With its first album in four years in tow, Portland Americana band Fruition is back in Bend Thursday. (Kaja Sigvalda)

Like a lot of bands, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on Fruition.

In the late 2010s, the Portland-based Americana band was getting bigger fast — releasing good records, playing a bunch of shows, earning radio play and building an enthusiastic fan base. But “cracks were starting to show in the band’s foundation,” according to their bio, and a COVID-forced year apart gave them a chance to get back to the vital business of being human beings with regular lives. Some members started families. Others got sober. Stuff like that.

“We all had the time to ask ourselves some big questions like ‘Do we want to keep doing this?'” said multi-instrumentalist Mimi Naja. “The fact that we reunited in such a reinforced way after all that time apart … I think it says a lot about who this band truly is.”

Back together, the band made its first album in four years, “How To Make Mistakes,” a 13-track collection of earthy and tuneful folk, rock, pop and soul that sounds organic and alive, like you’re standing right there in the room with them. This is, no doubt, because Fruition recorded the songs live in the studio — all playing together, with no overdubs.

“If you listen closely, you can hear tempos fluctuate. Maybe you’ll have somebody finger-picking slightly out of time,” said guitarist Jay Cobb Anderson.

“But that’s part of the whole idea of learning to embrace your true identity. We’re a band that would rather lean into a mistake than use studio tricks to erase it,” he continued. “With ‘How To Make Mistakes,’ we wanted to say, ‘This is us, with all of our flaws and all of our strengths.'”

Fruition, with Ferguson: 7 p.m. Thursday, doors open 6 p.m., $32.43, Volcanic Theatre Pub (outdoor stage), 70 SW Century Drive, Bend, volcanictheatre.com.