When folk music meets rock, you have my curiosity. Then when the blues shows up, you have my attention. The young band out of Lilitz, Pennsylvania by the name The Districts manage to capture all three.

They consist of Rob Grote (vocals, guitar), Mark Larson (guitar), Connor Jacobus (bass) and Braden Lawrence (percussion).

You may have seen them at Boston Calling last week on Sunday afternoon, and may have remarked their stage presence and energy. The Districts had a busy 2013, doing some Hot Box Studio sessions and getting some attention on Reddit, and they are well on their way to an even busier 2014. After self-releasing “Telephone,” their first LP, they came out with a self-titled EP, they’re coming off their first tour in the UK, played a few festivals and have been traveling the U.S. with bands such as White Denim, Dr. Dog, Kurt Vile and Deertick.

If you haven’t heard of them before you see them play, you likely won’t forget about them after. I got a chance to speak with lead singer and vocalist Rob Grote for a phone call in their Philly apartment.

Congrats on the past year, you guys really seem to be taking off.

Thanks, man, thank you.

And I hear you guys have a new album on the way, so how has the recording process going with such a busy schedule?

Good, good. We’ve been trying all different things, we’ve tried recording with the producer in Philly, doing some stuff ourselves, just working hard, workin’ it.

How are you guys approaching this record compared to Telephone or your more recent self-titled EP?

There’s definitely a certain pressure, I guess more pressure, just because it’s going to be our first label release. For most people it’s going to be our debut album, but we try not to think about that too much. We’re just trying to be as creative as possible and just put out something that works, that we’re totally happy with. As long as we’re happy with it, hopefully the reaction to it will go that way too. And if not, then, not. (Laughs)

Yeah, so far it seems like you guys are doing something right.

(Laughs) Yeah, it’s been going pretty well.

You guys have a pretty hard sound to peg, or put in a genre, so how would you describe your own unique sound?

It’s a hard thing for us to describe, too, mostly because we don’t really have a genre in mind. Most simply, I guess it’s just like, Rock and Roll. We like so many different kinds of music, some of us have a jazz background musically, and then we have so many different influences, we like punk rock, we like quiet folk music, we like blues and, really everything. So, it’s definitely Rock and Roll as the main thing with like blues and folk elements, but it kind of spans a lot from that too, I guess.

So are there any bands that you’d credit as an influence?

For me, a big one is definitely The Clash, and Neil Young is a huge one. I like Leonard Cohen a lot, too.

Boston Calling was a great weekend last week, there were a lot of big names on the bill. What was it like playing with those bands, and the whole festival scene in general?

Ah, it’s pretty crazy, it’s just weird seeing bands like that, that we’ve looked up to for so long, just like, eating from the same catering pans as them or something, you know? (Laughs) That’s really weird, but I mean mainly it feels like another show. You have the routine where we load in, and set up, soundcheck then play a set. It’s really the fact that we get to see all these other amazing bands play is really the biggest thing for us, it’s awesome to be able to do that, to play on the same bill and then get to see them play.

You guys really seem on the same page when you play, especially live. How long have you all been playing together?

Yeah, we’ve been a band for about five years or so, we started in high school and stuff. Yeah, about five years. And we’ve all known each other, or were at least acquainted with each other before that, like I went to preschool with Braden, our drummer, and we all grew up in a small town, so we knew each other.

Do you bring any of that small town, or your roots, into your music?

I don’t think any of it is a conscious decision, but it has definitely affected who we are as people, growing up there, like friends of mine who grew up in the city definitely have different outlooks on a lot of things, but I think living where you’re from will always, to an extent, have a pretty big impact. Like, we live in Philly right now, and I think it’s definitely having an influence on our music, you know?

You guys have been known to have a lot of energy when you play shows. How can you speak to the way you guys play live?

I don’t think that’s really too much of a conscious decision, I mean, to an extent, we’re just trying to play what we enjoy seeing, what we like when we see a band. But also I think because we’ve been playing together for so long, we’re just locked in. We try not to put too much thought into it, like a lot of our music is about, both playing-wise and what we try to get across, is a certain feeling. So we try to get to a place where that feeling is, and it comes out.

What kind of goals have you set for yourselves as a group?

It’s pretty crazy talking about it, we kinda never expected to even get this far, it was kind of a dream type thing, you know what I mean, so most of our previous goals, we’ve kind of hit. Like we didn’t even imagine we’d play in England. Playing on the west coast was a goal, and now we’re back from that. I think the biggest goal at this point is to make the best music we can, and not compromise anything in our music, whether it’s like for – I don’t know, just make music with integrity, make it the way we want to make it and not be told by anyone. (Laughs) Like a major label or something.

You can find more info on their website and can check out their self-titled EP here. The Huntington News reviewed their first album “Telephone” here.

Photo courtesy Petras Gagilas, Creative Commons.