First and foremost, how's the tour going? This is first time out since your self-release?

R: If you look at the poster, I guess we kind of started the tour in Austin last Friday. Kind of. But not really since we haven't been doing the night to night thing. We played about four shows up to tonight. Each one has been really different. One day we just played for our family and outside in Balmorhea. It's been really awesome, but tiring.

M: Our first show out of Texas was last night in Albuquerque and we didn't really know what to expect. We got there and everyone was receptive and warm... and gave us hugs. People just came out because there was a band playing and they didn't really care what it was.

R: All ages of people too. High school kids, college age kids. Middle-age kids (laughs). It was awesome.

Have you played with any other bands? Like-minded or maybe not like-minded?

M: At the Austin show we played with Bexar Bexar (ba-har, ba-har). His name is Bryan and he's from Austin as well.

I'm glad you pronounced that, I was going to murder it in about 30 seconds-- “bex-er bex-er”

M: We actually asked him how to pronounce it and he's like, “oh whatever you want, you know.” The county in San Antonio, Texas is called Bexar county. Texans just brutally slay the Spanish language and call it “bear”. So some people call it “bear-bear” or “be-har be-har”...

Or bex-ar bex-ar now.

R: We also played with bands last night. We played with a band that is sophomore's in high school, called Braillist. For sophomores in high school, they were really good. And another band called Olive Drab.

Just rock, instrumental or?

R: Yeah, it was instrumental. Well, Olive Drab played more folk songs, I guess.

M: Like Mates of State but with a guitar and way toned down.

So, your name, obviously, comes from the town or the city.  What does the name mean to you guys?

R: Well I think I threw out the name. In Balmorhea there's a place called San Solomon Springs in Balmorhea State Park. It's the biggest natural spring in Texas. It's just a huge pool built during 1930's. I grew up going every summer as a kid. It's a place that I love.

M: It's also absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

R: It's gorgeous, stunning. In the middle of the desert and with a mountain backdrop. But, I felt that after we started playing music, just very loosely for awhile, there was just something about that kind of location and that memory.

You both grew up in Austin?

M: No, I grew up partly in San Diego then moved to Texas.

R:  I grew up in Midland, which is two hours north of Balmorhea and five hours northwest of Austin. Like an oil town.

What'd you listen to growing up?

R: A wide variety. I was a nerd. I listened to what my dad listened to. I was in theater a lot in middle school and high school. I also took piano lessons and voice lessons in high school. There's my classical background. I listened to George Winston. Definitely formative for me. I think a few people may hear George Winston playing when I play.

M: By the time I was in 2nd grade I had every Iron Maiden album. All really heavy bands. And then in the 3rd grade when we moved to Texas and my dad took all my heavy music away. So then I started listening to alternative/grunge stuff and then, I think it was the summer before 9th grade, when my friend gave me Tortoise's first album. That was like a gateway drug. Tortoise and the early Mogwai stuff is what got me into the good music.

So it's safe to say Tortoise cleansed your palette or do you find the Iron Maiden creeping in from time to time? I'll guess maybe I'll find out tonight, watching you play...

M: Well, I started listening to punk and hardcore bands in high school, but my senior year in high school I played in an instrumental band. With Iron Maiden, I grew up on it so I listen to it sometimes. But as I get older, it's less and less. I now put an Iron Maiden song on like once a year as opposed to once a month.

Slowly oozing out of your system.

R: I like folk music a lot too.

Any favorite artists?

R: I like Gillian Welch a lot. Bob Dylan. There's a guy from Austin, Peter and the Wolf. I guess he's folk.

M: I was inspired acoustically more by a Tortoise side-project, Pullman. Good stuff. I think you can hear that a little bit with us, you know, two guitars playing different chords and layers.

You introduced me to two people five minutes ago and I've already criss-crossed who they are and what their relationships are, but when we talked on the phone yesterday you mentioned that you are traveling with your girlfriends. Somewhat rare for a band to travel with those close to them, although really cool as well. What's it been like having your family and your loved ones close to you?

R: We've only been going for two days, so... (laughs)

M: I can't think of a better way to do it. We haven't switched cars yet though. I drove with Ann the whole way and he drove with Megan.

You're taking separate cars the whole tour?

M: Ann's going back to college. She was in Austin this summer and she's moving back to Santa Barbara, so she's driving with us to California.

For some reason I pictured the tour van image you have on your website. Traveling down the highway, arms out the window...

R: I wish!

You mentioned a few minutes ago you came from different backgrounds growing up. How did you meet and what really clicked between you to form a band?

M: We worked at a summer camp together and didn't really know each other there, but a lot of our musical friends did. I played my music at a church and we had this really eclectic type worship service once a month. I knew Rob was a really good musician and I asked him to help out with this. It was really experimental. We had field recordings and records going just for the scratching noises. It was really interesting. So that's how we first played together, during that. And then we became better friends when I started dating his sister, so we were together all the time, you know, with family weekend trips and stuff. And I think was probably at Balmorhea or right after, August last year, when we played together, although we had no intention of forming a band. We just started playing. I had a bunch of songs that I had written and Rob has actually put out an album of his own.

