Mike Doughty earned a special place in DCist’s heart at a gig by his former band, Soul Coughing. Doughty, the lead singer of the group, was introducing the members of the band to the audience in between songs, and when he got to himself, he said “And I…am human and I need to be loved, just like everyone else does.” Respect.

Despite a smattering of success on “alternative radio” in the late 1990s, Soul Coughing broke up at the turn of the century and Doughty struck out on his own by grabbing his acoustic guitar and touring incessantly, criss-crossing the country numerous times each year. He released a live record and two albums on his own before signing with ATO Records last year. He is currently on tour supporting his new album, Haughty Melodic, and was nice enough to take time out from his busy tour schedule to answer some of DCist’s questions via e-mail.

When you left Soul Coughing, you went solo and stripped your sound down to great effect. Was there a conscious decision to record the songs for your new record backed by a band?

I didn’t really decide, per se. I’d been moving into some drum machine stuff, some minor little arrangement filigrees, a little keyboard here or there. Like on Rockity Roll. So when I got together with (Haughty Melodic producer) Dan (Wilson), we initially were doing stuff with just guitar, drum machine, and piano. The other parts just kept getting added, and we added more and more, until it became the baroque monster it is.