It’s not that Raul Malo didn’t have plenty of chances to reunite The Mavericks during the band’s seven-year hiatus, but something always held him back.

There were no problems among the members. It just had reached a point where it felt, to Malo anyway, that it had run out of steam. And he said The Mavericks’ meant too much to him to just drain it dry creatively.

But Malo had the chance to breathe new life into the group a few years ago. Even though Malo established a solid solo career during The Mavericks’ hiatus, it didn’t take much to get his alt-country groove back. On January 29, the Grammy Award winning Mavericks will release its 14-track album “In Time,” its first album in seven years.

Although Malo’s rich vocals still lead the sound, don’t listen for the Latin-inspired edge to the music he brought to his solo work. The songs on the new album, released in conjunction with its 20th anniversary, is a mix of Buck Owens- and Roy Orbison-styled country mixed with soul, hints of rock, and more.

Malo took time out of his recent solo tour to talk about The Mavericks, inspiration and just where he sees the band going for here:

I was surprised you did your solo Christmas tour this year, considering all you have going on with The Mavericks.

RM: I don’t know when I’m going to be able to do one of these again. We had a little window. Our drummer, Paul Deakin, had a little skateboarding accident and busted his elbow, so we weren’t going to work in December anyway. He is fine though. He’s recovered. He’s all good. So it worked out and I was able to do the tour and get home for Christmas and then kick it off with The Mavericks for the New Year.

Were you playing the new Mavericks’ songs on the holiday tour?

RM: No. The Mavericks have been playing the new songs. I want people to hear them like that. I [wanted the Christmas tour] to be a completely different thing. Otherwise, what’s the point? You have got to play what sounds good for the night. And The Mavericks stuff, I want people to hear the music how it’s been recorded, how it’s been presented. I want them to hear that first. Then we can do the acoustic versions and the all the different varieties.

When we spoke a while back, you said that you were writing songs and just realized they sounded like The Mavericks. You said there was really no catalyst. Now that you’ve lived with these for a while, do you still feel that way?

RM: It’s funny, my buddy Seth Walker had a song, it was almost two years ago, he had a song he had started writing he wanted me to hear it because he wanted me to help him finish it. And I was like yeah, sure. We always do that. If I hear something that I think he would totally tap into and get we are like, ‘Yeah, let’s get together. ‘He had this little piece of music and a lyric and title and some of the form and he played it for me and I flipped out. I was like ‘Oh, gosh.’ This was before there was any talk of any Mavericks.

And the first thing I thought was, ‘This sounds like a Mavericks’ song.’ So I kept it there. We recorded it; we made a little demo of it.

What is the song?

RM: ‘Back In Your Arms Again.’ I tried to make it as un-Mavericks as possible. Not for any reason. I just thought ‘Why am I thinking this?’ Just to test it and see where it would go, because you never know where something is going to go. That was the start of it, at least, on the creative side. There was a song that sounded like there could be a Mavericks’ song. I guess that was the catalyst or it started the creative side and go me thinking ‘Maybe there are more Mavericks songs to come.’ This was even before there were thoughts of any sort of Mavericks’ gigs or anything.

So it really came together almost as happenstance.

RM: I think it just hit at the right time. That’s what is so strange about it. That is why after a while I thought ‘I’m not going to fight this. There is a natural force working here that I am going to recognize, and I’m going to step out of its way and just ride this wave.’ It was coming at me from everywhere. And it was really hard to pinpoint one specific thing as far as the business of putting it back together. So many things just started to come together.

Did you have any second thoughts about re-starting The Mavericks once it began?

RM: You are always concerned. The one thing I know is that I know nothing. That anything can happen and you don’t take anything for granted. There are always doubts. It is like you are building an airplane and you wonder if it will fly. That’s what it feels like. You are getting to release this record. You wonder what it will do, how it will be received and there are so many facets. What I mean by flying is everything together not necessarily a hit record in the conventional terms. I mean getting your record out there and let it be written about and spoken about and hopefully people get to hear it. That’s what I mean about letting it fly. You don’t know if it will. You hope it will. You think it will.

