a little of both. That song was pretty much ready to go. There’s tons of rehearsing and lots of ambling and trying out different parts together, recording demos at practice and figuring out what sounds coolest. Yeah, when we’re in the studio we knock it out. Then we try different things on it. Some stuff doesn’t work. A lot of times we add things to a song and then take it all away. It’s almost like wasted time, but I guess that’s the nature of it. I don’t view it as wasted time anymore. Often times you think you have a good idea, but for some reason they just don’t pan out in reality. You have to advance.

AP: You mentioned in a recent interview that you don’t really pay much attention to lyrics. Is that intentional or do words blend with melody for you?

DM: Well, definitely the former. I definitely care about them. My thing is that it’s not my forte. I don’t excel at it. I have a bunch of songs lying around right now with no words at all. They’re driving me crazy. The words, to me, well, the kind of music we play needs words so I have to make them up and they have to be kind of good. They can’t be bad, but I’m not a natural writer. I don’t sit around and write stuff at all. I try to remember lines or ideas and jot them down. When I go back to try and work at a song, they almost are all terrible and it’s really frustrating. Eventually I get it all done. They are important to me, though. They’re just so hard.

AP: Are there certain songs you’re really proud of the lyrics on them?

DM: Definitely. More lines here and there. I can’t really think of every song where I actually stick to a subject. But absolutely. I can stand behind them all. I work and work and work until I feel like I can stand behind them. We work hard on these songs. I don’t want to ruin them with lackluster lyrics that don’t resonate with me in some way. And I don’t know what that means, too. It’s so subjective and strange. When do you decide which words are good and which ones aren’t? Something in me decides it’s good enough, I guess.

AP: I think that’s why people respect your band so much. You’re writing the lyrics and you’re content with how they are, but you’re more focused on the music so it doesn’t feel like it’s written for applause. It feels genuinely natural.

DM: Good! That’s, you know, I take a song with a melody and the meter and know how the words are going to come out. Tying them down to words that have actual meaning is, you know, tough. These songs don’t have literal meaning, or to me at least. It will be a song about, like, Mars. I wrote a bunch of lyrics for that song before I came up with that because I felt like it needed something you could grab onto and care about instead of lines about memory and death or whatever the fuck it is I sing about. But yeah, it’s hard to hammer it down and say, “That’s what this is now.” Before you have lyrics, the songs are just so free and expansive. They could be anything. Once you try to attach an image to it, it really limits the song. It’s kind of, you know, an intuitive thing. I don’t really understand it at all, but the process seems to work.

AP: After There Is No Enemy, it seemed like you guys were going to go off the map for a while, if not forever. Was that ever the plan?

DM: I have never really thought about stopping. Maybe around the time I was 30 or something I go ta bit burnt out on rock and roll and thought, “Fuck, how can I keep doing this forever?” But then I took a break. You know, this is all I know how to do. If I wasn’t doing this, my job prospects would be pretty bleak. I still enjoy it a lot, of course. It’s not all enjoyable. It’s hard. Making this last record was a blast, actually. All the rehearsing? We did tons. It was so fun, even the hours of preparing music that we didn’t end up using felt great.

AP: So why did you guys go with that title?

DM: I don’t know. I really wanted to have “moon” in the title. I don’t know why. Then I had this image of a moon that was no longer in orbit. That was interesting to me. I tried a bunch of words. I tried “untethered” but didn’t like it. Then our bass player, Brett, I told him I was trying to figure it out and he said “untethered moon” and I liked it when it came out of his mouth.

AP: That’s funny. It’s neat that you’re releasing it on vinyl before it comes out digitally, the opposite of how records are usually released now. How come?

DM: That was actually the record company’s idea. They brought it up and I thought it was rad. Record Store Day was coming up and we wanted to get the record out in the springtime, so it lined up pretty well. We had some shows booked and I finally didn’t want to worry about meeting a deadline or have it come out after our tour. That always seems to happen. So I talked to them and they suggest this and it worked out well.

AP: Are you a record collector yourself?

DM: No, not at all [laughs]. I have a record collection from when I was in my 20s. It’s all punk rock and classic rock. But it, uh, I haven’t really bought records in a long time. A few years ago, actually, I bought some when we were on tour. I bought some reggae records because I didn’t have any and that was the music I was more interested in. I’m not a music nerd person at all, though. I can hear a song by someone and think it’s the most beautiful song in the whole world and then never buy a single one of their records. I can live without good music even though I know it’s out there. I kind of listen to the things I’ve always loved, and then soul and reggae.

AP: Did you grow up on those?

DM: No, not at all. I grew up on the AM radio. It was a little bit of everything, some folk music, but I was never that drawn to it. And reggae I hated until I was about 30. Then I fell in love with it.

AP: What’s an artist from both genres that you really love?

DM: Oh sure. Um, well, for reggae my first favorite was Delroy Wilson. Old rock steady music. That’s just reggae versions of soul music, mostly soul covers from the ‘60s. Then for soul, my first soul thing that I loved was The Impressions. Still love ‘em, too.

Built to Spill’s new album, Untethered Moon, is available at your local record store now.