Nearly four years after the disbanding of Pedro the Lion, the religiously inclined indie rock outfit from Seattle that had gained a following in the secular world as well, former lead singer and creative force David Bazan is touring in support of his first full length solo album, “Curse Your Branches.’’ He plays T.T. the Bear’s in Cambridge tonight. Armed with a van full of “dudes,’’ a GPS programmed to sound like the Prince of Darkness and a new spiritual perspective, Bazan takes a moment to catch us up on the last couple of years.
Q. What was the recording process behind “Curse Your Branches?’’
A. I would get the skeleton of the song at home and then when I was on the road I would be mulling it over. I would just sit with an acoustic guitar and piano and a pad of paper and a laptop. Most of the songs were written that way. I began the recording process thinking I was gonna do it all myself. Partway through the process I was doing the backup vocals on “Bless This Mess’’ and I realized that while it sounded fine with just me singing there was something monochromatic. When you stack it up it’s just a lot of my voice. And with other guys singing it’s more sonically rich. And one of the guys came back to do some guitar stuff and then one thing led to another and then I had like five or six dudes over.
Q. I read that you were taking a break from performing in conventional bar venues and doing a lot of shows in basements and houses. Why the change of space?
A. We were trying to figure out how we were gonna make ends meet in the spring and we had talked to the label about touring and they said “No, you got to wait until the record comes out.’’ And we thought, well there’s got to be a way that we can go on tour and still be laying low. So we discovered this house show thing. I’ve played 71 house shows.
Q. Can you speak a little about the spiritual shifts that have occurred in you in the last five years, since the last Pedro the Lion album and this first solo record?
A. I basically in ’05 and ’06 stopped believing in the tenets of Christianity. I’m just kind of collecting data. I’m not shutting the door on anything.
Q. Another thing that the record deals with is your struggle with addiction. What helped you move past that?
A. Basically my wife asked me to stop drinking before I left on this one tour. And I did that but there was still something else going on there. Part of it was me being honest with myself about my thoughts and feelings about my own religious conflicts. Once I was able to do that the compulsion to get black-out drunk all the time wasn’t there anymore and that was really convenient.
Q. What kind of an ensemble are you touring with?
A. It’s me and four other dudes in the van. I mean in the band. A band in a van.
