You may recognize Matt Costa’s voice from buoyant tunes like the version of “Mr. Pitiful" featured in the Paul Rudd/Jason Segel dick-joke vehicle, I Love You, Man. Or from iPhone 3GS ads. If you were anywhere in the general vicinity of a radio in ’06, you’ll recognize his crooning on the song “Sunshine” from his debut album, Songs We Sing. And if those references don’t rustle up any fond memories, then you’ll just have to start from scratch: the California native’s just-released third album, Mobile Chateau, is out on Brushfire Records this week. We had the opportunity to chat with the songwriter about touring and his bigger-than-life romance at The Smile last week.

How’d you get started on Mobile Chateau, and what have you been up to since the release of your last album, Unfamiliar Faces? I wrote the first song for this record three years ago. It was called “Secret,” and I didn’t put it on the last record because it didn’t define the sound of it. The first songs I wrote specifically for Mobile Chateau are “The Season” and “Witchcraft,” which are the first two singles. They were the catalysts for how I wanted to go about recording and the arranging the rest of the songs. Once I started treating the songs like this, I felt like “Secret” would fit. The last song on the record, “Next Time,” started out like a Buddy Holly-type song, really straightforward, so I decided to deconstruct it and make it a lot slower and groovier. I’ve done that before, and it worked with this one. Once we got this version down, I feel like it suited me and the guys I was playing with more than anything else.

There are two distinct sounds on Mobile Chateau, psychedelic and folk. How'd you bridge those two together? It had a lot to do with listening to British Folk music from the ‘60s, like Fairport Convention. They combine those two styles. There were a bunch of songwriters who came and went from that group: Richard Thompson, Iain Matthews, and Sandy Denny, a female singer. They would do a psychedelic rock song and then do these folk ballads - folk-inspired, dreamy tunes. To me, they went together perfectly because I listen to a lot of that music. It also evens it out a bit, in that your ear can handle something elaborate and then listen to something simpler.

What’s up with the name ‘Mobile Chateau’? I started writing some of the songs when I was in Paris and in a Château near Tours. I forget the actual name of the city I was in, something beautiful-sounding…I was there with my wife and she made a mobile with all these different objects that she had found and hung it in our room in the château. Then I started writing a song about that. I imagined all the songs hanging from this mobile. It was in the middle of the winter, too, so we spent New Years there. It was freezing out and real hazy all around. Inside, we had these warm fires going. There was lots of history in this château, beginning in the late 1600s. Everyday we’d take walks and my wife would find things on the ground. I just felt like all the songs could be hanging from this mobile, and that gave me so much serenity and peace of mind. Then it took on a dual meaning, the mobility of it. You can take all of these songs with you, wherever you go. They’re meant to be taken, and our experience is meant to be shared.

You got married in between your last two albums. How has that changed things for you? We did it on the fly. One day, we just decided we were going to get married, and the next day we did. It was a very romantic way to go about it. My uncle had passed away and I’d started playing with this whole new group of guys, and I started thinking to myself, 'things are changing all the time, and you never know how long you’re going to be around, and if you really feel something for someone, why not take a stand and do it?' So we got married. We felt crazy about each other then, and it's amazing to see how it grows and how we grow as people. A lot of times, people run away from things, and then try to re-invent themselves as new in another strange town or something. It’s good to have someone who is a good barometer for change and that you can experience things with. It’s a helpful way to view the world and get a better perspective on things. I was also adopted, and I’ve talked to other adopted kids who feel the same way, but I never see anyone who looks like me or physically resembles me. I’m always searching for that in other things. It’s ultimately nice to have a team and never be alone. That’s why I create songs, because when I do that, it’s a 100% representation of who I am.

On your last tour, you opened for Ryan Adams and The Cardinals and Oasis. On this tour, the band Threes and Nines are opening for you. Are you psyched? I’ve done my own stuff before, but I always try to keep working with people I’m generally inspired by or who are from the same area where I’m from. I like to support the local scene where I live. There’s a lot of good music from there and bands that I like and that I’m friends with. Before we toured with The Delta Spirit, from Long Beach, I worked with Elvis Perkins.

Where would you live besides California? Every time I visit some place, I wish I could live there. I’d like to live in New York, but after a couple of months, I know I’d wish I could be back in California and have some open space. I’d like to live in Mexico City, or somewhere around there. I’d like to get a heavy dose of that culture, because it created so much of what California is. I like going into Texas and the South. In California, you don’t get many thunderstorms. I lived in Central Florida for a while, just south of Orlando, and you get thunderstorms every day. I like them for the sentimental reasons. You have no obligations for the day, and you can just hang out inside and relax when it’s raining.

What's one of your best touring stories? I was down in Australia recently to do Blues Fest and my folks came down because they wanted to see Dr. John, who was also playing this festival. As we’re getting on the plane to go to the show, I see Dr. John waiting to get on our plane. I have this old box that I carry my harmonicas in, and I’m sitting there for about twenty minutes and Dr. John walks up to me all slow with his cane and his medicine bag and his feathers hanging off of it. We start talking, and he goes, “What you got in that box?” And I said, “I got harmonicas in there.” And he was like, “Well what do you do?” And I was like, “I write songs and perform them.” And he was like, “You write songs, huh? That’s where the money’s at. From my experience, you can play ‘em, but you gotta write ‘em.” Then he gave me a handshake, sealed the deal. He gave me a little bit of knowledge, and now I have confidence in what we’re doing. I never washed my hand again. I call it my ‘Mojo Hand.'