Wednesday night, Daniel Francis Doyle along with local musicians Why the Wires, Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES and the semi-local onemanriot will play The Shop. The show will be stop eight on Doyle’s 17-show tour, and I was lucky enough to speak with him about his music and the upcoming Ithaca show as he drove from Chicago to Pittsburgh.

The Sun: How did you get into playing music and the solo project you’re doing now?

Daniel Francis Doyle: [...] I was in a band with two friends for about six years. In 2005, we broke up and I didn’t know what to do [...] For the time being, I decided just to duct tape two guitars to amplifiers, and have a distortion pedal next to my foot. And I would just play drums along with feedback blasts and yell, and just went by my full name [...] Daniel Francis Doyle, instead of making up a band name, ’cause it’d be kind of funny. And then I got a loop pedal about a month into doing that — the feedback stuff — and I started incorporating the loop and the loops kind of took over, and I ditched the feedback set-up.

Sun: How do you find playing solo compares to working with other musicians?

DFD: It’s a lot different, obviously. In some ways it gives you more freedom to do whatever you want. And then in other ways, I have quite a bit of restraint and there’s a lot of stuff I can’t do ’cause I’m limited to my loop pedal which only can record a maximum of 28 seconds of guitar parts. […] It’s a lot more limited, but it makes it more fun because you have to really think about what parts of the musical ideas are important. Like, what do I have to leave out now so I can make this work with the 28 seconds?

Sun: I was wondering about sound effects on songs like “You’re Nowhere,” where, for example, it sounds like footsteps. Are those real or simulated? How do you get those effects?

DFD: Oh, uh, there’s a song that has footsteps on it?

Sun: It sounded like that to me, but maybe it wasn’t supposed to.

DFD: What was the song?

Sun:: “You’re Nowhere.”

DFD: Ya ... those are footsteps ... That’s me actually. I was jogging in the studio for that, in place [laughs]. I just put headphones on, and got the rhythm down and jogged in place.

Sun: When you play live, do you try to recreate those effects?

DFD: Actually, “You’re Nowhere” is an example of one of the songs that I do with a band, as opposed to guitar loops. […] It’s too intricate of a song for the loops. I actually arranged that with a bass player and a drummer — and just lots of overdubs, like that’s just me doing the three-part harmony ... overdubbing myself. And so with all those things combined, there’s no way I could do that on my own. But that would be really fun though, if I could jog in place on stage. In a live setting, that’d be neat.

Sun: There seems to be quite a dichotomy in your music between sing-songy tunes and harsher, less melodic ones — “Learning Things at School” as opposed to “Strange Way of Speaking.” What aspects of each do you find appealing?

DFD: Well, I guess I’ve always made up songs that are either like wimpy pop songs that I really like doing or really jerky loud […] stuff that I yell over. […] I guess it just kind of goes back and forth depending on what’s inspiring me at the moment.

Sun: When you play live do you tend to gravitate more towards one end of the spectrum?

DFD: Well, it used to be [when playing] live, it would lean more towards the loud stuff that I would shout over, because most of the soft stuff I would have on recordings would be with the full band. […] But now, I’m making up a lot of quieter, more melodic stuff with the loop pedal, so a lot of the loop songs that I play by myself are starting to become a little more melodic. It’s kind of split evenly down the middle now.

Sun: What have been some of the best shows you’ve played?

DFD: Well, so far, on this tour I’ve only played three shows. […] I guess last night was really great. I was able to open for Health. [...] They’re from Los Angeles, and they’re doing really good. […] It was really crowded and lively and fun, and it was at a cool venue in Chicago. […] I guess so far that was my favorite one on this tour. Yeah, but, all the shows have been good so far. All three of them [chuckles].

Sun:: What will you play on Wednesday?

DFD: Well, a couple of new songs, I guess, that lean more towards the melodic side of things, closer to “Learning Things at School” as you said, maybe farther away from “Strange Way of Speaking.” I’ll mostly be playing songs off the new record that I released in April [...] and that’ll be the majority of the set. It’ll just be me and my drums and loop pedal.

If Daniel Francis Doyle strikes your fancy, be sure to check out Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES. Also featuring live drums and singing along to recorded music, Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES is one of Sam Sveen’s ’10 various projects, musical and otherwise. I met Sveen (agreed-upon red fanny pack missing, I was able to spot him only by the bright yellow skateboard he had in tow) on campus to discuss his music.

The Sun: So, your name.

Sam Sveen: Sam Sveen.

Sun: No, not that one. Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES.

SS: Well, Elsa is the most wonderful girl you can imagine ... As in, imagine would be the key word there [laughs]. And then awesomeAWESOMES. Awesome’s a pretty awesome word so why not say it twice?

Sun: Your music is very drum-centric. In your live shows, what’s your set-up like?

SS: I just have my iPod ... I make all that music on Ableton Live. But [since] I got a free demo of it from a friend, [it] only lets me work with four different sounds. So that’s kind of cool, cause in a box you have to be more creative or whatever. […] I make all the music on my computer electronically, and then I throw that onto my iPod, and then I just play live drums over it [...] The whole philosophy […] is that even if I had a live guitar player or keyboards player […] what difference would that make if it were a live person playing that or not — ’cause it’s just coming out of a big black box, you know, a speaker? So, the live, acoustic drums [are] really the driving idea behind Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES.

Sun: How many instruments do you play, and which do you usually use for EATAA?

SS: I started on piano, like when I was eight [...] Then I took drum lessons for drum kit, and then I took snare, and then I played in marching band. […] I also took a trumpet lesson in high school, […] then guitar, bass guitar goes with guitar, ukulele, kazoo, maracas, cowbell [laughs]. Oh! Accordion, my grandpa’s accordion. Well, in the show, I mean I can only play one instrument at a time. Sometimes I play drums and keyboard at the same time ... You just drum with one hand and play the keyboard with the other.

Sun: You record everything yourself?

SS: Ya, ya, ya [...] big fan of DIY.

Sun: So what can we expect for Wednesday?

SS: Umm, [clears his throat] something from the future ... My first year, instead of being an English major, I was an engineer, actually. […] So [in] one of my labs, we got to tour the nano facility here [...] somehow we lucked out and we got to keep the suits that we toured in. They’re like these full body, white suits with a hood, and they’re awesome. So, I’ve been wearing that to shows lately.

Wednesday at eight at The Shop (312 E. Seneca St.), come see some recorded music live, local DIY bands and maybe even some stuff from the future. Tickets are $5.