“The roadshow features a jam-packed list of 31 venues in 36 days. The tour will stop in major cities scattered across the U.S. and Canada and will make an appearance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.”

The Graveface Roadshow, which plays DC9 tonight, has barely started checking cities off of its national tour. But Graveface Records owner Ryan Graveface, who arranged the tour for shoegazing headliners The Casket Sisters, The Stargazer Lilies and Dreamend, already feels more relaxed.

“This tour feels like a return to my touring roots,” Graveface said.

Graveface calls himself an “old dude” with “a label and a store” who “plays in a bunch of bands.” The Chicago native not only owns Graveface Records, a recording label and shop in Savannah, Ga., but he also manages and produces music for the 26 bands on his label’s roster (he’s a member of four of them), two of which – The Casket Girls and Dreamend – are headlining the tour.

“I work about 20 hours a day, so I just don’t have any time to have friends or hang out,” Graveface said.

The roadshow features a jam-packed list of 31 venues in 36 days. The tour will stop in major cities scattered across the U.S. and Canada and will make an appearance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Despite his considerable responsibilities, Graveface’s favorite roles are the ones he can perform without help. He loves working retail at his store, he said, as well as producing music, a job that allows him to experiment and tinker with sounds on his own.

Dreamend, a DIY project full of dreamy, crooning vocals and eerie lyrics, is produced through Graveface’s own label, allowing him to maintain creative control.

However, as a member of The Casket Girls, Graveface shares control with fellow bandmates Phaedra and Elsa Greene, two sisters he “stalked” in a city square.

“I approached them randomly, and they seemed kind of put off by me,” Graveface said. “But after me persisting for a while, they at least agreed to hear what I was talking about. And a couple of years later, we’re on our second record and about to go on tour, so I did something right along the way.”

The trio’s set lists will feature music off the band’s sophomore album, True Love Kills The Fairy Tale, released Feb. 11. The music carries Graveface’s pseudo-signature dreamy style with lots of distorted electronic synths and haunting vocals.

“I think I get some at least interesting sounds for this Casket Girls project,” he said.

Though he prefers to work alone, Graveface recognizes the benefits of the partnership he is afforded as a member of a band.

“Being in Casket Girls has helped a lot because I wasn’t really good with collaboration before this project came about,” he said. “Now I feel like they’ve shown me — the girls have really helped me find the joy in collaboration and being far more open-minded to other people’s ideas.”

Already at work on a third album, he expects to begin recording the next Casket Girls project later this year.

Graveface’s songwriting methods are a bit unorthodox: He culls much of his music from experiences he’s had in dreams and pens songs in a dreamlike state.

Even the Graveface name is a pseudonym he dreamt about and decided to use to protect his privacy.

“Pretty much everything that I’ve ever named has come over me in a dream,” Graveface said, “which sounds pretty stupid, but it’s true.”

Another unusual source of inspiration comes from his hobby of collecting serial killers’ possessions. Graveface owns paintings by John Wayne Gacy as well as an anonymous serial killer’s diary that he bought at a black market auction in a wooded preserve near Savannah.

The diary was the inspiration behind Dreamend’s two most recent albums, So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite and And The Tears Washed Me, Wave After Cowardly Wave.

“I’m more fascinated by how normal these people were than how abnormal they were,” Graveface said. “In his diary, he would talk about just normal everyday shit, and love life, and things and feelings we can all identify with.”

“It’s a little disturbing,” he added. “I guess that’s why I’m so interested in it.”

The Graveface Roadshow plays DC9 with Creepoid tonight. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.