Weekender chatted with Howie Day on the phone last week before he rolls into town for a show Friday at the Duke Ellington Ballroom.

Weekender: Where are you guys right now?

Howie Day: We’re in Philly … One of the 15 straight stops we are making.

WE: Do you get sick of being on the road?

HD: You get used to traveling. It’s kind of a masochist job, I guess, as far as sleeping and being away from home …

WE: Where is home?

HD: I live in Bangor, Maine.

WE: What do you do to kick back on the road?

HD: The tour bus is pretty nice; it’s our home on wheels. We keep ourselves occupied with movies. We’ll pick up a season of a television show like the Sopranos and watch it. We have an X-Box and laptops, so we stay pretty busy.

WE: R. Kelly used to take a basketball court with him on the road. Ever think of being that lavish?

HD: We thought about that for a while, but the thing is we have to set it up everyday. The X-Box is one of the most popular things. For a while, we were pretty obsessed with ‘Tiger Woods Golf.’

WE: You mentioned golf. Do you play?

HD: Yes.

WE: What do you shoot?

HD: I think the best I ever did was high 70s on a really good, lucky day. Other than that, I would say bogey golf.

WE: You had to have played growing up, shooting in the 70s.

HD: I played when I was a kid; I wish I could shoot a round one day. We talk like we are going to shoot a round and go skiing and I think we actually have done it twice.

WE: Growing up, did you want to be a golfer?

HD: I wasn’t serious about golf. I would say as early as seven I wanted to be a musician. I was more so into music than golf.

WE: What got you into music?

HD: In a way, my parents inspired me to do it. My mom bought me a bunch of ‘60s music when I was a kid – stuff you wouldn’t be exposed to growing up in Maine. I had this whole other spectrum my mom turned me onto, like Van Morrison, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles and Elton John; I was in love with it. My dad is an artistic guy. My parents are divorced, so I would go to my dad’s house; he was really supportive of me being a musician as a job. And that’s something a lot of parents might discourage because on paper, it isn’t a career. I remember going to his house and painting or making movies with the video camera. I look to him as the creative inspiration.

WE: Who is your biggest critic?

HD: My biggest critics are my parents. I bounce things off of them artistically – they have known me my whole life. But overall, I’m probably my biggest critic … I think my close friends are critics as well; they keep me in check.

WE: What goals haven’t you achieved?

HD: There are different kinds of goals. I could say I want to sell a bazillion records and have an MTV crib – that’s one side … I think with any job, you look up to the corner office with the window, aspiring to the level someone else has. More of it is within: It is artistic goals. I want to make sure every record I make is deeper and of more quality than the last one … Looking at the show and how it’s changed: It’s a never-ending aspiration to get better at what you do.

WE: You played solo, then played with a band on the last album. Now you’re back to performing solo on tour. Why the transition?

HD: I think I played solo forever. I wanted to play with a band … With less intimate gigs, the band’s sound really delivers. We did it basically for a year. And then we saw its fall – people are back in school. To change it up, I went back to solo … I missed playing solo.

WE: Do you like the sound of the solo performance or with the band more?

HD: I’m torn on it; I go back and forth. To me, I get to do both, so it’s nice. But I think it goes into the apples or oranges thing. If you ate apples for six months, you would be psyched to eat an orange.

WE: If you could have anyone sit in with you when you go in to make your next album, who would it be?

HD: I sort of got to do that on the last album. Two of my favorite artists are pretty close friends of mine; we have written songs together and played together and having them on my album is pretty cool. I got to plug his band, Jump Little Children, but as far as the celebrity to sit in with, it would be cool to have Bono come in and throw down some tracks with you.

WE: Does the sound of the solo show come across better in smaller venues?

HD: The solo show comes across better in a smaller, more intimate venue; I’m looking forward to coming into DeKalb – it should be a good show.

Who: Howie Day and Nickel Creek

When: 7 p.m. Friday, October 29

Where: Duke Ellington Ballroom

Cost: $15 for students; $20 general admission. Tickets are available at the HSC box office or by phone at 753-3146