What’s interesting about the band is that you offer people this communal, visceral hope, but there’s also a darker side. Like on the new song “Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse,” you sing: “Words of hope are a joke for the numb.”

That’s what [guitarist] Charlie Spearin and I battle with. He’s always telling me that the world’s a better place than it’s ever been, and I’m always looking at him and saying, “Could you please explain that?”

Look, fear is a big business. We know this. Addiction is even bigger. We live in a very addictive society right now. Narcissism has lost its responsibility, and as soon as popularity became an art form, music lost most of its value. And during all these years in fear, there was an underlying, subconscious attack happening to us, creating more depression, more anxiety disorders, and an aspect of feeling alone with being surrounded by so much information. We’re being told on a daily basis to look over our shoulders. We’re also being told to know what everybody else is doing. There’s this show-off aspect that has really taken over. In that song you referenced, I also say, “I’m done, I’m done/I want to kill all my friends/I want to grab them from the dark and show them their end.” Which means I don’t want others to do that. I don’t want to see these people I love go down because they’re staring at their phones every second, constantly looking at things about how we’re going to get nuked. So many times we find our patience is gone because we just keep obtaining and obtaining and obtaining. “Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse” is the “stop it now” song.

The title of that song made me wonder—do you wear a mouthguard at night?

Yeah, because I found myself drowning in my sleep. I thought I was having panic attacks. I cracked a tooth and I lost a tooth, so I went and saw the dentist and he said, “You’re suffocating.” I had to get this elaborate molded mouth guard to help me breath.

As a fellow mouth guard wearer, I can relate to your struggle.

You know, I think a lot of people need to get on this trip.

Is it working for you?

Brilliantly.

On that same song, you sing, “the radio sounds like shit.” Are you talking about the current state of mainstream radio?

No. I’m talking about the fidelity—the actual sound quality. I remember driving around Montreal while we were recording this record and listening to something and I thought to myself, This is not the fidelity that the song was recorded at, and people don’t care. It hurt.

In this world of digital everything, I literally feel like I’m from 1962 every time I go to play a song. It’s like, “Hold on a second, I’ve got to find my Bluetooth.” Then, “Oh wait, did it download? Where is it in my phone? It’s not in my iTunes.” That’s why, more than ever, I just put on a record. It’s simple.