Gloom and Tune

There’s a mysterious aura surrounding Jay Buchanan. Overflowing with emotional intensity, the Fullerton-based rocker has held crowds rapt at clubs throughout Orange County for the past six months or so.

So what’s all the fuss about?

In an era of easily digestible pop confections, the baby-faced, soft-spoken Buchanan prefers to unveil a hypnotic, unsettling mix of contradictions. Perhaps a spellbound fan named Lisa sums it up best in this e-mail posted on the band’s Web site: “Your music hauntingly soothes me . . . or does it soothingly haunt me?”

On the one hand, Buchanan--or at least the subjects of his songs-- yearns for the same kind of love and comfort we all crave.

Only there’s a darker, more sinister undercurrent flowing through much of the edgy singer-songwriter-guitarist’s material. His full-length debut, 1999’s “Violence,” is framed around downright scary songs of rage, confusion, heartbreak and despair. The title track, for instance, laments how violence has replaced “love, tenderness and compassion as the way to a man’s heart.”

More alarming is “If You Leave,” a track on the new “The American Son” EP that finds an obsessive protagonist threatening to use a shotgun on his wife should she ever break away from him.

Surely Buchanan--who’s married and has a 2-year-old son--isn’t advocating domestic violence, right?

“After I wrote that song, I didn’t perform it for a long time because people were getting the wrong idea,” said Buchanan, 25, seated alongside his three bandmates at the Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest. “I talk to people and they think I’m this [female] basher, that I have this mean streak. It is a can of worms, to be sure--and I worry about that sometimes.

“But what I’m trying to say is, ‘Don’t wait until it’s too late.’ There are warning signs in each verse of the song that this guy is going over the edge. . . . I see this song as a wake-up call. I abhor violence when it’s used whenever you can’t think of a solution to your problems.”

As a songwriter, Buchanan has found inspiration in such folk and country legends as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. He says he strives to use words--and enunciate them--in a way that resonates deeply with others. If he’s slipping into and out of darkness, he apparently is not alone.

“When you realize your experience is something that others go through, you are no longer isolated and withdrawn,” said Buchanan, who moved to Orange County in 1997 to start a new band. “When we share those complex, emotionally draining experiences through song, we become hopeful and, thereby, are uplifted.

“I think Sting writes some great lyrics, but his enunciation doesn’t draw you in. But with someone like Tom Waits or Nina Simone, it’s really more about how they say it than what they say.”

The powerful, atmospheric music that propels Buchanan’s ideas forward is richly textured with his versatile band--featuring lead guitarist Ty Stewart, 26; bassist Todd Sanders, 29; and drummer Chris Powell, 22--creating a spooky, evocative mood. They shift sonic gears easily and often, gliding between fiercely played, anthem-like rockers (“The American Son”) and slower-paced, funk- and jazz-tinged numbers (“Into the Sky,” “Cry Like a Man.”)

The foursome is currently working on new songs for an album planned for release later this year. With major labels reportedly interested, the band might soon find itself at a crossroads.

“There is no sacrificing creative control,” Buchanan said, “because if we sacrifice anything, we will simply cease to be who we are. So we’ll wait and see if the ideal situation with a major [label] presents itself.”

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Meanwhile, he and his bandmates aren’t taking each other for granted.

Said bassist Sanders: “We’re all strong personalities with slightly different versions of the same goal, which is to be able to do what we love for a living.”

Added Buchanan: “It’s rare that four people can be such good friends and have the musical chemistry that we do. . . . We’re very lucky. I think with a lot of bands, egos get in the way, people get distracted, and the music ultimately suffers. But we’re very focused and tight-knit.

“We know that there are four tires on this car, and if one of them blows, you can’t drive the car anymore.”

SHOW TIMES

Jay Buchanan performs Saturday at Linda’s Doll Hut, 107 S. Adams St., Anaheim. 21 and older. 10 p.m. $8 (714) 533-1286; Feb. 11 at Chain Reaction, 1652 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim. All ages. 10 p.m. $8 (714) 635-6067; Feb. 12 at the Blue Cafe, 210 the Promenade, Long Beach. 21 and older. 9 p.m. $7 (562) 984-8349; and Feb. 16 at the Gypsy Lounge, 23600 Rockfield Blvd., Lake Forest. 21 and older. 11:30 p.m. $7. (949) 206-9990.