It’s the middle of a highlighter-bright afternoon in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Justin Pierre, lead vocals of pop-rock band Motion City Soundtrack, is like many college students who party hard, sleep late and suffer crushing break-ups.

But at least he has a goal – to be the scariest man in Japan.

Pierre and the other four members of this Massachusetts-based band known for using a Moog synthesizer, will take their place on the 40 Watt stage Friday night.

Moog synthesizers were widely used in the 1970s to create a distinctive pop effect.

Whether labeled as indie-rock, pop or something in between, Motion City Soundtrack’s sound is found to be sweet and sugary with a bit of a shock as it goes down.

“Much of our stuff is stripped straight from Megadeth (a heavy metal band in the 1980s). It’s harsh,” Pierre said, screaming loudly into the phone during an interview Sept. 5.

“Our drummer [Tony Thaxton], is pretty fucking amazing. But we like some simple, straight beats. We just regurgitate shit we listened to as kids. Hopefully, in a new and interesting way.”

Running down the stairs and talking between breaths, Pierre couldn’t nail down the specifics of the college town that is normally so well known to the music community.

“Atlanta, yeah, we’ve been there,” he said. “Oh, Athens. How far away is that? An hour, yeah.”

Finally, he reached the parking lot and remembered something.

“Huge music scene. R.E.M., right? At least, I hope I don’t have my stories straight.”

Surely, Pierre means “I hope I do have my stories straight.” But he just woke up, so maybe his brain takes awhile to readjust, or maybe he was just sweating too much from the overwhelming heat and the stocking hat on his head.

Pierre is a lover of stories; he said he admires artists such as Tom Waits and Ben Folds. Yet he admits that this new album doesn’t demonstrate his desire to tell stories as much as some of his other works.

“I didn’t get into that too much this time,” he said. “I don’t even know what the overall story is. The words are the last thing written. I just keep repeating words or phrases and see if they work.”

Although Pierre has a sense of humor, he calls himself a pessimistic narcissistic.

His songs are often inspired by failed relationships and loneliness.

“Even If It Kills Me” is the first album he has written completely sober, Pierre says, yet he admitted that he fell into trouble again when his relationship with his girlfriend failed after the songs were already written.

“I went off the deep end until May, and then got my shit together,” he said. “When I was working on the songs, our relationship was still going on but I knew it was going to go badly.”

He’s careful to point out that the break-up isn’t an excuse for his behavior. He said it’s just the way it is.

“A lot of people have a problem being honest,” he said. “You have to find that line. The more real you are the better.”

His advice for people in difficult situations?

“Never take yourself seriously, but do take what you do seriously.”

Other than relationship problems, Pierre also knows how to get himself into trouble with the law.

He said he will have to bribe someone for entry into Canada until 2011.

When asked why, he refused to say more except “boys will be boys.”

And, of course, this is true, especially with five boys touring together on a bus.

Their tour began two nights ago as of this interview, but they had already lived out a version of the needle in a haystack scenario with massive amounts of foam, a wedding ring and a death threat.

But don’t worry, the ring turned up and no one died that Pierre knows of.

Even though he might be hazy on the specifics of Athens, he is excited to perform.

“I just hope Athens doesn’t have a lot of big, inflatable things to play with,” he said. “I don’t know why smaller shows do this sometimes.”

And will Pierre achieve his goal of being the scariest man in Japan?

Well, he hasn’t shaved in weeks and, during the interview, he described himself as a freakish hippie and made up songs to the tune of bugs flying around his ears.

“Buzz, buzzz, buzzzz. This reminds me of “The Soft Bulletins” [the Flaming Lips' ninth album]. Buzzzzz. I’m sorry, I’m ADD.”

He’ll certainly be in the running, if he doesn’t take himself too seriously or find a way to get in trouble with the Japanese.