The Grownup Noise members (R to L): Adam Sankowski, Rachel Arnold, Paul Hansen, Todd Marsten, Aine Fujioka. — Photo by Sarahmica Photography

By Blake Maddux

Paul Hansen and Adam Sankowski are two of the four Berklee-trained members of the Somerville-based quintet The Grownup Noise. The band released its eponymous debut in 2007, and the follow-up This Time with Feeling appeared in 2011.

Now the band has recorded its third album, The Problem with Living in the Moment, which they will celebrate the release of at The Armory on Saturday, October 4.

Hansen and Sankowski spoke to The Somerville Times at The Independent in Union Square in advance of the new release.

Somerville Times: How does The Problem with Living in the Moment differ from 2011’s This Time with Feeling?

Paul Hansen: I don’t think it’s necessarily a huge departure from what we’ve been doing. I think maybe it’s just a crystallization of it. It’s definitely not a radical experiment.

Adam Sankowski: I definitely agree with that.

PH: In a way it might be part two of This Time with Feeling.

ST: Given The Grownup Noise’s distinctive sound, are you fans of any kinds of music that might surprise listeners?

PH: We’re into so many different kinds of music that it’s kind of hard to keep this thing together. It’s like a rickety truck shaking down the street. We’re really into Wu-Tang Clan, and I would love to rap. We’ve actually covered rap songs, not that we could ever record an original one. I feel like we all wish that we were an amazing punk band. Actually, Adam is in an amazing punk band, Horse Hands.

AS: Yeah. It’s funny because I don’t necessarily listen to a ton of that kind of music, but playing it is really fun. I listen to a lot of things that don’t sound anything like us, like a fair amount of hip-hop and a lot of electronic stuff, like Boards of Canada. I listen to a lot more groove-based music than song-based music.

The Grownup Noise will be celebrating the release of their latest album “The Problem with Living in the Moment” will take place at The Armory on Saturday, October 4. — Cover art by John Jorgenson

ST: What is the message of the song New Outsiders?

PH: It’s kind of like someone analyzing pop culture, but it a good way. Some of the people that I kind of refer to in the song were outsiders at the time, but now they’re icons. And it’s a good thing. So hopefully there’s a new set of people that we haven’t met yet that are going to be outsiders and hopefully help the world, help the planet. The poem verse is loosely about Emily Dickinson and the last verse is loosely about Gandhi.

ST: Is the songwriting process collaborative?

AS: Paul’s the man!

PH: I birth a song on my acoustic guitar, and then usually I bring it to Adam, and we work on it. And then we bring it to the band and kind of obsess over drum beats and stuff. I’m the songwriter, but there have been times when Adam made an arrangement choice, or someone else made one detail that kind of made the song. We’ve definitely had song-changing arrangements happen not by me.

AS: You’re really good at writing with people in mind, like “this would be great for Todd [Marsten, keyboards and accordion]” or “this would be awesome for the cello” or “I can totally hear Aine [Fujioka] playing this drum part.”

ST: Fill in the blank: “I wish that I were half the singer-songwriter that _______ is.”

PH: I think that answer has changed over time, so I am trying to give the most immediate answer, and I probably would say Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel. I’d put his phrasing up against any classical composer.

ST: Was there a specific strategy behind the sequencing of The Problem with Living in the Moment?

PH: Even though I birth the songs, obsess over and write the lyrics, by the time we’re done with the recording I’m like, “Adam, what’s the order?”

AS: I did kind of do the order for this one, didn’t I?

PH: I know you did for the last two.

AS: I think that for this record, literally what I would do is go on iTunes and put it in a playlist, then go on a long run listening to the whole album. I would really get into it and kind of meditate on it. I’d do that like three or four times, move some things around, and make an order suggestion.

ST: What inspired the decision to have a cello player in the band?

AS: We wanted something to play melodies, and we didn’t really want a lead guitarist. We thought that a keyboard player would be cool, but at the time single-note melodies on a piano felt weird. A cello can play high, it can play low, it fills the middle space, it can support things, it can be a lead, and there’s something about the tone that just cuts through an arrangement more than anything else.

The Grownup Noise, with Winterpills at Arts at the Armory, Saturday Oct. 4, 8 PM. All ages.