Little Yellow Dog’s lead guitarist did more than play instruments for the band’s upcoming album — he created the cover art.

Senior illustration major Griffin Thorne, guitarist and violinist for “acoustipunk” band Little Yellow Dog, spoke with the Northern Star about playing instruments, the DeKalb music scene and Little Yellow Dog’s album, “This Is A Phase,” which will be released Jan. 31.

The band will also host an album release show 7 p.m. Saturday at Next Door Theater, 15 1/2 Ziegler Court in Elgin.

Q: How long have you been playing the violin?

A: I’ve been playing since I was about 7, and I’m 21 now. I’m a little bad at math, so I can’t say exactly how long that is.

Q: How would you say playing instruments has affected you?

A: I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. Playing instruments is — I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s always been a thing that’s given me a lifelong love and appreciation for music in all forms, and it’s also been something that’s shown me I can accomplish things. Sometimes there seems like a daunting task that’s impossible, but if you break it down into measures and just work your ass off long enough, eventually you can do things you never really thought you could.

Q: Little Yellow Dog is going to be releasing an album on [Jan. 31]. What can people come to expect from this album?

A: It’s an interestingly mixed bag. The main songwriter, Dakota Buyka, he is majorly influenced by Bright Eyes and bands of that nature, like singer-songwriter, one guy, one guitarist kind of act. And then myself and the bass player, Stuart [Beaman], bring a lot of more vintage vibes. We’re both pretty heavily influenced by the music of the 1970s, so you get a lot of contemporary sound.

Our drummer, Gaspare [Stabile], plays for the most part in punk bands. So, we have kind of a modern sound that people are used to hearing, but also a lot of really traditional elements, and I think they come together really nicely in a few places.

Q: Your band Facebook page lists you guys as ‘acoustipunk.’ How would you describe ‘acoustipunk?’

A: (Laughs) I’m not entirely sure. I think that might have even been a joke, acoustipunk. Though, I can say there are a few songs of ours, definitely, where you can hear the roots of a punk song, but then at the same time, you got Dakota strumming away on an acoustic and me slamming the violin. So that’s kind of where that name comes from.

Q: That sounds glorious. How would you describe your live shows?

A: We’ve really been … a band, all of us, for about five months. The band existed for about a year and this line-up has been together for five months, so we’ve really just been trying to dial up the live shows.

But, if I could describe the atmosphere, it’s kind of like: low pressure, high fun, a lot of interaction. We don’t make it a big deal. We don’t try to be like a huge spectacle. It’s not much like we’re playing for a group of people; we kind of try to make it feel like we’re all having fun together for us and the audience.

Q: As a musician at NIU, how would you describe your experience?

A: I think the music scene at DeKalb is one that is very interesting in that, you know, you see advertisements for concerts at the Convo or you’ll see the playbill at The House Cafe or at Otto’s and there will be plenty of good shows there. But, what’s really interesting is that you can find these unexpected concerts and performances in really unexpected places.

Like, you might get an invite from one of your friends who got invited from one of their friends and you end up crammed up into someone’s living room, where you’ve never been to their house before, with like, 30 other people and a small band — maybe even a big band. And you can find some really interesting, unique stuff in those settings. I really enjoy that.

Q: As a member of Little Yellow Dog, what would you say is the most interesting thing that’s happened to you guys as a band?

A: I think, so far, you know, as we’re at the start of hopefully a long run, one of the most interesting things we’ve done was recording this album because it was done in such a short time.

It’s really — I don’t want to say a harrowing experience — that might be a bit melodramatic, but you know, we learned and wrote 11 songs in like, three months and recorded them in three days.

We went to LnL studios and we just — over the course of three sessions with the engineer there — we laid down all the tracks. That was in December and we’ve done all the tracks. Larry [Kriz] was kind enough to engineer them. I did the artwork and they’re already printed.

Q: What was your thought process as you made the album cover?

A: The album ‘This Is A Phase,’ it kind of has a central theme of transient nature in life — just the different things people go through; and I thought that since the album was a compilation based around that theme, it’d be kind of nice to have the front cover be like the resting point in the journey.

So, I did this simple, nice illustration of a traveler at a campfire in the woods between paths and I also had to think about the demographic a lot. I was thinking, ‘How can I get people to want to pick this up to look at and listen to it more often?’

So often you buy a CD from a band and unintentionally you find it in your car like, two months later and are like, ‘ah yeah, forgot about this.’ So I thought most of the people — college students, young people — they’re not going to catalogue this on their shelf; they’re not going to have a neat place for it; they’re gonna throw it on their desk.

I ended up making it so that instead of formatted like a book with the spine on the side, I put the spine for the CD packaging on the top so you could fold it out and it’s one big, tall picture, almost like a tiny poster. And I thought it’ll make more sense to anyone who sees pictures of them.Yeah, basically it’s a little bit more interesting to look at.

Q: As a member of a band, what do you say to aspiring musicians and bands?

A: I would say I’ve learned one thing over the years about every creative process: if it’s something that you’re really serious about, take it seriously even if you hurt your own feelings.

There have been times that I’ve realized that like, ‘wow I’m really bad at this one particular thing. I’m not doing this well.’ And really what that does, is it just leads you to thinking. If you’re too serious about it then, ‘oh well then. What can I do?’

Take it seriously, but — and not to be contradictory — but don’t forget to have fun. As a matter of fact, that’s actually more important. If I could tell someone one thing about music or art it would be, don’t forget to have fun. You didn’t start doing this because you thought one day you’d get to make a trillion dollars. You started doing it because you enjoy it, you got a kick out of it.

So the best way to be the best you can at it is to remember to have fun, even if you’re taking it seriously. You can be serious about having fun. And I guess that’s what I’d like to leave anyone with.

Listen to the band’s first single off of “This Is A Phase” called “Should Have Known” here.