“At some point when we were in the studio, there was a slight sense of guilt,” said Mr. Mars, sipping a pilsner in a cafe near the New York home in Greenwich Village that he shares with his wife, the director Sofia Coppola, and their two daughters. “But we were comforted by the idea that the four of us working wasn’t escapism or denial,” he added. “When that became clear, the guilt disappeared.”

Like his bandmates — all of whom he’s known since they were youngsters living outside Paris alongside future members of Daft Punk and Air — Mr. Mars, sporting a perfectly mussed indie-rock bedhead, is chatty and charming and prone to slightly nerdy asides about short stories or scientific principles. Since the core of Phoenix’s music is improvisational, it’s hard for him, or any band member, to explain why each album sounds the way it does.

“I think the record came out of darkness, out of concern,” said Daniel Glass, head of Phoenix’s record label, Glassnote. “But what’s resulted is this incredibly colorful record. And what we’re hearing from everybody, from KCRW to Apple to Pandora to Spotify, is that they’re loving this record. Because it makes them feel good.”

With “Wolfgang,” Phoenix achieved an increasingly rare level of success for a rock band — a “Saturday Night Live” appearance, a Grammy, a platinum single — wrapping that album’s tour cycle with a blowout show at Madison Square Garden, where they surprised the crowd with a guest spot from their old friends Daft Punk. While the band has never matched the sales of its 2009 disc, it’s remained a popular live act, with devoted fans who can catch Phoenix headlining festivals this summer from Atlanta to Osaka, Japan. (Phoenix will play Governors Ball in New York on June 3.)