New York City dance-rock combo the Bravery hit the road earlier this month for a series of dates in anticipation of the release of their new album, 'Stir the Blood.' "I very much feel like we are making music only because we like it, as opposed to doing it as a reaction to something else," frontman Sam Endicott tells Spinner.

These days, the Bravery, who were considered part of a new rave revival surrounding their 2005 self-titled debut, and later dragged into a fake rivalry with the Killers that became real, are able to look back at their early days with some clarity.

"Back then, we got caught up in it," Endicott says of the hype that followed the release of songs like 'An Honest Mistake,' and the press attention that focused the group's handsome members. "You can't help but be swept up in this crazy whirlwind whereas now it's very much making [music] because we like it. I think that with the third record we have defined ourselves."

In order to do that though, the band had to leave New York City behind and head upstate and into the woods. The group set up shop for 'Stir the Blood' in an abandoned church, which years ago housed the Pixies for an unnamed project and the B52s as they recorded 'Love Shack.' There, as most of the band came in and out, Endicott stayed in a neighboring house for several months as he helmed the producer's desk for the
new record alongside John Hill (Santigold, Shakira).

Songs, like 'Slow Poison,' 'She's So Bendable,' 'I Am Your Skin' and 'Hate F---,' came about as Endicott picked through riffs recorded here and there from the band's tour in support of 2007's 'The Sun and the Moon.' But the lyrics came from somewhere else.

"I would say there is a dark tone to this album," Endicott laughs after Spinner pressed for more details on his very NIN-y titles. "There's an angry undertone to it. I was pretty pissed off when I wrote a lot of the songs."

Endicott claims that while the lyrics, which also focus on "intimacy," may be dark, the music stays upbeat. "That's always what we've done is making sad music that's fun or fun music that's sad," he says. "Our mixer said to me, from the waist down, your music's really fun, but from the waist up, it's sad."

'Stir the Blood' is due out Nov. 10 on Island Records.