A fascination for violence inspired songwriter Eric Bachmann of Crooked Fingers to use a Spanish bullfighter named Manolete and his lover as an inspiration for his song “Andalucia.”

“I’m infatuated with violence in culture,” he says.

The way the Spanish legend goes, Manolete promises his lover he will quit bullfighting after one more year, but before the end of the year he is gored by a bull named Islero and dies.

Bachmann says he visited his mom, who lived in Puerto Rico when he was a kid, ending up with lasting memories that were likely responsible at some level for the Latin influences in the band’s latest album.

“I would love to walk around the square [in Puerto Rico],” he says.

Several of Bachmann’s songs from Crooked Fingers’ fourth album, “Dignity and Shame,” are about lost love.

“I think it’s more universal to write about what everyone has to go through,” Bachmann says.

He says the sound heard on “Dignity and Shame,” which was released in February, has received criticism for being different than the band’s other albums.

“I think there’s more levity,” he says. “It’s not as menacing.”

Bachmann says one explanation for the differences may be because he consulted other band members more. He says he wrote most of the lyrics but didn’t have any notes.

“It was way more collaborative than the past,” he says. “They sort of wrote their parts around what I had written.”

Bachmann says he had to make an effort to ask for input, because on previous albums he hadn’t thought of asking for advice.

“You just sort of get into a fever and go,” he says. “You have to be confident enough to let other people make your stuff better.”

The overall effect is a good one, though, he says.

“I’m more proud of it because it’s a collaborative thing,” he says. “If I do everything, I’m always really critical.”

He says he likes the camaraderie when working with others, noting “two heads are always better than one.”

When the musicians collaborated, they were left with a surplus of material. Bachmann says he started with 35 songs, but only recorded 21 and later cut the album down to 12.

“[The extra songs] sucked,” he says. “I just let them bake in the oven longer.”

Bachmann isn’t sure if he’ll use the songs again, but he says he’ll keep working on a few of them.

“For no reason, they might just show up in my life again,” he says. “I don’t know what causes that.”

Bachmann doesn’t like to put too much thought about what goes into his songs — he considers “Dignity and Shame” a rock record and he “didn’t want to get too heavy-handed about it.”

He says thinking about it too much can cause other problems.

“I don’t like to think about it, because if I do, it creates writer’s block and I can’t finish it,” he says.

Some critics have said “Dignity and Shame” is Bachmann’s masterpiece, but he says he doesn’t like to see it that way.

“If it’s my masterpiece, then where do I go from here?” he says.

Who: Crooked Fingers

Where: M-Shop, Memorial Union

When: 9 p.m. Saturday

Cost: $9 students, $11 public