Koji on the Roof has already self-released two EPs and a 7", but Koji (a.k.a. Andrew Shiraki) is taking a different approach this time around.

"I didn't want to have to answer to another record label," he said, "and I felt like I could do it myself and include a lot more people."

Shiraki said the newly formed label, called Colormake, will be more focused on community than other labels.

In addition to producing music, the new label will also print artists' books and magazines, book concerts and art shows, and work on T-shirt collaborations.

Shiraki's new EP, Monsters, will be released Nov. 24 and will sound a bit different from prior work. His previously released EP's were self-released.

"I had been listening to a lot of Wilco and the Clash, so some of that rubbed off," he said. "It's a little bit more punky."

For all of his recorded endeavors, Shiraki said his favorite thing to do is perform live, and what he likes most about performing is the interplay between performer and crowd.

"I love being able to share," he said. "I want to be a pillar in society, to uplift the people around me. I want to affect the culture in the greatest way I can and be affected by other people."

Shiraki will have that chance when the band performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Sozo along with Settle, Sign the Surrender and Matthew and the Judes.

Andrew Visnovsky (junior-political science), Asylum president and drummer for the newly formed Sign the Surrender, one of the show's openers, said it was Shiraki's rapport with his audience that made him such a great performer.

"His ideas about the artistic community are so respectable, how he opens it up to everyone," Visnovsky said. "He always brings a sketchbook with him, for other people to draw in or just write stuff, because everyone has their own talents."

That in mind, Visnovsky said Koji on the Roof's music was powerful.

"He's an amazing singer-songwriter," he said. "I don't want to sound really cheesy, but his music makes you want to be in love. It makes you feel really happy."

Visnovsky said Shiraki basically handpicked the rest of the show's lineup.

The lineup includes Sign the Surrender, playing its first show under the new name after years as Takanawa.

As Takanawa, the band was a three-piece, but with the addition of a new singer, the foursome took on a new moniker.

Another local band, Matthew and the Judes, will also share the stage with Koji.

The band comprises alt-pop singer-songwriter Matthew Whittle (junior-secondary education) and whoever happens to be playing with him on a particular night.

In this case, Whittle's guest will be trumpeter Ryan Jordan (junior-actuarial science), who will also be playing the glockenspiel.

The only non-local opener is Settle, a band from Easton, Pa.

Singer and guitarist Nick Rose said the band plays aggressive, dancy rock and roll, similar to bands like Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party.

Settle won a recent mtvU contest that resulted in a trip to Cancun to play MTV Spring Break and a video and four-song EP on Epitaph Records, a prize that may have yielded an even bigger reward.

"We gave Brett [Gurewitz, owner of Epitaph Records] about seven songs, and he said he wanted to make a full-length," Rose said.

Like Koji on the Roof, Rose said his band has an onus to put on a good live show.

"We gotta bring the attention back to rock and roll," he said. "We don't want to be beat out by the dudes who spin CDs at nightclubs."