Singer/songwriters Nate Ruess and Sam Means, of the band The Format, decided to play music together to get away from the stale punk bands they were in a few years ago.
"We didn't have a preconceived notion about what we wanted to do with the music we wanted to play," said Ruess. "We basically wanted to make music that would make us happy."
One thing the duo did not want was to get stuck with a certain sound. "It's easy to wind up pigeonholed," Ruess said during a conference call with Means from their home town, Phoenix. "And we toured with different types of independent bands that had different styles. That way we could be influenced by various types of music and learn to play differently."
"At the same time," said Means, "it is difficult to tour with a band when you're style is as diverse as ours. But we adjusted our sound with each tour and found ourselves turning a lot of people on to our music."
These days, the Format style includes pop, rock, bits of punk and some folk. "One song will be a country song and the next will be a pop song," said Ruess. "It's become natural for us to do things that way."
The duo's new album, "Interventions and Lullabies," was released two weeks ago. Means and Ruess said it's composed of new songs and some re-recordings of their Extended Play CD released last year. "We had some songs from the EP we decided to do again," said Means. "We also had some lingering songs that have been with us for awhile. But most of the songs were written specifically for the album."
Guest musicians include keyboardist Rami Jaffee from the Wallflowers and drummer Josh Freese from A Perfect Circle. "It was a nice experience recording this album," said Ruess. "We didn't have as many restrictions as we did when we recorded the EP.
"We also didn't want to make a big 'radio' album in a big studio with a big budget. I don't think we could have made a 'big budget' album that fit what we're all about."
If you go
What: The New Amsterdams, the Format, Murder by Death, Straylight Run
Where: Kilby Court, 741 Kilby Court (330 West)
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
How much: $10
Phone: 320-9887
Web: www.kilbycourt.com
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com