Fri. May 11
    

     Last year, the lo-fi synth-pop band Dom played the star-studded Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. They’d released two EPs to substantial acclaim and critical success, and collaborated with the rapper Gucci Mane on a remake of their song “Living in America.” They’d opened for Ratatat and Ariel Pink, touring America and Australia. Presently at work on their third album, Dom is taking a break for a one-off gig at Brighton Music Hall Friday.
     Life is good.
     But a few years ago, Dom – the 24-year-old singer-musician who uses only his first name and fronts a band called Dom – was not living large in Worcester.     “Basically,” he said, “I was bouncing around living in boarding houses. I really didn’t have much aim in my life.”
    “I grew up in foster care, aimless, living all over Massachusetts and Connecticut from eight to 18,” he added. “School was an impossibility. I couldn’t do that and work full time. I could never hold down a job. I did pretty much everything. I was a telemarketer, I worked under the table at a sushi restaurant, I worked at a wings joint. I did some clerical work and couldn’t keep anything. I’d just give up on it all the time.
     “I tried to sell drugs, but found out people only wanted cheap crappy drugs and that’s not the type of stuff to make money off. I was exerting way too much work and wasn’t even able to enjoy the drugs I was selling. It was tough trying to get money.”
     At one of those boarding houses, Dom met some fellow young musicians. “The idea of a band formed in my head,” Dom said.     A friend who was unable to care for his pet cat dropped the animal, named Bochicha, off with Dom. “The cat was life-changing, really important to me at that time, something to love and have,” Dom said, “and I switched gears. He’s partly responsible for my band starting. I wrote a song, ‘Bochicha’ about him.” (Sadlty, Bochicha is no longer with us.)
    Dom, the band, began. Dom, who plays synthesizer and guitar, came up with a floating, dreamy song called “Jesus,” about the pleasures of taking Ecstasy. The song was put up on the web in January 2010. Dom called the music “full, garage-y bedroom pop.”
      “In the course of a month, it got popular on the internet,” said Dom, on the phone from Brooklyn, his home base of a year. “I started to write more songs, we recorded them and by March we had seven songs [the “Sun Bronzed Greek Gods” EP]. Then I got big reviews. After that, everything started taking off, hanging out with celebrities being taken out to dinner all the time.
    “It just got surreal. I was living in luxury for the first time, and people actually caring about me, all of a sudden have this respect for me overnight.”
    Dom did a one album deal with Astralwerks, “Family of Love,” in 2011, but then split. The band has been through various incarnations but now consists of the core three – Dom, bassist Erik and drummer Bobby – plus newbies guitarist Kenny and synthist Dylan.
     “On the first EP, the image I had in my head was somehow incorporating ‘90s alternative with ‘80s electronica and ‘60s pop,” Dom said. “On the second one, we tried to keep the same pop aspects, but darken it up lightly. I did something that might sound good in the car, if you’re driving stoned on a rainy day.
    “I’m about half-way done the demos for the new album. I did some soul searching and it’s a bit more of a mature effort, kind of classic rock inspired – a departure in a really good way.”
    When the demos are completed, Dom said, “It goes to the highest bidder. I’ll sign a deal with whoever will give me the most money, give me the biggest record advance so that we can go to Jamaica or somewhere cool to record it and rack up the biggest studio bill ever.”
     Throughout the interview, Dom kept returning to the surreal nature of success.
    “I sometimes wake up and have to remind myself that everything isn’t terrible anymore,” he said. “I’ve actually accomplished things. Over the past two years, it’s been a real journey. I went from people not giving me any credit to people giving me way too much credit.”

Filligar and the Needy Vision at 9. Tickets: $14.

(This is a version of a story that ran in the Boston Herald, www.bostonherald.com.)

158 Brighton Ave., Allston, 617-779-0140  www.brightonmusichall.com