Imaad Wasif brings his songs to Utah

Singer/songwriter Imaad Wasif's appearance at this year's South by Southwest music and media conference in Austin, Texas, was like a hurricane.

"It was really intense," Wasif said during a telephone interview while on the road from Oregon's west coast. "I was there for a day and played four shows. I flew in and played four shows all day and flew out that night, and I don't think I slept at all."

Wasif approached the whirlwind gigs with his trademark laid-back attitude.

"It was great," he said. "It was like being in a state of delirium."

Still, that doesn't mean Wasif doesn't take his songwriting and live playing seriously. He emphasized his awareness of outside sources leads to musical inspiration.

"Every record comes from a specific time in my life, and a lot of things I'm immersed in at the time affect me," he said about recording his latest CD, "The Voidist."

"The emotional scope of my life continues to expand as I get older, and I've become far more aware of the edges of my vision."

When he plays live, he strives to touch the soul of the arrangements.

"I'm constantly looking to let the songs become their own organisms and have them take me where they want to go."

Growing up, Wasif listened to classical music from India.

"When I started playing guitar, I tried to capture the sounds of those drones and Eastern scales through the guitar."

As he honed his craft, he found music's effect on his life to be stronger than he ever thought.

"When I was younger, I was acting on impulse," he said. "But now, having a mindfulness of things outside of myself, I've have become aware music does have such a powerful nature. That's something that has become almost an obsession for me. My waking and dreaming life are both always immersed in music and these ideas.

"I feel like these songs are always floating around inside of me."

In addition to his latest album, Wasif wrote songs for Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are," including "Hideaway," which he co-wrote with Karen Orzolek.

"It's such a beautiful song that I haven't been able to listen to it all the way through since we recorded it."

e-mail: scott@desnews.com

If you go...

What: Dead Meadow, Imaad Wasif, The Cab

Where: Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East

When: April 5, 9 p.m.

How much: $10

Phone: 801-832-1000

Web: www.24tix.com