The Sonics have a pretty unusual musical history … Name one band that recorded their next album 50 years after the last one (laughs). I still mull over how this happened. I had no idea I would ever be playing again.

Let’s walk through this a little: In 2004, your version of “Have Love Will Travel” was rediscovered in an advertising campaign and reignited interest in the band, correct? Yeah, it was Land Rover. That shocked us, and it really did get a lot things started.

What was your life before that? Mortgages and a kid and working, just like everybody else. And it was the same for all of us, [singer] Gerry [Roslie] had a paving company. I was working for an insurance company. And Rob [Lind, saxophone] was an airline pilot.

After that song took off, how long was it before you guys thought, we can really do this again? We kept getting a call from a promoter in New York City to get together and play some shows there. We just never did it. We hadn’t really talked to each other in 40 years, and most of us hadn’t played either. But early in 2007 the promoter called again and made his pitch, and I told him we would get together and see if we could even do anything anymore. We had to relearn all of our songs and pretty much relearn our instruments. We rehearsed and found some other players, and when it came time to say yes or no, we felt like, “Well, it’s not perfect, but we’ll go ahead and do it.” And from that point forward, we just started playing as much as we wanted.

And how often is that? We usually do about four tours a year. A lot them are in Europe. For some reason Europe really digs it. I think everyone wants to play a little bit more this year. We just got back from Brazil and I think we’ll be going back to South America and Mexico City and we’ll probably end up doing a European tour again this year.

Why do you think your sound is still so appealing so many decades later? Damned if I know (laughs). In the intervening 40 years, I never really gave much thought to music or The Sonics, and I didn’t think anybody else cared either. We sound pretty much now like we did back then, because we didn’t get good. A lot of musicians and guitar players were conscientious and exercised due diligence and played their guitar all the time and learned scales—we never did. We just hammered stuff, because we weren’t that good technically.

If we had still been playing in bands and stuff, we might have actually gotten good at our instruments, and that would have been dangerous because we might not sound like we did in the ’60s. We didn’t get good.

The rawness is the appeal. That’s right. That’s basically what garage is. You’re not that great, but you put everything you’ve got into it, mistakes and all.

Who are the fans at your shows now? We thought we were gonna look out onto a sea of bald heads and gray hair, and that hasn’t been the case. I think the average age would have to be 30. They seem to know our songs, you see them lip-syncing it from the stage. That was another surprise.

Did I see that you’re working on a new album? Yeah, it will be released on March 31.

I’m assuming your studio experience was pretty different than it was 50 years ago. Well, we were doing two tracks back then, and now you can have a million if you want.

Did you keep it pretty traditional? Yeah, we recorded on tape in mono and we certainly didn’t overdo it. In four days we recorded 14 songs, so there wasn’t a lot of overdubbing and all that. Half the songs, we didn’t know we were even gonna do, but we got into the studio and wrote one or two songs right there.

What are your ambitions now versus when you were 19? Back when you were 19, your whole life was ahead of you. We were probably more focused on picking up women and bringing them back to the hotel than the music. Now, it’s who is going to go first, who’s not gonna be able to play anymore in the future, and when is that going to be?

Viva Las Vegas April 2-5, times & prices vary (The Sonics play April 4 at 7 p.m. & April 5 at 9:30 p.m.). Orleans, vivalasvegas.net.