Since its founding, the goth band Bauhaus [ tickets ] has been associated with "doom and gloom," as guitarist Daniel Ash puts it. But, with their new album, "Go Away White," Ash and his bandmates decided to make a very positive statement--about the end of Bauhaus.

"It's a case of ending on an optimistic note," said Ash, who is joined in the band by singer Peter Murphy, drummer Kevin Haskins and his brother, bassist "David J." Haskins. "There is light at the end of the tunnel. It's a very deliberate sort of statement, especially when you think of the artwork, which is all white and the angel walking away. It's the slight antithesis of all the dark stuff we've been associated with for a long time. I think we all, consciously or otherwise, wanted to sort of go away on an upper rather than a downer. 'Go Away White' is the statement."

Ash, a Brit who has lived in the United States for 14 years, calls "Go Away White" the band's swan song.

"More than ever, it really feels like that," Ash said. "It's a very volatile band, as you might have noticed. When we were in the studio, we were there for 18 days making this. That's how long it took.

"There's a real similarity between this one and 'In The Flat Field,' which was the first album we made, which took, like, two weeks. So, that one took 14 days, this one took 18 days and the working process was pretty much the same. We just set the gear up and played live in the studio, without any real preconceptions of what the whole thing was going to be. It was an experiment, initially. Just book a few weeks in the studio and see what would happen. That's what came out."

Ash, who also joins the Haskins brothers in the band Love and Rockets, contends there will be no farewell tour. This is it for Bauhaus [ tickets ].

"That's it," Ash said. "We don't really exist as a band now. We're done. We were in there for 18 days and it is definitely time to move on. I think that's the attitude within the band. That's the nature of this band. I think it's really, really English as well. You go in, you have about 17 years off, go in and do an album and then split up. It's typical English. It's called commercial suicide."

"Go Away White," Ash admitted, is much more up-tempo than his band's previous efforts, a characteristic that fans have noticed as well.

"Somebody said the other day the album sounds like a mix between Love and Rockets and Pete's solo stuff," he said. "I can see that, very much so. Those elements are there, yes. Love and Rockets existed for 17 years. In a nutshell, I can definitely see those influences."

Bauhaus, which formed in 1978 in Northampton, England, found success with the singles "Bela Lugosi's Dead" and "She's in Parties," as well as the cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust." As Murphy set out on a solo career in 1983, Ash and the Haskins brothers formed Love and Rockets. This year, Love and Rockets is reforming to play Southern California's Coachella festival later this month, and perhaps a few warm-up dates. After all, it's been about 10 years since Love and Rockets played a gig.

"It's very similar with the way it was in 2005 with Bauhaus," Ash said about the band's spot on Coachella. "We just got offered this irresistible deal to play Coachella. We had a really good spot. We've got the same thing this year. We were offered a really good spot on the Sunday night just before Roger Waters does 'Dark Side of the Moon.' That's a great spot on the main stage. Again, that was an irresistible offer."