With its latest album “What If Nothing,” Walk the Moon didn’t just return from an extended break from recording. Band members found a new understanding of why they’re in the band and the kinds of music they want to make.
The newfound wisdom arrived after an uncertain time that began in summer 2016, when the group canceled a tour so singer-guitarist Nicholas Petricca could be with his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
The cancellation came at a bad time. “Shut Up and Dance,” the single from the second Walk the Moon album, “Talking Is Hard,” had spent seven weeks in summer 2015 in the top five on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 chart on its way to becoming a triple-platinum hit. Pulling the plug on the tour stopped the band from building on the momentum generated by their breakout hit.
Said bassist Kevin Ray: “It was a strain because I saw what we had built with ‘Shut Up and Dance’ just sort of lingering in limbo and not capitalizing on it. It was tough. It was really, really tough.”
Petricca watched his father slip away and die, and wrestled with the loss and other personal issues. Ray, meanwhile, had the happier experience of getting married, but also dealt with rehabbing an injured shoulder.
For all four band members — Petricca, Ray, guitarist Eli Maiman and drummer Sean Waugaman — the break prompted them to face some important questions.
“I think trust is a big part of it, trust that each member of the group is focused on making the same thing for the same reasons, or at least the right thing for the right reasons,” Ray said. Working with each other every day made it less likely that they would talk about “deep, emotional things,” he said.
“So we had to rebuild trust, not that we don’t trust each other, just that we need to know what we all really think,” said the bassist, noting he feared asking questions because he might not get the answers he wanted. But ask they did, and as the talking continued, band members found they still had plenty of common ground and a shared sense of purpose.
The band, which will play at The NorVa in Norfolk on Wednesday, also agreed they wanted to shake things up a bit musically with the album that would become “What If Nothing.”
“We were all ready to just make a rock album, man,” Ray said. “We wanted to be as loud as we always wanted and as angry as we wanted and as dramatic as we wanted or whatever — not that it’s a super-angry, dramatic record.”
Another goal was to write an honest album that addressed some of the serious issues that surfaced during Walk the Moon’s downtime. Ray said band members felt this approach would demonstrate that they are about more than carefree pop songs like “Shut Up and Dance.”
“There was nothing wrong with the way ‘Shut Up and Dance’ portrayed us as a band,” Ray said. “We’re never going to regret that song in any way, and we’re never going to be upset about what it did for us. But I think with any band that has a song that kind of blows up like that, it’s going to define a lot about you.”
if you go
Who: Walk the Moon, with Bear Hands
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: The NorVa, 317 Monticello Ave., Norfolk
Tickets: $30.50, or $33 day of show, www.thenorva.com, 757-627-4547