Like the characters in “Moby Dick,” the novel that inspired their name, life is an epic adventure for the band Ezra Furman and the Harpoons. Armed with their instruments, Ezra Furman, Job Mukkada, Adam Abrutyn and Andrew Langer weather the seas of popular taste to introduce fans to their emotionally driven, electric brand of indie music. Lucky for the Harpoons, they have yet to wage battle with any aquatic miscreants during the course of their travels.

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons began navigating the music industry in 2006 as students at Tufts University in Boston, Mass. Through their songs, the Harpoons seek to explore rock and roll and establish lasting connections with their fans.

“We’re not rock and roll heroes. I never aspire to be like Mick Jagger or like Jim Morrison. I’d rather be likeable and share something special with people,” Furman said.

“I think we make music to express ourselves, and we put it out because we hope there’s at least one other person who can relate to what we’re thinking,” Mukkada added. “If it’s just one then that’s enough, and if it’s more, then that’s great. You make music, play shows, and put it out there, because it’s a way to relate to people.”

After watching Ezra and the Harpoons play live, listeners realize exactly what distinguishes the group from the hoards of other hopefuls attempting to break onto the national music scene. The Harpoons view each concert as a collective emotional event the band shares with audience members.

“Some bands want you to feel like an animal,” Furman said. “I guess that could be fun too, but we go for the human, the strange core of the heart.”

Insightful lyrics and instrumentation defines the music the Harpoons produce. As the band emphasizes song composition, Furman constantly challenges himself to identify and integrate successful song components.

“We’re always willing to sacrifice style for substance, and we’re always willing to change our sound if it makes the song better,” Furman said. “A song is a weird little animal that you have to take care of and nurture into a full beast.”

Many songs in the Harpoons’ repertoire such as “Take Off Your Sunglasses” are written in a conversational style and highlight everyday remarks fraught with emotional significance that often strike Furman as “pure poetry.”

“You can imagine having a conversation about these mundane things like sunglasses, and then it’s like hang on, what are we really talking about here”? Furman said.

Roughly 50 years after the Beatles started recording, their musical style continues to influence budding artists like Furman of the Harpoons.

“I really appreciate artists who walk the line between populism and high art, like high and low art,” Furman said. “”I mean the Beatles, one of the best bands ever, started out as pop, and they grew into more and more inventive chord changes, strange lyrics, strange sounds on their records. They [reached] the whole span of high and low art.”

Thus far Ezra Furman and the Harpoons have released two full-length albums, “Banging Down the Door” and “Inside the Human Body.” Eagerness sped the creation of their first album “Banging Down the Door,” while their second album “Inside the Human Body” explores the intersection between physicality and spiritual transcendence.

The music off the Harpoons’ soon-to-be-released third album departs from past work. Previously Furman combined multiple, often opposite, emotions into each song he wrote.

“I feel like I was trying to put my whole worldview into each and every song, and on this [CD] they’re completely isolated emotions,” Furman said. “There’s the starry-eyed song, the hateful song and the sexual song. They’re all focused emotional blasts, and I think that makes it a lot better.”

Songs off their third album include “Wild Rose Marie,” “I Killed Myself But I Didn’t Die,” “Teenage Wasteland” and “Heaven at the Drive-In” among others.

“The songs span all sorts of times and situations, but they all connect together really well,” Mukkada said. “Time and maturity has allowed this record to be much more musically satisfying.”

Though the Harpoons enjoy sharing their corner of the musical industry with fans, they hope their third album will allow them the opportunity to reach a larger listening audience.

Whether you stop by Memorial Union on Saturday to hear some self-described “rollicking pop songs” or Furman’s notorious stage banter, indie music, appreciators won’t want to miss experiencing this leg of the Harpoon’s musical voyage.

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons will appear in the Rathskeller on Saturday at 8:30 with local spy rock band The Choons and folk-rock band Pippen allegedly raised by wolves in the forests of Wisconsin.