Sporting a spiffy vintage Oakland Raiders jacket, he boldly predicts that the team will win the AFC West next season ("They've got some really exciting young players, like quarter back Derek Carr").

When talk turns to the album, however, his demeanor takes a more serious turn. Even more dramatically diverse than the band's breakout debut, Megalithic Symphony (which featured the global smash, "Sail,") RUN moves from the tense minimal electro of the opening title track to the sweeping an anthemic "I Am" to quietly acoustic moments like "Headrest for My Soul."

The cleverly arranged songs often cover that much territory over the course of a single track. RUN is an intriguing listen, one that draws the listener in deeper with each play.

Preparing to lead AWOLNATION on an extensive U.S. tour this summer, Bruno appears primed and ready to get back into the fray of rock and roll life.

"I can't say why necessarily, but I can tell you I was happy to sort of re-energize our fan base and get people excited and want to come to the shows for the same reasons I loved going to shows as a kid, which is to have an interactive experience and sweat a little bit with the band," he says when asked why shape-shifting "Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)" was chosen as the first single from the album. "Get people excited and hyped to get on the dance floor again."

Radio.com: Any thoughts on which song will be the next single?

Aaron Bruno: Much like the first record, I kept my head down and did the best I could, didn't have any extreme expectations for any sort of commercial success. I just wanted to be proud and give something to listeners that was very sincere and hopefully create an escape. I think I accomplished that with the new record on another level, hopefully. But as far as what single's gonna happen, I'm not sure. I'll leave that up to the stars aligning. I have an idea, but this is truly an album's album. It's a music lover's album, I think. It's the record I always wanted to make, so it's really not about singles to me. It's about the whole thing, and how it feels front to end. Whatever comes out of those batch of songs that ends up having a life of its own, that's a huge bonus. But first and foremost, it's about the whole album to me.

Radio.com: A song that immediately stood out to me was "I Am." It feels like a real self-empowering anthem

Aaron Bruno: That may or may not be the second single. It started with a real special guitar that was given to me by my dad. I actually kind of adopted it and stole it. Just this simple, kind of garage sale nylon string guitar. I wrote (the song) real late at night. At least the intro, the first verse. Didn't think much about it, and then months later we listened to my phone recording, my voice memo, and heard that initial idea and thought, OK, this seems cool, let's work on this. It kind of wrote itself and was a pretty easy song to write. That's usually a good sign for me.