We receive plenty of pitches for features and show previews every day at New Jersey Stage.  Every now and then one of them pops out at us.  When the Strangled Darlings, a duo originally from Portland, told us they were playing the Saint in Asbury Park for the first time, we liked their choice of venue.  When they mentioned how the band’s name is a reference from William Faulkner (“because we’re well read like that”), we approved of their literature choices.  And when they said two of them (Jess Anderly and George Veech) are traveling the United States full-time, moving from town to town in an RV that orvernights in Wal-Mart parking, we admired their adventurous choice of touring.

The band describes its sound as Southern Gothic Folk-Americana / Americana Doom Pop.  They have been compared to Courtney Barnett, Shovels & Rope, and Modest Mouse.  It’s stripped down Americana that features Jess on tenor bass and foot drums and George on mandolin.  They’ll be playing the Saint on Thursday, April 21 on a bill with Bone & Marrow and Lowlight.  We emailed George on the road to learn more.

What’s it like living on the road in an RV? Do you really find a Wal-Mart to stay at each night?  Apps. Apps are a new word but are basically a life. With apps we are able to fairly easily deconstruct the past standard of living and take a peek at the coming standard. Outside of a regular employmentscape, outside of personal real estate but inside the hopelessly expanding world of the internet. It’s the perfect place for a poet to lose his mind. But yeah, there’s a Walmart app no problem; it even reviews for amenities offered (e.g. nice managers, landscaping, is there a water feature? Do they have produce in grocery section? etc).

Your bio describes your music as “Southern gothic folk-Americana odes.  Americana Doom Pop.”  Are either of you from the South? Or did the musical style evolve from a love of Faulkner’s work? George read a lot of Faulkner during those impressionable years and he’s been moody ever since. Neither of us are really from the real south, it’s just a hipster thing to be into gas stations, greasy spoons, and stuff deemed authentic in their retro’tude. Of course lots of folks are from the real south and they’re not writing epic tales of alcohol, hatred and flintly backwardness that strike some of us all too human.

Your latest release, Boom Stomp King, was created after the two of you decided to take the plunge, quit your day jobs, and tour/live in an RV.  You had to sell most of your possessions to do this.  What did you keep?  We kept our carpet (George has a really nice antique bijar rug) and our bicycles at Jess’ folks house in Portland. After that it was easy: pressure cooker, a nice saute pan, a well seasoned cast iron skillet, and music gear. Cooking will always be important. No matter how big Beyonce gets she always keeps that hot sauce in her purse. It’s sort of the same for us.

Jess Anderly said touring is everything these days.  Do you think we will ever see a time when artists can make a living via selling records again? No. Sometimes you just have to spite your face man.

Has streaming killed that dream? Streaming killed something.

Has it gotten to the point where revenue from album sales is basically just a bonus? Yes. All cash money is good, once you are protecting art.

In an interview you said, “The biggest fear of an artist is to not have an audience, to not be heard.”  How difficult is it to tour like this in a period of time when radio airplay is hard to get? I would imagine radio airplay has always been hard to get. Used to be run by payola deals through record labels. Now most folks I know listen to the radio like they buy CD’s. The phenomenon of mass market pop mega singles is interesting in the same way I love that McDonalds is tasty and delicious everywhere on the planet. People hold that against McDonalds but somebody’s clicking on them large fries. I think we are pretty close to the area of serverless chain restaurants, retail outlets, and physicians offices. You walk in and place your order or select from a panel of symptoms or blouses pop in your ATM card and boom! Tasty & delicious. Haters are still gonna hate though. It’s the same with pop radio tunes.

Finally, if you were trying to sell somebody on coming out to your show, what would the pitch be? We fancy ourselves aspirants of the craft. They should come see if we can do that, because we can. Sure there is a backstory a mile long to the songs but the floating blood red sphere of the groove is a temporary god we channel for a 3 minute pop song and really live is better than dead.

Pluck your music from the vine kids, the rest you can hack for free from the ATM of American Culture.