Concurrent with their debut’s release, however, they did a record with ex-Swans’ front man Michael Gira’s Angels of Light project, and it was a completely different sound for them. Where before they were big and airy, they were now incredibly claustrophobic and concise, the clicks and buzzes that seemed so melancholy and homesick before now sounded growling and menacing. And, of course, having Gira involved could make even a walk in the park seem like an intense but leisurely stroll towards Armageddon.

It’s kind of strange to think of the two acts collaborating to begin with. The boys of Akron/Family are incredibly laid-back, charming, and very friendly—Ryan was eating his mom’s homemade cookies and raving all about them during our interview—while Gira is known for being an incredibly intense and intensely reclusive personality.

“Seth was working very hard at sending packages--our CDs and letters and stuff--to lots of different record labels that we liked, independent record labels that we liked, and Michael’s Young Gods was one that we thought was a very interesting label,” explains Ryan. “And Michael responded. He was one of the few people who responded, who commented on our music, and told us to keep up the work and to keep him posted. That was basically all he said the first couple of times—we sent him, like, four different CDs over a year. And he always responded nicely, and with good feedback. But we didn’t really hear from him for quite a while, and then out of the blue, he wrote to us and said he had revisited one of our CDs, and he really loved it, and he wanted to come and see us live. So we happened to be playing a residency at a place called Pete’s Candy Store—we were playing every Monday, I think, of March 2003—and so he came to hear us play. And that’s how we first met him. We were all pretty nervous. He was standing in back with his signature cowboy hat, hootin’ and hollerin’, and cheering us on—it was really cool. A little while later, he invited us to work on his Angels of Light record, and record one of our own for his label.

“It’s been a real learning process, getting to know each other as people and as co-workers. Definitely, in the studio, he’s a very demanding presence. He’s a dominating type of personality, which I think really propels the creative process to really keep moving forward. It keeps it very live. He’s very inspiring in the studio, and pushes us to do our very best in every aspect. Especially in the vocals. He really pulled the vocals, our singing, right out of us, and saw all the good potential we had, and really pushed us to really keep working at it, despite it not really sounding all that good to us in the beginning.

“He’s definitely got a different style than us. He condenses things, and really packs a punch into a small piece of music, where he takes them and really fills them with lots of intensity. It was a challenge for us to do that because generally we were coming from these more long-winded kind of songs, more spacious pieces and a little more meandering type of sound than a concise sound. I think we both influenced each other in good ways in that, because we really needed that ability to create concise statements and themes and to be able to present something in a short amount of time is really fulfilling. And I think we brought an element of spaciousness to his sound, which I think has been beneficial.”

Nowhere are the benefits of this partnership more apparent than in the new Akron/Family & Angels of Light LP. On the first half of the album, Akron/Family takes the front stage, with Michael Gira lending instrumental support, while on the second half, the players reverse roles. On this album, the Akron/Family pieces are wild and chaotic, much blunter and aggressive and sure of themselves than on their previous release. The Michael Gira pieces, however, are definitely some of his most lighthearted work, including a cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” so laid-back you can almost picture Michael Gira cracking a smile. It’s not all sunshine and roses, of course, but if I were a marriage counselor and Akron/Family and Michael Gira were my patients, I would say that this was the healthiest partnership to walk into my office.

“We definitely communicate musically better than we do verbally,” admits Ryan. “I mean, we are all kind of naturally musicians, that’s something we’ve done all our lives, and I think, as people, we just developed our musical communication skills better than our verbal skills. But we’re working on having good personal relationship skills as well, because in order to keep the band alive and moving forward and stuff, we need to be able to work together as just people--outside of the music--too.”

Akron/Family perform on Sat., Mar. 11 at the Seventh St. Entry with The Field and The Dad in Common. 8 p.m. $8. 21+. 29 N. 7th St., Mpls. 612-332-1775.

For more info, check out Akron/Family’s official website at AkronFamily.com.