I’m a little confused, because I saw from your web site that you’re from Seattle, but it looks like you’re going to be all over New England this summer. Is that because you have ties here, or is this an attempt to build your fan base on the East Coast?

Well, it’s a little bit of both. Tom and I came here to work on our friend’s renovation project in Gloucester. He used to be a contracting buddy out in Seattle, so it’s partly to build our fan base, but also an excuse to come visit him and make some supplemental income while we work on this place. It’s been really hard for us to go anywhere east of the Mississippi. Seattle is kind of isolated up in the Northwest. It’s possible that we might consider a move out here, and this is partly an exploration to see how we would like it.

Has anyone spent time out here before?

Of Tom and I, no. This is our first foray musically. Later in the summer, we have some Boston shows, and our drummer and possibly our bassist will be out for those.

How has the experience been so far?

It’s been great. The first part of the tour was more of a full band or a trio, and once we got to Baltimore, it was a duo, and it will be that way until August. So it’s been a little bit different dynamic at different steps of the way, and in the Northeast so far, we’ve been in Pennsylvania and New York State and Vermont. Soon we’ll be up in New Hampshire and Portland, Maine. It’s been great so far. I think we’ve had some effects of the heat, where people are kind of staying in or are in the water, which I can understand.

What’s it like performing as a duo versus as a full band?

The good thing about it is that Tom and I have been playing together for seven years or so, which means we really have a rhythm together that we understand. We can fluctuate a little more, and pull out songs that maybe the band would have needed a little more rehearsal for. We can be a lot more flexible. But on the flip side, we have to work a little bit harder to create that fuller sound that a band can do just on its own. We can’t always do that, so what I’ve tried to do is set up gigs that are a little more intimate – more of a listening audience, where people go to hear singer/songwriters. We won’t be playing in a lot of loud places where the band could have competed better.

Have you found any favorite places that you like to play yet?

There were a couple of really nice venues in Pennsylvania that were more listening-audience oriented. And along the way, even if we weren’t necessarily playing in the venue, we met a lot of people that gave us tips for next time. Since we’re going to be here for two or three months, I might be able to work those back in, but I’m not sure. So a lot of this trip is to coordinate for the next time out, which will hopefully be next summer. I hope that we can make enough of an impact that we can get into more of the coffee house concert series, which you have a lot of out here, but are pretty highly competitive.

You guys seem to be pretty well booked up until October or so. Do you do your own booking?

Yep, I do my own.

You must be on the phone a lot.

Thankfully these days, most of it can be done through the computer. I don’t know how people did it before the Internet. You can’t really see ahead of technology, so I guess people just did what they had to do. But the beauty of e-mail is that anyone can read it whenever it’s convenient. You don’t have to catch them on the phone between two and four. So it’s been a lot easier in that regard. I’ve been working on this tour since last November…pretty steadily. I’ve learned a lot. I’m able to discern things that I wasn’t able to so much at first, like places I want to steer clear of, or return to, and just working with more of the industry people and different venue owners.

Working backwards, do the Starlings have any mysterious origins?

Not really. Tom and I were a duo for a few years, and we finally hit a point where we needed something more and just wanted to take it to a different level. I guess we hadn’t been ready before then to have a full band. We met Aimee, our drummer, through a mutual friend, and she was instantly on board, which was really great, because I didn’t know anything about finding band members. She jumped on board and she sort of helped us create our sound. She gives us a lot of harmonies, and she comes from a mixed background of musicals and rock and roll, so she’s got a lot of great input that has shaped our sound. So we definitely miss her when it’s just the duo.

Our bass player Jack was a friend, and he’s kind of a savant. He can play almost anything. He picked up the bass – he’s not regularly a bass player, but he’s been awesome. Then our producer, Chad, who produced both of our albums, was with us for three weeks on tour, and he was also playing three or four different instruments to portray what the new album sounds like. He was playing the clarinet, and the mandolin, and the electric guitar. So it’s this group of friends that kind of ebbs and flows with whatever we’re doing, and they’ve been great supporters of us as friends and musicians. It’s been a very lucky affair.

So how did you and Tom get together?

