On record, he’s gruff. His raspy growl is filled with aggression and anger. But on the telephone, Polar Bear Club frontman Jimmy Stadt is soft-spoken, polite, and thoughtful.

In a few hours, Stadt and his band will be taking the stage at the Oakland Metro Operahouse, but right now he’s stuck in San Francisco traffic. Stadt has been criss-crossing the country for so long, traveling to and from venues has become second nature.

“The first tour I ever went on was when I was 17. We toured the U.S. for a month and then we did it again the next summer,” Stadt says. “I don’t know if I can remember pre-band life.”

“I like the day-to-day [part of touring]–seeing new people in new places, but so much of my time is spent in and around where the club just happens to be. There is still so much that I haven’t seen, even though I may have been to the same city 10 or 12 times.”

Polar Bear Club has been touring basically nonstop for the four past years, both as a headlining act and as support for like-minded groups such as The Gaslight Anthem. The band did, however, break long enough to record their highly-anticipated (and brilliantly executed) new album, “Clash Battle Guilt Pride.”

Though there was plenty of hype surrounding the new record, Stadt says the pressure didn’t get to the band. “There’s always this hype or buzz–whatever that is–that’s always in the back of your mind. But it doesn’t affect our songwriting. We’ve always made music that meets our expectations and excites us,” he says.

“With this record, I don’t think the thought was even in the back of our minds. We truly had such a great time making this record and I’m really proud of it. I can truly say that I wouldn’t even care if no one likes it, because no one can take the experience away. On our previous records, I don’t know if I could say that with the same certainty.”

Stadt says the band felt more confident in the studio this time around. “We used to go in the studio and there was tension and we couldn’t lift the weight of it in some moments. Now we just go in and follow our gut and it’s nice and it’s easy and it’s fun.”

Just as Polar Bear Club has grown more comfortable in the studio, Stadt has grown more comfortable as the voice of the band–even if what he has to say might scare him a bit.

“I’m at a point as a lyricist where if something scares me, I know I need to keep it. If I’ve written a line that I’m afraid of revealing, I know that’s a keeper. There’s so much bullsh– that goes into a normal, modern day–so many compromises and white lies and the grind. When I’m sitting down and writing words, that’s the one time where there’s nothing of the grind that’s affecting me. It’s just all true self, or at least the search for the true self.”

“I’m learning that that fear is good,” he adds. “If there’s a line that scares me to the point where I wonder if I should even say it, I know that someone out there is going to need and it connect with it. And maybe the fact that I had the courage to say it and to work through it will help them with an issue. I’m not so scared of it anymore.”

As Stadt is studying his own heart, he’s also learning from the bands he looks up to. Though filling the opening slot on a tour is not the most glamorous gig, Stadt says there was plenty to learn from the headliners.

“I remember one thing being such a revelation for me,” he says. “We were on tour with the Gaslight Anthem, [during] our first big support tour. I remember watching the singer and seeing him smile onstage, and I realized I had never thought about that. I wonder if I ever smile on stage? I don’t think I do. That’s sort of important. Wow, I don’t need to be so angry on stage. It’s probably alienating to people. I’m having fun up here, I should be showing that to people. It’s little things like that you pick up from other bands.”

Sounds like a nice guy just got nicer.