When Boston band Neighbor released its self-titled debut last year, the quartet wanted to connect with people in a unique way (which is kind of the group’s thing). Pulling an idea from one of the album’s songs, “Trippin’ in a Van,” singer-songwriter-keyboardist Richard James hung out with fans in the band’s van and listened to the “Neighbor” LP.

They could ask James anything while the record played in the background. Through those conversations and repeated listens, James discovered a narrative arc to the album.

“I realized that the ‘Neighbor’ record, as it is sequenced, is a metaphor for life,” he told the Herald. “It starts with ‘Take Me Alive,’ which is this childish relationship where someone is saying, ‘If this doesn’t work out, I can’t go on anymore.’ Then there’s this maturity that grows throughout the record.”

The arc wasn’t intentional. It also wasn’t accidental. Throughout Neighbor’s rise on the jam band scene, the group has found magic between intentional and accidental — the space where improvisation, playfulness, spontaneity, and organic growth thrive.

James, guitar wizard Lyle Brewer, bassist Dan Kelly and drummer Dean Johnston invented, reinvented, and perfected Neighbor live on stage. Five years ago, during a weekly residency at Somerville’s now-shuttered Thunder Road, the group found its chemistry by debuting songs it had written sometimes only hours earlier — Neighbor returns to its roots with a five-week, Tuesday-night residency at Pembroke’s Soundcheck Studios starting Feb. 20.

“Those Tuesdays at Thunder Road were where we became a band,” Brewer told the Herald. “We honed our skills. We wrote original music. It was such a special time.”

“We weren’t even named Neighbor when the residency started,” James added. “But it became a very community based thing and we grew as it went along. We’d rehearse at the venue before the show and play maybe three new tunes that we wrote that week.”

When the pandemic shut live music down, Neighbor kept the freewheeling vibes going with a new kind of residency. The band live streamed shows from Soundcheck Studios. Somehow, the group came out of the pandemic with an even larger, now national fan base — the band’s current itinerary has them crisscrossing the country from New England to Colorado to Tennessee.

“At every show there are two or three musical moments that rise above the rest, and 99 percent of the time, the things that I think went over really well are the things that the fans think went over really well,” Brewer said. “I think we are really fortunate to have a fan base that cares as much as they do. Them treating the shows as important makes us treat the shows as important.”

Brewer and James highlight different things that make Neighbor unique — Brewer insists James’ lyrics help them stand out; James says Brewer’s ability to lead them through wild improvisations is their hallmark. But both agree the fans fuel so much of what they do whether that’s making in-person and virtual residencies work or hanging out in a van and exploring the arc of an LP.

For tickets and details, visit neighbortunes.com