About Mates of State
Mates of State are an American indie pop duo, active since 1997. The group is the husband-and-wife team of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel .
As of 2015, the duo has released four EPs and seven full-length albums. Their most recent album, Mountaintops, was released on September 13, 2011.
Gardner and Hammel first met in Lawrence, Kansas, while both were involved in relationships with other people. Even though they exchanged e-mails regularly, they did not get together until three months later. They originally played together in a four-piece rock band called Vosotros, in which they both sang and played guitar. Shortly after the couple moved to California in 1998, Gardner began teaching, and Hammel applied to medical school. They both opted later to devote their time to making music and touring together instead and got married in 2001. Gardner and Hammel originally lived together in San Francisco, and in 2004 they moved to East Haven, Connecticut. In February 2007, they sold their house in East Haven and relocated to Stratford, Connecticut.
Gardner and Hammel have three daughters: Magnolia, born in 2004; June Elizabeth, born in 2008; and Phoebe Ann, born in 2017. For the band, touring became a family affair, their daughters joining them on the road. Gardner kept a 'blog, Band on the Diaper Run, that appeared on Babble.com. In its entries, she recounted their experiences of life on the road and the unique circumstance of touring with two young children in tow.
The main instruments Mates of State used in their early recordings were drums and the electric organ. Both had started out playing the guitar, but they ultimately found they were experimenting more with the organ and drums in their practice space than with any other musical instruments. On later recordings, the band moved away from the organ-dominated sound and incorporated additional instrumentation, beginning with the EP All Day and continuing on Bring It Back, their fourth studio album. The organ wasn't incorporated at all on their fifth album, Re-Arrange Us.
Mates of State songs are notable for their male/female vocal harmony, shifting rhythms, and quirky song structure – most tracks comprised distinct, almost disjointed movements. Both members tend to sing with great intensity, often in the upper ranges of their voices, and they often simultaneously sing different, complementary melodies and lyrics.
The band recorded one album on Omnibus Records before moving to Polyvinyl for their second and third full-length albums. In December 2005, the band signed with Barsuk Records and released two full-length albums and an EP of remixes on the label.
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