When Savages were toying with creative ways to test-drive some new songs for Adore Life, the follow-up to their smash debut, they decided on a simple-sounding yet left field idea. “We started as a live band,” says powerhouse drummer Fay Milton from the group’s London home base. “The writing and playing went hand in hand— many of the songs on our first record were written onstage, in some respects. That really formed the way they were built.”

So, after spending some time tinkering with ideas at their East London studio in 2014, the indie-rock quartet—which also features French-born singer Jehnny Beth, bassist Ayse Hassan and guitarist Gemma Thompson—went back to basics. They booked flights, reserved temporary lodging through Airbnb and scheduled nine shows at three New York venues to try out their latest batch of songs for their most dedicated—and picky—fans.

“We really wanted to mix in that live feel and finish writing these songs before they were cemented in a studio recording,” the drummer reflects of the January 2015 club dates, which took place at the new South Williamsburg hotspot Baby’s All Right, the metal-friendly Greenpoint space Saint Vitus and the classic East Village indie incubator Mercury Lounge over a 19-day stretch. “We were sitting in a café in East London and decided to bring them alive— to make sure they had the same energy as our previous attempts.’’

The four musicians—who first came together in 2011 and quickly signed to Matador, a perfect fit for their noisy brand of post-punk indie-rock—spent time writing together before each of the intimate evening shows. “It felt like a dream,” Milton says. “It was a good way for us to knuckle down and see what wasn’t working and what was working on the album. We were also able to work our new songs into a live set.”

She says a “New York energy” added to the writing of certain tracks, like the grungy, hardhitting “The Answer,” the sparse, moody “Adore,” the bass-driven new wave rocker “Evil,” and the album’s punky, thrashy climax, “T.I.W.Y.G.” The club shows also reinforced their already close bond with their fans. (At least a few people attended all nine shows.)

“We felt it was important to trust people who, like us, are up for hearing new things or are up for hearing things that aren’t these perfectly polished pop songs,” Milton says. “There is a lot of trust that goes into that experience, and you need to have that trust in your show. We liked being able to share that with the audience and spend some time experiencing that with them.”

After the run, Savages finished writing the album and, in April 2015, they recorded the basic tracks at West London’s RAK Studios with producer Johnny Hostile and engineer Richard Woodcraft. Beth addedvocals during additional sessions in Paris, and then Anders Trentemøller mixed Adore Life in Copenhagen. Before recording, the group hunkered down to hash out the songs as a unit, with Beth writing the lyrics. According to Milton, they “went through each instrument and [put] a lot of attention on the sound.”

Though Milton admits that they didn’t have an overall sonic plan at the outset of the recording sessions, one of their initial goals was to write their loudest song yet. “We had this idea of pushing what we’d already done further in each direction,” she says. “We had very atmospheric songs, so we tried to delve into that more and not be frightened. If we’re doing something heavy, then let’s just play on the ropes as we have for the past few years. We can be heavier and really push that—and that’s made us happy.”

All four musicians are self-described “music obsessives” and were listening to an eclectic range of bands when they started working on their sophomore effort. Beth was on a Soundgarden/‘90s alt-rock kick, Thompson was digging into the work of composer and sacred music artist Arvo Pärt, and Milton was in the midst of an Aphex Twin phase. Meanwhile, Hassan was dividing her time between Savages and her bass-and-beats side project Kite Base, and some of those sounds crept into the recordings.

Hostile, who produced Savages’ 2013 Mercury Prize-nominated introduction, Silence Yourself, was a huge part of why the recording sessions went so smoothly. “We’ve been working with Johnny from the start,” says Milton, who describes him as the band’s fifth member. “He’s very close to all of us. Alongside working in the studio with him, he comes on tour with us often. He supports us, and our solo projects. It’s a gang, really— we’re close to each other. He’s able to get the best out of each one of us, and translate our ideas into solid sounds.”

This spring and summer, Savages will support Adore Life with a mix of headlining and festival dates—and will grace the stage at Morrison, Colo.’s famed Red Rocks with LCD Soundsystem. Milton is also looking forward to seeing how their new songs blossom onstage. “These songs were written with the live performance in mind,” she says. “There’s a couple of new settings and a few things we had to recreate sonically but, mostly, we used the same materials we had on the road with us to make the album, so it is pretty much just a case of playing the songs live.” She pauses to laugh and adds: “Though we have a few tricks from the studio we are toying with.”