Colin Reynolds was born and raised in Tacoma, but for the past two years, he's been holed up in a Manhattan apartment, writing and recording material - using only a laptop and his sonorous voice - and busking in New York's subways to scrape by. Now the 22-year-old is back in his hometown, recording songs for The Royal We, a solo release of an as-yet-unspecified length, in a well-equipped studio above the Urban Grace church.

In some ways the austere, spacious setting represents a return to Reynolds' roots. "I started drumming when I was eight - I drummed at church and stuff, and for youth group, and started doing it for people who needed drummers," Reynolds says. "For me, I've spent so much time thinking about what a church is - especially since I kind of started out in one. A church, to me, is just like a reverent atmosphere where you take things a little more seriously."

Reynolds, who now records under the alias "I Low," is a pretty serious guy. He's also funny, approachable and a natural storyteller - but he clearly treats his music with a great amount of sincerity and attention to detail.

"I've taken a lot more care to actually compose this record," says Reynolds. "I watch a lot of cartoons, and I love the way that music moves with cartoons, in Tom and Jerry and shit like that. I actually took time to study how the words are moving in my songs, (and) the direction, mood-wise, that the chords and melody travel."

The drummer-turned-solo songwriter is a familiar career trajectory, dating back (at least) to Phil Collins' early-'80s rebirth, though I Low's beat-heavy tracks definitely sound more like Noah Lennox than No Jacket Required.

Reynolds name-checks a wide variety of influences: Radiohead, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, J. Dilla's production aesthetic and classical composer Niccolò Paganini. The I Low sound, however, isn't easily labeled or shoehorned into preexisting genre categories and blog search terms. In-progress versions of three songs, "God Bless My Friends," "I Hate Feeling Like This" and "Overoffering," are defined by lush and streetwise live drums, soaring vocal harmonies, palpitating bass, digital horn blasts and overlapping acoustic and synthetic piano melodies. Clackety rim drumming lurks in the mix, and square wave synths are juxtaposed against baroque arrangements. Imagine The Fleet Foxes (or other vocally-blessed folkies) given free rein in a state-of-the-art futuristic studio staffed by beach-ready, psychedelics-fueled alien technicians. The most amazing thing about I Low's recordings, though, is that they were produced modestly and without a wealth of high-end gear. Reynolds is struggling.

"The initial demos were just me, Logic (software) plug-ins and an SM-58 (microphone). No instruments whatsoever. I had the time, and I felt like I needed to be doing something. (When) you spend two weeks inside of an apartment and don't say anything, don't do anything, life comes into focus pretty quick."

While Reynolds has toiled in relative obscurity, he does have an impressive musical pedigree for his age. He played drums for Tacoma bands like Freeze and Fur Coat and, while in New York, joined up with some fellow Tacoman expats to form The Skins, a much-missed post-punk indie outfit. Reynolds also provided stickwork for NY bands Earth Eater and Oberhofer and occasionally went solo under the name "Tree Roots." The I Low project is as much a reflection on these past musical experiences as it is the product of Reynolds' monastic East Coast lifestyle. Hence his songs' choral exuberance, faintly spiritual tone and lyrical honesty (beloved children's TV host Fred Rogers is another vital inspiration).

Reynolds' future plans are somewhat indeterminate. Though he's bound to return to New York City, he says he's "going to be really open to going where people want (him) to be." Right now he's primarily concerned with getting a handful of solid recordings ready to shop around.

"It is strange to be passing through this phase of life, between ‘having fun' and actually trying to achieve something," he muses. Of The Royal We's work-in-progress, he says, "This is like, my résumé."