This weekend John Maus is in New York, where he hopes he performs to sold-out clubs.

In his hometown of Austin, few people know of his growing success as a musician.

“In Berlin I’ll sell it out,” he said. “In New York City, I’ll sell it out, but at Torge’s I wouldn’t even break even.”

When the Austin native moved home two years ago to finish his third album, he wasn’t met with any fanfare.

Maus, 31, graduated from Austin High School in 1998, has since lived in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Hawaii while traveling across the world to perform.

It appears the work is beginning to pay off. With positive feedback in blogs and positive review from Pitchfork (8.4 out 10 rating), Maus seems to be on an upswing.

“It’s transitioned slowly from indifference or hostility from the audience to enthusiasm, which is new for me,” he said of the response to his music.

Maus still considers Austin home, but is quick to warn his music likely wouldn’t strike a popular chord in his hometown.

“I don’t know how well it would go over here,” he said. “Despite that, I see myself as trying to carry some picture of this place.”

A one-man band

Words like fringe, experimental and low-fi have been used to describe his sound.

Maus’s music resembles a bit of a throwback to the 1980s with keyboard synthesizers and Maus’s low, reverberating vocals, which often resemble Ian Curtis of Joy Division and hints of Scott Walker.

“I’d make the disclaimer that, perhaps, it might strike some folks as odd or strange,” he said.

Maus is essentially a one-man band, playing both keyboards and bass on his albums, much of which is recorded entirely on his laptop.

“We live in this age where that’s possible, where we can play every instrument ourselves, we can produce it ourselves, and we can do it all with widely available recording technologies,” he said.

Maus plays keyboards, guitar and bass guitar — he says “amateurishly” because he can’t play Bach on keyboards.

Though he moved away from Austin for more than a decade, Austin was never far from his musical sound.

Maus remembers growing up along Eighth Avenue not far from Riverland Community College. He’d go to sleep hearing sounds he called somber and mysterious, like semis on Interstate 90, the Hormel Foods shift change and occasional distant sirens.

 An Austin tradition

Maus said his family has a long tradition in the community.

“I’m three generations deep here in Austin,” Maus said. “My grandpa worked at the Hormel plant. ”

His father, Robert, is an attorney at Baudler, Maus & Blahnik, along with his uncle.

Robert played on the last Austin football team to win state, and his uncles were All-State in football.

“I squandered my birth right,” Maus said. “That’s one of my biggest regrets that I didn’t play Packer football.”

Instead, Maus spent more of his time on music and guitar lessons at Apold Music.

“They were really good to me in high school,” said Maus, who noted the music store employees gave him the benefit of the doubt when he would get into trouble in high school.

Maus started out playing guitar in garage bands with his friends, with band names he still recalls his dad wasn’t fond of.

Maus described growing up in Austin as more isolated than it is today. Before the Internet, he said Musicland at Oak Park Mall and the radio were the main sources of music.

Near the end of high school, Maus turned his attention more toward classical music.

After high school, Maus continued pursuing music and earned a degree in music composition at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

In California, he continued performing with friends. After Ariel Pink signed a record contract, he took friends on tour, which included Maus on keyboards.

Maus and the other band members opened with solo shows on the tour, playing mostly solo electronic music played on keyboards and synthesizers.

Still, Austin’s effect is not far from Maus and his music. He said his synthesizers and strange sounds sonically seek the feel you get on a winter’s night.

“It’s pursuing that image in a certain way,” Maus said.

A video for “Head for the Country” was filmed in Austin by friends visiting from L.A.

Having lived away from Austin, Maus said he is able to see the community through the eyes of an outsider.

“It’s infused with its own history, and it has its own music … and I think it’s beautiful, and I wanted to try to share it with all those people,” he said.

 Dissertation

Maus hasn’t completely dedicated his life to music since first moving from Austin. He’s also delved into academics.

After completing the course work for his PhD at the University of Hawaii, Maus returned to Austin about two years ago to write his dissertation and finish his third album.

“I thought it would be a nice, quiet place to finish the dissertation, finish the latest album I’ve been working on,” he said.

“We Must Become the Pitiless Centers of Ourselves” was his first release in the U.S. on Ribbon Music. His previous two albums had been released in the United Kingdom on Upset the Rhythm.

That’s one reason, Maus said, most of his shows have been overseas. In fact, he said he’s only played the Triple Rock and 7th Street Entry in Minnesota — both small Twin Cities venues.

Maus has no plans for a home show. But after a batch of concerts ranging from Europe to Australia and then Texas, he’ll have time.

Maus plans to shift his focus and finish his dissertation in political philosophy. Maus has a master’s in philosophy.

In the Internet age, Maus said it’s difficult to support yourself through music. Since Maus is single, he can devote time to touring and performing, much of which has come overseas.

“The little guys don’t have anyone watching their backs, so we got hit the hardest,” he said.

That’s one reason Maus said he’s kept a foot in academia.

Maus taught political philosophy at the University of Hawaii as an adjunct professor and said he plans to teach in the future.

That hasn’t deterred him from music, which Maus said he continues to pursue because it’s so difficult.

“It’s almost an impossible thing to do and to keep finding new ideas, so it must be worthwhile,” he said.

The difficulty isn’t the only thing keeping Maus in music. He said everyone needs a means to enter a conversation with the world.

I think everybody’s got a genius they’re meant to share with the world,” he said.

For the immediate future at least, Maus will base his music in Austin, the place he still calls home.

“I definitely have a sense of this being home,” he said. “I’ve been everywhere and this feels like home.”

“I mean, I left Hawaii to come back here — that’s just crazy.”