San Francisco synth-rock quartet Dangermaker just released a brand new track, “I Won’t Let You Down,” and its accompanying video. “I Won’t Let You Down” will appear on their forthcoming EP, Light The Dark 3. Saturday the band will debut the song and possibly some other new material at the Great American Music Hall, where they are co-headlining with Panic Is Perfect on lineup of four local acts.

RIFF met up with singer-guitarist Adam Burnett, drummer Carlos Rodrigues, keyboardist Dave DeAngelis and bassist Neko Matsuo to talk about what inspired Dangermaker’s first quasi-love song. But even if the song strays away from the band’s typical, serious themes, the four members to have no plans to change.

“Don’t expect for a sunnier, happier Dangermaker,” Burnett said. “I wouldn’t take that to mean that from now on, it’s going to be soft hits.”

We also learned much more than expected about what influenced Burnett and co. at the time of writing and recording “I Won’t Let You Down.” Besides David Bowie, the four have had M83’s new album, Junk!, on heavy rotation. They have no intention of copying anyone, but the music of Anthony Gonzalez has stayed in the backs of their minds, DeAngelis said. And Rodrigues had his own inspiration that even his bandmates knew nothing about: The stylings of Reggie Watts, the house band leader at The Late Late Show with James Corden.

“Even the theme tune to the Late Late Show inspired me on one of the tracks on the EP,” he said. “It’s the bass groove.”

Three EPs and nearly eight years into their musical careers, Dangermaker still don’t consider themselves a part of the San Francisco music scene. The city brought the four transplants from throughout the country together, but musically, the four are just trying to “do our own thing,” Matsuo said.

“We could be on the moon and still write ‘I Won’t Let You Down,’” Rodrigues said.

— Roman Gokhman