Springfield, Mo.-based four-piece Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is perhaps best known for its hilariously long band name, but the band’s indie-pop tunes are seriously good.

The band first caught fire with its lo-fi, self released debut “Broom” in 2005, followed by the ballad-laden “Pershing” in 2008 and its newest — and loudest — album, “Let It Sway,” earlier this year.

SSLYBY wraps up the tour in support of that album in Norman on Wednesday night, and lead guitarist and co-songwriter Will Knauer took the time to chat with The Daily about Chris Walla, buzz bands and going with the flow.

— Joshua Boydston, psychology junior

The Daily: One of the things that pops out with you guys is the band name, especially how long it is. What made you decide to do that, and have you ever come to regret it?

Knauer: We are happy with it. I think we regretted it for a little bit, because we didn’t realize we were going to get stuck with it. It started off as a joke at first, but we realized it has really benefited us a lot. People come out to shows and tell us that they’ve never heard us but saw the name and decided to come out just to because of that.

The Daily: All your albums — while in keeping with your general sound — all sound very different from one another. Is there any reason that you’ve switched things up each time out?

Knauer: I don’t know that it’s intentional. I think it has more to do with the resources we’ve had available at the time, and where we were living. The first album was very much a representation of that time back in 2004. We were forced to record it ourselves. I think of those songs, back then, had been recorded for our new CD, they’d be much bigger and have more parts to them. We were working on a simple basis, and I think the songs came off like that. Having access to more equipment and recording quality, as well as someone producing us, it kind of made things bigger. If we recorded the new songs five years ago, they would have been a lot more simple and quiet.

The Daily: What was it like working with Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie) on the new album?

Knauer: It was pretty great. He’s really good about understanding what works for each band, and so it doesn’t come in and make all the bands sound the same. He takes what’s good about the band and hones it down. He chases the songs, but he won’t direct how you are writing them. It’s a very honest reflection of the band, and he just helps bring things to the next level sonically.

The Daily: Is there a meaning behind the album’s title, “Let It Sway”?

Knauer: Not really actually … I think I came up with the title, but I didn’t mean for it to. It was a lyric in one of my songs. I came up with that in trying to be aware of situations, like instead of walking into a room where there is already conversation going on or a certain mood, my goal is to go with the flow instead of trying to change things for how I want them. I was just thinking of the phrase go with the flow and tried to find a new way of saying that.

The Daily: Of course you play music because you enjoy it, but do you guys have any sort of meaning or purpose in mind when writing your songs?

Knauer: Lately, I’ve really been trying to understand how it can affect people. We’ve gotten a few e-mails from people who say that they have been going through hard times and listening to our CD has really helped them. That’s come to mind more lately. Instead of thinking about how I can support myself, I really have been trying to think of what I can do for other people through music.

The Daily: What were your influences starting out with the band, and have they changed over the years?

Knauer: I think R.E.M. was probably the biggest influence. I think we all really like different music, and we don’t necessarily even draw from what we listen to. We kind of write based on the mood we are in when we are writing a song. We do have a lot of influences that are music doesn’t sound like. John (Cardwell) listens to a lot of hip-hop and electronic stuff. Jonathan (James) listens to just weird noises … avant-garde stuff. But then we just write normal old pop songs.

The Daily: You guys came around at about the same time that blogs like Pitchfork and Stereogum were rising to prominence. Was it tough coming up in that initial rush of blog buzz bands like Tapes ‘N Tapes and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and how were you able to survive through the backlash?

Knauer: I know guys from a lot of bands who had initial positive response from blogs and then there was a big backlash for most of them that they suffered through, but for us, we escaped under the radar somehow … and I’m not sure how we did it to be honest. We weren’t really big back then, so I think we weren’t as big of a target. We just kept playing shows and releasing records and haven’t quit hearing good things.

Who: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin with Junebug Spade
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Opolis, 113 N. Crawford Ave.
Tickets: $8 advance, $10 day of show