There is something relentlessly cheerful about Sarah Dooley. Whether it is having a conversation with her or listening to her music. A sense of fun is in the air with Dooley. Her first fully-realized record, Stupid Things, is out now with what may be the greatest LP cover ever.

Inside is a collection of songs written in the past year and while it may not be a “concept album” (thanks to all things holy) there is something that knits all the pieces here together.

“The songs do touch on similar themes. It’s about nostalgia, childhood, unrequited love and The Goonies.” says Dooley.

 “Watching Goonies at My House is a middle school love song about The Goonies.” she says.

Dooley goes on to explain how her family had a box of old VHS tapes, purchased used at Blockbuster. The videos there were all sort of random but one of those was The Goonies and it crept into her youthful consciousness. Everyone has a movie, usually movies, they watched with their friends, their first crushes and those memories stick.

Dooley wanted to write from an early age.

“I’ve always wanted to be a writer. When I was little I wanted to be a screenwriter. I’ve journaled my whole life and written little stories,” she says. “It wasn’t until high school that I realized I liked writing songs. They are like short stories, the shortest stories. “

The Valparaiso, Indiana native studied play writing. She says that this might well come through in her songwriting.

“I have characters and songs are great for character studies.” says Dooley.

Unlike some songwriters Dooley doesn’t start with a given topic and go from there. Her songwriting is more intuitive.

“I never set out to write a song about a particular subject when I do they turn out like garbage. I improvise.” she says.

She keeps it open and explores different voices in her songs.

“What I like about songwriting is it is sort of mysterious.” says Dooley.

As to the music she starts with the piano. It isn’t always all chipper and cheerful.

“I improvise on piano and get these depressing melodies,” she says. “I do write about sad stuff but I don’t want it to be a big dramatic emo rant. It isn’t me.”

Another interesting source of inspiration is her work.

“I am a nanny and I teach music to babies. I love being around kids. It also feeds into my work. They are little bundles of material. Obviously I make sure they don’t die. “she says.

She also is the Sarah behind the popular mockumentary style web series, And Sarah. Over 160,000 people have viewed the series on Youtube. This is a funny bit of writing Dooley created while studying at Barnard College.

Dooley’s most recent show at Le Poisson Rouge in New York on February 10 was done in a middle school dance theme with balloons, crepe paper and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  She mentions nothing of trying to pipe in that “high school gymnasium smell.”

Dooley hasn’t toured extensively but it is something that is a possibility.

Dooley is always writing. At the moment she is working on two screenplays. She says she wants to bring back the movie musical. Where is Gene Kelly when you really need him?

Singer, musician and songwriter Luke Elliot plays music that on first listen reminds of some unholy hybrid of Nick Cave and Billy Bragg. As you listen a little more you hear all sorts of other influences from folk to rock to blues. But how does he describe his own music?

“Music's a funny thing. To my mind, it's very difficult to describe verbally to someone,” he says. “I’ve had so many people tell me about an artist, then I check them out and they're nothing at all like what was described to me.  I think that's what's great about it- it really needs to be listened to personally.”

Elliot’s EP, Provisions, comes out May 6, 2014. The first single, Benny’s A Bum, is out now.

When it comes to the process of creating songs there is no mystery in what Elliot does.

“I work at it. I try to write a little bit every day, especially when I don't want to. I think that inspiration comes whenever it's gonna come, but if you're sitting around with a pen and a piano, you're more likely to do something cool with it,” he says. “There have been so many times that I've had great ideas, and then they've slipped away because I wasn't working steadily at creating something.

His subject matter has no single source; it comes from all over. But the material is all personal but he tries to keep a certain distance between him and the subject—figuratively.

“It’s deeply personal, but I try to remain as objective as possible with the material I'm dealing with (if that makes any sense). I don't want to interrupt a process with my personal feelings.” says Elliot.

Elliot is not a “gear nut” sort of musician. He feels that the musician makes the instrument.There is a lot of truth in that. A beautiful instrument doesn’t make you a better instrument and a lot of musicians—especially early blues musicians—played on what could be considered terrible instruments.

“As long as I have a voice, a pen, and something to keep time with, I think I can always write.” he says.

The new record was recorded digitally but this was more out of budgetary concerns than anything else. Tape costs significantly more.

“At this point, I've been confined by a small budget, but we're hoping to change that. We'll be recording with John Agnello next, and are very excited to be with him during the process,” he says. “I like to record as live as possible. I try to be minimalistic with the overdubbing. For my work, I think that a live feel captures it best. I've tried to record instruments separately, and it always comes out sounding inauthentic.”

Agnello is known for his work with bands such as Dinosaur Jr., Screaming Trees, Drive By Truckers and Sonic Youth (among many others). But that is Elliot’s NEXT, release, after Provisions. What is the upcoming EP about and how will the material created with Agnello be different.

“It was not easy to come up with a title, but I thought that using a word from one of the songs might help. Provisions came from Ballad of Priest and I thought really summed up all five of the EP's tracks- I don't know, there's just something about the word," says Elliot. “The new stuff I'm working on... I always try to write differently than I was writing before- I don't want to be one of those artists that constantly puts out the same record over and over. Not that there's anything wrong with that- it's just not what I want to do. I'd say that the new material is very promising, and will have one of my musical heroes, John Agnello, working on it.”

Elliot started taking piano lessons when he was 8 but quickly noticed that the musicians he liked all played guitar. Naturally he wanted to be like them. He taught himself the guitar and started writing as a teenager. He returned to the piano as well. Music is something Elliot feels he has to do.

"If I'm not writing, I'm usually pretty unhappy,” he says.

He confesses to some envy for people with more traditional careers because he is fond of consistency. If he weren’t a musician?

“I don't know- maybe I'd be a school counselor.  I seem to get along with kids...”