The title for Bright Eyes' newly-released album is Five Dice, All Threes.

The eleventh album for the iconic indie-rock outfit —which finds them collaborating with another icon, Cat Power— takes its name from a dice game, colloquially called 'threes'.

"If you roll a perfect roll, it's all threes," offers songwriter Conor Oberst.

Evoking the notion that "all life is a gamble, and we're playing a game of chance out here anywhere", the title speaks of notions of chance, fate, and dreaming of a lucky break.

"In any kind of endeavour —personal, professional, relationships, anything— we're all hoping for a perfect roll, it's just [that] the probabilities are very much against you," says Oberst. "That's kind of the idea behind it: 'What if you got the perfect roll?'"

In conversation with Anthony Carew on The International Pop Underground, Oberst and multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott talk about the making of the album, ideas of luck, the recurring spectre of mortality in the songs, and their long history as band.

Feature image: Nik Freitas