The Whigs [ tickets ], emerging from the ever-active music scene of Athens, GA, didn't wait for a record label to come knocking on their door before making their debut album.

Instead, they bought recording equipment on eBay, set up a makeshift studio in a local frat house, and determinedly laid down the tracks of what would become their breakthrough debut, "Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip." The result was certainly worth the effort, catching the attention of ATO Records, who soon re-released the album to the acclaim of fans and critics nationwide.

After two years and much touring, the group is back with their highly anticipated follow-up, Mission Control. LiveDaily recently spoke with frontman Parker Gispert.

LiveDaily: The new album, "Mission Control," comes out in a just a couple of weeks. It's been some time since your last release. Are you excited to have some new material out there?

Parker Gispert: For sure. It's been nice at each of the shows. The crowd's excited to hear new songs and we're excited to be playing them. So it's a good combination.

I've yet to see you on tour, but just going by your recorded music, I get the sense that the band really loves playing live. Is that true?

Yeah. All the songs are kind of written in that context, in a practice room, playing loud. It's not like I write parts and people come in and play them. It's an organic songwriting process. So the most natural way for the band to play is live.

To you, what stands out as the biggest difference between "Mission Control" and your debut, "Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip"?

I'd say sonically it's definitely a departure. We were fortunate enough to record at Sunset Sound in the Sound Factory. The first go-around, we were recording in a house with a friend. This time, we were able to work with a producer that we were all big fans of. We definitely got a sonically superior product. The band and the songwriting are definitely the same. But I would say the biggest difference is the sonic quality.

The tracks seem much more frenzied, energetic and live-sounding than your previous work.

Yeah, for sure. It's definitely much more representative of our live show.

How does the band typically write a new song?

This go-around, I would be at home and bring pieces in to Julian [Dorio], who's the drummer, and together we would do the structure and all that kind of stuff. I would write the lyrics and the music. And then we would just hash it out in the practice room until we had it the way we wanted it.

Tell me a bit about your background. When did you first get interested in music? When did you first want to start a band?

I first got a guitar when I was in eighth grade, and I started playing. In high school, I got a drum set, too, and tried to make my own band. Guys I went to high school with mostly played in jam bands. I ended up playing drums for some of those. I tried to write songs and play everything myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't really that good at playing drums and bass or any of that stuff. Julian went to the same high school as me. When we got to college, we started playing together and that's when the band took shape, which was about 2002. From the time we each got to Athens, which was when I was 18 and he was 19, we both wanted to do the band seriously, make records and tour, and do all the things that bands do.

Who were you listening to at the time? Did you have any main influences?

Then, I was listening to a lot of the Dismemberment Plan, Velvet Underground, a lot of The Kinks. The Strokes had just come out. That kind of stuff.

Going by the band's name, I'm guessing you studied history in college. Is that right?

(laughs) No, no. I studied Philosophy and Julian did Psychology.

OK. A lot of artists don't like to discuss the meaning behind their band's name, but if you're willing to, I'd like to hear it.

Yeah, I can definitely get in there. It's a pretty crappy story, unfortunately. We had a show and we didn't have a band name, so we had to find one. We tried to come up with a name that didn't really connote any particular sound. For whatever reason, we stumbled on The Whigs, and we figured it wasn't like Black Satan Death Metal or something like that, so it might leave you to figure out what kind of band we were. We figured, whatever the band sounded like, that's what The Whigs would connote to people. So we just chose The Whigs and that was it.

I really admire the do-it-yourself spirit behind your first album. What led you to record this album on your own, without the help of a label?

We knew we wanted to make a record. We would have loved to be in the situation that we're in this time, where we know there is a label behind us, with a budget and all that kind of stuff. Lots of bands that we have been inspired by had recorded on their own, DIY bands. The idea just presented itself that we could record the album on our own and yield some good results. We could buy the equipment on eBay and basically get whatever equipment we wanted, knowing we could just sell it back and not be in debt at the end of the process. We realized we could do that and come out of it financially unscathed. And we just had faith in the songs. We thought, if the songs were good, it didn't really matter if you recorded them with two mics or 500 mics. We just tried to get really good performances and make sure the songs were the way we wanted them. And we figured we would have a good product. That was pretty much the mindset and it worked out pretty well for us.

You mentioned that the new album was recorded in a Los Angeles studio with a producer. How was that experience?

It was really nice in the sense that it felt like we could relax a little bit more. When you're working with someone like Rob [Schnapf] who's has made records that you think are just fantastic records, then you trust his judgment. And a lot of times we didn't have to be worried about engineering the record or how things were going to come across sonically. We knew that his records sounded great and we could just concentrate on singing, playing guitar and drums, being musicians, and not trying to exist on both sides of the board. It took a lot of pressure off us. It was nice to have another person in the room who could look at me after vocal takes and say, "Alright, we got this. You don't need to keep singing it. Let's move forward." You know, someone just to direct everything was a big burden off of us.

The record does sound great. He did an excellent job. So the band is from Athens, GA, a city known for producing a number of great bands. How would you describe the current scene there?

It's really diverse. I think when people outside of Athens look at it, they see little eras. You know, the B-52s/R.E.M. era, the Elephant 6 era or something like that. They don't really realize that there's so much going on. Right now, there are a lot of jam bands. They're excellent jam bands. A good group of math rock bands. A group of really slow, vocal-based bands. And a lot of what Athens is really known for, you know, psychedelic pop or college pop bands and that kind of stuff. It's just a place where lots of musicians are living and there's lots of music at all times. There's a really eclectic scene.

Did you find it really supportive when you were starting out?

For sure.

Did you play a lot of college house parties and that type of stuff?

We didn't, actually. We mostly wanted to play in downtown. That's the other thing: there are so many places to play in Athens for being such a small town. There are just tons of venues willing to let 18-year-old kids get up there and make a bunch of noise. So we basically started out there, in the bars.

Have you had time to check out any new music? What are you listening to these days?

Yeah, yeah, we have plenty of time in this band driving around. Let's see ... I've been listening to the new Rilo Kiley, which I'm kind of late on. Been listening to the new Devendra Banhart a lot. I just ordered a Superchunk record that I've been looking forward to for a while, "Here's to Shutting Up," which I don't have yet. And this band Wax Fang from Louisville, KY, that we played with last night. A really good band. So, yeah, that's about it.

Any future plans you'd like to mention? You're on tour into March. Will it be time for a break or will you dive right back into writing new material?

I'm definitely always thinking about that stuff. I'd say, at this point, we're just trying to think about what kind of songs we want to start writing, and keeping our ears open to stuff that may influence us the next go-around. You don't have a ton of time to write on the road, but we have some new recording equipment from our bass player, Tim [Deaux]. Hopefully, we'll start making some demos and finding some time to do some writing, maybe even this weekend.