I had the chance to go to a music conference in Boulder late summer this year and saw a bunch of great bands. There’s always some that leave an impression more than the others. This year is was a duo – Illiterate Light. It’s not often you see a drummer who stands. As a pseudo drummer myself, I am always intrigued.

These guys met in college – The pair discovered shared passions (together they volunteered at a local community center, earned Permaculture Design Certifications, cycled endless miles, and apprenticed on an organic farm), and in 2010, they launched their first band, building up a devoted local following through house shows and DIY gigs.

“We’d play anything from coffee houses to street corners to rock clubs to off the grid intentional communities, and we’d run the shows with a bicycle-powered generator,” says Gorman. “Sometimes we’d dumpster dive for food, sometimes we’d meet folks on back country farm roads who’d feed us and let us camp on their property. More than anything, those tours taught us to trust each other and feel comfortable stepping outside of the box. The joy of that type of radical community was life changing.”

Almost immediately after leaving the farm to focus on music, Cochran and Gorman’s first band disintegrated, so they re-launched as a duo, dubbing themselves Illiterate Light in a nod to Wilco’s “Theologians.

They just released their debut album of 12 songs and clocks in at 44 minutes.  They play the Mississippi Studios on February 13th