The Color Study

In his younger years, Scott Oliphant was a painter, an art student, a drummer in rock bands, a devotee of the Austin, Texas, music scene in the ‘90s and, eventually, a recording engineer.

But he was never really a songwriter, until life made him one.

“I had written bits and pieces of stuff, but had never focused on writing and finishing songs,” Oliphant said. “But I was going through a divorce, and after feeling really sorry for myself for months, I wanted to focus on something more productive, and working on songs gave me something to work toward.”

To be clear, Oliphant isn’t the type of writer who sits down and a song pours out. He enjoys the process of piecing together song parts like a puzzle and building them into a finished product. That’s what he did — all by himself — when he made The Color Study’s self-titled debut album, a Beach Boys-meets-Wilco slab of baroque psych-pop that’s radiant and catchy, despite the subject matter.

“I’ve always been drawn to emotionally honest and raw songs. This gave me an outlet for some of those feelings,” Oliphant said. “At the same time, I like big productions and arrangements and music that really takes you on a journey through emotional highs and lows. If I could tour with a choir and a string section, that would be the dream.”

The Color Study’s first album was released in 2020, right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to play the songs live, Oliphant turned his attention to a follow-up, digging again into his own life experience for inspiration.

That follow-up is called “Future Past Present Tense.” It came out Nov. 11 and the band will celebrate it with a show Saturday night at Volcanic Theatre Pub. Sonically, it’s similar to the debut: Lush, guitar-centered pop-rock songs draped in echo and dressed up with vocal harmonies, plentiful crescendos, vibrant horn parts, unexpected song-structure turns and more studio wizardry.

Thematically, there’s a thread running through the songs that Oliphant clearly feels deeply, even if he has trouble explaining it. The basic idea is that life is short, relationships are important, and the way people come and go from our lives can feel totally random or like it was always meant to be. And at some point, it’s all going to end and … what happens then? The answer, he figures, is that no matter what happens, the love we felt and that we showered on others will remain, especially with those closest to us.

Oliphant is a father of two, and his kids are growing up fast. They’re the roots of “Future Past Present Tense,” he said.

“It makes me really sad that I’ll be gone one day, and I may never see them again,” he said. “But they know I love them and when everything else is gone, that still exists. If nothing else is out there, I still got to be their dad and I got to love them and love the people I’m around.”

Those people include the rest of the band: Melissa Atillo (keys), Matt Jackson (bass), Miguel Mendoza (horns), Andy Jacobs (drums) and Steve Reinhardt (lead guitar). Whereas Oliphant made the first Color Study album alone, his bandmates played on the new one, contributing their own sounds and ideas to the work.

Oliphant’s grateful for them, too.

“They were the first people I started hanging out with (after COVID isolation) and for the longest time, they were my only social group,” he said. “It’s a better album with them involved and it’s more special to me because we made it together. It feels like a band album.”

What: The Color Study, with Jeshua Marshall & The Flood and Third Seven

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Drive, Bend

Cost: $10

Contact: volcanictheatre.com.