If Jay-Z and Kanye West liked your album, you’d probably think you were going to hit it big. The band Thursday, part of the Island Def Jam Music Group major label, finds itself in an odd but pleasant position as a post-hardcore band.

“It’s strange and kind of cool,” explains Thursday’s lead singer and lyricist Geoff Rickly. “Growing up, we loved different hip-hop stuff, but it never really influenced us.” The band’s new album released today, A City by the Light Divided, is its fourth full-length record since Thursday formed in 1997. After producing albums for bands such as the Flaming Lips and Mogwai, producer Dave Fridmann told Rickly he wanted to try something different.

“He was like, I totally want to do a heavy record,” Rickly says. “Apparently Mogwai got him really into heavy stuff. It was cool.”

To Rickly, the sound of Thursday’s new album is far more dynamic than that of previous ones, especially because it is more layered and complex.

“On this album, there’s some pop sensibility, which is a cool contrast. I think I could actually listen to this album in my headphones or something; I just couldn’t do that for War All the Time.”

That doesn’t mean Thursday is going to fade into the emo background, a scene which Rickly admits can be tight for individuality. Thursday can stand out in the emo crowd because it doesn’t really play emo music.

“Yeah, we don’t really write songs about girls,” Rickly says. “But to me, it’s a genre that I find very confusing. How can [the music] be honest if it has to fit a genre? Writing emo songs just because you play emo music doesn’t work. … I mean, if you go after truth and beauty, that’s the kind of good sound that can come out.”

Thursday has had a successful run with songs such as “Understanding in a Car Crash,” from its 2001 Victory-released album Full Collapse, and “Signals over the Air,” from its 2003 Island-released War All the Time, which reached as high as No. 7 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Unfortunately, Rickly doesn’t foresee that kind of success again.

“We were just kind of in that place where there was hype, and we were big, but that kind of thing moves on and on to the next band,” Rickly says. “We’re not a band that mixes well with radio or TV; we’ve always just been a little more low key.”

Maybe that’s because Thursday hasn’t forgotten its roots, or how it got to where it is.

“I’ve always wanted to be a band that keeps rooted in the place they’re from,” Rickly says, adding some bands don’t represent who they are or where they’re from. “It’s different than some of those L.A. bands that have this generic sound. … I like having my roots,” Rickly says.

From his lyrics, its clear that living in northern New Jersey has had a big impact on Rickly’s life. “In the shadow of the New York skyline, we grew up too fast, falling apart,” Rickly sings in the title track of War All the Time. In the group’s latest single, “Counting 5-4-3-2-1,” Rickly sings about a person trapped by the white picket fences of suburbia.

“There’s this feeling of suburban longing versus urban resentment, an anger, and so there’s a divide,” Rickly says. “It’s something interesting being from New Jersey, because it’s a mix of the two worlds.”

Aside from performing next week at Sonar in Balitmore, Thursday will also be among the many bands headlining the 2006 Vans Warped Tour, which kicks off on June 15.

“I was actually married in Las Vegas while on the Warped Tour,” Rickly says, noting his love for the tour.

The Warped Tour will also include fellow Jersey natives Saves the Day and Bouncing Souls. As a part of the North Jersey music scene, Thursday is good friends with many of the bands from the area, including My Chemical Romance and its lead singer, Gerard Way. Rickly even produced MCR’s first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.

“It’s weird that a band that we feel like we helped bring up are suddenly way bigger than us, but it’s also cool to see this younger crowd become so big,” Rickly says.

Contact reporter Adam Z. Winer at winerdbk@gmail.com.