Under the category of "quiet is the new loud" are two artists arriving at Garfield Artworks who both sing hushed, intimate folk-based music, but both dropped the name of Fugazi in talking about their early influences.

ROCKY'S THEME

Robin Laananen Rocky Votolato has taken flight from his previous work in Waxwing. Rocky Votolato performs Sunday at 8 p.m. at Garfield Artworks with Owen and Drag the River. Admission is $10 advance; $12 at the door. All ages. Call 412-361-2262.

Rocky Votolato, who only sounds like a boxer, made his reputation in the Seattle rock band Waxwing, but his current music owes more to his upbringing in rural Texas.

With the members of Waxwing, including his brother Cody, too busy with other projects, Votolato started writing more stripped-down folk in the style of Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Iron & Wine, which he cut for his solo debut, "Makers."

"Cody, my little brother, was also in Blood Brothers, which got signed to a major label," he says. "It was OK with me 'cause I was going in another direction. I had songs that were way more folkie-acoustic-countryish, more the type of stuff I grew up around. Waxwing was more of a rite of passage, something I needed to do to stay healthy at the time. With this I've learned more how to focus on the craft of songwriting."

Votolato says he grew in a small Texas town listening to music his father liked, like Steve Earle, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash.

"When you listen to my music now, it's more the direction that's gone. It doesn't sound like the bands that initially got me started in Waxwing, which were like Fugazi, Jawbreaker, Nirvana. I moved to Seattle in the early '90s, and that's when I started going to punk shows and decided I was going to be in bands the rest of my life."

Ironically, Votolato says he was "oblivious" to the alt-country scene in the '90s that now informs his music, particularly "The Brag & Cuss," a second record that's on the way in June. It finds the singer-songwriter building the sound a little more, as he does on the current tour backed by the band Drag the River. "Not that this record is going to be crazy fast," he says. "It's still a mellow record, but the songs are treated with full arrangements."

Obviously, the folk-country and alt-country fields have been well cultivated over the years, but Votolato says that isn't going to stop him.

"I don't worry about it anymore. I used to try to steer away from comparisons, but I know who I am now, man, I've got my own thing going, my own voice. I couldn't copy someone if I tried. I'm just too old for that. People are going to compare it to whatever they want, and if they think it's not from my heart they're full of [it]."

RADIO'S WAVE

Robin Laananen One A.M. Radio used to sit behind the drums of a hardcore band. One A.M. Radio performs at Garfield Artworks at 8 tonight with Lucas Sloppy's Flying Organ. Admission is $6. All ages. 412-361-2262.

When Hrishikesh Hirway, who goes by the clever moniker of One A.M. Radio, stepped out from the behind the drums of a hardcore band in the late '90s and picked up an acoustic, his musical life underwent a quiet revolution.

"When I started learning guitar," he says, "part of it was I didn't know how to play that well, and I would play these minimal things and sing over them. I never had that convincing of a shout."

Hirway, a Yale student at the time, started to blend this spare, minor-key acoustic music with electronic beats, performing with acoustic guitar and laptop. Gradually, it's evolved into a chamber-pop sound with his gorgeous, melancholy third record, "This Too Will Pass."

"With this one," he says, "I felt like I could get more complex with instrumentation. This record also ended up being bleaker than the last couple. I think there's always sort of a mix of sadness and wistfulness and, like, restrained joyfulness. I just think the ratio is more heavily favoring the sadder stuff than it has on the other records."

To Hirway, One A.M. Radio is a flexible moniker which allows for any type of touring configuration. This time around, he's out with an upright bassist and two saxophonists who have added an unexpected chamber orchestra twist.

"I asked them to play with no vibrato and with an austerity that I don't think people expect from saxophones," he says.

Hirway finds himself the lone punk veteran in a quartet with three jazz players. "Which is to say," he jokes, "they know how to play their instruments, and I'm still figuring it out."