In Medias Res is headlining a campus concert with Eisenhauer and The Magician at Imagine1day. They also have a new album in the works, their first since 2003. Guitarist Ash Poon and drummer Steve Watts answered a few questions for Mars’ Hill, laying into their show this Thursday and what life looks like for the band these days.

MH: Why did you want to do Imagine1Day? Was it something you knew you wanted to do right away?
Ash Poon: We have quite the history at Trinity. We’ve played at Trinity more than a half dozen times now, opening for artists like David Bazan, Damien Jurado, Stabilo and Emery. The coordinators, the students and the people working at the cafeteria that give us tortellini have always been so good to us over the years. You know, coming out, treating us like kings, clapping after songs, laughing at [front man] Andwer’s awkward stage banter…the idea of playing this event didn’t take us long to digest. The fact that it’s for a good cause warms our hearts too.

MH: Are there other performers that you are looking forward to working with for this concert?
AP: We’ve known Jeremy from Eisenhauer for years now back when he was just pining for his now-wife Sheree and telling us about how she’s the greatest thing in the world. He’s got the most sumptuous facial hair a guy could ever want and we’re looking forward to seeing them both again.
I was always a fan of International Falls but didn’t know anything about this Magician band. I expect my jaw to drop when they use a chainsaw to cut a half naked woman in two. Should be a good show.

MH: You’ve been working on a new album. How has that been going and what’s the status on its release?
Steve Watts: It’s been a long haul. I don’t even want to say how long it has taken. I’m not even sure how long it’s taken and I don’t want to know. But in any case, we are really happy with the stuff we have got down… We probably only have a couple of days tracking left. The vast majority of the songs are pretty much finished. The problem is – and I guess it’s a bit of a vicious cycle – the longer it takes, the better we feel we have to make it, and so we take longer… The next step, of course, is mixing. And funding for the mixing.

MH: How would you describe the new album?
SW: It’s a lot better than the first one. The energy of the takes is far closer to what we exhibit live and, in my opinion anyway, I think everything from our songwriting to our performances has vastly improved. It’s still a strange concoction of songs that vary from a three minute blast of what a friend of mine likes to call “thrash pop” to a pretty vignette on Flowers’ existential journey into the forest… and there’s even an 11-minute track, which is one of best pieces we’ve ever written/recorded.

MH: What’re the hopes you have for this new recording? Is it going to launch you into a record deal or do you just want to put more music out there?
SW: My hope for the new recording is that we can release it sooner rather than later. A record deal would be nice – mostly because, ostensibly, it would get the album paid for and put out faster. In any case, we are playing a lot of album material at our shows – so in the meantime you can always witness it in the flesh. Bootleg it if you are feeling impatient.

MH: How would you say you’ve evolved as a band since releasing Of What Was in 2003?
SW: We’re much closer friends, which is the most important thing for me…
I think we are much better musicians and Andrew is on much better terms with his voice, which – in my humble opinion – sounds brilliant on the album. When we first started out we sounded a lot like a mix of Pedro the Lion, Radiohead and the Appleseed Cast (with some other things thrown in) and so much of what we did wasn’t particularly well thought through all the time. I think we are quite removed from those initial influences, and sound a lot more like “us,” the four guys in the room.
I think we are also far more intentional about the way we write. We want what we do to be great – at least to us – rather than “pretty good,” or even worse, “good enough.”

MH: How does the new album and the way you play shows now represent that evolution?
SW: Well, Ash and Flowers sing a bit now, both on the record and live. So maybe that’s evolution or maybe Andrew and I have lowered our standards or something. Seriously though, I’m not sure if anything has fundamentally evolved. We are just older, some of us are married, we’re better friends, we’ve played a lot longer together, and so the music both on the album and in our shows reflect that.

MH: What’s one of the things you’ve learned as a band that would have helped you most at the start of your career?
SW: Spend way less money on your first major recording. Record a good EP and use that to get a deal. Resist the temptation to play lots of shows. Art and commerce are not, and have never been, mutually exclusive – no matter much or little you paid for In Rainbows.

MH: Anything else people should know?
AP: Ladies, call [bassist] Ryan Gordon Flowers: 778-837-9364. Also, our websites are: imr.ca or myspace.com/imrmusic.