It’s listed on the band’s Bandcamp page only as “EP.”
Anyone who wants a physical copy of the album, the band’s third overall release, will have to order it from Germany.
Four of the five songs from that EP, released less than a week before the band toured in Europe last September, appear in re-recorded versions on the band’s new album, “New Teeth,” which released digitally in July 2015.
In fact, seven of the 12 songs on “New Teeth” have appeared in different forms on previous High Dive releases, including three from its first EP, 2013’s “These are Days.”
Guitarist and vocalist Ginger Alford said the band contemplated waiting to record the album until it had written enough new songs to fill the track listing completely but ultimately decided some of the older songs were good enough to warrant re-recorded versions.
“Some of these songs, we really liked them, and we didn’t just want them to fade away,” Alford, 34, said.
“New Teeth” is High Dive’s second full-length album, following a self-titled release in 2011, but it’s the first High Dive LP to feature Alford, who first appeared on the untitled EP, and keyboardist Richard Wehrenberg Jr., who has played on all the band’s releases except “High Dive.”
Vocalist and guitarist Toby Foster said he’s appreciated the versatility that’s come with expanding the band to a five-piece from its original three-person configuration and the layers added by Wehrenberg’s keyboards — a relatively unconventional touch for a pop-punk band.
While Foster, 25, is the group’s core songwriter, he said the finished product on “New Teeth” was a group effort.
According to Alford, Foster often brings a general, acoustic guitar-based song structure and lyrics to the table, but Foster said the band has transformed those songs by expounding on the basic structure.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot better at writing songs together,” he said. “There’s a lot of songs we have now where I’ll try to play them by myself and realize I can’t play them by myself anymore.”
On its Bandcamp page, High Dive self-identifies as a “queer-positive pop-punk band.”
Foster said he wanted to add the tag because of the underrepresentation of queer voices in music even though the description doesn’t necessarily reflect the main focus of the band’s music.
“We get asked about (the queer-positive tag) a lot, and it’s not necessarily a thing we write songs about all the time,” he said. “I think we write songs like other people would, regardless of sexual identity or gender expression ... it plays into my songwriting — songwriting comes from your experiences.”
While High Dive is based in Bloomington, it spends a fair amount of time on the road. During the summer, the band toured with Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room, the solo project of the Alkaline Trio bassist; former Bomb the Music Industry! frontman Jeff Rosenstock, an old friend of Alford’s; and Chicago emo supergroup Pet Symmetry.
The members of High Dive have a wealth of collective touring experience. Foster has been touring as a solo artist since he was in high school, Alford was a member of power-pop trio Good Luck, Wehrenberg is a poet and does reading tours and bassist Ryan Woods is a member of long-running folk-punk band Defiance, Ohio.
“Everybody is pretty used to the touring lifestyle, and we try to find ways to keep it fresh and fun for everybody,” said Alford, who also said High Dive strikes a balance between touring and staying in Bloomington that suits her.
In the coming months, High Dive will hit the road again.
It’s slated to play the fourteenth iteration of the Fest, an annual Halloween-weekend underground music festival in Gainesville, Florida, and Foster and Alford said they’re in the midst of planning a west coast tour for December.
Meanwhile, Alford said physical copies of “New Teeth” are in the works, with vinyl expected to be finished in October.
As for the multi-month gap between the album’s digital and physical release, Alford said the band thought it was important to put something out for show-goers who see the band live and want more.
“When you go on tour, people — when they like you — really want to buy your album, and you want it to be representative,” she said.
