Who are you?
Dan McCurry, Ash Hopkins, and Nick Jenkins.

Where are you based out of ?
We are based out of Charleston, South Carolina; however, everyone now lives in another state: I (Dan) in Charleston, Ash Hopkins in Durham, North Carolina, and Nick Jenkins in New York City.

Your music sounds like?
It sounds as if Broken Social Scene was hanging out with Death Cab for Cutie and then both The Flaming Lips and David Bazan came through the door and they all decided to go to the bar and have a drink.

How did you discover music as a creative outlet?
I first wrote a song in sixth grade on the guitar. I am not sure why — maybe I was feeling some preteen angst or something, but it stuck and I’ve probably written about 100 songs to date, most of them bad, but a number of them pretty good, especially these days. It probably took at least six to eight years for my songs to develop as well as my brain.

What’s the best part of being an independent musician, and how do you get the message out about your music and connect to fans?
The best part is being able to set your own course, and say, “Hey, I want to try this,” and you can go ahead and do it with minimal interference — still gotta run things by bandmates, girlfriends, etc… I suspect that independents have more control now over their sound, as you’re not having to conform with anything or to anyone.

At the same time, this makes it harder for independents, as we all have to do a bit more homework, because every aspect is in our hands. We have to figure out how to record, market, and design, not to mention pay for it all! It’s tough but it is rewarding when you can do it all yourself, and when things are good say, “Hey, I did this!”

What are your future musical projects and goals?
At the moment we’re starting up our own label, Hearts & Plugs. That’s keeping us all pretty busy, as we’re putting together our first free digital sampler for that (due out February or March of 2012) as well as promoting our current new album, Normal (released on January 10, 2012). It’ll be a busy year.