The alternative rock boom of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was a special time with tons of bands and musicians having a global impact. Surf radio stations, and you’re bound to hear a hit from that period that sounds as good as it did back then.

Many acts from that era are not around anymore for various reasons, but a bunch of them are still touring, performing and recording. Toad the Wet Sprocket will be taking the stage at The Park Theatre in Cranston on October 9. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. with Richmond, Virginia singer-songwriter Pat McGee opening things up.

I had a talk with lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Glen Phillips ahead of the upcoming festivities about recording a different version of a hit, making a cool music video with a talented filmmaker and how Toad the Wet Sprocket has grown as a band.

Rob Duguay: This tour that you guys are on is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the single “Good Intentions’”, and back in July, you and the band released an acoustic reimagining of the tune. Who had the idea to ring in the anniversary with this sort of re-release and what was the experience like crafting a different version of the song?

Glen Phillips: It was fun and pretty easy. We’ve played that song so many times in so many ways, so it was fun to just go in and rip one up in that way for a different version. That ended up becoming part of a whole acoustic record that we have coming out, which initially started as this minor project and ended up turning into something larger, more sweeping and a little more ambitious. It was a really fun process.

RD: The music video for the reimagined single is a mix of animation and archived footage while recognizing the album “In Light Syrup” with numerous clips of live performances. How did you guys go about putting everything together to make the video a reality? Did you employ an animator while diving into the band archives through a hard drive?

GP: That was mostly Todd Grimes. He’s a friend of ours and an old friend of the band who also happens to be a director, cinematographer and animator. He directed “The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants” and “The Croods: Family Tree”, so he’s one of those guys you can just give a visual idea to, like tacos flying out of a spaceship or something, and it’s there.

RD: As a band that has always incorporated elements of folk and power pop into your sound, Toad the Wet Sprocket started during an interesting time in rock music in the late ‘80s while being based in Santa Barbara, California during the height of hair metal with punk and alternative rock being part of the underground. Would you say that the original impetus for the band was a reaction to what was going on during that time, or was it something else?

GP: We weren’t really thinking strategically, we were just a high school band and we were doing choir together. I was lazy and I found out that Todd [Nichols] lived a couple blocks from me, he had one of those old station wagons, so I’d throw my bike in the back to get a ride home. I was in the metal mode at that point and he was listening to Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, early U2 and R.E.M. He turned me onto all of that. It changed the music that I listened to and we started writing songs together, so at 15, I certainly wasn’t thinking about how I wanted to reinterpret the music of the time. We were just writing songs that were based on what we were listening to on the radio and on these indie records.

We just made the music we heard, so once again, there wasn’t a lot of strategy there.

RD: How do you feel about how the band has grown since that time? I know you guys were on hiatus for a bit during the mid-2000s, so since the reunion, how has the band been this time around versus the ‘80s and ‘90s?

GP: It’s been great, actually. It’s hard to remember how the ‘80s and ‘90s were, and I can’t compare it to much because that was just life, right? I had this band, we got signed, and then we went on tour. Getting back together and then in the last few years, I think we all just decided to commit to the band in a different way. There’s a lot of relational habits that happen when you get together in high school, and many of them aren’t particularly productive, so I think as adults, we’ve been able to appreciate each other more, getting over some of the residue of having been together for 40 years, and accept each other as we currently are. It’s a business, it’s creative and it’s familial, so we’re giving each other enough breadth to be who we are while not wanting to change anybody.

All of that just makes it easier to be creative together. I’m stoked on how we are now, this summer tour we just finished was probably the most fun that I had on the road and it’s kind of awesome that in our 50s, we get to go back. At this point, we’re not a band who has to have separate dressing rooms and avoid each other while traveling. I’m deeply grateful for that, but it took a lot of work and it took a lot of time while sticking to it and having faith that there’s a reason for it all.

RD: It’s cool that it’s been that way.

GP: Thank God. (laughs)

RD: Absolutely. You mentioned earlier that you guys are working on a new acoustic record, so what’s the status of it?

GP: It’s recorded and mixed. We need to get the sequence, we need to get it mastered, and we need the artwork, so the music part is completed, it’s just the other stuff.