R: Kind of.

M: Very DIY.

What's the songwriting process like, as you've started to play and grow together?

R: First it was songs we had already written on our own. Some of Michael's and some of my songs were already pretty much formulated.

M: I just had the guitar parts.

R: There doesn't seem to be any defined process for the song. Usually one of us will be working with a theme, develop it, and will play it for the other. Maybe the other will have an idea for another part and maybe we won't. It's just... how it happens. Other times we'll start improvising together.

You mentioned themes. What types of themes do you start with?

R: When I mention that I'm thinking of the piano. I usually start with a small chord progression. Two chords, maybe one. Maybe a few more. It'll usually go through three or four phases before it settles into something we can make into a song.

M: I think a lot of it comes from the seasons. Like in the winter it was really icy for a week in Austin, which is rare, and really dark and grey-- a very stone and somber mood. We wrote a couple songs in that week or two that are more melancholic.

R: A little darker.

M: And then there other songs that are very bright and real happy that were written in the summer in the sunshine. Meteorology.

I noticed the poem and the Emerson quote you have on your website.

R: I haven't even seen that.

M: “If the stars came out only once a year, we would stay up all night and gaze at them.”

I mean, that's pretty earthly and organic too. Is there anything else that drives your music besides nature. Literature? Film? Life experience?

M: I think we're both really into literature. Rob's old roommate, Travis, is a published poet and has won awards for his work. He's lived with him in a pretty small house and he's always sharing poems. His words are very evocative. Very strong imagery. And I write a little bit of stuff too. Kind of day-dreamy almost... drifting thoughts.

Just the titles of the songs-- there's a poet named Adam Zagajewski. A polish poet who is really amazing. The song “And I Can Hear the Soft Rustling of My Blood” is from one of his poems. And there's a filmmaker, Andy Goldsworthy...

R: He's not the filmmaker though, he's the artist.

M: Right.

R: I think all kinds of art. Visual art too. There's no direct correlation like how some people will try to write. And I'm not ruling this out for the future, but some people will try to take up a good piece of visual art and express it in musical terms. We haven't tried to do it, but I think it'd be a cool thing to do. But I think just more... we try to immerse ourselves in art forms. In literature and visual art. I don't know that much about visual art, but I'm interested in it and I like looking at it, trying to understand...

When someone hears your music for the first time, or the second, or the hundredth, do you have any hopes for what they experience or what they think when they hear you?

M: The other day someone told us they felt spiritual when they heard our music. I thought that was amazing. That's a pretty deep feeling, that our arrangement of chords or notes can do that.

R: I think if we can cause someone to just pause and maybe just for a moment stop and think. Nothing specific. Just kind of take a little break and let us occupy their mind.

You released this album on your own. Did you do the mixing and producing too? Or who was that done by?

M: We recorded ourselves on Rob's computer at his house and we basically started the mixing. Then Daniel Lovegrove, Dialect, he changed his name now, came into it. He's on Resonant. He did Port-Royal's album, Flares. Port-Royal recommended him to us. So we got in touch with him and he did the mixing from there. So it's kind of a trans-Atlantic relationship.

R: Yeah, we've never met him.

Any hopes of ever finding a label? Or are you guys happy doing what you're doing?

R; There's hopes, definitely.

M: Yeah, we spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours making discs and sending them to labels. We didn't hear anything for months and months. Then I guess about a month ago we heard from a couple and in the past week we've heard from a handful. It's been really crazy.  From England to Japan to America.

We're probably over 50% of the way there with one label. We're pretty excited about it.

(whispering) We'll tell you all about it when it's off! (points to the recorder and laughs)

R: We'd love to do it. It's hard to make a step forward, progressing with the sound. We want to do something in the studio with the piano and it's just so expensive. It feels really cool to partner with someone who is willing to take a risk on your music financially and say they are going to back you and support you. Although it's been very cool doing it all ourselves as well. We are keeping tabs on everything and I think you lose some of that when you have someone doing part of the work for you, as far as promotion. But that way, we can also focus more on just the music.

Shifting gears into the music, one of the things that caught me was the typewriter. What was the thought behind that? Or was there even one?

R: I can't even remember! That seriously seems so long ago.

M: That was a song Rob wrote a long time ago that we just used. I didn't play it on the album, so when we played it live it was very hard to keep up.

Yeah, that was my next question. It flows perfectly with the music, but are you typing anything coherent, anything legible?

R: Okay, I have to think back. I think I did that song before we were even a band. I think I might have actually a piece of paper and was typing something. I don't it was anything too particularly profound though.

M: When I played it live I was typing a letter and then at the fast part I was like “man, I can't type this fast,” and I just started doing like “aaaaaa”

How about your day jobs?

M: Rob's a student. Last semester of his undergrad in history and I'm a freelance photographer.

I assume most of the photography on the website is yours then?

M: Yeah. And all of the Polaroid ones Rob took. On a trip we took.

