Before he was an A-list producer and songwriter for Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy, Butch Walker was an Atlanta rocker best known as the frontman for Marvelous 3. Since that band's demise in 2001, the Cartersville native has continued recording and performing, most recently with a trio called 1969. After losing many personal belongings in California's wildfires last year, he began working on "Sycamore Meadows," named after the street where the fire occurred. It's scheduled for a November release.

As he comes to town for two performances at Center Stage this week, he took a moment to talk about his musical career, missing home and the new album.

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After losing many of his belongings in California fires last year, Butch Walker says he finds solace in support from his fans.
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CONCERT PREVIEW Butch Walker. With Jesse Malin. $25. 9 p.m. July 25-26 (doors open at 8). Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St., Midtown. 404-885-1365, www.butchwalker.com, www.centerstage-atlanta.com. RELATED LINKS: • Blog: Atlanta Music Scene • Summer Music Guide • CD reviews • Find a concert

You've had your ups and downs with the record industry. Tell me about this Web site under which you are now releasing your music. (The name of this site can't be shown here, but it is linked from Butchwalker.com.)

It's really just a humorous poke at the whole thing. It's a musical revolution right now with people being able to take control of their own careers and their own paths. With or without a record label, I've always done everything myself. [Record labels] have never done anything for me that made a massive difference. At the end of the day I still have what I started with, which is my fans. It's a great feeling to know that as [bad] as it is right now, that's still there.

Although you've moved to California, Atlanta is your hometown and obviously still holds a special place in your heart based on the new piano ballad called "Atlanta." What was the inspiration in writing that song at this point in your career?

I spend about half the year in each place. I don't want anyone to think I'm just some California transplant. The funny thing is, some of these songs I was writing for this new record I didn't really have a clue. I knew I was missing home, and that inspired the song "Atlanta," but it was also a little bit of fiction and a little bit of nostalgia for me. After the fires happened and I lost everything, it was just more poignant than ever. That [stuff] never happened to me in Atlanta, so I felt like, "Is this a bad sign that I moved to California to be close to work and then this happens?" I had two or three songs that had fire metaphors in the choruses, and those were all written before the fires. It was weird that I had this pattern happening, and I would have never written about that or said anything like that before.

The last few times you've played in Atlanta, it's been under the moniker of the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites. Is that the band we'll see this weekend or are you playing solo?

I'm going to make these shows kind of anything goes. The band will be around, and who knows who will jump up? There's all kinds of stuff kicking around my head of people who are going to come out and jam with me. I even plan on getting the audience involved since a lot of the set will just be me up there. I'll be very alone, so I actually want to get some of the people in the audience to help me out on some songs. And I'll play a bunch of songs from the new record because I always like to preview them before committing them to a record. I don't really care about anyone at radio liking them; I only care if my fans like them.

You're always working on multiple projects with other artists. What can fans expect from you next?

I'm going to have the record done for sure in August. I've written some more new songs for it, which is another reason I had to rethink the record a little bit. ... I've been working with a couple of popular UK bands, producing their stuff. And I've been working with Alecia [Moore], who goes by Pink, on her new record, so I've been doing some Pink songs and exorcising my pop demons that way. On the rock front, I've just been doing all kinds of different stuff. But you never really talk about it until it comes out, because who knows if you'll ever end up finishing it or if your name ever goes on it? So I try not to jinx it by saying, "Oh, yeah. I'm working with U2" and then it never happens.