Waking up at 6 a.m. and watching “Teletubbies” on television doesn’t exactly sound like a stereotypical Tuesday morning for a successful musician in an independent band as accomplished as The Get Up Kids.

But for Matt Pryor, guitarist and vocalist, this is standard since Lillian, his 8-month-old daughter, came into his life.

OK, so he fell asleep on the couch while his daughter watched “Teletubbies,” but the point is that The Get Up Kids are all grown up. Four out of five members are now married, including Pryor, and their maturity abounds from their latest release, “On a Wire.”

Though the members of The Get Up Kids are consistently used to define the ambiguous “emo” tag, more accurately they’re a Midwestern rock ‘n’ roll band. Not John Mellencamp. The Replacements.

Since the band’s debut in 1996, three full-length CDs, one retrospective collection of singles and rarities, and a slew of EPs and seven-inch records have followed. The Get Up Kids are signed to one of the most prominent indie labels, Vagrant Records, alongside Dashboard Confessional and Saves the Day.

With a band, a wife, a baby, a new recording studio, a mail-order business and an upcoming tour that will stop in Omaha on Saturday and Iowa City on Sunday, Pryor has learned the value of multitasking.

On this particular afternoon, while speaking from a cell phone, he is driving from his house in Lawrence, Kan., to the band’s newly acquired recording studio, The Black Lodge.

It’s 2:38 p.m., and quiet crunching noises can be heard between Pryor’s sentences.

“I’m eating a carrot. I’m sorry, I haven’t eaten anything all day,” Pryor apologizes. “I can talk on the phone, eat a carrot and drive at the same time.”

The Black Lodge, formerly known as Red House Recordings, was the site where many Get Up Kid albums were recorded, including much of 2001’s “Eudora.” Though one would think there would be nostalgic motives behind purchasing the studio, Pryor insists this is not the case.

“Uh, I don’t know if nostalgia’s the right word,” Pryor corrects. “The place was kind of a shitbox when we always recorded there before. There’s not a whole lot of nostalgia involved. It’s more of a ‘Hey, this place is cool. We should buy it and record our records at home instead of going out so much.'”

This stay-at-home way of thinking is new to The Get Up Kids, who Pryor says used to find any excuse to leave Lawrence, though the upcoming Midwest and European tour dates will mean Pryor will have to leave home in support of the band’s newest album. Pryor says “On a Wire,” which marks a departure from previous releases, is the result of not being afraid to try something new. Reviews have been mixed.

“People either love it or hate it,” Pryor says. “I don’t care. I like it. We’ve only ever made music for ourselves. If anybody else likes it, great. If they don’t, that’s cool too.”

The acoustic strumming opener and title track for “On a Wire” is actually a painful lament about Pryor’s own father. “You’re a few years overdue/ I spent them waiting here for you,” Pryor confesses on the track.

Now trying to be the father to Lillian that Pryor never had, he hopes he’s learned a thing or two about what not to do. “Do hope I won’t/ Learn to make/ The same mistakes/ That you would.”

With Pryor’s being a father, a husband, the lead vocalist and guitarist for The Get Up Kids, singer-songwriter in The New Amsterdams, and a co-owner of both The Black Lodge and a mail-order distribution business, what is his top priority at the end of the day?

Without hesitation, Pryor answers, “My daughter.”