Jeff from Virginia-based band Illiterate Light Breaks down New EP ‘Aloe’ and talks Tour

Fairfax, Virginia- September 14th, 2023

It’s hard to believe, with their larger-than-life soundscapes, that Virginia-based duo Illiterate Light is just that: two people. But Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran are full of surprises, like their release of Aloe, their next EP, on September 15, 2023. While Aloe is not the medicinal plant to soothe the burns from their sophomore album Sunburned (released earlier this year), it is instead tracks from their vault that they’re ready to release.

Photo Creds: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnz1H68OmOF/

Illiterate Light is famous for several things: their innovative ways of making a guitar and drum sound like a full-scale production; moments during their concerts where their instruments are powered by bikes; and the high energy the two create while on stage. But on Aloe, they’re leaning even further into advancing their musical repertoire, the four tracks on the EP each unique in their design, but undeniably Illiterate Light.

We spoke with Jeff Gorman from the duo about Aloe and his upcoming tour.

I think what happens with EPs a lot is, it's hard to maintain a focus with them. Because you don't have that whole album structure to go with, but yet every song on Aloe was different, but still cohesive, which was so cool.

We were trying to figure out, you know, I see all these songs like little islands, and they're all very close to each other, and the ocean connects all of them. But at the same time, they're all their own little universes. And a lot of this EP was written and recorded when we were recording Sunburned, and there were all these different directions that we were kind of pulled towards and we didn't fully go down that road. 

But then they all kind of sort of found their way together and we started playing them live again and just felt like, okay, this is its own project. Let's put this out. Let's really let people into our creative process.

Sometimes I do get a little bit fearful that we lose some cohesion because both Jake and I are really passionate music lovers. We love a lot of different styles of music. We both grew up listening to a lot of stuff. We're both multi-instrumentalists: Jake plays guitar and keys and drums. I do the same. We both sing. We both write. And so because of that, sometimes you can go in all these different directions. But I think we've just decided to say anything we create. That's Illiterate Light. Let's put it out and see if people dig it.

I was hoping we could kind of do a little bit of like a song breakdown for the four songs on the album, starting off with “Don’t Settle Down”, which there was a music video for!

In Richmond, on Monument Avenue -- which is where all of the monuments of all the Confederate soldiers are -- there were protests; there were people taking down monuments; there was graffiti. A lot of my friends and people that I'm very close with were there and involved in those protests. And we were recording only 10 minutes from there. So we wanted to just tell people, go for it, don't settle down, stand up for what you believe in. I don't think we should have monuments erected to terrible people. I don't think that that's what we should do in this country. Take them down. Put up a monument for a great community member. Put up a monument for somebody who did something amazing.

Let’s talk about “Always Always.”

Jake wrote the song. He's the lead singer. So I don't really want to steal his fire on that. I'll just keep that short so that it doesn't feel like I took words out of his mouth or anything, but, you know, Jake is an awesome songwriter.

Even though he's usually behind the drum kit he's so charismatic. He's so fun to watch, he jumps around. There's no other drummer on the planet like Jake. And so it's really cool that on this EP, we're able to showcase him actually showing off his songwriting chops.

How about “Cheap Divorce?”

That was a funny song because I remember driving on the highway in Nashville, Tennessee, and I saw a billboard. It was for an attorney, like a lawyer that does like divorce law.

And it was like “Looking for a cheap divorce? Call me.” And I was like, I don't know why, I just thought that was tremendously sad. It just kind of hit me in a weird way. I'm not divorced. I've got an amazing marriage, but I just found it to be a little bit strangely heartbreaking. 

Some songs take forever and they take months for some reason. And then that song just kind of just popped out of nowhere. And it's just about somebody going through a hard divorce and like saying goodbye to their youth and just being like, “Wow, I'm in this next stage of life.”

And then the EP closes with “All Of Us.”

“All Of Us” is another sort of song that feels like, almost lyrically, it's almost a poem.

I remember reading a lot of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. A buddy of mine gave it to me on tour a few years ago in Savannah, Georgia. And he gave me this small travel version of it. And I've just devoured it and read it like 10 times. And it's great when you're on tour because the chapters are maybe two or three pages, and it's very poetic, very mystical. And yeah, just, it's been nourishment for my soul many times.

And I remember reading a lot of that. And just kind of having a freelance stream-of-consciousness writing session, just saying whatever was on my mind at the time. 

I also wrote that song during COVID and it just felt like, we're all going through this together, and I love each and every one of you, and that's my message I want to communicate in this song. 

But you are on tour now, and you’ve already done two shows. How has that been?

We're going out for three or four weeks at a time, or two or three weeks at a time. Then we come home for two or three weeks. We're not going out for three months at a time. We're breaking it up so that we can come back and work on new music here, and keep recording our new album. 

Do you and Jake have any pre-show rituals or something you guys do?

I didn't really feel nervous before the shows, but it calmed me down to do a ton of exercises and warmups, like vocal exercises and, you know, just finger warmups and stuff like that.

I still do those occasionally and we have little dorky musician things that we do. But really what has replaced that is: we just get together and we usually we have our crew with us. We put our hands in and I usually give a brief little pump-up speech because I really believe you got to play every show like it's your last. I mean, it could be, and you just never know what's going to go down. And so you have to leave it all on the table. 

So I try to give a little pump-up speech and then we all say “Attitude.” And that just means that attitude is more important than how the show goes, technically speaking or anything.

And it's like bring you A-game. Let's jump out and just have a ball. So our pre-show ritual is that we chant the word “Attitude.” 

You and Jake grew up in like the same area, you guys met at James Madison University, you guys have known each other for quite some time. Has it gotten easier to work together, or do you have your respective issues?

You know, the coolest thing about having played music together for so long is like, there are times when we can really communicate, especially on stage, without saying anything to each other. And just like, after a certain point, you're just kind of locked in as one unit.

And there's so much trust. There's just so much like, “We've been dancing together. We've done this dance many times.” When we improvise, when we have solo sections, like on songs like “Vampire Blues” and things like that, it's just like totally a free-for-all for where the song is going to go.

You just kind of learn how to speak and ask for what you need. We do a pretty good job. We're still really loving it.

What do you love about music?

I mean for me, music is is literally everything. It's my entire life. What I love about music is I actually have a way to give something to the world.

I actually have something I can create that I really love, and that brings people together. I love my solitude for sure, but like playing music, in a vacuum, is not for me. For me, it's knowing that somebody's on the other end of it going, “I feel that too.”

And the fact that like we're growing to a point where sometimes there are a few hundred, even thousand people at a show, singing a song that I wrote in my bedroom while my wife was falling asleep, and now we're all chanting it together to actually bring people together in that way, it creates a moment.

You can check out Illiterate Light’s new EP ‘Aloe’, out now!