David Driver: The Loser's Lounge regular presents 60s pop star Scott Walker.

David Driver should be going off to England for some long walks in the rain. That certainly seems like the most useful way for a singer to prepare for an upcoming concert of Scott Walker songs. Walker was a true pioneer of mopey 60s UK pop. Cute English girls swooned as the Poor Little Rich Boy literally moaned out pop hits, first as part of the Walker Brothers and then as a solo act.

Maybe you’ve even heard "The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)" on a few oldies stations. Otherwise, Scott Walker’s not very well-known in the States. Except, that is, to guys like David Driver. In fact, Driver’s the classic Walker fan. He started out in the 90s fronting the forgettable rock band Meow, but went on to grow with New York’s cabaret-rock movement. He’s performed on any number of rock-oriented theatrical evenings while establishing himself as one of the most reliable figures in the regular Loser’s Lounge concerts.

Driver, incidentally, isn’t going to England before his Feb. 22 concert at Joe’s Pub. Instead, he’s heading to the glamorous beaches of Belize. It’s a well-deserved break for a guy in the midst of several projects.

What’s changed so that David Driver can charge $18 for an evening of Scott Walker songs?

Umm… What’s changed is that we’re all getting older and wiser. Is that too much? What do you think the price should be?

Hey, I think you’re worth $18.

Thank you. And I think people should know that I’ve put together a fairly large ensemble for this show. It’s not just me with a guitar. Those Loser’s Lounge shows are like $20, right?

I’ve never paid to get in.

Well, I think it’s like $20 or $25. You know, this show has a lot of people. It’s a lot of work and we want to do it right. Charging $18 means that I can afford to underpay the musicians, instead of radically underpaying them. If there are any dirt-poor Scott Walker fans out there, I’ll be happy to cut some kind of a deal.

I’m just saying that you couldn’t have charged people $18 to hear Scott Walker songs in this city 10 years ago.

Oh, yeah. I’m very happy about that. I feel very lucky to have found that sort of niche here. I’m happy to have a place where I can fit in with what I want to be doing with my life. It’s very exciting to be with a group of people doing something on the same level as what I do.

You mean the Loser’s Lounge?

Sure. And 10 years ago, personally, I wouldn’t have known how to do this. I wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to figure out the mechanics, and I would’ve been too scared, because I’m so reverent of Scott Walker’s material. A lot of what I know now comes specifically from working with Joe McGinty at the Loser’s Lounge.

It’s partly the confidence I’ve gained, but also the joy. Those Loser’s Lounge shows really helped me connect to what was just the frigging joy of doing it. It’s a warm and receptive attitude there, and you can maybe look like a total asshole or maybe look cool.

Some would say that you Loser’s Lounge types have lived up to your name, while the true gutter-rockers have enjoyed a minor explosion in the local scene.

Maybe. I’ve learned there’s no obvious benefit in trying to figure that kind of thing out. I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on what I wish was different, but, in the end, I did what I had to do. If it didn’t connect, it’s still not the end of the world. And for the New York rock scene—well, I was with my niece and her boyfriend the other day, and they were listening to ska. I was like, what the fuck? Clearly, the cycles will keep going around.

Is it even fair to think of Loser’s Lounge types?

There’s a Loser type, in a good way. It’s kind of like being in a club. Maybe the glee club, or some high school group. There’s some camaraderie in doing it. It feels like a group of people who really dig each other, and there’s a shared sensibility. It’s a shared love for music.

But there’s no way that all of your projects came from networking at Loser’s Lounge.

I’d say that I’m one of the most unstable people in terms of work. Once in a while, I get session stuff, which is cool when it happens. Some of the theatrical projects get left off my resume. And I’ve done some jingle work that’s turned out well, like the "Pride of America" theme that closes The Daily Show. Sometimes there’s a residual deal.

Is this evening of Scott Walker kind of an indulgence, or something you hope to keep doing as a showcase?

It’s both an indulgence and something I think is very viable. My fantasy from one drunken evening a long time ago was to cast myself as a latter-day sort of young, gay, male Ella Fitzgerald. In that scenario, I would sing a series of songbook records. Not doing Rodgers and Hart, but doing Jimmy Webb or Burt Bacharach. That’s the seed that was planted some time ago.

I’ve never been much of a Walker fan, myself. He always seemed like the Liza Minnelli for gay guys who didn’t get asked to the White Party.

What I love about these songs is that they’re all so atmospheric. They represent such a specific journey, and such a specific place and time. That’s why the songs are so inhabitable. In particular, his later stuff is really visceral. You’re taken on a journey to strange places, and you emerge five miles from where you thought you were.

Are you taking us on some kind of musical, er, journey?

It’s not going to be a therapy session. That’s a cabaret cliche that I seek to avoid. I’m always interested in someone’s personal relationship, but only if they’re self-aware enough to realize when it’s not interesting. But, yes, the show is definitely a journey.

Did you pull Walker’s name from a hat, mixed in with Serge Gainsbourg and Lee Hazlewood?

You know, I’m not being strategic here. Maybe I would have chosen one of those names if I was approaching this from a different point of view. I could’ve done something even more accessible, like a Bacharach show. I was just thinking that I’ve done so much shit and work that I didn’t enjoy. Like my experience on Broadway wasn’t that satisfying when I was in Rent.

But you’ve also got a slew of other projects.

After the Scott Walker show, there’s more productions of the new musical entertainment People Are Wrong. It’s really a great show born out of the Loser’s Lounge. It’s definitely still a work in progress, but the songs are catchy, and it’s funny in a painful way. That’s at P.S. 122 for the second half of March.

And then I go to Texas and probably the west coast, because I have a record coming out with my friend Gretchen Phillips, formerly of the lesbian group Two Nice Girls. We met at SXSW and became friends. Oddly enough, both her girlfriend of many years and my boyfriend of many years are professors and Victorianists. We started playing around together and Bar/None picked up our record, to be released in mid-March. So that takes me through to the end of April.

You know, it doesn’t strike me as that odd that a gay male and his lesbian pal would both have lovers who were professors and Victorianists.

Really? You think it’s that common?

Well, I might’ve guessed.

Uh-huh. Interesting. Well, then, you sussed it out. n