In an era of over-saturation in the music industry with everyone and their mother forming a band, it is sometimes hard for the true stars to shine. This is the case with Jackson Scott from Asheville, NC, who has received measured critical success but has yet to break into the mainstream.

The world’s introduction to Jackson Scott was through “Melbourne” (2013), a dark but beautiful debut record featuring his signature mix of psychedelica and grunge with subjects ranging from love interests to the Sandy Hook shootings.

His upcoming record “Sunshine Redux” is his first collection of new material since then and is based on the songs he played at his set at the Empty Bottle on Feb. 26. It has the potential to be one of the albums of the year. I had the chance to sit down with Jackson after the show and talk a bit about his music.

Eddie Pedvin: Hello Jackson!

 Jackson Scott: Hello!

EP: You’ve self-described yourself as “Apocalypse Pop.” Could you tell us how (you) came up with that name?

 JS: There’s an element of it that would be the dichotomy of absolute darkness…mixed with how, no matter what, I’m always a bit optimistic — maybe I’m feeling really weird and I translate that into a pop song.

I’ve always been a fan of darker tones and themes. You know, with Quentin Tarrentino movies, there’ll be a really dark, messed up scene and he’s playing a happy song. I always thought that was cool.

EP: “Sunshine Redux” is coming out April 28. Can we expect it be in the same vein as “Melbourne” in terms of being a complete album?

 JS: I would say so, because “Sunshine Redux” is even more so than “Melbourne” not just a collection of songs, but a single piece of work.

EP: The first single of the new record is “Pacify,” which I thought was the closest thing to an Elephant 6 recording in recent memory. But from what I’ve read, you weren’t really influenced by them. If so, who would you consider to be your big influences?

 JS: I definitely respect the whole Elephant 6 collective a lot. I only really heard them when I got to Asheville and starting hanging with kids who were…really into that stuff. But for me personally, I’m influenced by so many bands…I’ve always really loved the White Stripes…they’re probably one of the best bands of the past 20 years.

I think as far as recording and sound-wise go, two go-to bands, if anyone asks what are you influenced by, would be Pink Floyd and Nirvana.

EP: The other single is called “PRPLMTV” (“Purple MTV” or “Purple Empty V”) which apparently has a secret message in the chorus; can you give us any hints about this secret message?

 JS: It’s hard to say. I would say that Purple MTV as a message would be one of the heavy elements of the secret message. I won’t give too much away. I started to realize there are multiple translations of “PRPLMTV.”

Purple Empty V would be another translation. There’s all kinds of things you could interpret it as, and that’s what I would hope generally that anyone could get from my stuff because I might write something really specific…to me.

But I would hope that it would be universal enough that it would apply to a lot of different stuff and not just some random thing that happened to me. It could actually apply to something in anyone’s life.