Brooklyn singer-songwriter Mike Doughty's name may not instantly register with you, but you have undoubtedly heard him before. In the early 90's, he founded the alt.radio staple Soul Coughing, who had hits with "Super Bon Bon" and "Circles" before disbanding in 2000. Far from the throwaway status of the Marcy Playgrounds and Harvey Dangers of the day, Soul Coughing used samples, drum loops, jazz references, and experimental producers like Mitchell Froom on their recordings. This perhaps ultimately marginalized them, but certainly resulted in one of the more interesting groups of the era. When the group ended, Doughty went back to basics, self-releasing albums, touring in his car, and playing acoustic shows around the USA.

A chance music festival encounter with stadium-jam band king Dave Matthews ultimately led Doughty to a deal with ATO Records, which released his 2005 disc Haughty Melodic and will do the same for the upcoming Golden Delicious in early 2008. Next year will also see Doughty tour the USA with a full band. In the meantime, he's promoting the new release with a tiny venue tour called "The Question Jar Show," where the entirety of the gig's songs and stories are done via audience requests and questions for Doughty thrown into a fishbowl. We recently traded emails with Mike Doughty about the new tour, gigging in strip malls, and (possibly) moving to Ethiopia.

Last month on vacation, my wife and I stopped to get a coffee in a Santa Fe, NM mall, and saw a poster promoting your appearance the following week...in the mall's food court. What was that all about? And how did that show go?

That was weird, super weird. We were the anchor for a win-a-pink-Vespa raffle. We played under banners that said WIN A BUDDY! I happened to be playing Santa Fe that night, they asked me to do it, and they gave me money, and it engaged my sense of irony in the right way, so I said heck yeah. Needless to say, it was horrible and great.

We haven't seen you in Austin since SXSW a couple of years ago. Are you pleased to check in with Austin without the cacophony of SX to contend with?

Hell yes, I am. SXSW is such a drag, and Austin is so eminently awesome.

We're curious about your experience with the Grey's Anatomy effect. Did the use of your music on the show lead to a sales boost, or more media attention? Or was it just a licensing fee and back to normal?

Sales boost, I don't know, I'm very diligent about not paying attention. It increased the amount of MySpace adds exponentially, though.

In the sessions for your last record, you recorded an awesome cover of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler." What led you to dust off that tune, and will you be doing any other country-pop covers? "I Love A Rainy Night?" "Looking For Love?"

It really, REALLY wasn't intended to be ironic. It's a great song! I think a lot of things that are considered hipster-irony-statements are in fact sincere--the artifacts that get re-framed as "irony" are usually really beautiful things.

You seem to use the two-man setup on tour most often these days. Do you prefer a full-band format, or are you happier with carrying most of the weight yourself?

I like 'em both. I prefer touring with Scrap, my cello/bass/guitar/maracas player, to touring alone, though--it's just more fun. I hope that in the next year, when my record's out, I'll do a couple months with the band, and a couple months with Scrap.

What prompted the use of the "Question Jar" for this upcoming tour? And are you really gonna let people shout requests the whole time?

Well, they do it anyway, the yelling of titles. It's fun to let the show just kind of drift around where the wind/whim goes. Sidebar: last time I played SXSW, there was a piece in some Austin paper about how I kept wearily denying shouted Soul Coughing tunes. It made better drama for the article, I'm sure, but in fact there was a drunk guy up front yelling for "All the Dirt." I don't know if the writer couldn't hear the yelling dude, and just happened to be standing next to a "Janine"-yeller, or something, or if he made it up.

Haughty Melodic had songs about girls, class differences, New Jersey train stops, and corporate America. What does the upcoming record talk about?

Class differences?! Let's see, Golden Delicious is love songs, place songs, loss songs --hmm, I'm a better judge of what I'm singing about when I've got a few years' distance.

You do a fair amount of world travel that's not music related and take photos along the way. What are your favorite non-obvious places you've visited so far? (To be fair, here are ours: Seoul and Ljubljana).

Luang Prabang, Laos, and Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. I dream of escaping to Bahir Dar, living in a cheap bungalow on the lake for $50 a month, escaping for a year, writing something, learning Amharic. Also, Buenos Aires is a great city, Shanghai's not bad, and I'm learning German (I'm maybe halfway to fluent), so I just might move to Berlin for a while.

Like many people, we first heard you on 90's alternative radio via Soul Coughing's "Super Bon Bon." Do you revisit any Soul Coughing material in the current show?

I do "Janine," "True Dreams," "Saint Louise," and probably "Circles." I don't do "Super Bon Bon" because it was a full-band collabo (as the rappers say), and I prefer to play the tunes that I wrote; I might add "Bus to Beelzebub" and "Sugar Free Jazz" to the setlist when I come around again, with a full band. You know, songs that were mine, but nonetheless less songy, more Soul-Coughing-y. But, I'm not sure, so don't take this as a promise!

Finally, you're an active blogger with your photography and in the traditional sense. Has anything really interesting resulted from your blog and email interaction with your fanbase (like new friends in foreign countries, or anything else?)

I'm stuck for an interesting story right now, but it's been really interesting having such a close connection to the people listening, and being able to speak my mind without - no offense! - needing a journalist as a middleman. And here, to indicate my jokeyness, I will deploy a smiley. :-)

Mike Doughty will play the Cactus Cafe on Monday, November 5th. Unfortunately, tickets are already sold out.

[Mike Doughty MySpace]
[Mike Doughty Official Site]

Image via Mike Doughty's MySpace page. Photographer: Jim Wright.