Silversun Pickups bassist Nikki Monninger doesn’t seek the spotlight in her band.

She’s usually more than happy to let guitarist Brian Aubert be the frontman, supporting him with subtle harmonies that float just above the surface of the group’s shoegazing onslaught. Her bass playing is likewise powerful yet understated, helping pin down the textures created by Aubert and keyboardist Joe Lester. And she was soft-spoken and unassuming during a recent interview with GO! Magazine, stopping a few times to make sure her answers were sufficient.

But on the band’s fourth album, “Better Nature” (2015), Monninger takes the fore on second single “Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance).” She wrote the song’s lyrics about a longtime friend of the band who died of cancer a few years ago, and she takes the primary vocal in a duet with Aubert on the swirling, electronic-tinged rocker.

“That’s one of the things where Jacknife (Lee, producer) also really pushed me to sing in a different way that I hadn’t before and use my voice in a stronger way,” Monninger said from a recent tour stop in Waikiki, Hawaii. The band will play the Century Center courtyard Tuesday.

“He was very supportive when I — because I am pretty timid when it comes to singing, and he really kind of got it out of me,” she said.

“Better Nature,” like each of the previous Silversun Pickups albums before it, pushes the band’s sound in new directions, relying more heavily on electronic textures than ever before (an element introduced on 2012’s “Neck of the Woods”). Monninger and the rest of the band have a slightly different take than critics, however.

“It wasn’t our goal to make it sound more electronic; it just evolved into that,” Monninger said. “This one I actually think also, for ‘Neck of the Woods’ to this album — this album feels really warm to me, where ‘Neck of the Woods’ felt colder. But I think we were all just in a really good spot, typically because Jacknife lives in a beautiful area of Topanga, (California) — we record at his house — and just mentally I think we’re all in a good state. … And I think, although there are electronic sounds, I think it really also goes back to our (2006 debut album) ‘Carnavas’ days.”

The similarity is even more noticeable in the live setting, where the material takes on “more of an aggressive sound,” Monninger said.

Bend will get its first live taste, ever, of Silversun Pickups on Tuesday. It’s a busy week for the Century Center — former Seattle indie rock group Band of Horses, which released its well-received fifth studio album, “Why Are You OK,” in June, plays a sold-out show at the venue Monday (see sidebar).

Monninger in particular is looking forward to the Bend show.

“My mother-in-law and father-in-law used to have a house up there, so we would go visit them,” she said. “It’s so nice; we would go down floating on the little river. We always had great times, and I have been wanting to come to Bend to play a show, so I’m so happy to finally come out there.”

Though the band has toured “Better Nature” for almost a year now, Monninger said the songs still feel new to her and the rest of the group — Aubert, Lester and drummer Chris Guanlao. “We’re still feeling our way through playing the new songs live, and it’s still so much fun,” Monninger said.

Some of that is due to the way the album was recorded. Aubert has stated in previous interviews the band came into the recordings without rehearsing the songs extensively, as it did on previous records.

Lee, who also produced “Neck of the Woods,” encouraged the band to be more spontaneous in the studio and try new things. In particular, Monninger played a number of instruments she’d never played before, including learning vibraphone for the thumping, almost dance-y “Tapedeck.” The band is starting to tackle that one live, with Monninger programming vibraphone sounds into a drum machine.

“It feels like a loose song, but it really — unless we play it tight it kind of has a mind of its own,” Monninger said. “So it is a little bit of a challenge to play it live, but it’s been fun just to try something new.”

“Better Nature” is also the first Silversun Pickups album to be released on the band’s own label, “New Machine Recordings.” But the band has been independent-minded ever since its early days in the Silver Lake community of Los Angeles, sticking with local label Dangerbird Records for its first three albums.

Aubert and Monninger formed the group in 2000 after meeting on a flight en route to a college exchange program in Cambridge, England. In a 2009 interview, Aubert said he noticed Monninger distracting the flight attendant in order to steal mini liquor bottles.

“Oh, yeah, I mean, it’s silly,” Monninger said, laughing. “… And yes, I did take (the bottles), because at the time I was underage, but it was an international flight so technically it was OK to have it. But anyways, I took one of the bottles and that’s how we basically did meet on the plane.”

Aubert and Monninger became roommates after graduating college and formed the first version of Silversun Pickups with their significant others at the time. Guanlao and Lester joined in 2002, and the lineup has been the same four ever since.

“You know, we’ve been together a long time, and I think it’s the nice thing about our band, is that we were friends first, so it was built on something more than just the music,” Monninger said. “I think that’s really helped us, you know, stay together, because we’re like family to each other.”