The new album is out now, and it might be the most genre-hopping record the band has made. There is hardcore-tinged punk, ska punk, reggae, and plenty of stroll. That variety is by design. Big D is not a one-songwriter band, and McWane actively pushes everyone to contribute, the weirder the demo the better. "We can fix it up, like remaking a car or fixing a house," he said of the band's approach to wild song ideas.

He credits the Beastie Boys for permission to roam between styles, and he has a reframe for the restless creativity that drives it. Rather than call it a disorder, he calls it ATC, Attention to Creativity. "What if we had the audacity to label people who like spreadsheets and call it a disorder?" he joked.

There's a certain kind of musician who can tell you exactly why a tube amplifier sounds the way it does. Not just in vague poetic terms, but in the specific language of circuit design and voltage. Price Harrison is that musician, and it goes a long way toward explaining why Sour Ops sounds the way it does.

Harrison, who plays guitar and handles most of the vocals for the Nashville-based collective, came into the conversation with the kind of quiet confidence that comes from doing the work for a long time. Five albums deep, with a core lineup of drummer Steve Eby and bassist Tony Frost, Sour Ops has spent the years since Covid refining what was already a strong foundation into something that rewards close listening.