When we started recording, Jeff [Tweedy] said to us, ‘I like your records but I love your live show,‘" White Denim guitarist/singer James Petralli admits over coffee in Austin between studio sessions for his band’s fifth full-length album. “We are hoping to change that with this record.”

He’s explaining how the Wilco frontman came to help produce the follow-up to White Denim’s 2011 almost-breakthrough, D. While D certainly pulled in some new fans, it wasn’t until the album’s supporting tour that the psychedelic-influenced garage rockers embraced a new, festival-friendly live music audience, drawn to both thoughtful songwriting and expansive jams.

In early March, Petralli and his bandmates spent a few days recording with Tweedy at Wilco’s famed Chicago headquarters/studio The Loft. They blasted through two fully realized tracks and also laid down a series of instrumentals that helped the group channel their high-energy live show. A budding producer with recent Mavis Staples and Low credits under his belt, Tweedy enlisted longtime Wilco engineer TJ Doherty to help with the sessions.

Not only was The Loft a change of scenery for the Austin-based band, but it was also the first time the group worked with a producer – or even recorded in a proper studio. “We’ve always had a very D.I.Y. approach to recording,” Petralli says. “Early on, it was because of [financial] necessity but we always liked the idea of being a D.I.Y. band. So it was mind-blowing to go from that to recording in The Loft.”

White Denim brought a few new songs to the recording sessions, but Petralli admits that those ideas were heavily workshopped by Tweedy and his team. “I had this Tom Pettyish song which Tweedy totally turned on its head,” Petralli points out. “Then, it was a matter of fitting my lyrics and melodies back into the song. He encouraged us to record live in the studio.”

After a few days of recording, White Denim returned home in part so Petralli could spend time with his new baby. The quartet reconvened in early April to track their next batch of tunes at a remote studio outside Austin. They charged through another set of fresh songs and, Petralli says, they will likely send those tunes back to Chicago for Tweedy to assess. (There was some discussion of bringing in LA-based producer/musician Jonathan Wilson to work with the material as well, but ultimately, that idea didn’t materialize.)

Tweedy isn’t the only new voice on White Denim’s next record. The album also spotlights new guitarist Austin Jenkins, who joined the band during their recording sessions for D. Petralli says that Jenkins has written a few songs for the album and bassist Steven Terebecki will shoulder some guitar responsibilities also.

In total, Petralli figures the band has about “50 ideas” that they hope to whittle down to a cohesive but stylistically eclectic album. They are also focusing on songs that they can play live.

“We are going to tackle Austin’s songs first,” Petralli says of the Texas recording sessions. “It’s been funny to go from The Loft back to a ‘home studio’ but we set the bar high in Chicago. Now, we have something to hold everything we record up to.”

Wilco changed the way that Petralli and his bandmates approached their new material even before Tweedy signed onto the project. Last year, White Denim spent time on the road with the veteran outfit as an opening act. “It was inspiring to see them still working on all these songs and changing their setlist every night,” he says. “We did a few shows in a row in LA and every night, they’d practice during sound check to make sure every show was different.”

Nodding to his own roots, Petralli hopes to make White Denim’s live show more diverse in the coming months. He plans to cycle in more songs from their five studio albums and stretch those songs out every night.

“When we started [White Denim], I didn’t want to be labeled as a jamband, even though that’s all I listened to in college,” Petralli says. “I wanted it to be about the songs. But I think songwriting has come back [into the jam scene] a little bit, and all my friends I used to go to see Widespread Panic with in college are into all this different type of music. I want to make a record that people can dance to live.”

Though it remains to be seen if White Denim’s next album will be the “groove album” he still wants to make, filled with “sweaty, dark, psychedelic songs,” or will include some combination of those styles, Petralli is determined to capture the wild energy of their live shows. “This album is going to be full of smaller moments, larger in the mix,” he says. “It is going to sound more like ‘us’ than anything we’ve ever recorded.”