The rewards for being a true pioneer in one’s chosen genre are gratifying, but not always from a financial perspective. Scott Kelly has learned this during his 30-plus years with Neurosis, the postmetal experimentalists who’ve inspired the likes of Explosions in the Sky, Sunn O))), and Mastodon.

The singer and guitarist has been reached by the Straight in Wyoming while on tour with his more atmospheric side project Mirrors For Psychic Warfare. This is out of necessity.

During the spring and summer months Kelly works as a sound technician for the acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where he lives with his wife and two kids. Then things go dark.

“I’m in a position financially where I have to be on the road because my regular job is only seven-and-a-half months per year,” Kelly says, speaking on his cellphone. “So I need to tour for those other four-and-a-half months just to keep the food on the table and the roof over the head of the family. So I’ve been going on the tour in the winter for the last four or five years.”

As much as he loves what he does when not on-stage (“It’s definitely the best job in the area that I live—and there’s not a lot of them”), Kelly is happy that 2016 has seen Neurosis return to action with its triumphant new Fires Within Fires.

With band members raising families and holding down steady jobs (guitarist Steve Von Till teaches elementary school), the group hasn’t been as active over the last decade as in the past. But reaction to the new record, which follows up 2012’s Honor Found in Decay, has been positive enough that Neurosis has found itself recharged.

“We’re going back into the room right after Christmas to start working on new stuff,” Kelly reveals. “We’re increasing the pressure a bit right now. Things feel really strong right now with the band, and we’re trying to be proactive a little bit.

“We kind of got into a situation with [2007’s] Given to the Rising where we didn’t intend for so much time to go by between that and Honor Found in Decay. It’s just that life happens and shit gets in the way.”

Despite that, Neurosis had no problem creating something beautiful with Fires Within Fires, the record serving up metal at its most mind-bendingly meditative.

From the edge-of-dawn majesty of “Broken Ground” to the feedback-strafed grinder “Fire Is the End Lesson”, Kelly and his bandmates have made an admirably textured record perfect for soaking up Pacific Northwest winters. And they did it the old-fashioned way.

The world has of course changed dramatically since Neurosis helped invent postmetal with ’90s landmarks like Through Silver in Blood and Times of Grace.

But having committed to Neurosis for most of their lives, Kelly and his bandmates—who include bassist Dave Edwardson, drummer Jason Roeder, and synth player Noah Landis—would rather get together and jam things out as friends rather than build songs through file-swapping. Their motivation is simple: they’re now at a point in their lives where they can appreciate what they’ve accomplished.

“I remember when other bands started citing us as a big influence—we were really in shock about it, honestly,” Kelly says. “At first we were kind of pissed that other bands were building on what we were doing—it was a weird ‘What the fuck?’ reaction. But then we got some perspective and realized ‘Wait a second.’

“We checked ourselves and remembered how deeply we were influenced by bands like Black Flag and Crass when we started. They created their own music and own scenes. We’re just another step down the line.”

Neurosis plays Venue on Tuesday (December 20).