Picture a sepia photograph. The worn look, the brown colors, the nostalgic feel. Now write a song with that same feel.

For Ontario natives Memoryhouse, this is the songwriting process. Memoryhouse will perform at 9 p.m. Friday at the M-Shop.

Evan Abeele, one of the chief songwriters in the band, explained the band’s songwriting process.

“Our singer is a photographer, so we just try to have a certain aesthetic grounding,” Abeele said. “We try to lock down the theme of the song, conceptually speaking, before we start writing it, just so we have a good idea of what we’re trying to say and what we’re trying to evoke.”

Memoryhouse originally was not conceived as a band. Abeele said it started as a “casual multimedia collaboration” between himself and band member Denise Nouvion. The band continued to go through a transformation as time went on.

“We didn’t really know what we wanted to do and it took a lot of different shapes before we realized what we wanted to achieve which was making pop music,” Abeele said. “I think just because we’re a young band, we’re kind of working to develop our identity, and I think there is a certain level of growing pains in that, in learning about yourself and learning what you want to represent in the band and what you want to sound like. It’s a very long process.”

The band’s newest album, “The Slideshow Effect,” has a deeper sound and is a departure from its previous EP “The Years.”

“On the new LP, we just wanted to push things as far as we could take it and really make things sound a bit more fresh and organic and a bit more upfront,” Abeele said. “The term that I used in the studio to try and convey my idea for the album was to make the album sound very physical. I think that is how it differs from our previous EP.”

SUB is looking forward to having Memoryhouse play the M-Shop.

“We were excited about the opportunity to have Memoryhouse in the M-Shop because they’ve got a cool sound and have gotten a lot of acclaim in the indie music press,” said Connor Nolan, M-Shop director. “Hopefully we’ll bring out a big crowd to check them out.”