A couple months ago, Red Rooster released a new album "Dose" on Wondermore that has seen a great deal of success in only a little amount of time. Part of the interest in this eclectic double CD release comes from the experimental nature of the albums. The first disc offers new Red Rooster tracks, using every modern tool at the bands' disposal, from amplifiers and distortion pedals to samples and computers. The second disc takes those same exact songs, but strips down the arrangements to only acoustic instruments and those natural sounds that could only be captured by a microphone. We sat down with Red Rooster's lead singer Jay Erickson (Nat Zilkha makes up the other half of Red Rooster), for five questions about "Dose," today's music in general, and what's next for the band:

1. The double-disc release of "Dose" takes two decidedly different takes at the same set of songs. How did this "experiment" come about?

The original idea stemmed from the fact that we love to play acoustic music but we also love playing with the full band and fully "juiced up." So, we figured, if we are going to make a CD, can we do both? As the idea evolved we saw the additional artistic interest of intentionally crafting two different versions of the same songs. We had a few guiding principles that were established early on in pre-production meetings: only sounds that we could capture with a mic would be on the "acoustic" album, each album had to have its own wholeness and cohesion, we could sample the acoustic album into the electric but not the reverse, and we would not use gizmos on the electric album for the sake of using them. While this approach certainly added to the workload (almost doubled it), the fact that there was this whole new layer of dialog between the two versions and discs fueled our interest throughout the nine-month project.

2. A lot of other musicians contributed to "Dose" outside of yourself and Nat. Does bringing in outside artists alter each song, or do you try to focus them to stay consistent with your original vision?

I think they each brought their own ideas to the table and were all truly collaborative in their playing. Dan, Nat and I certainly pushed some ideas and arrangements we had developed in pre-production that were necessary for cohesion. However, there is so much spontaneous creativity on the album from the players. It's not like we told someone like Brian Keane, "Okay, now play this tasty lick during your piano solo." We just said, "Here's a solo spot for you -let's run a few takes and see what happens." Also, one of the things I discovered in working on this album is that a song really has an unchangeable heart that, regardless of the instrumentation, tempo, etc; comes through and holds it together. The players tap into that. Of course, you can push a song so far that it is not the same song at all but I think we avoided that.

3. Your music crosses so many genres, it's hard to make comparisons to other artists. That said, what artists do you think have had the greatest influence on your work over the years?

For me, personally, there are two genres that I have been influenced by most: blues and bluegrass. I think you can hear that in the music. In terms of artists, I would say: Greg Brown, Bob Schneider, Richard Buckner, Wilco, The Postal Service, Paul Curreri, Bob Dylan, The Seldom Scene, Steve Earle, and Brian Keane (among many). Nat is a big fan of Howlin' Wolf, Lucinda Williams and Mississippi John Hurt.

4. Something we like to ask in every interview, what new music are you digging lately?

I saw Mason Jennings recently and really dug his live show. He's been in the iPod rotation lately. I have been listening to a fair amount of Bach (the Yo-Yo Ma solo action) which consistently blows me away. I am also really into Sufjan Stevens, his songs are so meticulously crafted yet constantly surprising. Brian Keane's new forthcoming album (which is not released yet but it pays to have friends) kicks a fair amount of ass.

5. What's next for Red Rooster? More live shows? More albums?

Yes and yes. We are going to start playing shows in Virginia, Philly, Massachusetts, Maine and, of course, our hometown New York. We are also going to be on tour next summer with Charlotte Kendrick for a spell. Having just completed "Dose," I can't begin to think about the next album but I am sure there will be one. Other than that we are considering taking over the world (someone said we are huge in Belgium).

You can learn more about Red Rooster on their Web Site at www.redroos.com.