Julian Lynch, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, has been carving out a niche for himself in Madison, playing at local venues and inspiring a growing following. The New Jersey native moved to Madison one year ago to pursue a master’s thesis in the department of music and has continued to produce songs and play shows in a solo act that continues to impress listeners locally and nationally.

Lynch is an introspective man with a well of friendliness tucked away under a red flannel coat and a baby blue sweater. His demeanor is soft and welcoming and his music reinforces that personality. While sitting on the steps of the Wisconsin Historical Society smoking a cigarette, he listens intently to the questions asked of him and responds after a few seconds of staring into the distance. A laidback mindset and an openness to the unique gives Lynch a quality that exudes the type of personality that easily attaches to Madison. His music seems distanced, if almost at odds with the music he plays, and this musical disconnect from reality is conveyed in his loose and free-formed style.

A first listen of his latest album, Orange You Glad, gives the impression of a minimalist and spontaneous songwriter. Lynch uses only a few melodic components laid over a rhythmic, ambient backdrop to produce songs that meander through their own loosely-defined agenda. It would be easy to think his pop and rock sensibilities might clash with the loose format of his songs, but the two distinct approaches complement each other well. A recording process that utilizes his individual skills enables him to create songs that are fitting of his persona.

“I really like to keep it simple; I like to have only a couple of sounds going at once, because it tends to make each sound more important,” Lynch said.

A live performance from Lynch differs greatly from both a listening experience at home and a live performance by any other artist. He sits down campfire style, after just a few moments of setting up, and starts playing his clarinet or a self-made didgeridoo device that can achieve high and low frequencies with a rough transition in between. This instrument lends a lot of credence to Lynch’s belief in keeping it simple. He describes his writing process as a sort of spontaneous conception and this approach works well for his style.

“I start with a few layers of improvisation, and then I continue with what I like the sound of,” Lynch said.

The homemade device is strong and stark. It produces a sound caught between an elephant’s wail and a tuba. As he sits and plays, he loops over a few tracks and improvises with these wind instruments. The sound swells in and out of melodies, and Lynch isn’t afraid to pursue an aural tangent. This feature of his performance in tandem with the simplicity of his set makes for an organic feel that is visible in recordings, but very pronounced during a live show. Despite the differing sounds in his recorded and live performances, the process of creation is strikingly similar.

Lynch is a student in the department of ethnomusicology. He is studying and researching for a master’s thesis and is currently researching bagpipe players in southern Asia and among the Indian diaspora. It may be easy to draw a correlation between his music and study, but it seems as if there are two sides to Julian Lynch. One side is the scholar deeply interested in the social and anthropological contexts of the music he studies, while another is the musician who creates only what he loves. It would be remiss to say there is no connection between the two sides, as is evidenced by his woodwind repertoire. It is also a gross exaggeration to say his study of music informs all that he plays.

“I’m not channeling any music that I study,” Lynch said. “I’m no more influenced by that than anything else I’m listening to.”

Lynch seems to take measures to avoid coming off as a musical elitist and is not concerned with creating academic art.

“I’m not a scholarly musician; I don’t have the training to write about music or technique, and that’s not what I am trying to do in any songs.”

His studies have taught him a few things about the music he plays, though. He possesses the desire to make music for his own pleasure but admits there are some things that cannot — or perhaps, should not — be conveyed.

“I can’t say the music speaks for itself, music is always contextualized by something else, by the circumstances surrounding it.” Lynch said.

Lynch’s style is often cast into the mold of psychedelic pop, which is apt at times when listening to his album. This is especially pronounced on tracks like “Winterer One” and “Andaza,” which whirl through their ambience with solid, catchy bass riffs and heavily distorted guitar backed by strange vocals that complement the melody far more than they employ lyricism.

The typecast of psych-pop is challenged, however, by tracks like “Venom” and “Seed,” which do more to reinforce his ideas about rock than to advance a more pop-influenced sound. Above all else, Lynch makes music to make music and recognizes that being placed in a certain — even a fairly loose — genre can have very specific implications as an artist.

“Some people go to a show or listen to [Orange You Glad] expecting a bunch of noise or a bunch of pop hooks,” Lynch said. In his own emphatically simplistic style he adds, ” I tend to think of my album especially a more of a pop album or a rock album.”

Lynch continues to perform in Madison while finishing his master’s program. He has shows schedule throughout the year in Madison, and has, in previous months, performed in New York and Washington, D.C. Those who see him live will be graced with the warmth of his sound and a special courtesy Lynch gives audiences as a performer.

“It’s annoying to me when a band takes forever to set up, so I usually just start playing,” Lynch said.