Picture it: You’re recording at the storied Sunset Sound recording studio in Los Angeles. Bass legend Pino Palladino, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Brandi Carlile are milling about. Sir Elton John, the Rocket Man himself, is tracking in the room next door. You’re working on a song with the celestial title of “All the Stars Are Burning Out.” Blast off, right?

In truth, the story of Illiterate Light, the Virginia-based duo of guitarist Jeff Gorman and drummer Jake Cochran, is one of finding grounding. Of a major label debut album and a subsequent return to a do-it-yourself mindset. Of using grassroots tactics to cut through streaming services’ algorithmic fog, and of finding joy in what you have, as opposed to what you’re reaching for. Ahead of the Friday, Nov. 1 release of their third full-length, “Arches,” Gorman and Cochran sound as centered as any rock group you’ll find.

“If you really let it sink in, it’s like, ‘You’ve made it,’” Gorman says. “You’re doing doing what you like. You’re going to have a meal later. You’re with people you love. Your fans are great… This is it.”

Cochran and Gorman met at the start of the 2010s as students at James Madison University. Near the start of their friendship, the two joined a community focused on growing its own food, sharing possessions, and living in harmony with its rural Virginia surroundings. Those experiences laid the groundwork for a sturdy and intentional partnership. “While some of our aspirations during this post-college hippiedom were certainly naive,” Gorman wrote earlier this year on his Substack, “many of our dreams and convictions from that era have guided us and nourished us into our new chapter as a band.”

Before they formed Illiterate Light, Cochran and Gorman were in a band called Money Cannot Be Eaten, which was active during the first half of the 2010s. It was a “huge learning experience,” as Cochran says, “as far as getting a lot of the first mistakes out of the way.” Money Cannot Be Eaten broke up just as the members of Illiterate Light were ready to take music seriously as a career. “From day one,” Cochran says, “we were looking at how to get out of Harrisonburg and how to play everywhere else.”

They did just that, touring tirelessly during the years that followed Illiterate Light’s 2015 formation. Gorman supplements his crunchy, riff-driven guitar work with a bass synth he can play with his feet. Cochran employs a stand-up kit that lends extra freedom of movement. Gorman often sings lead, but given Cochran’s frequent harmonies and the bandmates’ cohesion, it can seem like one polyphonic voice is issuing from the speakers when they perform.

Growing sustainably

It should come as no surprise that the dialogue that happens offstage sustains Illiterate Light. “We’ve lived a lot of life that has made us really good communicators,” Cochran says. “How tour works for us is a constant stream of honest communication between us and what we need from each other, or from life. As long as that is present in [our] relationship, then the ups and downs of the road are pretty manageable.”

There have been plenty of ups along the way. Cochran and Gorman signed with Atlantic Records and released an eponymous debut LP in 2019. They played prestigious festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and they shared stages with other ascendent rock acts, like Mt. Joy, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and the Head and the Heart. Radio airtime and acclaim from the likes of NPR started rolling in.

But major labels can impose major delays on releasing new material, and those gears were turning more slowly than Illiterate Light’s internal mechanics, which had yielded an EP each year leading up to the Atlantic signing. “Arches” is the duo’s second full-length shared in collaboration between Red Book Records, the band’s own imprint, and label services company Thirty Tigers. It’s a best-of-both-worlds arrangement: the band controls what they release and when, and Thirty Tigers gives a boost on the distribution side.

The new album’s recording process had its own best-of-both-worlds dynamic. As thrilling as it was to work on two of the nine “Arches” songs at Sunset Sound, and as meaningful as it was to be produced by Joe Chiccarelli, whose plugin tips Gorman and Cochran lifted from interviews while recording in Gorman’s Harrisonburg bedroom early in the band’s tenure, recording a full album in LA wasn’t financially viable. The other seven tracks were recorded in the studio space Gorman outfitted in his backyard, with friends sitting in on sessions to keep the mood light.

“Let’s do something that is really authentic to us,” Gorman remembers thinking. “It’s our space.”

Those sessions were produced alongside longtime collaborator Danny Gibney of fellow standout Harrisonburg group Dogwood Tales. In the same way that having just two people in the band makes touring more manageable — “The code that we cracked early on was being a duo,” Cochran says; having a home recording setup means more control and lower costs. “We’re very DIY, even though we really are committed to growth,” Gorman adds. “To have a foot in that, and then have a foot in working with the dude whose interviews we were reading — we’re flying out there, we’re getting those sounds — that, for me, is the sweet spot of what our band is about.”

Sending a message

Sustainability is more than a business model for Illiterate Light. The band’s passion for environmental advocacy has made Cochran and Gorman mainstays of the Newport Folk Festival, where, for the past three years, they’ve built and hosted a bicycle-powered stage where attendees generate the energy for amplification themselves. This year, folk icon Joan Baez performed a poetry reading there. A month earlier, Gorman shared a reflection on the bike stage via his Substack: ”It’s become a place for us to sweat with each other. It’s become a place to use your body to co-create the music and vibrational field.”

