The last time I spoke with Two Hours Traffic, the Charlottetown rockers had just watched the motor in their van explode somewhere outside Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

“Our van’s been good this time,” laughs singer/guitarist Liam Corcoran over the phone from Regina, where the four-piece is six weeks into a Canadian stint. “We’re touring with our friends the Danks, and their van’s had some electrical trouble. They’ve been to Canadian Tire a few times. We’ve gotten off scot-free – so far.”

The band’s touring in support of their sublime third full-length album, Territory (Bumstead), the anticipated follow-up to 2007’s Little Jabs, whose power-pop melodies, intelligent arrangements and high-energy hooks earned them a Polaris Prize nomination and East Coast Music Awards for group of the year and alternative rock recording of the year.

“Any time you make a record that people seem to like, you’re going to feel some pressure with the next one,” says the 25-year-old Corcoran. “You know you have people waiting for it. But that’s a lot better than having no one waiting for it.”

Much has been made of Territory’s “darker” subject matter, though Corcoran seems amused by the term. After all, though the album finds them trading in their self-professed “young-love songs” for ones about drinking too much and troubled relationships, they’re still light-years away from sounding like, say, Cannibal Corpse.

Corcoran credits Haligonian superstar Joel Plaskett, who produced Territory as well as three of the band’s previous releases, for helping create a positive, productive atmosphere in the studio. He admits there were times when, if Plaskett hadn’t been there, the band might’ve imploded.

Which leads to talk about the future. In a recent interview, founding member/guitarist/keyboardist Alec O’Hanley mentioned he might leave behind PEI’s red cliffs and white sand beaches for relatively bustling Halifax once the tour ended.

“He was talking about it, but then he got a new place in Charlottetown, so…,” says Corcoran. “I don’t think that idea really lasted all that long. I mean, it could happen at some point.

“If you think about it too much, like how everything’s going to work, you’ll drive yourself nuts. We just wait till it happens.”

Interview Clip

On the album's "darker" subject matter:

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