Little found himself fascinated with the interaction between consciousness and the tangible world, he said. But he said he also wanted to apply that philosophical exploration to digestible music.
The resulting “Such Things” achieves that goal, he said. It released Oct. 9, and the group is now touring with a show set for 9:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bishop.
“I guess there’s a tendency to relegate our thoughts and our perceptions to just be this — almost of a different sort of realm,” Little said of the album’s thematic weight. “I guess one of the things I was thinking about for the whole album was what physical presence do those things have, and how do they work back and forth?”
He said he wanted to explore the philosophical implications of those interactions and to embrace inquiry in an almost scientific way.
Though scientific and artistic inquiry might seem disparate, Little said there are similarities between using science to discover truth and using music to make sense of the world.
“If you look at something as fundamental as what you might call the scientific method, it’s really a strategy for looking at the world,” he said. “It’s a lens through which you can gaze into the world and make sense of it. It’s that level of authority that we give it and that search for truth in those terms — it’s something that’s appealing to me. It’s taking that and making a song about it.”
In applying those ideas to songs, Little said he drew inspiration from the psychedelic pop of the 1960s. Rather than write throwback songs, however, he said he wanted to filter his own, more contemporary writing through those sounds.
Though Saintseneca started as a stripped-down acoustic outfit, earning it a “folk” tag that’s stuck, Little said he has no interest in categorizing his band’s music, especially as it expands to include instruments from distorted guitars to drum machines to Mellotron.
“You could almost describe it on either end of the (musical) spectrum,” he said. “I don’t want to feel tethered to one thing or another. I just want to make songs, sounds, stuff like that.”
Saintseneca’s evolution stems from a variety of places, Little said. Part of it comes from his own personal tastes as, after a while in an acoustic band, it felt good to play an electric guitar or write a part for bass. Part of it comes from necessity as he felt unconfident and constrained in the acoustic setup as the band grew. And part of it comes from his bandmates, many of whom play in other successful indie rock projects, including Saintseneca’s current tour-mates, the Sidekicks and Yowler.
The musical prolificacy of Saintseneca members mean the band has something of a rotating lineup, Little said. That can cause some logistical challenges, but it also means he gets to work with a wide variety of people, all of whom bring different musical approaches to the table, he said.
“You’ve got to try to figure out what that is for each person,” he said. “Rather than try to fight that or force someone to do something, it’s more of a matter of tapping into what they do that’s unique to who they are.”
With a touring lineup solidified for now and tour dates extending through the fall, Little said he’s most excited for people to hear “Such Things.” Though the ideas behind the record might be big, he thinks they’re relatable, too — after all, this is a pop record.
“It’s still about existing or something,” he said. “It’s about living your life or caring about people, about relating to people or having experiences because those things are all interconnected. Your experiences and your relationships are still subject to the forces that govern the natural world.”
