When M. Ward released his previous album, "Hold Time," three years ago, he did much of his recording in his Portland, Ore., home with retro equipment and was so shy onstage that he pulled his ball cap over his eyes. People regarded him as an underground folk-rocker who seemed more comfortable as a sideman than fronting a band.

Since then there have been signs he is coming out of his shell. For starters his new album, "A Wasteland Companion" (Merge Records), is the first to feature his picture on the cover (albeit in silhouette). He has been touring relentlessly with his own band and has done three albums with side projects: She & Him, his hit pop duo with Zooey Deschanel, and with Monsters of Folk, a supergroup with Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.

Much of the new album -- his eighth solo effort -- was recorded on the road, in London, New York, and Austin. It has some of the most upbeat and catchy tracks he has ever made: "Primitive Girl" and his cover of Daniel Johnston's "Sweetheart."

It is not that Ward, 38, has abandoned his trademark mix of acoustic blues, country, and folk. The album opens with "Clean Slate," a mature meditation on redemption, and the second half of the set features plenty of introspective lyrics over silky fingerpicking. But on several tracks Ward as a solo artist has moved away from that pensive singer-songwriter picking a Gibson toward a fatter, sunnier, more pop sound. The album comes out Tuesday.

Q. How has your music evolved since your last album?

A. I'm constantly learning about balance in records and how easy it is, if something is sounding too dark, to add a piano or something that's a higher-toned instrument to balance it out. And on the other side, if a song is just sounding too sweet, there are certain things you can add in the studio that will add some sourness.

Q. You seem to be branching out with this album and working with more musicians and with engineers in studios far from the studio in your attic in Portland, like P.J. Harvey's producer, John Parish, in Britain and Jeff Tweedy's producer, Tom Schick, in New York.

A. I've been touring for all my different projects over the last five or six years, around America and Europe and Australia. I quite often get invited to studios that I've always wanted to experience, and this is the record where I wanted to make that happen.

Q. How have your collaborations with Zooey Deschanel and the Monsters of Folk affected your songwriting?

A: I'm influenced by the records that influenced them. I know that if it were not for Jim James I probably wouldn't be listening to Marvin Gaye as much as I am now.

Q. Marvin Gaye?

A. Yeah, I've always loved his famous songs, but Jim James has inspired me to dig a little deeper. There is a lot to be found.

Q. Why did you choose to cover this jazz standard "I Get Ideas," which was a Louis Armstrong hit, on the album?

A. I've been learning Louis Armstrong songs since I was in high school, basically, and I think he's one of the greatest singers who ever lived. I've been covering that song with my band for the last couple of years, and it always got an interesting response, and those are the ones that usually make the record.

Q. Is that also why you chose to do this tune "Sweetheart," by Daniel Johnston, the Texas songwriter with a history of mental illness who was known for underground tapes in the early 1980s?

A. My opinion of his work is that some of his songs are as good as John Lennon's, and if someone takes the time to go and find his old cassette tapes that he made back in his early days, I think you could get the sensation that you have discovered some secret, long-lost cassette tapes of Lennon demos. You talk about him to people, and they know his name, but people still don't know his songs.

Q. How did you learn your fingerpicking and other guitar techniques?

A. The only instructor I had were Beatles records. For some reason I made a point to learn every song from A to Z in the Beatles catalog when I was in high school. When I learned a song I checked it off. That was my education to chord progressions and right-hand technique. The Beatles have such an incredible vocabulary of guitar styles that it was a good education.

Q. What was the genesis of the leadoff track on the album, "Clean Slate"? It's dedicated to Alex Chilton, who led the band Big Star and who died in 2010.

A. That was inspired by a new chord I found on the guitar. A lot of the songs are born from that. Around the same time -- the song took about a month, I guess, to write -- right in the middle of it I was in Austin, Texas, and Alex Chilton passed away.

Q. Is this song about Chilton?

A. It's inspired by my favorite Big Star song, which is the "Ballad of El Goodo." I feel like this song could be about this character that he created in that song.

Q. Why did you call this album "A Wasteland Companion"?

A. I think that the idea of having a companion in dark times or dark places is necessary to keep going in whatever it is you do for a living. I make music for a living. And more often than not old records keep me going, and they keep me from getting bored or tired of what I do for a living.

First Published April 7, 2012, 4:00 a.m.