Tyler Ramsey of Band of Horses sounds downright giddy when talk turns to their upcoming show at Toronto’s venerable Massey Hall. “I know, we’re all really excited and on edge about it,” he says. “Massey is one of those places that has that history; you just want to make sure you put on the best show you possibly can.” This from a band that has toured across the globe since the release of their critically acclaimed fourth album, Mirage Rock.

It is part of the charm of the group that has been able to tap into a vein of rock ‘n’ roll from a bygone era and make it new again. It’s “neo-classicist,” as Rolling Stone magazine called it when they put the band on their hot list for 2012.

Mirage Rock, like their previous album, the Grammy-nominated Infinite Arms, has been described by some as “career defining.” There seems no shortage of praise heaped on the South Carolina-based quintet.

Ramsey and his Band of Horses bandmates were recently in Glasgow, Scotland, during the European leg of their tour. “I don’t know, man, I mean hopefully every time out there is a new direction at least a little bit,” says Ramsey, on the phone from the band’s hotel. “We don’t want to go crazy and completely off the wall… But I think everything we’ve done together, even before, has been advancing and changing, offering different perspectives.”

The band was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 2004 by Ben Bridwell and Mat Brooke. They made some noise out of the gate, signing with Sub Pop Records and releasing their debut album, Everything All the Time, in 2006. Band of Horses managed to grow its fan base and its record sales despite a few lineup changes as well as a relocation to Bridwell’s home state of South Carolina. By the release of Infinite Arms in 2010 — their first album with Columbia Records — the lineup had solidified with the addition of Bill Reynolds and Ryan Monroe as well as Ramsey, who first met Bridwell when the band came through his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. “We hung out together, all of us,” says Ramsey. “We enjoyed each other’s company, and the next thing I knew, he asked me to join the band. It was really fast and unexpected, and after that it went really quickly.”

Until then, it had been Bridwell’s baby, his creative vision. And it is his masterful songwriting that attracted the record labels like flies to honey. But, first with Infinite Arms and now with Mirage Rock, a new collaborative approach is taking hold and steering the band to even greater creative heights. Thanks, in part, to Bridwell’s modest nature, which comes across in interviews as almost shock over the band’s good fortune.
“He’s great. He is that way, he really is,” says Ramsey.

“When we get up onstage, you see the look on his face and realize what’s going on. He’s surprised by it, and you have to be like that to keep perspective. Not many people get to do what we’re doing. It’s a rare thing, and we talk about it enough to realize we’re super lucky to be playing to people and growing as a band and with our audience.”

Band of Horses, Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., 416-872-4255. Dec. 5, 8 p.m.