Layten Kramer’s upcoming debut album is called For the Sun, which is funny because he seems like a man who might have his share of dark moments. Reached in a van travelling from Alberta to Vancouver, the charmingly laid-back singer doesn’t necessarily disagree with this assessment.

“I definitely go through phases and mental struggles,” Kramer says, speaking on his cellphone. “At the time I was writing the record, I was having a lot of vivid and lucid night terrors. I’d have dreams of being around people I’d never been around before, and doing things that I never thought I’d do.”

When it comes to sharing stories behind songs, many artists take the Fifth, arguing that revealing too much ruins the mystery. Kramer, on the other hand, is happy to pull back the curtain on For the Sun, which is scheduled for an April 29 release.

“ ‘Gold and the Sea’, for example, was about a dream that I had where I was with this lady that I didn’t know and was following her as she fixated on finding something that was hidden,” he explains. “My perception was that she was looking for gold. She went crazy and I ended up holding her face underwater and drowning her. It was one of those weird and super-vivid dreams where you wake up and go ‘What the fuck just happened? What does this mean?’ And obviously, the first thing I do with things like that is to try and figure it out in songwriting.”

Arriving on the heels of a well-received debut EP, For the Sun started coming together in Vancouver, Kramer writing songs during a challenging post-high-school move to Vancouver from his tiny hometown of Canmore, Alberta.

“My graduating class was only 80 people,” he relates. “When you grow up in a small town and spend it all in one place you get pretty boxed in and it starts to feel claustrophobic. With the freedom of being done school and being able to travel, I decided to pack up my van and go. It was scary, as much as a naive action. I kind of got my ass kicked and it was harder to find a job and a place than I thought it would be. But things ended up working out. I believe if you work hard, good things happen.”

That’s proven by For the Sun, where Kramer’s old-soul vocals are backed by woozy mellow-gold guitars one minute (“For the Sun”), and then muscular distortion and ominous synths the next (“Thin White Lies”). Produced by Victoria studio ace Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Dan Mangan), the record often recalls times when post-Lollapalooza oddballs like Grandaddy ruled the college-rock landscape and alt-country was at its folksy best.

“A lot of the record revolves around daytime/nighttime, what happens in your unconscious state and my perception of that,” Kramer says. “A lot of the sounds reflect a kind of dreamy haziness, which was intentional.”

Also intentional was making a record that was anything but dark, despite the dreams that inspired it.

“A lot of the writing happened in the summer and spring,” Kramer reports. “I was experiencing my first real relationship, and I think that influenced the music, although not so much the words. So I’m glad that it sounds like a spring and summery record, and not just because that’s when we’re releasing it.”

Layten Kramer plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Saturday (April 23).