UW-Madison graduate Mitch Robbins' switch from making good money in a corporate job at Marshall Fields to serving patrons at a sports bar wouldn't strike many guidance counselors as a wise career choice.

In most cases, a move from a high-rise apartment in downtown Minneapolis to a smaller rental outside the city's center wouldn't exactly be considered moving up in the world.

Robbins, however, had other plans in mind — namely, recording and touring with his band, Minneapolis pop-rock outfit Room for Gray.

Conventions be damned. Cutting expenses was never easier.

"I have made a lot of changes, but I've made a lot of changes for a good reason," Robbins said. The reason was the pursuit of his dream to make it in the music business, a goal that couldn't wait for suit-and-tie success or financial stability.

"Now is the time to really make a go out of it and have no regrets," he said.

As a result, Robbins, a 2003 graduate with a major in psychology and a minor in business, left his job as a business analyst to devote himself to Room for Gray. The group will come to Madison to play at the Annex on Saturday, May 19.

Room for Gray will be performing the show in support of its new independent EP Moving On. Robbins said the band is currently shopping the release for label attention before it records a full-length album later this year.

Robbins' characterization of the quartet's sound as "pop rock with an edge" aptly describes the five songs on Moving On. The band mostly follows a tried-and-true song formula on the guitar-driven, hook-laden tracks, which range from down-tempo ballads to moderately fast rockers. Singer and lyricist James Gray evokes plaintive romantic pleadings in an aged choirboy voice as the rest of the band dutifully chugs along behind him, filling in the space between with washes of distortion-tinged guitars and thumping bass lines.

Although the EP starts off like the effort of a high school garage band with the slightly ponderous, crunching rock of "I Wish You Could Hear Me," the group soon displays a well-rehearsed grasp of catchy pop melodies in several solid refrains. The strongest track comes last with the lone acoustic number "Know," which features a dancing, picked lead-in that could almost be a leftover from a Blizzard of Ozz intro outtake, as well as a brief, classically styled solo to match.

Since he joined the band in March 2005 after an audition with founding members and primary songwriters James Gray and David Roo, Robbins has been handling most of the management, making endless phone calls in search of shows and other opportunities.

"I saw the potential of the group if the band was pushed from the business side," he said. Since Robbins' addition to the band, Room for Gray has made morning-television appearances and signed a licensing contract with a company that airs independent music on TV shows.

"The more you dig, the more you push, … the more things you make happen," he said. "You can say you want to be the next band on the radio that everybody's dying to see, … dying to buy your record, but you have to put in the work."

Although his business background helped to designate him as the band's marketing rep and spokesperson, Robbins said he had to learn a lot himself in the trial-and-error world of the music industry. Although he took classes at UW-Madison with Richard Davis and other music faculty, Robbins never had any inkling he would someday be a full-time rock musician.

"I had the aspiration in the back of my mind of maybe someday opening a music store," he said. "I had no plans that I would be in a full-time band, touring the country."

Room for Gray has been playing shows around Minneapolis and the Midwest for several years, and the band's Madison outing will be one of a string of weekend shows planned for this summer.

One of the group's previous ventures into Wisconsin ended with a festival performance for approximately five people in the middle of a cornfield. Robbins said experiences like these are all part of life on the road, which, in Room for Gray's case, also includes intentional attempts to veer the band's van off the road.

"There's an inside joke. 'Let's see how we can scare the shit out of whoever is sleeping,'" he said, explaining the tactic of piloting the van onto the shoulder of the highway to surprise the sleeper, who is most often Robbins. "You feel like you're having a heart attack when you're waking up [to the sound of the van nearly going off the road]."

Near-death awakenings aside, Robbins is looking forward to returning to Madison. As a student, he lived across the street from the Annex, and the venue brings back memories of late-night trips to Greenbush Bakery, among others.

"The Annex is the place where I used to go see bands," Robbins said. Little did he expect to one day be on the concert hall's roster of shows, albeit with a misspelled band name ("Room for Grey").

Nevertheless, he doesn't regret leaving the high-rise pad and Marshall Fields job. "You've got to pursue your passion despite all the other obstacles and risks involved," Robbins said. "Everything else will fall into place."

The 18-and-up show will start at 9 p.m. with openers Fermata and the Dorothy Heralds. Tickets are $5.