For Dawes bass player Wylie Gelber, the goal of each of the four bandmates is pretty simple.
"We want to be like those bands that have this epic wall of records 20 years down the road," he says.
"You know, like those bands that when you go into the record store, their bin is filled with all these different records they made."
If you go
› What: An Evening with Dawes› Where: Revelry Room, 41 Station St.› When: 8 p.m. Sunday, April 30› Admission: $27 in advance, $30 day of› Phone: 423-521-2929
Dawes is Wylie Gelber, Griffin Goldsmith, Taylor Goldsmith and Lee Pardini.
Eight years on, Dawes is on its way to achieving that goal. Its fifth studio album, "We're All Gonna Die," came out in September of last year. It was followed by "We're All Gonna Live," a live concert album of 15 songs.
Gelber says "We're All Gonna Die" was a departure for the band, which was started in 2009 by brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith on guitar/vocals and drums, respectively. Lee Pardini is the group's keyboard player.
They brought in Blake Mills, who was in the band when it was known as Simon Dawes, to produce the record. Rather than record it live with all four playing in the same room, Gelber says they did a lot of experimenting with sounds and recording techniques.
"We decided to get a little weird with this one," he says. "We normally record live in a room to tape to make it very true."
He says that while it was a different approach, it was still the four members playing their normal instruments.
"It still sounds like Dawes. You know it's Dawes, but it was fun and new. We said, 'Let's go for a new bass sound, exploring things like new tones.' It inspires you. We just wanted to do something different versus 'Let's get the band in a room and record ... we can do that in our sleep. It was kind of re-energizing."
The band returns to Chattanooga for a show Sunday, April 30, at Revelry Room. Gelber says the band has a three-week run of shows before a break, and then they'll look to heading back into the studio.
In addition to playing live dates, the band has been doing quite a few television appearances. They did guests spots with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Charlie Rose and on Facebook Live with Andrew Bird.
Gelber says doing those kinds of gigs are fun, but not a big deal.
"It's always cool to do TV, but it's a little weird, too. They say, 'We'd love to have you, but can you cut the song down to three minutes?' It was definitely cool to be on Colbert, but at the end of the day, we just show up and play. We don't get to talk and hang out."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.