Bostonist knew that with Wednesday night's Boston Pops EdgeFest finale would come a chance to see local talent (and Bostonist favorites) Mieka Pauley and Chad Perrone, but it wasn't until shortly before we braved the heat en route to Symphony Hall that we discovered that we were in store for another Boston music treat - three-fifths of the Ryan Montbleau Band (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Ryan Montbleau, bassist Matt Gianarros and Laurence Scudder on viola), who closed out the night at the hall with a post-Pops performance.

We shouldn't have been surprised to see the band pop up somewhere for a local performance - after averaging about 200 shows across the country over the last couple of years, the band had taken a couple of weeks off to relax at home in Boston. We'd spoken recently with the titular member of the band, and although he hadn't mentioned anything about EdgeFest, he did admit that "vacation" had already included impromptu performances at a couple of spots around town.

The full band (with brothers James Cohen and Jason Cohen on drums and keys, respectively) will bring its Americana/folk/soul/ragtime sound to Boston Harbor on Saturday for back-to-back cruises for the Rock & Blues Concert Cruise series - and Montbleau will take to the seas solo as the opener for Max Creek's cruise on Friday night. We spoke to Montbleau about performing on a three-hour tour, the band's upcoming album and what a perpetually rolling stone does when he actually comes to rest.

Read the interview after the jump!

How are you, Ryan? How's it going?
I turned 30 the other day, so that's going on. Laughs I'm in the middle of a couple of weeks off. I'm just chilling out.

We've been listening to you for awhile, and this is the longest span of time we're aware of in which you haven't been on the road playing shows. When's the last time you took a break like this?
I don't remember!

So the Rock & Blues Cruise. You've performed on it the last couple of years and now you're doing two in one night. What's it like to perform on it? It's not your typical concert experience as an audience member, so we imagine it's got to be even more different for you.
The cruise is intense. For us, we're really in that middle section [the main cabin room] the whole time. We get a short set break, but I don't even get outside really. There's no room, the stage is just a slanted part of the floor, there's 400 people in front of you, the boat's rocking back and forth and I'm on a stool that spins - the equilibrium gets thrown off a bit. Laughs But it's fun - just really intense and packed inside. There's something about the menality of being on the boat -

"We're on the water, we can be crazy."
"We're in international waters!" Uh, no, guys! People go nuts in some ways and it's some work and intense. There's a full moon the night of the cruise, so I think crazy things are going to happen.

In the meantime, being back home...when you're home for a span of time, what are some of the things in town that you need to do, need to see?
I'm trying to figure that out, actually. It's really strange. First thing I did? I vaccumed and cleaned my house. Laughs You don't get to do that on the road, so it feels good to wash the dishes, do my laundry somewhere other than a hotel or not eat breakfast in a random parking lot. So I'm figuring that out - reconnecting with my friends around here. This trip, I'm trying to do things that are different, view different parts of Boston. That's really the main thing.

It sounds kind of abstract, but I'm trying to reconnect with my personhood, to not be the dude that's on stage. It's all I do and I love it, but it's been so long since I have been able to reconnect.

To be Ryan the person, not Ryan the performer.
It's a weird line. There isn't really a separation, because who I am on stage is who I am off, but to be the other parts of my life besides the music.

And here we are, asking you about the music.
Laughs Nah, it's fine. It would be a whole lot weirder if you just called saying "Hi. I'm watching you right now."

Hahaha. But of the music, how is the new album coming?
We've got a bunch of tunes and we did most the basic tracking in March. It went even better than I thought it was going to. A lot of the songs are newer, so we didn't have as much time on the road and they weren't fully realized. Since [March] it's been a whole lot of touring, so we're just starting to get back to what these songs need. We're working on them all summer and we hope the album will be out by October. There's a lot of work to do - each song has the basics and then we have to add the vocals and horns, and we're going to have great string arrangements. I think it'll be a step up in overall prodcution value from [2006 release] "One Fine Color." It's coming.

And even since then I've written a few songs that won't be on the album, so the writing's still coming.

Photo of Ryan Montbleau performing at Paradise in April by Victoria Welch (note: the bunny is not a regular part of the band). The Ryan Montbleau Band Rock & Blues Concert Cruises begin at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. sharp at 1 Long Warf, Boston. Tickets are $25 and the cruise is 21+. For more information on the Ryan Montbleau Band, visit the band's website.