We met at an open mic. We knew of each other for a while, but we were both kind of involved in other things. Then I asked him to join me to go see a concert, and that was it. We didn’t really start playing together for a few months. He had a rock band, and I was a solo singer/songwriter. But then we started playing together. He can blend with anybody, and he started harmonizing with me. So we started working together more, specifically as a duo, and it just kind of grew from there.

What was it like trying to break out as folk artists in a city like Seattle that’s not necessarily known for that genre?

There are a lot of communities there that don’t get recognition unless you’re internally involved with them or seek them out when you go to see live music. They’re ignored a lot in the press, but they’re there. When we became a band, we got a lot more popular. People like the bigger sound – the bass and the drums. It appeals to a much broader audience. So we got a lot better reputation, and we were getting better slots opening for people, and moving up in the venues. It was great, because it allowed me to see where I could take it next, feeling confident that I could take it somewhere else, and push myself.

You said that you had the same producer for Songbook and Marveling the While. Would you say there was a change in the band’s sound between those two albums?

I think the songwriting improved a lot. Chad gave the songs a little bit more of a lusher sound with the production [of the new album]. We spent a lot more time on it, although we didn’t intend to. So I think overall we were gelling more as a band. The harmonies were better, the songwriting was better, so it just seemed like we were evolving. That’s what you want. I hope the next album will push it a little bit further.

Tell me a little about Marveling the While.

We had kind of a crash weekend where we put down the bass and drums to everything. Then over the next few months, we had to mess around with people’s schedules, and our producer moved to Portland, and so we were in many different studios. That posed a few problems in file management, but it gave us different approaches in different studios. We had one weekend where it was just vocals, and as it went on, Chad would add some of the lead instruments and some of the more atmospheric sounds. He would send files to us and we would say “yeah,” “nay” and “that sounds awesome” Then as we were winding down, we had run into a few problems with different instruments. We had to redo the bass, and things were a lot more monkey wrench than they were the first time. All in all it took about a year, so we learned a lot about what we do and don’t want to do next time.

How do you handle the songwriting? Do you and Tom write together?

We don’t really do much collaboration. We’ve tried it, and there have been a couple of times where it’s worked a little bit, but mostly we write separately. Then we bring it to the band and start harmonizing right away. I’d like to work more on collaboration, but at the same time, there’s something really nice about sitting in your room by yourself with a guitar.

Do you usually write songs in their entirety, or do you bring ideas to the table and work on them?

Every once in a while, it’s a partial song. But for me personally, I prefer the song to be complete. I don’t like to bring a half-finished song because it makes me a little anxious. I like to complete it the way I want it to sound. If there are too many outside influences, I get befuddled.

What are your inspirations, lyrically and musically? Are there any sources you find yourself turning to frequently?

I think if there’s anything that I return to that I can really put my finger on, it would be literature. A lot of literature, sometimes movies, but also just piecing together a lot of things I just observe around me. It’s kind of a lucid process. I don’t necessarily approach it with a straight narrative. I just piece together little images. It’s a little bit more along the lines of poetry in that sense. That really works well for me because it keeps it interesting and open to interpretation. For me, that gives the song a little bit more of a life. I love a great narrative song that tells a specific story. I’m not really great at that now, so I like to keep it open and a little bit more lucid.

What about musically?

Musically, it’s definitely gotten more on the country side since the band has formed. Before that, it was more singer/songwriter and contemporary influenced. I’m kind of interested in getting back to that a little bit, or at least keeping it open, and not being entirely one sound. Like most musicians, I like a lot of different music, but I’m not sure how much of that seeps in. It’s kind of hard for me to gauge that.

Tell me a little about your live show as a duo. What should people expect next Friday night?

We’re known mostly for our harmonies, and definitely the melodies and the lyrics. We’re less known for being lead role players, although we do our best with that. We have two guitars, a banjo, and a harmonica. We do a few covers, but mostly we do stripped down versions of our album songs, and maybe the quieter ones that don’t get played as much with the full band.

Anything else exciting on the horizon outside of the lengthy tour?

We’ll hopefully be working on the third album this winter, and we’re planning to go to Europe next summer. But, with the gas prices and airline things, we have to keep it open. But that’s the plan.