"It was kind of premature to do a retrospective," Her Space Holiday frontman Marc Bianchi says of a recent LA event that recalled his collaborative work with Japanese artist PCP. His tone is humble, and a just tiny bit stilted—like a baby boomer that earned a lifetime achievement award, but still has so much more to contribute.

Much like a Her Space Holiday song, the rest of our phone conversation is dense, sincere, and incredibly fluid. We talk about the interplay of art and music, which leads to a discussion about artists that have affected him—the Palace Brothers, director Lars von Trier, and author John Fante are all on the list—and how the impact of art changes as emotional response evolves with age.

Bianchi brings it all together, "As you get older, you get more guarded with your emotions, and even when there's tragedy, you have to roll with things and let your emotions out later. Art is like a big trigger, it unleashes that back catalogue of bullshit in your system. It allows you to feel things that you can't feel in the moment."

Bianchi's music under the Her Space Holiday umbrella deliberately triggers a vast range of emotions: melancholy, nostalgia, and hopefulness all easily come to mind. His newest album, XOXO, Panda and the New Kid Revival, does away with Postal Service-esque beeps and clicks, evolving his sound from indie-electronica to stripped-down singer/songwriter fare. His new style puts Bianchi's knack for writing sweet, compelling tunes on full display.

Over a simple meandering guitar melody and rhythm of tapping drumsticks, "The Year in Review" embodies that feeling of time slipping away as Bianchi sings, "If time is measured in memories, don't set your clock to misery/The clicks should come from what you got, not the things you lost."

He explains, "When I was younger, I thought when I hit my 30s, I'd just reach this point where there are certain truths and contentment. I'm learning now, there isn't this definitive moment in your life when things make sense. I don't fantasize about the future anymore, and that it's going to bring some ultimate salvation. I'm just taking it day by day, and there's a lot more peace with that outlook."