When so many indie rock bands were signing to major labels in the late '80s and early '90s, Superchunk took a different route. The Chapel Hill, N.C., band founded its own label, Merge, in 1992 and, along with releasing Super-chunk records, started to build the label with other bands.

	Portastatic, led by Mac McCaughan (second from left), goes against the title of its latest CD, "Be Still Please." Click photo for larger image. Portastatic With: Benjy Ferree. Where: Andy Warhol Museum. When: 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets: $12; 412-237-8300.

It grew into an indie juggernaut with a roster that has included the likes of Spoon, The Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel, Dinosaur Jr., Polvo and the Clientele. Last year, it broke the Arcade Fire, perhaps the biggest indie success story of 2005.

Merge is also the home to Portastatic, the ever-evolving side project of label head and Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan. Portastatic takes on a number of forms and sounds with different records, from lo-fi rock to jazzy Brazilian to orchestrated soundtrack music.

The latest record, "Be Still Please," belies its title with catchy-quirky guitar-rock and gorgeous, epic pop with the added warmth of strings.

Juggling two bands, a rapidly growing label and a 3-year old daughter, McCaughan says, "It just means that you don't get enough sleep, really." In advance of his show at the Warhol, he talked about his active music life.

Portastatic began as a side project. Did you ever anticipate that it would develop to this extent?

I didn't really anticipate one way or the other. It started off as something that was just in my spare time when Superchunk wasn't so busy. At the same time, I still valued what I was doing. I didn't see it as just [fooling] around. In some ways, I anticipated it lasting longer than Superchunk just because with Superchunk it required four people to be involved. And this right now, this is a five-piece band, but it can just be me or a lot of different things, and it can morph into whatever it needs to be at any given time.

Do you enjoy having this kind of freedom?

Yeah, it's great. In some ways, it's stressful 'cause there's no one to say, "That's a terrible idea." It's hard to edit yourself in some ways. There's a lot of choices, and that can be a little bit of a burden as opposed to having things decided for you. But it's cool, I love being able to put out three records in a year if I want to, or not, or do an instrumental soundtrack and then a record of songs. It's cool to be able to go back and forth.

Portastatic has been a fluid project. How did you approach this record?

In some ways, this record and the last record, "Bright Ideas," have been the most thought-out and planned-out in advance. Not down to every detail, because you always hear things that trigger other ideas. But on this record, I was focusing on nine or 10 songs, as opposed to the first Portastatic records, which were a bit more all over the map in terms of having little 30-second instrumental things between songs and stuff like that. I think the last couple records being more focused really helps. You lose a little bit of haphazardness, which I like about the first records, but I think you gain other things.

The orchestration on this record is really well done. It's really woven into the songs.

Part of that was just doing the film score I did. It forced me to learn how to do strings better than I ever had in the past. I think that led to the new record being a little more orchestrated and orchestrated in a way that feels more natural, that goes with the song.

The use of strings, what people call chamber pop, has become kind of a signature of this decade ...

I think the term is annoying, 'cause it sounds nothing like chamber music, first of all. Everything I hear that gets described as that, it sounds like they listened to a Left Banke record and then all they took away was the arrangements and none of the good songs. When I listen to a Motown record or a Stax record with great string or horn arrangements, I'm not thinking "What a great chamber pop record." I'm thinking "Wow, what great songs these are and the strings just feed into the whole picture" -- as opposed to it being the main idea. When I listen to something that's supposed to be chamber pop, the whole gimmick is, "Look, we have strings on our record" as opposed to "We have great songs on the record." To me, it's not something that reminds me of this decade. I think of decades ago.

Would you say you're getting more and more confident as a singer?

Not really. In some ways, my singing has been something that means that the music will only ever achieve a certain amount of appeal -- for people who will put up with the voice. I don't feel like I'm uncomfortable, but I don't feel like I'm more comfortable either. Many songs I'll write and when I get to the studio, I think, "Why did I write it in this key?" Every song is a different struggle when it comes to the singing.

What is the status of Super- chunk?

We're playing a show this week in New York, but other than that, we don't have any plans, except to write some more songs. We have a few songs but not enough for a whole album. We've played two shows this year, and they've been kind of fun, but we'd like to have more new songs before we play more and, hopefully we'll make a new record next year.

A number of Superchunk's contemporaries signed with major labels. I assume that you're glad you resisted that temptation?

I don't think any of us ever wishes we had done anything different. The way we slowed down and stopped touring was more about what touring was like and what we were like, as opposed to "If only we had been on a different label ..." The experience that I have seen of others hasn't made me think it wouldn't have changed anything.

A number of them are back on indie labels, like Dinosaur Jr on Merge.

Yeah, there aren't many examples of like, "Wow, it worked out so well for them that they signed to a major label."

Arcade Fire has been a huge success for Merge. Did you see that coming when you signed them?

Having seem them live and heard the record, we knew they would be a band that would blow people away. I don't think there's any band you could see where you would know it was going to happen so quickly. It was kind of amazing.

What does the Arcade Fire success do for the label?

It helps with name recognition, it helps other bands and it helps you as a label. Bands you might want to work with see what Merge can do if they see the success of a record like that.

What's happening with the label that you're really excited about?

The beginning of the year we have a lot of stuff coming -- a David Kilgour record that's awesome, a new band on Merge called the Broken West from Los Angeles. We're excited to have people hear them for the first time. Next spring, we have Ladybug Transistor, the Clientele, the Rosebuds, there's a lot of great stuff.

Is downloading impacting your label or are the people who like these records tending to buy them?

Certainly people download stuff and probably people download stuff instead of buying, but I think for the most part, people who are into stuff on Merge are music fans and they want to support the labels they like and the bands that they like. They're good fans to have.