THE principle songwriter and singer for the indie-folk quintet Winterpills has a bit of stage fright.

   Philip Price and his band have shared the stage with Vampire Weekend, Cake and Josh Ritter, and will open for Grant-Lee Phillips this fall, but he would prefer to be out of the spotlight.

   ”I’m not happiest on stage, I’m kind of a hermit,” he says, receiving a call from his home in Hadley, Mass., where he lives with his wife and fellow bandmember, Flora Reed. Expecting a call from a reporter, he began tracking a demo anyway, and had to hit pause to answer the phone.

   Winterpills, who will perform at The Record Collector in Bordentown Oct. 16, has released two albums since its self-titled debut (Signature Sounds, 2005). The group’s hushed pop songs contain a soft, dreamy quality, defined by Mr. Price and Ms. Reed’s vocal harmonies.

   Something about Winterpills begs a listener to compare them to other bands. The Boston Herald wrote of them, “Think Psychedelic Furs meet Magnetic Fields and Elliott Smith while mulling late-period Beatles in Radiohead’s studio.”

   Mr. Price told NPR, which featured the band on Weekend Edition, that he was honored to be mentioned in the same breath as Elliott Smith. In the ‘90s he played in a power pop band. Recently he bought the remastered Beatles collection and has been listening to them “obsessively.” Clearly Mr. Price draws from a large pool of inspiration.

   ”I don’t think you can avoid being influenced,” he says. “There’s nothing new under the sun these days in pop and rock music. If you openly embrace your influences, it’s probably the best way to go instead of pretending you’re the newest thing.

   ”If you really are doing something new, you can’t know it, because it just comes from who you are,” he continues. “We’re not really trying to do something new. We’re trying to do something unique and I’m trying to write good songs.”

   Performing those songs with his band lures him back to the stage. “I really like playing with these people,” he says. “I like that I’m good friends with everyone in the band. And we’ve stayed good friends.”

   Friendship alone brought the band together. It was a miserable winter — a “real sobfest,” Mr. Price says — when the people who would become the Winterpills decided to gather at guitarist Dennis Crommett’s house to jam. The musicians (Brian Akey, bass, and Dave Hower, drums, fill out the band) had known each other from the local music scene in Northampton, Mass., but never played together.

   ”We weren’t being ambitious,” Mr. Price says. “At the house we were playing whatever we felt like.” They’d drink and then play entire albums just to see if they could. Soon they began booking shows. “We became a band without really noticing.”

   Ms. Reed was the last to join and, it turns out, the key ingredient. In April 2004 Winterpills was performing with Ms. Reed at a bar in Easthampton, Mass. “We all had a feeling on stage,” Mr. Price says. “A lot of it had to do with Flora. We really loved the harmonizing. She has this kind of sonically rich voice. She makes my voice sound a lot better.”

   Before Winterpills, Mr. Price had been trying to forge a solo career. “It was going, you know, not brilliantly,” he says. He was also becoming bored with playing solo.

   ”Not that I have any perspective, but this has been my best writing,” Mr. Price says of composing for Winterpills, which released The Light Divides in 2005 and Central Chamber in 2008. “The first batch of songs for the first album came out of a terrible time in my life. A lot of great songs came out of it that I feel good about it. Though I wouldn’t wish for a repeat, I think the challenge, now that I’m past that period, is to keep the inspiration up.

   ”And write about less tragic things,” he adds with a laugh.

   When he writes, Mr. Price isn’t necessarily trying to compose a Winterpills song, which tend to be melancholic if not sad. Though he knows when a song fits the band, he says everyone is looking to stretch their sound and try new things.

   Playing live as a five-piece band has altered its sound, as well, forcing the musicians to become a more rock-oriented band in concert, Mr. Price says. Occasionally they’ll find a venue that’s “sonically perfect,” allowing them to re-create their signature hushed tones.

   Mr. Price is currently experiencing a fruitful songwriting phase, which isn’t always the case. “Sometimes I’ll have the most horrific droughts and there’s nothing I can do about it,” he says. “This summer has been a good time for writing.”

   Completing the interview, Mr. Price planned to continue recording his demo — “If I can remember what it is I was doing,” he says.

Winterpills will perform at The Record Collector, 358 Farnsworth Ave., Bordentown, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m., $12, $10 adv.; 609-324-0880; www.the-record-collector.com