‘Fasciinating’ and fresh

The Faint is fascinated with finding different ways to do the same things.

Keyboardist Jacob Thiele was nearly speaking in tongues about the new gear set up at the new studio where the band recorded its new album on The Faint’s new self-run Blank.wav imprint.

“ ‘Fasciination’ is not incredibly different. It sounds like our band. But we’re always trying not to repeat ourselves,” Thiele said during a telephone interview, gabbing on about how The Faint is committed to its signature sound, but giddy about refining it on the fresh studio set due Tuesday. “We still write pop songs with verses and choruses and a definable melody, but we took more time with the songs while we were waiting for the studio to get built and we had all the coolest new sonic things to play with.”

Breakouts from the indie eruption in Omaha in the mid-’90s – the earliest incarnation highlighted by the membership of Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst – The Faint was the flagship band for the venerable Saddle Creek Records.

Intent on steering its own ship, the synth-punk-wave quintet pulled a surprise move in May, leaving its longtime Saddle Creek home to self-release “Fasciination.”

“(Saddle Creek) knew we wanted to do something different, but I don’t know if they knew we wanted to put it out ourselves. We felt like we wanted to do our own thing and that this was the time to do it,” Thiele said. “If you want to put something out digitally, it doesn’t cost anything if you put in the investment up front with the recording. A label wants 20 percent of the royalties. The only label that doesn’t want to do that is the one we started.

“The formats are shifting. There’s more interest in singles. (When we first started), we gambled and put the stock in ourselves and quit our jobs and went to town, thinking that if we can’t sustain $170 a month for rent, then we should be doing something else. Luckily, people bought the record and went to the shows.”

Bored with guitars, The Faint dumped the lo-fi tongue-in-cheek soft-rock of its debut, picked up Thiele, and released its second Saddle Creek full-length, 1999’s “Blank-Wave Arcade” with an onslaught of aural synth electronics.

The considerably darker follow up, “Danse Macabre,” marked the addition of death metal guitarist Dapose, formerly of LEAD.

“When we did ‘Danse Macabre,’ there was a lot of darkness in our lives. We were in a bad neighborhood. I got mugged in our driveway at gunpoint,” Thiele said.

After releasing 2004’s “Wet from Birth” to critical acclaim, The Faint finally moved out of its rented warehouse studio – dubbed the “Orifice” – and built the ENAMEL space where “Fasciination” was tracked.

“The Orifice was a real s-hole,” Thiele said. “This new space is nice and new and clean.”

The Faint unveils its refreshed sound on Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Knitting Factory Concert House, 919 W. Sprague Avenue. Also on the bill is NYC tribal-synth dance-cult Shy Child. Tickets are $18.50, through TicketsWest, www.ticketswest.com, (509) 325-SEAT.