At the end of 2006, things seemed to be going pretty well for John Michael Rouchell. The New Orleans native’s band, Ellipsis, was one of the most popular bands in the city, opening up for Incubus, playing the main stage of the world-famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and touring all over the country. The group had just released their second album, One Course Current, but instead of looking to his high school band’s bright future, Rouchell took a long, hard look in the mirror.

“I took a look at myself in the mirror one day and said, ‘I’m not happy,’” Rouchell remembered. “‘I don’t like what I’m doing; I don’t like what we’re playing. I really love these guys, they are awesome people, but I am just not doing what I want to be doing. I’m not writing the songs that I want to write because I am writing songs for this band that’s just not me anymore.’ I just didn’t feel like I was being honest.”

With that, Rouchell left the group that he’d grown up with, and the lifelong musician— who often played guitar with Parliament in his teens­—spent time jamming with local talents Blair Gimma and Theresa Andersson. One day, late in November 2007, he made a bet with a friend that took him down yet another musical path.

“It was on a dare really,” Rouchell said. “A friend said I was the laziest songwriter on the planet. I was like, ‘How about a song a week for a year?’ He said he would buy me a nice dinner, if I did it for a year. So, it started like that, and I started cranking them out once a week.”

Starting on January 1, 2008, Rouchell began the ambitious undertaking. He wrote, recorded, and released one song per week under the moniker MyNameIsJohnMichael. At first, he planned on playing all the instruments and doing all the engineering, but in March, he recruited friend and fellow New Orleans musician Eric Rogers to help him out on drums. Once Rogers was in the fold, the duo recruited a “dream team” of local musicians—Leo DeJesus (vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion, glockenspiel) of the City Life, Joe Bourgeois (bass) and Cory Schultz (trumpet, percussion, keys, clarinet, guitar, double bell euphonium) of Rogers’ old band Antenna Inn, and their newest member, Richard Dubourg (Rhodes, organ, guitar).

Once the lineup was in place, the sextet decided to re-record and remaster the best of Rouchell’s collection, from which the surprisingly cohesive The People That Come and Go sprung.

“I thought people should go pick the record out of the 52,” Rouchell said. “We hadn’t quite finished the 52, and we were starting to figure out that 16 or 17 songs kind of stood out above the rest. We knew that 17 songs were too much for a record, so we just re-recorded them all and tried to find a way to tell a story within the songs and make a record out of it.”

The album they recorded is a testament to the versatility and creativity of Rouchell’s songwriting and the group’s prodigious talents. The disc opens with the sublime, nostalgic “The People That Come and Go”, an emotive number driven by a sleepy synth and an ascending trumpet line.

Though the record features a few other slow, contemplative gems (“Why Does the Whirlwind Weep?”, “Thieves”), most of it is chock-full of precious energy. Tracks like “Character Piece” and “Down Near the Lost and Found” distance the group from an indie-rock scene increasingly saturated with acts more interested in crafting an aloof cool than conveying raw, palpable emotion. MNIJM prefers to bludgeon the listener with lush melodies, astir drumming, powerful hooks, and unrelenting passion.

“I guess it’s a New Orleans thing, maybe,” Rouchell said. “I guess we just have to be a high-energy band. The cool bands don’t give a shit, and are just like, ‘Whatever, I’d rather be somewhere else.’ But we always loved bands that felt like they really wanted to be there. Most of the songs aren’t about the brightest topics, but hopefully we can purge the pain through energy and passion… like we are trying to sweat it off.”

While their sound is undeniably in the indie-rock vein, their New Orleans roots play a key role in the group’s style. Whether it is the triumphant, big band brass melody of “Nothing But Memories”, or the driving, marching band backbeat of “Misery Runs”, after a few listens, it is clear that their debut could not have been borne out of a band living anywhere else.

“None of it is really conscious; it’s just our culture,” Rouchell said. “For example, I’ve always loved brass instruments, because that’s just what we hear everyday. I think we just inherently feel certain sounds, and you can hear them on the record. In regards to the songwriting, songs about being the underdog and coping with pain… these things are just natural because the city really feels like that.”

Rouchell’s lyrics keep the sonically versatile disc from feeling disjointed due to the unusual circumstances under which the songs were written. Though Rouchell remained coy about whether the record’s themes are autobiographical, many of his lyrics deal with trying to move forward to fulfill one’s dreams, while struggling with fears, self-doubt, and insecurity.

“The ‘I’ character, who isn’t always me, is this person who wanted to do something larger than they had ever done before,” Rouchell explained. “Through the course of the record, you come to figure out that they’ve alienated everyone around them.”

While Rouchell’s heart-wrenching decision to leave where he’d grown up didn’t serve to alienate those around him, it did put his ability as a songwriter and performer on the line, which, evidenced by his lyrics, was an anxiety-provoking experience. Those feelings are apparent throughout the disc, especially on one of the album’s standout tracks, “Every Night of the Year.”

“Every night of the year / We all confront our fears / Like the writer and the dancer / Yes, we all have questions to answer / Shortcomings, doubts, and fears.”

While the process was a challenging one, Rouchell contends that it was a change he is thrilled to have made. They’ve taken the “Lil Wayne approach” (their words, not mine) to recording, trying to continuously release new demos as they are written.

“Basically, it worked really well the first time, so we just figured that the best way to do a new album was just to do it again,” multi-instrumentalist DeJesus said. “Hopefully, by the end of the year, we’ll have a solid album’s worth of tunes, and then we can just take the songs we want to showcase and re-record them. We just want to put ourselves in a frame to generate as much material as possible.”

They have also hit the road hard. In between their countless engagements with the South’s sweatiest clubs, they had time to bring their rollicking, uncompromising sets to high-profile gigs like Bonnaroo and New Orleans’ Voodoo Fest. If their growing fanbase and substantial buzz—they took home the award for “Best Emerging Group/Artist” at the Big Easy Awards, put on by New Orleans’ influential weekly Gambit—is anything to go by, the future sure looks bright.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]