Dodos singer/guitarist Meric Long once ran the show solo as a one-man acoustic act known as Dodobird until he became inspired by his studies of West African Ewe drumming. Interested in creating drum-centric music with accompaniment from an acoustic guitar, Long met drummer Logan Kroeber and added him to the mix in mid-2006, eventually changing the band’s moniker to The Dodos [ tickets ].

The duo, influenced heavily by folk, bluesy country and metal, put their effort into capturing the dynamic energy of their live show when creating their recent album, “Visiter,” which hit shelves March 18. The name of the Frenchkiss Records release, written entirely on the road, was inspired by a child the two encountered while playing for a special-education class in a South Central LA elementary school and the drawing he gave them.

LiveDaily: So let's talk a little bit about the making of this new album, “Visiter.” I know you do a lot of your writing while on the road, is that right?

Meric Long: We did for this record just because we were on the road all the time.

Is it just because you happened to be on the road or is there something you find inspiring about playing live and writing at the same time?

ML: We just happened to be on the road. It helped that we were playing every night and it helped that we had a lot of free time in the car.

Were you testing out new material?

ML: Yeah, we would try to. It's hard when you're playing night after night. It's easy to just fall back into the songs you know how to play but every once in awhile we'd rehearse something in the car on the way there and be like, "we should totally try that."

Logan Kroeber: Definitely the early stages of being on tour for the first time and being wired and warmed up all the time and playing all the time--that definitely translates into writing as much as we did.

What's the band's typical song writing process? Do you collaborate on all levels?

LK: Not all the time but there's definitely been more of that recently. Meric will come up with a lot of ideas fully formed and lyrics and stuff but there's a lot of jamming that happens, so it's a mix.

The productions on your album are really cool. I've heard a few tracks from the new album. I haven't heard the whole thing yet but it's really great. I like that it's sort of minimal which seems to keep with your live sound. Is that your general philosophy when recording?

ML: Sort of. I guess because we're only a two-piecer--we started out as only a two-piece--there's a lot of sonic space to fill when we're recording so we recorded it live pretty much the way we perform and then the way we actually recorded it was just geographically placing the instruments in different areas on the record. I don't know if that makes sense. The drums take up a lot of space on the record and the guitars are panned in weird directions. I think also we really didn't do any post-production on the record. It was all pretty much recorded straight on the tape and then mixed. We didn't use any effects or things like that. All the weird sounds and stuff we just got from using the space of the actual room that we were recording in.

Well it sounds great and it works great for you guys. I don't want to neglect Joe too much. Joe, what's your story? Are you a recent addition to the band?

Joe Haener: Yeah, I've just started playing with them.

Just helping them out with the tour or did you also help out with the album?

JH: No, I just started playing this past month. I'm just doing this tour and see what happens from there.

So Meric and Logan, what does he add to the mix when you guys play live?

ML: He adds Joe-ness to the shows ... a little spice.

LK: He can do anything. He plays keys. He's a drummer by trade and so he's doing percussion stuff live as well. I know he can play guitar but he's not doing that. He's more of a Rick Wakeman--got the keyboards going on.

Cool. Maybe each of you can go around and tell me about your backgrounds a little bit, like when did you first get interested in music and who were you listening to that really got you into it? Start with Meric?

ML: Sure. Actually, I got this [keyboard] as a gift when I was a young lad from my father who plays keys. This was probably the first instrument I played and then I played trombone in high school. I grew up listening to a lot Depeche Mode and OMD and Tears for Fears--'80s bands. Then I played in some bands in high school and just got addicted to it. That's pretty much it for me.

Okay. Joe?

JH: Older brothers and sisters gave me Led Zeppelin tapes when I was a little kid. It started there and then in grade school I just wanted to play drums.

Logan?

LK: Similar to Meric's. My dad played guitar and had a music store when I was a kid growing up. I have memories of me and my brother when my dad would baby-sit us and take over to his friend Dave's house and they would jam downstairs and we would do our homework. It's been something that I've wanted to do forever and over time, it just sort of happened. The last five years of my life have been waking up to the fact that I've been doing this only and it's the only thing that I've been focusing on and it's starting to work out.

So how did you hook up with Meric?

LK: Through my cousin who lived with him and had said that his roommate was playing shows around San Francisco doing solo stuff and he was good and that I should check it out...in fact I can almost hear it now [Meric's playing keys in the background]--Meric playing his solo material and I was like, "that boy can play guitar. Oh boy!" and it turned out he needed a drummer and like I mentioned, now I'm drummer.

Right. So it just worked out. I think you guys had very different tastes though, right? You [Meric] were more into folk blues and you [Logan] were more into rock metal, is that right?

LK: I had just come out of playing in a metal band and was looking for something else. I tried different avenues and hadn't found anything and this just ended up working out. Meric and I were both independently fans of Joan Fahey and Andrew W.K. before we hooked up and so there was a thread somewhere in there but other musics, like OMD, he had to be turned on to.

Okay. It seems like the band gets a lot of energy from those two influences--folk and the metal. It could be characterized as folk but for some reason I imagine the dance scene at these concerts and I don't know if that goes down or not.

ML: Sometimes. We get a lot of the indie, arm-crossed crowds too.

LK: There's been some dance floor action from time to time. The wise ones dance because we want them to.

I was tapping my feet back there listening to you guys.

LK: That's the gateway drug to dancing--the feet.

Cool. Congratulations on the new album and have fun on your tour guys!

All: Thank you very much!