The members of The Graduate seemingly have the world in front of them. The band’s fans got their first listen of the group’s latest release, “Only Every Time,” on Aug. 31, but the Springfield natives have experienced waves of success since their 2007 debut. Their brand of indie-emo rock ranges from quiet and introspective to loud and anthemic, making for an eclectic listening experience. The band will make an appearance at the Metro on Sept. 9 as the opening act for alternative rockers, Ludo.

The Chronicle took the opportunity to speak with lead singer, Corey Warning, as he drove through rural Pennsylvania during a brief tour stint on the east coast.

The Chronicle: Your new record is now in stores. How does this one differ from your debut?

Corey Warning: I think it’s another step forward for our band. For our last record, we just took the songs that we had already. We had a couple of songs that were off of our EP on there, and we didn’t have as much time to write it. This time around, we almost had too long to write it. We had a ton of songs and we were able to pick the best ones from this album and make it a more focused record this time around.

The Chronicle: You worked with producer Brian McTernan (Hot Rod Circuit, Circa Survive), who also produced your debut. What’s it like working with such a prolific producer?

CW: It’s been great. I mean, he’s done a lot of albums that I kind of grew up with—[he’s worked] with Thrice and Hot Water Music. “Red Tree,” that Moneen record—that’s my favorite Moneen album. So it was really cool. This time around he was almost like a sixth member of the band with us, which was something that we kind of needed coming in. [We had] all this time on our hands, with the songs. Sometimes we tend to over think things if we have too much time to sit around. So, it was nice to kind of come in and get that other perspective and smack upside the head if we needed it, just to stop changing things.

The Chronicle: What’s touring like for you guys?

CW: We actually feel right at home on the road. It’s been awhile since we’ve been out, but it kind of feels like riding a bike, or something like that. We’re getting right back into the swing of things. We kind of had a rough few days, just getting used to everything again. But yeah, it’s great. We really, really enjoy playing songs live. And it’s cool now because we’ve got all this new material to try out. So far, everybody really seems to be digging it. It’s really exciting.

The Chronicle: It’s been awhile since you first released your first EP [the Horror Show EP, self-released in 2006] and you’ve really come a long way. Where do you foresee yourself in four or five years?

CW: You know, we kind of learned from this record not to really have a lot of expectations for what’s going to happen. The music industry is kind of in a weird way right now. So we’re really just going to take everything as it goes. We want to tour on this record as much as we can. And when it’s time to make a new record, [we will] start that whole process over again. Hopefully it won’t take as long as it did for this new record. But you never know. It just kind of depends on where we’re at. We don’t want be one of those bands that just pumps out the same record every single time. We want to make something that’s going to be interesting to us and interesting to our fans and make sure nobody’s bored with us—make sure we’re not bored with ourselves, even.

Catch The Graduate at the Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., on Sept. 9, with There for Tomorrow, Tommy & The High Pilots and Ludo. For more information visit www.thegraduatemusic.com