While recording their latest album, "Fast Times at Barrington High," Chicago rockers The Academy Is... [ tickets ]. set out to recapture their roots and look to their future.

"I think the five or six years since we left school and have been on the road, they all kind of blur together," said bassist Adam Siska during an interview that took place on his tour bus outside Tempe, AZ's Marquee Theatre.

"The same kind of goes [for] the time spent in high school. I don't even remember high school. I have these vague memories. The record's about [how] the memory's pretty faulty and you have to take time to reflect on things. That's just one chapter of our life that we can reflect on for this."

The key to the album, ...which is the group's third, was to help the fans relate to the subject matter, Siska said.

"No one wants to hear us write about sleeping in until 2 in the afternoon, drinking my crappy Starbucks coffee," he said, lifting up his coffee. "They want to hear us write about a time when it was a little bit more [exciting]. I wouldn't say this isn't an exciting time. I love being on tour. But I guess a time that was simpler. High school was a pretty interesting time for us. A big majority of our fans are in high school right now, so we figured it was fitting to reflect on a time that was relatable to them."

Siska--whose bandmates include singer William Beckett, guitarist Michael Carden, drummer Andy Mrotek and guitarist Michael Guy Chislett--talked to LiveDaily about his longtime relationship with Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, working with labelmates Cobra Starship and debuting at No. 17.

Is Barrington High School the real name of your alma mater?

Yeah. William and I went to Barrington High together in Barrington, IL. It's just another town in the Midwest. It's just like any other, which, I think, is also part of the title. Barrington High can be interchangeable with any high school. Everywhere in the US, everything is exactly the same for these kids, for the most part, for middle-class, suburban kids.

Pete Wentz blogged that your album is "Mind blowing. Miles away from where they were." How would you compare this album to your previous efforts and how does this fit in with your catalog?

I think it fits in our catalog perfectly. I think that every record we've made, we've taken steps forward and tried some new things and raised the bar as songwriters and musicians. I think, on this record, something just creatively happened that felt very right, and we were really excited to work on this. I think you can feel that when you're listening to the album. There's a real sense of life to it that maybe the previous records didn't have as much. This album feels a little more urgent.

It has a real live feel to it as well.

Yeah, the drum and bass were tracked live together. We tried to make the best-sounding record we could. We've always said we felt our live shows were a little bit better than our records, so on this record we wanted to capture an element of the live show. Pete saying that, it's a big compliment for us. He's a big fan of music. He's always supported us. He's always been our friend, since before we were even in a band. A compliment coming from him means a lot, just as much as coming from anyone I respect.

The whole Fueled by Raman/Decaydance label has a family atmosphere, as evidenced by your relationship with Pete.

Oh yeah, absolutely. A lot of people think Decaydance is some sort of money-making plan that Pete came up with to sign all these bands. "This one wears the eyeliner." "This one has the circus behind them." "This one's rap." It's not really like that. We're all friends and we're all big fans of music of every genre. We're all trying different things from one another to find ourselves on a common ground of mutual respect, or friendship.

Who would have thought the label we would be signed to and touring on and doing all these things with, the president would be a friend of mine since I was like 13? Not some industry schmuck sitting behind a desk and all those horror stories. It's amazing to think the president of our label is my friend from a couple towns over. We used to goof off together in high school. It feels good. It feels real. It feels like we can make the music we want to make without any sort of pressure. It's all just friends; no matter what happens, you have that.

It's awesome to watch where [Wentz's] career has gone. From the day we met him, to see where he is now, he's worked really hard and sacrificed a lot and put a lot of hard work in. Anyone who does that deserves some great benefits. He's always helped other people along the way. It's amazing where music can take you. When I first met the guys in Fall Out Boy or first met the guys in my own band, I never would have guessed where music would have taken us all. It's a pretty special thing to look at, especially with Pete. I'll say this about Pete: The only time Pete ever makes anyone mad is when he's distant from you because he's too busy helping the next person. He'll help you out and, once you're there, he'll find the next person and he'll start helping them. He's a big brother type. I like that guy.

Speaking of Decaydance being like a family: Cobra Starship appears on your album.

Yeah, we had members of Cobra come in, which was really cool. They're good friends of ours. We were recording in New York and Gabe [Saporta, singer] literally lived right across the street from the studio we were recording in. He'd pop in and hear songs. Ryland [Blackinton, guitarist] and Alex [Suarez, bassist] live in Brooklyn, not too far with the subway. They'd come in and I'd play them some songs and occasionally we'd be like, "Sing this harmony. Go in the vocal booth. You have a great voice. Now do this part." That's what's fun about it--having friends that are artistically inclined and excited to be in the studio and have some fun together. We had never met Mason [Musso, vocalist/guitarist] from Metro Station, who sings on one of our songs. We had never met him before. He came by to visit our producer in the studio and we were playing a song back for him. He said, "I have this idea. What if you guys tried something like this?" We were like, "What if you tried something like this." He did it and that kid's got a lot of talent. I never knew that before. To see him come in and have an idea like that, it's really cool. It's amazing how, once you get a bunch of musicians together in a room, anything can happen. That's part of the fun of music.

Your album debuted at No. 17. What do you think it was about this album that sparked everyone's interest--or was it just a matter of time?

I think we've been on tour for a long time, playing a lot of shows, got a lot of great fans. When you have that and you make a record that's real and honest and exciting, I think that's the proper formula. Having fans and making a record that you feel is good, that's the first step to selling some records. At the same time, we never try to put too much emphasis on how many records are sold, or anything like that. In this day and age, with music, it's not really something that's relevant. None of our records have sold some sort of gold status or anything like that. Yet, we can go on tour and play for a lot of adoring fans. As long as we can tour, as long as we have fans, as long as we have support, I think the band can last a long time. Record sales, at this point, are pretty unimportant, because so many people are downloading the album, stealing it from their friend and putting it on their iPods. It's hard to say, next to how many records you've sold, how many people are actually at home enjoying the music. We try to think about that. We try to just put all our focus into just playing for our fans and making the best music as possible.

The studio you recorded in has a lot of history. Was that inspirational at all?

It was awesome. You'd take a break from tracking a part, walk down to the bathroom and down the hall there's photos of Neil Young recording in there. He's one of my favorite singers. There's a lot of history in that room. Oasis. Eric Clapton. Just a lot of cool bands recorded in there. You can feel that. When you're a fan of an artist who's recorded in a room, you try to carry that in there with you and try to capture whatever moment it was that Clapton tracked "Layla" for the first time in that room. You try to channel whatever feeling that is and put it into your song. It's inspirational. We had a lot of cool experiences with stuff like that.

I read on your blog that you're having more fun today with The Academy Is ... than you have since the beginning of your career. Why do you say that?

I think that we had a lot of fun in the beginning of our career. As you keep on doing it, just like anything, it becomes a job. Like I said, on this record, it was about coming back to our roots and reminding ourselves where this all began, why it began, and reminding ourselves how lucky we are that it's still happening. We haven't packed up our instruments and gone back home. Just the idea of appreciating the fact that we're allowed to play music for a living and travel across the country, that's real important to us. Also, we make good music together and make music we're proud of. Ultimately, that brings you closer as a band.

We're real proud of this record and we're real proud of work we put in together. When that happens, there's barriers that are broken down and it allows you to be closer friends. I think it's important for us to remind ourselves why we started this--which was to be friends and travel the country and play music and bring happiness to people and ourselves. As long as you're doing that, I think the band is all good to go.