MUTEMATH

MUTEMATH is not the type of band that’s short on ideas. How else would you explain the New Orleans-based electro-rock quartet’s seamless blend of orbital soundscapes, chilled-out grooves and driving rock on its breakthrough self-titled album or the groundbreaking video for the single “Typical,” where the band performed the entire song backwards — and earned a Grammy nomination in the process.

But sometimes, that creativity doesn’t flow as much as it gets tangled up in knots.

Despite writing 16 songs on tour, after the band went into their home studio to record the tracks, something wasn’t right. Members Paul Meaney (singer/keys), Darren King (drums), Greg Hill (guitarist) and Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas, weren’t gelling like they used to. Actually, they were at each other’s throats — and the album wasn’t giving them the feeling they were looking for.

“We really would get set on wanting it to move us,” Meaney says. “When it’s not happening and you’re beating your head against the wall, it starts to wear you down.”

The band needed a fifth personality to get back on track. After flying in numerous producers for interviews, they settled on Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello), who had what the band was looking for: Patience. A guy who would push, encourage and keep the guys in check. And it was Herring who proposed a radical idea; even radical for experimentalists like MUTEMATH: Toss the songs out. Scrap ‘em. Start over. The band proceeded to do so with a bit of uneasiness.

“Up to this record, pretty much anything we’d write, we’d find a way to finish it,” Meaney says. “(Starting over) was the toughest thing, and in a way, we were kind of accepting defeat in doing that.”

But positive results soon followed. Meaney describes how the first song on the sophomore effort “came out of the sky” in the form of the single “Spotlight,” which was later included on the soundtrack for “Twilight.”

“We got through something that all of us was excited about,” Meaney says. “That was when we took the collar off. The leash was off.”

MUTEMATH finally had its mojo back and released “Armistice” in August. It contains the band’s most radio-ready creations in the sonic burst pop of “Backfire” and the piano ballad “Lost Year.” They give post-punk a Red Bull injection on “Electrify.” And they arguably create their most mature tracks to date with the buzzy, ethereal march of “No Response” and the skeletal electro-jazz shuffle of “Pins and Needles.”

And the album’s recurring message becomes pretty apparent. “Armistice” refers to parties reaching a truce after battle while the chorus of “Odds” simply states “I know it’s hard to say throw it all away/ But the odds are we’ll be better off.”

“I think there’s definitely an underlying theme of conflict through this record and figuring out how to resolve that or if there even is a resolve,” Meaney says.

MUTEMATH, which has built a reputation as a must-see live act by reinventing original works for audiences, is excited to bring this new material and old favorites to KC when performing with As Tall As Lions at 8 p.m. tonight at the Beaumont Club. It’s almost a reward after making it through the band’s most difficult period, but Meaney says it’s a time where lessons were abundant.

“I’m really happy about the songs that surfaced to the top and that will document this time,” he says, “but it’s still important to this band and why we started this band in the first place to not be afraid to change things up.”