eMusic Q&A: Mates of State

Happily married couples have formed the nucleus of many a prominent indie rock band. But wife Kori Gardner and husband Jason Hammel are Mates of State — since they first joined forces in the late '90s in Lawrence, Kansas, it has been just the two of them, with Hammel bashing away on drums, and Gardner on electric organ, and the pair of them trading bright vocals that fall short of twee.

Ten years, five albums, and two kids after forming Mates of State, Hammel and Gardner seem to spend as much time on the road as ever — and now with their firstborn, four-year-old Magnolia and her nine-month-old sister June. Their latest album, Re-Arrange Us shows that the band's sound has expanded as much as their family has. Hammel spoke to me by phone from the couple's Connecticut home as the duo took a short break from touring.

So what's it like touring with two children?
So far it's been good. We started out bringing Magnolia when she was first born, and she's about four years old now, so she's been traveling with us for that long. At first it's an adjustment. Everything has to revolve around their needs, and secondary to that is making the tour happen.

What sort of adjustments have you had to make?
Before the kids it was just Kori and I, maybe a sound guy. Now we're traveling with nine adults, including a nanny, and two kids. The ultimate concept is that we want the kids to be around us all the time.

Obviously it's worked out well enough with Magnolia for you to bring June along as well.
We definitely have those moments with Magnolia when we think "She's growing up a lot differently than we did." But then again, who doesn't? Who doesn't grow up differently than their parents? As long as they're well taken care of and we teach them as much as possible about everything, then everything's going to be fine.

Is Magnolia getting old enough now to enjoy the trips?
The first time she went to Europe she was nine months. Now she's starting to talk about when we went to Canada. She's getting to the point where she's starting to think it's cool. What kid doesn't like music, and she gets to hear her parents play it every day of her life.

What does she think of her parents being in a band? Do you think she understands yet that not all parents do this?
The other day, she was asking about some band, I think they were opening, and she asked. "Are they a famous band?" And we were like "Are they a famous band? What does famous mean to her?" We asked her "Are you famous?" And she said, "Nah, I don't have a job yet." We thought we were going to have to explain indie rock to her — "Fame isn't necessary…"

I saw the video clip online of her singing "You Are Free" [from the new album]. She seems to get a kick out of your music.
Yeah, we had just gotten the mix back, I think it was Thanksgiving, we were at my parents house and we were all listening to it, and she just started singing it like crazy.

So, on this tour you've brought in other musicians to fill out your sound a little?
We're just trying to have fun with it. We've been doing this for ten years now, sometimes its just fun to bring in some other musicians, fill in the spaces. But the foundation is still just the two of us.

What has bringing in other musicians allowed you to do?
It allows us to do more dynamically. We can add strings, percussion, horns, guitar. We start the show with just the two of us, and then a couple songs in, the string players come out. And then we'll break it back down later in the show.

In terms of using other instrumentation, this record's a little bit of a departure for you too.
People are always worried whenever their band does something different, like "Oh, I hope they're still my band." And we were very conscious of that personally — we wanted to make it feel like Mates of State no matter what sound we were using, what other instruments we were using, we still wanted that same energy to be there.

Had you tried out a lot of the new material on the road beforehand?
There were only one or two songs that we played live before we recorded them. The way our writing and touring schedule works out now, our writing is a lot more concentrated. We take care of it quickly whenever we get home.

So you've settled into a real rhythm then – head out on tour, come home and write …
… make another record, have another kid . . . I think we're done having kids though. Two's good for us. I think we can make it work with two.