CREDIT: RONNIE LEE HILL
Limblifter will stop by Run Runners on March 28 as its tour comes to and end and it promotes Pacific Milk.

It has been over 10 years since west coast power-punk outfit Limblifter released an album, but to hear front man Ryan Dahle describe it, the band's upcoming album, Pacific Milk, is just the latest chapter in a story that's still unfolding.

Produced by Ryan in East Vancouver, Pacific Milk is the group's fourth full-length and first recorded output for the band — brothers Ryan and Kurt Dahle on guitar and drums respectively, bassist Megan Bradfield and guitarist Greg MacDonald — since the 2004 release I/O. To celebrate the album's arrival on April 7, Limblifter is embarking on a record release tour that wraps up on March 28 in London at Rum Runners with local acts Red Arms and Traumahawk.

On the surface it may look as though the band has been inactive during that time, but in truth, the collective members have hardly taken a break since the band formed as a side project back in 1995. To say that Ryan has kept active in the music community would be a serious understatement. As a member of new super group Mounties, he supported 2014's release Thrash Rock Legacy with Hawksley Workman and Steve Bays around working as a producer, guest performer and mentor for a wide variety of bands and albums. And while Ryan may have no end of creative outlets at his disposal of late, he can't be accused of diluting his work — the music on Pacific Milk is characteristically Limblifter. Kurt's tight drum work drives the momentum of the music as before, urgent yet focused, while the music above it shines with all the inventive hooks and offbeat vocals fans have come to expect.

“I want it to be a continuation,” Ryan said, explaining that Pacific Milk is just the next logical step in the band's history. “I started writing those songs well before we re-released the first record on vinyl, and they had already started sounding to us like a Limblifter record. Sometimes I write songs that sound like something from my past, and that's how these songs sounded — sounded like they were from that voice.”

“I spent the next two years trying to find the time to finish it and get it to meet the Limblifter standard. It doesn't sound like something from the ‘90s at all, but it definitely sounds like something you could put the Limblifter name on and have a continuation of that story.”

Ryan described the natural process by which the album evolved, and it's easy to see where Pacific Milk gets its sound. Sure, there are ghosts of the band's selftitled album present in the album opener, “Cast A Net,” or standout tracks “Hotel Knife” and “Position Open.” But there's also a subtext, a new energy present that could only be informed by years of growth as individuals and experimentation in other groups like Mounties or The New Pornographers.

That new substance is evident in the lead single, “Dopamine,” or in highlight tracks “Been There Done That” — a certified summer earworm poised to happen — and “Juliet Club,” which will surely draw fans in on the first listen. According to Ryan, these songs were all able to grow naturally over time, which in turn goes a long way to creating lasting recordings.

“When you create music, it goes from this really raw stage through stages of being affected every time you touch it,” he said. “Your current state influences the outcome each time you revisit it, and I know if I'm making a record, I'm going to touch those songs a lot of times. I'm going to be revisiting it, re-listening to it, re-examining it and adding or subtracting as I go. Sometimes, I'll record it and just live with it for a while — if it starts to stick I'll keep it, but if it doesn't then I'll quickly re-do it. If I know what [sound] I want to get, I go get it.”

Comfortable on either side of the recording console, Ryan's approach is to find and fill any gaps needed in the studio. For other bands that often entail little more than guidance, from creating an atmosphere conducive to helping to achieve a particular sound, his experience shows in his ability to switch back and forth between the roles of producer and artist.

“Obviously, as a musician, you need to develop your skill, and everyone knows that takes a long time,” he said. “You have to have more skills than you need and then play down to what you're working on, and I think any musician would understand that. It's the same with producing: you need to be able to visualize things and play with the production role, but you also need to lay off a bit and just be another person in the room.”

“I think people misunderstand the role of a producer in some ways. It's not somebody who wakes up in the middle of the night and visualizes the whole song or walks into the studio knowing exactly how it should sound,” Ryan said. “A producer is somebody who puts the musicians mentally and physically in the right spot to create music. Music doesn't come from the conscience as much as it comes from the sub-conscience, so if you're able to put people in that state of mind you get to a place where music can happen.”

For more on Limblifter or Pacific Milk, visit limblifter.com. They appear in concert on March 28 at Rum Runners, a licensed and all-ages event presented by Summercamp Productions and the London Music Hall.

Advance tickets are $15, available now downtown from Grooves and the London Music Hall box office or online from ticketfly.com.