Kevin Bronson on August 16th, 2010

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The first question, as we convene for what has become a biannual lunch at Oinkster in Eagle Rock, is: “When did one of my favorite shoegaze bands wake up and decide they wanted to sound like the Byrds?”

Rob Barbato and Tim Presley of Darker My Love laugh.

“We always did …” Barbato says.

“… in our own minds,” Presley says, finishing the thought. “That’s what you get when you take away all the reverb.”

• ||| Download: “Dear Author” (previously posted) and “Split Minute” (e-mail required)

“Alive As You Are,” Darker My Love’s third album for Dangerbird, arrives Tuesday bereft of the wall of sound that shook its self-titled debut to its foundations, and absent the shimmering popgazing of 2008’s follow-up, “2.” In their place are gently rolling melodies of reminiscent of their 1960s psych-pop forebears, jangly and twangy guitars topping by yearning harmonies and the general feeling that, for now, the more forthright the better.

“Alive’s” familiarity borders on homage at times, but it’s transcended by what the album evokes – guileless times when relationships were built on more than just text messages and honesty was a more precious fashion accessory than irony.

“All of us had been through the ringer in 2009,” Barbato says. “We toured and toured. We lost Andy [Granelli, DML’s original drummer]. And maybe our interpersonal relationships were strained a bit.”

Presley, for his part, was still reeling from the death of his father in August 2008. “It did a chokehold on me,” he says. “I started looking at life existentially. I had motivation to try and figure out what it’s all about. This was the first time in my life that lyrics really meant something to me.”

No surprise, then, that Darker My Love – abetted by new drummer Danny Allaire – returned to its roots. As Barbato points out, the band’s first cover photo shoot for LA Record was an homage to the Byrds’ “5D.”

“June Bloom” was the first song that emerged for the new album – “a slower song,” says Presley, “and I figured that eventually we would put our old style on top of it. But then I think we realized we didn’t need all those frills.”

“We’re just doing what feels natural,” Barbato says.

He and Presley say their label “is being really cool” about the change in aesthetic – Dangerbird was more hands-on in the making of “2,” which, Presley says, had its upside and downside. “That’s what it should have been called – what ‘2’ do and what not ‘2’ do,” he says with a laugh.

Perhaps he biggest challenge will come during Darker My Love’s live shows. The quintet has a big tour ahead supporting Band of Horses. “It gonna be tricky,” Presley says. “We’ve been playing a lot of the new stuff live, and it is hard to go back to the old stuff.”

||| Live: Darker My Love headlines the Bootleg Theater on Tuesday, plays an in-store at Fingerprints in Long Beach on Wednesday and opens for Band of Horses on Sept. 25 at the Greek Theatre.