Guster to return to The State Theatre

Though Guster’s lengthy musical career has earned the band a vast fan base, guitarist and lead singer Ryan Miller still isn’t exactly sure what to call their style.

“Sometimes it depends on who I’m talking to. It’s maybe indie pop, I guess. It sort of depends on what demographic it is,” Miller said. “Definitely, it’s song-based. We’ve always written songs. I think we write cool pop songs, whatever that means. Pop has taken on a completely different meaning in the past few years. I think that’s what I try to do. I still stumble through it.”

The singer-songwriter found music at a young age in the corner of his living room.

“I discovered my parents’ vinyl collection when I was growing up, and I feel like that’s where I first realized, ‘Oh, that’s what music is,’ ” he said.

Guster will play at The State Theatre on Jan. 22 and are no strangers to Happy Valley.

“I feel like State College is maybe where we went to a fraternity party and got yelled at for being creepy old dudes or something,” Miller said. “I think that was in State College. It could have been any college town in America, but State College is probably what I would guess.”

“Evermotion,” the band’s newest record, features a distinct shift in the band’s sound while still maintaining a classic feel, according to Miller.

“(We have) seven albums, and if you listen to them back to back, each one is at least a shade different than the one before,” he said. “Some are drastically different. I guess it’s all relative. This (album) is really important to us to help us keep this whole thing moving forward.”

New collaborations helped to mold the record, Miller said.

“We have a new songwriter in our band. Luke Reynolds joined us touring behind the record before this, but this is the first time we wrote with him. We recorded this with a really great producer who worked at a much more accelerated pace,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of time to obsess over things; it was sort of just like ‘do it and move on.’ I think those were two really big parameters for what shaped the sound and the spirit of the thing. I think the record definitely is unlike anything we’ve ever done.”

The music industry has changed since Guster’s initial success. Throughout the years, the band has traditionally focused on albums but may now be shifting its point of view on the means of distribution.

“I think we’re going to start writing (more),” Miller said. “We’ve already written a little bit and our management said, ‘You know, you don’t have to wait four years between records and put out long records. You can just put out songs when you want. This is just the thing that happens now.’ So, I think we’re excited about the idea of some shorter form releases. We’ve been operating on off/on cycles for the bulk of our career. We’re (also) talking about a big summer tour.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 10:25 AM with the headline "Guster to return to The State Theatre."