I've felt the photos have an instant correlation with your music. The “20 ft.” photo and others fit perfectly visually with the music, so that's why my questions may seem more geared towards the philosophical side of things, as the combination really contributes to a whole unit of music.

R: That picture of the 20 ft. sign. I love that.

M: That was taken in Balmorhea. At the Springs.

I know that you guys also work with a couple organizations, well, at least one-- People Not Profit. What is your relationship with them?

M: That's both of our best friends.

R: My friend Patrick.

M: They both used to live here, actually.

R: Basically, the idea... Well, there's actually a bunch of different ideas with People Not Profit. They do silk-screening to try to generate revenue for different projects they have going on in different parts of the world. Right now mainly in El Salvador, they are working with the community. A bunch of our friends actually went down there this summer and worked there with People Not Profit. And the Church that we're involved with also takes part. It's just like really much our whole community.

The printing is something they focus on. Organizations come to them wanting to print shirts and and they'll go with it. It's all homegrown, local, sweat-shop free.

M: But they have other functions too. They had an art opening a couple months ago that we played at.

Coming back to music, what are you guys listening to now?

M: I'm trying to think of the last CD I bought. Well, Bexar Bexar. I found him through The Silent Ballet actually. I clicked on his myspace, saw he was from Austin too, and was like, “hmmm”. (laughs). I'd never heard of him. But we found out when we talked to him he had only played four shows ever. In five years. Then he went on a European tour for three weeks, so he cut his teeth pretty good over there I guess.

Hmmm, the new Port-Royal. Emilio from Port-Royal told us about this Italian pianist, Ludovico Einaudi. I've been listening to him a lot. I think he's definitely my favorite pianist. He's very delicate, beautiful. And...

The Iron Maiden boxset came out like two weeks ago I think...

M: (laughs) I'm trying to think what else. Friends in Austin have a band called Meryll. The singer and guitarist Andrew is also a sound engineer. He's going to be recording our next album in the studio. Rob sometimes plays in another band called Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band. Both of them are listed on our myspace, and Rob plays accordion with them. Sort of folk/rock. There's not really too many bands in Austin that sound like us. Bexar Bexar is more ambient.

R: I bought Neil Young's Harvest. Alex Dupree just put out a new CD. I listen to opera. I went to Vienna for a month and listened to a lot of it there.

M: There's a Japanese artist named Takeshi Nishimoto. He plays classical guitar with other little noises. It's really simple, but it's real... I don't know you'd describe it, but the album is Monologue.

We talked about briefly before we started recording, but collaborations... any in the works? Any hopes or maybe daydreams about artists you want to collaborate with?

 M: We have a good relationship with Port-Royal so we've talked with them about doing a split. They are actually playing in Russia and Poland this month, so they are far away from home. But when they get back we are going to hook up with them and try to get something rolling.

  R: Daydreams... I just have daydreams of playing with our friends bands a lot. We have a lot of friends who, in my opinion, are excellent musicians. Our genres don't necessarily match, but some kind of collaboration that way would be cool. Or even going on a little tour together would be fun. We just have a really close community of friends at home. There's bands that we love that would be really cool to work with, but it seems like such a far shot.

M: I think some of the top ones are Max Richter, Rachel's.

R: I hate giving away influences, because then you get the “oh, they're just copying Rachel's” in every song. Or, “there's Max Richter.”

M: I love Hammock too. Especially their older stuff.

Theres definitely something about the experimental or instrumental genre, more-so than other types of music, where people listen to it and they're so quick to point out influences, rather than trying to absorb the music for what it is.

R: Yeah, people just want to nail you for who they think you're copying.

Oh yeah, and the wealth of reviews you read... “band A sounds like band B, so if you like band A you MUST buy band B.”

But, just summing things up, what's the future hold for you? Album-wise?

R: We have a record... We have a lot of stuff coming that we're really excited about. I think we're going to be able to grow a lot. Going into a studio will put certain kinds of limitations on us, but it will open up more for us as well-- sound quality, layering.

M: We have a lot of instruments and Rob can play most of those, but recording it live is impossible since he only has two hands. His girlfriend, Megan, has been playing banjo on a couple songs the last few nights, so it's been fun.

But, we're going to do another full-length and hopefully a split or maybe an EP too. We have high hopes for an East Coast tour next Spring or Summer and ideally a European tour. If that could ever happen. We've talked about it with Port-Royal and Bexar Bexar has a lot of connections too.
He actually moved to a label, Western Vinyl, and they have some pretty big relationships.

I think that about 90% of the CDs we sell online are in Europe.

Really?

M: Rarely we do have an order from America. A lot in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy.

R: One in Russian. About four in Japan.

M: I think that's where we have, not a following, but the place where people seek our music out more.

Interesting. Well, that's about all I had on my mind. I just want to thank you for your time and am looking forward to hearing you guys tonight.

R: Thank you.

R: Yeah, thank you man. We appreciate it.

The Silent Ballet thanks Balmorhea for the interview. More information on their album can be found on their website and myspace.