The Oakland, California-based band the Matches, who play the AP Tour with All Time Low, the Rocket Summer, Sonny and Forever the Sickest Kids, is a prime example of a group that refuses to conform to common notions of what a band should be.

After breaking onto the scene with their debut, E Von Dahl Killed The Locals, in 2004 on Epitaph, the foursome began to test both its limits and the limits of the current music industry, enlisting nine producers for 13 songs on its successor Decomposer and crafting a carefully constructed visual identity for the band. The multiple-personality-afflicted new disc, A Band in Hope, utilized several producers which, according to bassist Justin San Souci, is far easier than spending the usual month in a studio with just one.

"We always try to do things different than everybody else," San Souci says. "Everybody in the rock world uses one producer, so we figured we'd use nine. We felt that working with so many different people would push us further as a band with different ideas and perspectives. But you have to be careful about too many cooks in the kitchens. I think at this point the thing that would be so different and difficult for us to do would be to work with one producer."

For that reason, the album, although cohesively conceptualized, draws its listener through a continuum of sonic landscapes, each strikingly different from the one that precedes it without ever eschewing the band's signature style and flair for the dramatic. Hope seems like a record conceived with an overarching vision. Actually, though, it was not.

"If there is one, no one told me," San Souci says. "We are always writing new songs and constantly rewriting the songs we have. Five of the songs on A Band in Hope were pretty much written before our last record was even finished. We craft the record as we go, arranging and recording when we can, gathering the songs together, and see which ones fit together the best."

The record is also a far cry from E Von Dahl, a collection of unabashedly pop-punk songs that took its cue from Rancid and Green Day. Hope nearly sounds like the product of a different band which has drawn cries of dismay from some longtime fans. But San Souci says the shift in direction is not blatantly intentional, but rather the product of a welcome natural evolution.

"I think that every day takes our music in a new direction," San Souci explains. "We're not really ones to stay put or to retrace any of our steps. I think of each song as kind of an individual expedition through a specific musical or emotional idea, and each album almost becomes a logbook of our adventures. Nobody wants an author to write the same book twice, so why would we make the same album? So if I had to sum up our new direction I would say, anywhere except where we're standing."

Image is also a key aspect to the Matches and although singer-guitarist Shawn Harris generally crafts the group's artwork, San Souci is also a talented visual artist, spending much of his time on tour working on his art, a sample of which can be found on the used drumheads he designs to sell at the band's merch table on tour.

"I think it's all part of our collective personality," San Souci says of the Matches' drive to always move to the next level. "We try and go beyond just our music and show who we are as people. Shawn has his art company, [guitarist] Jon [Devoto] makes soap, I paint drum heads, and [drummer] Matt [Whalen] crunches numbers for breakfast."

The AP Tour: 7 p.m. Friday, May 2, House of Blues, 308 Euclid Ave., 216.241.5555. SOLD OUT.