In 2011, you played 175 live shows. Are you guys still keeping that pace?

In 2013, we played around 140 shows. This year we’re looking to keep it about the same or less – to keep it more manageable. Every person is different but when you’re out on the road for two-thirds of the year, it’s hard to feel grounded back home. This is what we’re doing as a full-time job, so it’s nice to have a little bit of balance on the home front. Playing 140 shows, feels better and less chaotic.

You’re a relatively young band, but you’ve had three different drummers and two different lead guitarists.

We still have three of the original five, but it was very difficult because they had become really good friends of ours over the years. People move and go in different directions – it’s just the way the cookie crumbles. In a positive light, the musicians that have come in, have taken the music in a new direction. They have complemented the sound, added to it and added to the band. We’re all in sync right now and sound the best we’ve ever have.

How have the new guys changed the sound of the band?

They’re both very schooled musicians. Bryan Daines went to the music program at University of Nevada-Reno. He plays mostly fender telecaster so he adds that classic country twang to most of the tunes. And our drummer Brian Huston went to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. His background is world music but he’s got his heart set in this Americana scene.

Can you talk about Jenny and Dave – what do they bring to bear?

They bring a ton of energy to the stage. Both of them put out a lot of energy and get the crowd involved. Jenny grew up in a musical family and has been performing on stage since age since she was 5. You can really tell – she’s got that magnetic force up there. And Dave went to the Cal State Music program and he’s a master of all string instruments. He can play the violin, bass, and some guitar.

How does the creative process work with the five of you?

Everyone in the band contributes creatively to the songwriting process and owns their parts and so we kind of spread it around as far as songwriting goes. When each member has an idea, they try to flush out as much as they can and create a rough demo of the tune. We either email it around or get together when we’re on the bus and people brainstorm from there. On every idea that someone has, everyone is open to criticism and making it an overall better tune.

In January, the band released a 5-song EP Dirt Nap. Was the recording process different than on previous records?

We brought in a couple of guest musicians – something we hadn’t done in the past – to add some textural layers. Some of the tunes we had, called for banjo and we also had a friend that played pedal steel. The banjo player who plays on “Bootleg Jack,” is named Austin Quattlebaum, and the pedal steel player on “Easy Sleep,” is Peter Grant. The steel pedal is such a sweet instrument, especially in this genre of music. It add an alt-country thing. The recording process wasn’t that much different. We just added more ear candy in there and our bass player, David, added some auxiliary instrumentation throughout the EP, including harmonica, viola, and sitar.

Do you have any plans for a new album?

We’re hoping to hit the studio again late summer and early fall for a full length album. We have a lot of new material to put together a full length. It’s just a matter of figuring out the schedule and when we’re going to be in town to flush it all out.

So have you been debuting new songs at your recent shows?

That tends to be the way that we’ve done it in the past. When we’re working on a song, we like to hash it out in a live environment and work on the different arrangements and see how they go over with the crowd and take that feedback and rework the song if need be.

We’ve been toying around with the idea of keeping these songs from the public until the next release. We have a great group of core friends and fans that come to our shows and our familiar with a lot of the songs by the time they hit the record. So it would be nice to have a surprise waiting and receive a different reaction – good or bad.

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