While past compositions like “I Wanna Leave America” and “Don’t Settle Down” gave voice to the band’s broader activism, new song “Norfolk Southern” directly addresses the railroad’s February 2023 train derailment, which spilled thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio and sent additional pollution into the air by way of controlled and uncontrolled burns. “Here comes that Norfolk Southern / It’s off the tracks and heading for you,” the chorus warns.

The duo felt so strongly about the song they were considering releasing it as the lead single from “Arches.” Unsure of whether its grungy intensity was right for a new album’s opening salvo, they did what any experienced co-creators would do: They asked their fans. In June, they texted out a temporary streaming link to three “Arches” songs, inviting recipients to reply with the name of their favorite. “We’ve got about 2,500 people on our text list, and like 800 people wrote back,” Gorman says. “A tremendous amount was like, ‘“Norfolk Southern.” This slaps. Let’s go. I love this side of you guys. This is different.’ So within two days, we’re like, ‘That’s the lead single.’”

Crowdsourcing isn’t new, but its significance is different in the age of streaming services and algorithmic playlist recommendations, since the same “invisible force,” as Gorman puts it, that offers worldwide distribution can keep new music off followers’ radars. Text and email lists offer a more direct line of communication. “I just want to find the people that dig what we’re doing,” Gorman says. “I want to bring them into something cool. And I’m going to use any form of technology, or any means to really craft that.”

Passionate imperfection

The right communication channels help, as does sending clear signals to your audience about your values, as Illiterate Light has done lyrically. Another way is to make an authentic connection on the rare occasion that you get to be in the same room.

If you’ve seen Gorman and Cochran live, you’ve likely witnessed moments that were indelible, unplanned and uninhibited. During 2024’s Daydream Fest at Main Line Brewing, Jake Cochran delivered a heartfelt lead vocal for the song “Always, Always” while casually striding atop a line of high-top tables dividing the audience from the stage. You might see crowdsurfing, Cochran rushing back to his kit to rejoin the arrangement or Gorman playing his guitar ecstatically on his back. Imperfections are an extension of the energy released at an Illiterate Light show — a feature, not a bug.

“The show is full of malfunctions,” Gorman says, “like me breaking a guitar string two songs in. I’ve blown up amps onstage … I think that the change-up has been [that] it’s not, ‘Let’s just roll with the punches.’ It’s like, ‘No, that was put there by the universe to happen. That was supposed to happen.’”

Gorman credits that fatalistic mindset to advice received from a mentor, agent Jonathan Levine, who worked with recently departed Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. Illiterate Light has formed new links in that chain of mentorship. In an interview with Style Weekly, Richmond-based folk group Palmyra, new signees of the John Prine-founded Oh Boy Records label, attributed some of their upward trajectory to “following the Illiterate Light model of the music business,” and to an axiom Cochran and Gorman exemplify: “Anything real is going to come from the road.”

Keeping it real

But keeping in touch with reality while touring is no small feat. Gorman has developed a set of techniques to offset the disorientation of life on the road, including regimented journaling and physical conditioning. “I try to start a lot of mornings with a pretty heavy-duty workout,” he says, “just to be like, ‘I’m here. I’m actually in this place today, even though I’m going to be cruising 85 miles an hour for the next three hours to the next city.’”

Cochran too has learned to embrace the here and now, whether he’s traveling for shows or spending time in Richmond, where he’s lived for a little more than a year. His parents grew up in town, and while his own upbringing took place in Northern Virginia, multiple family members have since settled down in Richmond. “A lot of us are creating this new sense of family in this city,” he says. “It feels great to be here.”

Over time he’s given himself license to feel great on the road as well. Despite the acute risk of homesickness that comes with being a father, and despite the band’s initial commitment to minimizing post-show antics, Cochran is allowing for more celebration of late. “I’ve made a very conscious decision to allow myself to enjoy and be fully present for that chunk of time that I’m away,” he says. “When I’m out, I can be fully out. I can enjoy myself, I can enjoy my bandmate, my friends, the crew. Then when I’m home, I can be fully here and enjoy my family.”

The stakes are high when it comes to finding the right balance of work and fun. When we spoke, Illiterate Light had just wrapped up its third West Coast run. Multiple shows on the “Arches” tour have sold out, and an album release celebration will take place on Friday, Nov. 8 at the familiar stomping grounds of the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville. Breaking into new markets takes persistence. “Every new city we go to, it’s not like there’s hundreds of fans waiting for us,” Cochran notes. “If we play Cleveland, Ohio, and it’s our second time playing there, we’re still fighting to get 30, 40 people out a lot of times.”

Nevertheless, he and Gorman are committed, and they’re seeking out the firmest ground on which to build their future. “The slow grind feels really important to us,” Cochran says. “Doing it in a way that we love, in a way that feels stable for our lives and our families. I’m really proud of that.”

Illiterate Light will release “Arches” on Friday, Nov. 1 via Red Book Records and Thirty Tigers. To hear and purchase the record, and for tour information, visit illiteratelight.com. Illiterate Light will perform at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville on Friday, Nov. 8. Tickets are $25 in advance ($30 the day of the show) and can be purchased at jeffersontheater.com.