“I’m on, like, take 72,” Barr laughs. “I keep getting to the end and then screwing it up.”

For longtime Canadian indie fans, The Barr Brothers bring a rush of nostalgia. Since their early and mid-2010s releases — including Sleeping Operator (certified Gold in Canada) and Queens of the Breakers — the brothers have been pushing the limits of what “indie folk” can sound like, throwing the label to the floor and rebuilding it with raw experimentation.

It’s been eight years since their last full-length, but that changed this month with the release of their long-awaited comeback, Let It Hiss. The hiatus doesn’t mean the Barrs were idle: Brad released his second solo record, The Winter Mission, in 2022, while Andrew has been drumming with Broken Social Scene, Feist, Patrick Watson, and most recently, Mumford & Sons. The brothers are now back on the road together, opening for the English folk giants. “It only took 35 years of playing music to get into an arena,” Barr jokes. “But honestly, it’s way more fun and comfortable than I thought it would be.”

They’ve been debuting a few of the new songs on tour — tracks that demanded time, space, and emotion to take shape. “I’m not one of those super disciplined songwriters who sit and write every day,” Barr admits. “I keep a bunch of songs around and check in with them periodically.”

When the brothers finally started jamming again, their telepathic chemistry returned instantly. There was no grand plan to make an album — until one song took on a life of its own. That song became the title track, “Let It Hiss.”

“I use this pedal called the Truly Beautiful Disaster, and it’s just full of hiss,” Barr says. “When we were mixing, we asked whether to leave that hiss in, and we went, ‘Let’s just let it hiss.’”

That phrase became a mantra — not just for the song, but for the album itself. “The album was becoming more and more explosive, this exalted, revved-up version of what we do,” Barr explains. The looser, more instinctive energy recalls their earlier work in The Slip, their Boston-based groove-rock band from the ’90s. “In the beginning, The Barr Brothers was an exercise in restraint — a reaction to years of playing really intense, wild music,” Barr says.

Now, the pendulum has swung back. Out Oct. 17 via Secret City, Let It Hiss finds the brothers embracing imperfection and rediscovering joy in the noise. “It’s a special album,” Barr reflects. “We just let ourselves be us — not trying to curate anyone’s perception of what we sound like.”

It’s also a fresh start. One that, hopefully, won’t take another eight years to follow. “I know we couldn’t have made this record in 2022 or 2023,” Barr says. “It took time. But now we’re in a place where we can release music with more frequency.”