At 10:44 p.m., Vance Gilbert answers his cell phone with a friendly demeanor and cheerful voice, even though he’s spent his whole day at the studio.

He’s been working for a while on the currently untitled album, one he thinks will show a more acoustic feel and unique variety of instrumentation than his previous ones have.

The new album’s songs will still incorporate the multicultural sounds that are characteristic of Gilbert’s music, he says.

“It won’t be as strongly influenced as ‘Why Are We So Cruel,’ but it will still have a world feel to it,” Gilbert says. “The upcoming record will have a more definitively folk feel to it, but I’ll still throw some curveballs.”

He says the album will have plenty of strong ballads, although they might not have the string arrangements that made songs like “Son of Someone’s Son” so particular.

“It might even be ballad-heavy,” Gilbert says.

He says he thinks the transition to self-producing had helped him create more of his own style.

“In my first albums, I was new to music and I wasn’t in control,” Gilbert says. “My performance was good. However, musically I felt constricted.”

His liberty as to how to use his instruments — both his outstanding voice and his guitar — was not that great. When you hear his first studio albums — “Edgewise” and “Fugitives” — and compare them to his last album, “One through Fourteen,” he says the difference is obvious.

Gilbert says he respects producers, but likes the creative liberty self-producing offers. Creating your own material, he says, is a great life lesson that shows us how we can always improve whatever we do.

Gilbert has been mainly recording these days, but will start touring this week, stopping by the Maintenance Shop.

“I like the personal feel it gives,” he says.

He says he likes to take a lot of audio tapes and good books when he’s on tour to cope with road life.

“Like Jackson Brown said — the audience was heavenly … the traveling was hell,” Gilbert says.

And the audience always gets a personal treatment from Gilbert. His last performance at the M-Shop was in 2003, and he’s still remembered as one of the artists who is most in touch with his audience.

Gilbert says he likes both big and small crowds. Whatever the arena, he always manages to connect with his audience, making his performance unique. And always different.