On a warm day in St. Louis, a closed-off Mike Doughty stands within view of the Gateway Arch, in the midst of a busy schedule of interviews and radio performances.

The “small rock” singer-songwriter is best known for having founded and fronted his avant-garde group, Soul Coughing, until it broke up in 1998.

For the last several years, Doughty has been focusing on his solo work, but looking at the whole of his career, he is unable to distinguish a high point.

“It’s like tuning a radio,” Doughty says. “You’re always trying to find the station.”

Doughty insists upon being called “Mike,” as opposed to “M. Doughty,” the pretentious title that began as a joke and eventually became an out-of-control stage name.

Getting introspective on his most profound times, Doughty prefers vagueness over specificity.

“I’ve had moments, sometimes frequent, sometimes hard to find, but I’m just trying to find those moments of serendipity,” Doughty says. “They’re very esoteric. It’s hard to put a face or a name to them.”

Around the time of Soul Coughing’s demise, Doughty served a brief stint as a columnist for the New York Press, where he wrote about the city and music.

“I was never super-serious about it or super-professional about it,” Doughty says. “I just don’t really think about music in terms of black and white, good or bad.”

His account of that short period of his life is cynical and full of frustration about the conflict between loving music and writing about it.

“It’s just very difficult to go from listening to a bunch of CDs that someone sent you, trying to figure out what’s good and what’s bad, and come up with really general remarks about them,” Doughty says.

Ironically, the 33-year-old hates trying to describe music broadly, instead preferring to discuss the technical aspects of guitar playing.

“My life is in the craft of singing and playing,” Doughty explains.

“When I can really talk about those details, that’s really fun for me.”

As both a maker of music and a writer of observations and opinions, Doughty doesn’t dichotomize his talents, but sees them as one.

“They’re all part of the same life,” he says. “They’re not distinct roles. I’m a songwriter as much as I’m a musician.”

Achievement for Doughty is finding the right words to make his point when writing a song.

“I know it’s good because you can feel the room lift a little bit,” Doughty says in a more pleasant tone.

Doughty’s recent songs have revealed a more spiritual side than had been seen during his Soul Coughing years.

“I’ve just been trying to find some meaning in human life, something that’s beautiful and spiritual,” Doughty says.

As to the meaning behind his songs, Doughty says he may be the last person to understand what he’s talking about clearly.

“I usually don’t really know what a song is about ’til I’ve played it for years,” Doughty says. “Later, it’ll ring true to me and I’ll become aware of the true meaning of it.”

Doughty says he’s changed his views on artistry considerably in the last 10 years. Once in it for the money, he now loves what he does.

“Toward the end of the ’90s, I had a lousy time being in Soul Coughing,” Doughty admits.

“It was a very cynical enterprise for me. Now, I just find so much warmth and life in art and creativity.”