Casey Crescenzo is, in a word, ambitious -- artistically, at least.

After spending time with the Receiving End of Sirens-offering his vocals, guitar, keyboard, sequencing and songwriting-Crescenzo left the band and started his own project: The Dear Hunter. This project is concept-driven and tells the story of a fictional boy over a number of albums and EP's.

The first record, Act 1: The Lake South, The River North EP, was released in September and the next one, Act 2: Ms. Leading, is due out in March.

Q: What is your musical background? What kind of training do you have? Who are your influences?

A: I never really had any formal training, but I grew up around my parents, who were both musicians. The first things I got into were like, Jimi Hendrix and old Motown stuff. When I was about 13, I got into Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. When I was about 19, I got into the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson stuff. All along, I've been into Bjork, too.

Q:What is your goal as an artist?

A:My goal is kind of unattainable for one person, but I just want to breathe life into everything again. Music has sort of become the background for everything. It's not about what music you're making anymore - it's about who's in the band, and it's time for that to stop and for people to start making good music again.

Q: How did the Dear Hunter come to be?

A:We had just finished tracking The Heart and the Synapse, and I was home for the holidays. I had an idea for a story involving a lot of personal things. I was writing music that just didn't fit with what [the Receiving End of Sirens] was doing. I made all these demos that were centered around this one person, the dear hunter, who is just a boy living right around the end of the 19th century. I gave the demos to a few friends and it started to circulate.

Q:So tell me about your first release, Act 1: The Lake South, The River North EP.

A:It's eight tracks long and about 38 minutes. It's attempting to be beautiful and dark at the same time without being overbearing or cliché. There's a wide variety of sounds without sounding like a compilation. The subject matter of this one is short, which is why it's an EP. It's just to give background to the story and some depth to the character so it doesn't just start in the middle of the action. You'll be able to listen to all the records in a row when it's all done and it will tell the story.

Q:So this is a long-term project, then?

A: Yes, definitely. It should be four to seven records with a few EP's in between. To get through it all, I'd say about five years from now it'll be complete.

Q:What do you hope to accomplish with the Dear Hunter?

A:The story is important, but before that, I like writing songs, and the band likes writing songs. I'd like to hopefully inspire as many people as I can to make different music instead of just copying what they hear. I'd never want to call it "groundbreaking" or anything, but I'd like to make something that changes things in some way.