For New York-born, Baltimore-based Dan Deacon, music is all about the movement.

It was this notion of physicality, he said, that prompted him to take up the trombone as a third-grader and it remains central to his now highly-experimental brand of lush, bewitching electronic music.

After releasing more than 12 recordings in the past six years – a varied mix of EPs, LPs, and a live collection – Deacon made a name for himself as a spirited and magnetic live performer.

His concerts mirror his lively and sometimes-perplexing music, featuring heavy audience-involvement, packed dance floors and mesmerizing light shows.

Deacon came to Athens on Saturday night, where he played for a packed house at the 40 Watt Club. Before the show, he sat down to answer a few questions.

What is it that drew you to this genre of music?
You can do a lot with it. You can experiment a lot and you can get a lot of sounds quickly and easily and do things with a computer that you can’t do with other instruments.

I played the bass and I tried to learn to play guitar but it disinterested me, I wasn’t really into it… I just never really felt the same connection to [traditional instruments.]

I feel like I can interface with [computers] a lot better that I can a fret board or a piano keyboard.

Who are some of your biggest influences?
I think that my biggest influence I go back to when I’m stuck on a part and just can’t understand where to go with a song [is] the Talking Heads.

Your songs a very intricate, elaborate and extremely layered. Where do you get all those sounds from?
It depends on the piece and where it starts.

When I first start writing, it’s just sort of jamming, and if I do have an idea, it’s just a small motif or one little line.

If it’s a song that I can play live, then I’ll start thinking about the live context and how it would be performed, and if it’s not a live piece, that drastically changes the atmosphere. It depends on the way I think about the piece.

You’ve spoken a lot about physicality. Do you feel like that’s central to your music?
I think it’s central to most music, unless it’s meditative music.

When you go to see a band, I think people want to see how the music is being made, it’s that physicality, it’s that process. It’s seeing these hands making these sounds… At least in my mind, there’s got to be some element that non-musical minded people can relate to… especially in regards to a non-traditional music.

You are known for your high-energy live show, which features human tunnels, dance-offs and countdowns, among other things. What does it feel like to be the ringleader of these crazy dance parties?
It feels cool. I don’t know, I don’t really think about it when I’m counting down.

Is that how all your shows are, it just comes automatically?
I just sort of let the show take it where it goes.

A lot of it depends on the audience.

If the audience is really good, it inspires me to do something new.

If the audience is just really wasted and wants to party, I don’t bother with the participation stuff because it just gets really trying.

But most of the audiences are there and cognizant and ready for something. But I guess live it just comes spur of the moment.

You’re also known for performing on the same level as the audience when you play solo. Why do you like playing in the crowd?
When I first started, most of the places I was playing didn’t have stages, and then when I started playing places that did have stages… it just wasn’t the same.

It didn’t have the same energy to it and it was much harder, especially if there weren’t that many people there. And I just got used to it.

I started really liking the proximity between me and the audience and being able to just get into it… and I’d rather the audience see each other reacting and creating this audience feedback loop.

I don’t really want them to watch. When I want them to watch is when I make a large circle.

Do you have plans to get back in the studio soon?
I kind of want to start recording as I write. I’ve never done that before and I think that would be kind of fun, to just start as the pieces come in, record them and orchestrate them as they go rather than just write them, have them mapped out and record them.

Is the stuff you’re writing now much different from “Bromst”?
Some of it’s very different, some of it’s more heavy.