Toronto-based indie rockers Broken Social Scene have spawned some of today’s most popular artists, including Feist, frontman Kevin Drew, and Metric’s Emily Haines. One of these breakaway solo artists, Jason Collett, has been wooing fans on both sides of the border with his Dylan-esque vocals and folky, upbeat style.

Cross-collaboration is practically the raison d’être being a Broken Social Scene bandmate, and Collett has had his fair share of guests on his early albums. But his latest, Here’s to Being Here, has a more personal focus and introspective story to tell. We spoke with Jason in advance of his show tonight at Iota in Arlington. He explained why he wasn’t in the cheeriest of moods at SXSW, the difference between his U.S. and Canadian fans, and shut down any rumors that he has an unhealthy obsession with food.

Why did you initially decide you break away from Broken Social Scene and focus on your solo work?

Well, I never really broke away from Broken Social Scene like several of the artists involved in that band. I had a solo career going before. You know Amy Milan, Emily Haines, Andrew Whiteman, all of us, you know…so it was just natural to keep it going. And especially to take the opportunity that the band had given all of us individually, like sort of kicking the door open internationally for all of our solo work. Previously all of us were known in Toronto, but we hadn’t really done anything outside of Toronto before Broken Social Scene.

Why did you cut back from Broken Social Scene’s involvement on the new album?

It just seemed like the natural thing to do was to focus on the touring band that I’ve been using. We’d already started playing some of those songs live and I just like the whole feel of it, I really love that band. And the extra folks that ended up on the record, anyone from Liam O’Neil from The Stills to Andrew Whiteman from Apostle of Hustle, Tony Scherr from New York…all those guys play with us at any point along the road. If we bump into them, they’ve all played with the band. So I was just sorta keeping it a more focused affair.