When we spoke in the past, you mentioned how you had always turned down chances to restart The Mavericks, just for the sake of re-starting it. You had said it meant too much to you to give a half-hearted effort.

RM: That’s true. Those opportunities were always dangled in front of us, like a carrot. It just never felt right. I didn’t want to put the band back together and just do the same thing that we had been doing. If we were going to do it, we were going to have new music. And if it was going to be new music, it better be as good a record as we could possibly make. I’m confident enough about that, that we did make a really good record that we can be proud of. Whether it is a hit or people like it, who’s to say? But we put a good effort in.

It had to be surreal to record with The Mavericks again.

RM: It was really surreal. The strangest thing about it, and this was by design, was I was specifically thinking we would go into the studio and not rehearse. I didn’t make any work tapes or demo tapes like we normally do. We didn’t go into any rehearsal to work out arrangements or any of that. I just told everybody ‘Let’s go in and make music like grown ups.’ We can take our time. We don’t necessarily have to be in there in a hurry. We had only gone in there going to do three to four songs over the course of three days or so. By the end of the second day we had nine songs.

All these things had kind of been building up. This anticipation. It was really fun. It was fun being around the guys. There was such a positive energy. Everyone was really dialed in to make this as special a record as we could possibly make it. You know when you are working like that and you are working and firing on all cylinders like that. It was really special and everybody stepped up and, you know, contributed much more than in records past even.

It’s like having another chance.

RM: Yeah, I think everybody thinks that. Everybody knows that. We don’t talk about it much, but we know nobody gets these opportunities. You look at the format that we’re in where everybody is half your age, 20-somethings, and they are talking and writing about all this other stuff you aren’t talking about. Of course not. It’s not your world. And we are getting this opportunity again in this day and age; it is really kind of a freaky thing. You have to appreciate it.

When you think back to recording, was there one moment that stands out above the others?

RM: I will say that there were so many little moments but I think the most chilling moment, the most exciting moment, was when we had gone into the studio. Everybody was getting sounds. We were all getting sounds. I was playing a song for everybody, the way we used to do it way back when. I’d sit there with a guitar and we’d hash out a song. We did that in the control room before we went out and played it. Everybody got in their stations and everybody put on their headphones and I’ll never forget that moment. It was like, ‘Yeah, that is what it sounds like.’ It was really, really fun and it gave you a little different perspective and made you appreciate it.

You don’t always appreciate what you’re doing or what you’re a part of or how you affect the world or how you affect fans because you’re so involved in your thing. But I think now, as you get older, it just happens with age. You are able to step back from yourself a little bit and see how the world perceives you, how you perceive the world and it really hit me at that moment that, yeah, The Mavericks were back and it was real. Because it is a unique sound. I don’t like saying stuff like that because it sounds like we are boasting. I don’t like to do that. But it is a unique band. I think we are grown up enough to at least admit that. And it is a good band. A really good band.

It was natural and effortless. It was like, yeah, we’re back. I remember that moment. It was a beautiful moment.

It had to be overwhelming, to receive the standing ovation after you played at the Americana Music Awards.

RM: It was. You are just so caught up in the moment and you are so filled with adrenalin. For a moment after the song finished and people realized it was over and it was quiet for like a millisecond and we were like ‘Oh my God. They hated it." Then people were standing up. And then they were cheering. We were like ‘Wow!’ But it’s good to have those doubts, those little feelings. You have to as a musician you have to be as equally confident as you are neurotic.

So look in your crystal ball and tell me what we’ll be talking about next year. What will be the big news for Raul Malo and The Mavericks?

RM: I think we are going have a pretty good, damn busy year. Hopefully we are talking about some fun, successful stuff but I don’t like to verbalize what. Not for any reason in particular. But if we can get people to hear the record and go out and play and tour, anything that happens beyond that, that will just be icing on the cake.