Tim Blane
Gregory Douglass
Paradise Lounge
Tonight, 9 p.m. doors, 18+, $10
MySpace

Boston singer-songwriter Tim Blane isn't just the kind of musician who goes out of his way to talk about his music, he's the kind who will take a phone call when he's enjoying a day off in Florida - on his birthday. He won't mention this to a caller until the interview is already underway and laughs when the secret is revealed.

It makes it clear that Blane is a nice guy, but more so an artist determined to spread word of his jazz and blues-steeped take on musicianship. He's logged hours sending personal MySpace messages to potential fans, asking them to check out his sound (because who accepts blind friend requests from bands these days?) and is in the process of redesigning his website so as to create an organic, interactive experience for his listenership.

If 2007 has been any indication, the person-by-person approach is paying off: Blane's independently released sophomore album, "Clockwork," has prompted radio play on WBOS; Blane earned his second bid to the finals of the NEMO/Starbucks MusicMakers songwriting competition; performed before audiences at WBOS EarthFest; and is nominated for a 2007 Boston Music Award as Local Male Vocalist of the Year.

Blane said this week that he hopes to attend part of the BMA festivities at the Orpheum tonight before he skips over to the Paradise Lounge for his first headlining show at the intimate space (Vermont singer-songwriter Gregory Douglass opens). The Berklee grad spoke with Bostonist about a big year, looking ahead, and how Christopher Walken could (in a manner of speaking) grace the Orpheum stage.

Image courtesy of Tim Blane's website. Read the Q&A after the jump!

How does it feel to come home to Boston to perform, after being out on the road, in different parts of the country? How does the Boston scene and your fanbase here compare?

What’s been cool about Boston is that the scene has really seemed to grow. We had to start out, but we're at a point where we've played Boston enough that it's an exciting time. When it's your home base and you start to see the crowd growing, there's a sense of warmth. And we've started playing some spaces now, like Johnny D's and the Paradise Lounge, that are places with seats and areas where, if they want to, you can see people dance. I like that mix, because some places it's a straight-up listening room, or places where you have to stand.

It's always interesting to be at a sit-down show and to feel as if you want to dance. Everyone's looking around at everyone else, wondering who's going to break the ice.

Yeah. At the same time, I've been to places where there isn't anywhere to sit, and when I'm not in a dancing mood, I'm just focusing on the music.

You'll be playing at the Paradise Lounge, but will you be wondering what's going on over at the Orpheum with the BMAs, given that you're nominated?

I'm excited! We play a little bit later, closer to 10:30-ish, so I will hopefully be able to be there for a little while. I don't think they're having people come up for every award, I don't know if they'll be presenting the award. But Chad Perrone (Ed. note: singer-songwriter, nominated for Outstanding Singer-Songwriter of the Year), he's going to be there. He does this Christopher Walken impersonation. I told him that if I win, "You have to go up and accept for me, doing that." It'll be worth the price of admission to hear him accept in that voice.

You've had a big year, and now that we're approaching the end of 2007, we can start to look back. Are you ready to turn to 2008? Or do you wish there was a way of being able to savor '07 for a little longer, considering how good it's been for you?

You have to be looking up and looking onward. You have to keep constantly working and playing, otherwise you're going nowhere. There were a lot of firsts for us: getting on the radio for the first time, playing some places for the first time. This show at the Paradise Lounge is my first headlining show there, and I've been in Boston now since 2001, so that's a nice thing to happen. First BMA nomination - so it's been a good place, in that regard, but now we're going to be focusing on playing as much as we can.

You released "Clockwork" this year - did you find the recording process this time around than with your first album, "In the Meantime?" And if so, what changed with this process?

One of the major differences was that I had a band I'd been playing with, because I didn't have anybody to record with the first time.

This time, what was cool was that these guys we'd been playing with, we'd rehearsed to play, hung out. We brought our drummer, James, down; our bassist, Adam, down. Our keyboard player, Steve, couldn't come down, so I ended up using the keyboardist from the first album, Daniel Clark, but by and large, that was the biggest difference.

Where did you record?

Virginia, just outside of Charlottesville. It was the same producers, engineer team, so a lot of it was similar. Chris Keup, the studio is at his house, so I'm down there for a couple of weeks at a time. You're living in his house, and there's not internet, no phone service. It's a different thing, but it's a good place to focus, and I wanted to recreate that from the first album. I don't need, at this point in my career, to be in a major studio in New York, or in Boston, because I wanted to get away.

There is an obvious blues and jazz influence on your sound. Can you discuss how that seeped in and, if this is the case, how your time at Berklee played a role?

As a songwriter, you sort of can't help but have things that you're listening to seeping into your work, and you have to try to push it away sometimes. Some of it is a natural progression. I listen to a lot of jazz. Berklee, obviously is a jazz place, a blues place.So when you're going, you're influenced by that.

But I wasn't going to be like a Harry Connick, Jr., thing, because I also like the singer-songwriter sound. You have to sort of figure out your balance on how much you like to bring it in...

I like the fact that there's a lot of different kinds of music out there that you can hear. I'm not going to ignore that and write the same four chords.

What's coming up?

I'm doing another tour with [the Who's That Pack? Tour: Perrone, Todd Martin, Syd, and Patrick Thomas] in January and February. We want to get that up as a consistent thing, once or twice a year because A) it was really fun for us and B) it was a really cool way to cross-promote. We've started to incorporate our college booking areas into that fold.

Our goal for 2008, playing-wise, is to keep playing the places we're playing and also play new ones ... and more time to do some more writing. You really go through a process with an album. You write all the music for the album, and since I don't really have a team of staffers, I'm sitting at home writing emails to clubs or stuffing envelopes. It'll be nice to get some songwriting in.

More of the same, only bigger. Playing as much as possible.