To talk about Sisters-based musician Dalton Moehnke, who records under the name Polysemy, you first must define a couple of words.

First, polysemy itself is the capacity for a word, phrase or symbol to have multiple meanings.

And the verb form of “paw,” according to Merriam-Webster, means “to touch or hit (someone or something) with a paw or foot” or “to search by using your hands in an awkward or careless way.”

Moehnke, 19, is about to release his debut album as Polysemy. It’s called “Pawing,” and he’ll celebrate with a show Saturday at Ranch Records (see “If you go”).

In the liner notes for “Pawing,” Moehnke bends the meaning of the album’s title word for his own artistic purposes.

“Pawing is a term that means someone is trying out something new,” he writes. “They have no experience in what they are diving into, and for me, that encapsulated my mindset of experimentation when I began this project.”

Let’s rewind. Moehnke has lived in Sisters since he was 9 years old. He learned to play guitar at around the same age from his nephew Trevor Martell, the engine behind the fast-rising local rock band Patrimony. As a teenager, Moehnke spent a couple of years in Sisters High School’s Americana Project program, and he formed a band called Entry Level with some buddies. They recorded an EP and an album and posted ’em to Bandcamp.

Growing up and with Entry Level, Moehnke played a lot of straightforward rock and blues-rock, he said. So last year, he spent some time on his own exploring new instruments and new methods and new sounds — pawing at a new style, if you will.

“I wanted to try and get away from (blues-rock) and I wanted to see where I could go musically,” Moehnke said. “So I started playing with some synths and listening to things besides classic rock and the stuff I was listening to throughout middle and high school.”

Moehnke moved away from bands like the White Stripes and The Doors and began listening to acts with a more experimental, psychedelic bent: Radiohead, Braids, Wild Ivy, Gauntlet Hair. But most of all, he discovered a new appreciation for Baltimore-based psych-pop heroes Animal Collective, who had been a longtime favorite of Entry Level drummer Jeremiah Perry-Weed.

“He kind of guided me toward which albums I should listen to, and for a while I tried to get into them and I didn’t really like it,” Moehnke said. “But one day it just kind of clicked and suddenly I’m obsessed. And now they’re my favorite band.”

Indeed, “Pawing” is permeated with the influence of Animal Collective (and the group’s best-known solo artist, Panda Bear). At 11 tracks long, it’s a lush and immersive landscape of bubbly electro-pop that’s weird and watery, sunbaked and psychedelic. Using smeared guitars, found percussion, stray samples, gauzy vocals and an army of bleeps and bloops, Moehnke builds an odd little headphone world that’s both bewildering and beautiful at once.

“My style just started changing, and I started writing songs in that vein,” he said. “It started out as just a couple of weird little tunes and then suddenly I had two and then I had four and then I was like, ‘Huh. I should maybe make an album.’”

Moehnke officially releases “Pawing” today, and he says Entry Level is about 60 percent done with a new EP. He’s also working at Sisters Bakery, attending classes at Central Oregon Community College and is planning on transferring to Southern Oregon University in Ashland later this year.

So he’s a busy guy. But he still finds time for Polysemy, if for no other reason than to continue his own personal artistic pawing process.

“I wouldn’t say music comes naturally to me at all. I have a lot of gaps in my musical ability. I don’t really have any talent, but I’ve just kind of had to develop these rudimentary skills,” he said. “For me, the songwriting process and the recording process are kind of the same thing.”

Playing live is another story. Polysemy’s music isn’t exactly the kind of thing Central Oregon music venues are clamoring to host.

“There’s really not a scene for it anywhere,” Moehnke said. “Because I’m not very popular and I don’t really have a fan base, the only kind of shows I can get are at bars, but no one wants to listen to psych pop with trippy visuals at bars.”

Still, Moehnke has been working hard on an hourlong set for Saturday’s show. He plans to blend his songs into one another, creating one continuous piece of music, and he’s creating an accompanying visual element, too, “to keep people engaged because electronic music is pretty boring otherwise,” he said.

“I’m hoping to expose people in this area … to music they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get their hands on,” Moehnke said. “I feel like I add enough of an accessible pop element that people who give my music a chance would enjoy it if they were at a show.”

Personal interaction, however, is a different story.

“Come hang out with me (Saturday night) if you want,” Moehnke said. “But I’m kind of a weirdo so you might want to just grab a CD and run away.”

— Reporter: bsalmon@bendbulletin.com