It’s been a long five-year wait since we last received a full dose of certified bangers from Four Year Strong, but come Feb. 28, that wait is officially over, and the band couldn’t be more excited about it.

With their latest full-length album, "Brain Pain," the Worcester-bred quartet not only ushers in the next era of their career with a brand new slate of rippers that will surely get the blood pumping, but in many ways, the new record represents a rebirth — or a rejuvenation, rather — of the band’s creative drive, and frontman Alan Day is stoked to finally see it make its way into the world.

“I think I can speak for the whole band saying we think it’s the best Four Year Strong record to date, but obviously, we’re a little biased,” says Day. “We really did put a lot of work into the album, from it’s conception all the way through to recording it and rolling out the release and doing the music videos. We’ve been more emotionally invested into this than we have been in a long time, so it’s been a really fun process.”

It’s been quite the journey for the band since they started really shaping what ultimately became the new record, as Day and guitarist Dan O’Connor had many discussions pertaining to what exactly they envisioned the album should feel like, and the type of energy and emotion they wanted to convey with the music. Having started focusing on the album two years ago, the process of translating that vision from a thought to a physical entity presented new challenges, but ultimately, that extended period of time proved to be highly beneficial in accomplishing what they set out to create.

While fans had been itching for new songs before the band released three singles over the last two months (“Talking Myself In Circles,” “Brain Pain’ and “Learn To Love The Lie”), Day stresses that the band made a whole-hearted decision in the early stages of preparing to get back in the studio to really take their time on putting it together, instead of rushing to put something out just to say the long wait was over. They didn’t want any other reason to put something out other than the fact that it was an authentic representation of the new and improved Four Year Strong, and exactly what they heard in their heads before they ever played a single note of it.

“We wanted to make something that felt and sounded authentically like Four Year Strong for the people who have known us for a long time, but also authentically Four Year Strong that are now grown men in our 30s with families, wives, homes and other things that are important to us in our lives,” says Day. “We wanted it to be authentic to who we are musically, and who we are as people. We’re inspired by different things, musically, in 2020 than we were in 2006 when we were writing 'Rise or Die Trying.'”

By no means is "Brain Pain" a concept album, but Day is quick to admit that there is a bit of a running theme throughout the songs that present the idea of some kind of an identity crisis, as he and O’Connor, along with bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jake Massucco, had to think long and hard about what 30-something-year-old men with families and houses could realistically sing about in a pop punk song. Within that struggle, they found the creative spark in outlining their feelings regarding who they used to be versus who they are now, which in turn, is something they felt their loyal fan base could relate to.

While the new songs showcase the band’s vision for the future, Day acknowledges how the band looked back at their past work to really feel out why certain songs have stood the test of time over the course of their nearly 20-year career, and how working with producer Will Putney — who worked as an engineer on 2010’s "Enemy Of The World" — helped them capture a fresh type of energy that could stand on its own, while still maintaining the Four Year Strong vibe.

“More than anything, we kind of picked apart the pieces of our past selves that we feel resonated with our fans, and also with us, and we made sure we incorporated all of those bits and pieces,” says Day. “We didn’t want this record to feel like any of the songs could have been on 'Rise or Die Trying' or 'Enemy of The World,' but we wanted to try and have people hear it and feel the same way they felt when they heard those albums. We wanted to keep this album exciting for the people that knew the old Four Year Strong.”

There’s no denying it was a long process for Four Year Strong to get to where they currently stand, at the threshold of one of their most highly-anticipated efforts to date. However, while Day doesn’t shy away from the fact that it was indeed a process, the new approach has the guys on a creative high right now, which they hope means a smaller window between releases in the future, after coming away with a multitude of new songs that didn’t make it on the new record.

Sure, the new music is forward-facing and the band is focused on making this new era a memorable one, but there’s no way to discount how the first two decades of the band’s tenure has affected their course and led them here. It’s sure to be a fun 2020 for Four Year Strong, but at the very root of it, Day is just grateful for the chance to keep making music he loves with his friends — and there’s really nothing more pop punk than that.

“I don’t think we’d be writing an album like we just did if we didn’t have the 20 years of wisdom that we have from being Four Year Strong,” says Day. “If I could go back in time, I definitely don’t think I would’ve known we’d be at this point in our career, so we’re pretty excited that we’re able to be grown men who can support their families by playing music in a band that we started when we were in high school.”