The men behind the Foxymorons are David Dewese and Jerry James. The tall, sunny Dewese looks like an indie rock-minded geneticist successfully spliced together DNA from Stephen Malkmus and Evan Dando. In my e-mail conversations with him, he came off smart, breezy and humorous; the kind of guy you'd forgive for meeting you an hour late at the mall because he was messing around with some chords on the guitar. He plays a Gibson SG and sings in a smooth baritone, not unlike Mr. Dando. The shorter, darker James--who looks like he's no stranger to J. Crew and LL Bean--came off as earnest, intelligent and thoughtful; the kind of guy who'd meet you on time with a mix-tape he'd made for you in his hand. He sings a little bit like J. Mascis, sometimes with an oddball charm reminiscent of Daniel Johnston (but only if they were both auditioning for the Beach Boys). David once claimed that Jerry's only guitar was a cheap-o acoustic. The individuals aren't as important as the whole, however, because together they represent a stroke of guitar pop genius.

I had a chance to interview the two separately, hoping to get to the bottom of the synergy, respect, antagonism, etc., that drives this partnership. I talked to them about their geographical challenge, their plans for a new album, their free MP3s cover album (available on their website), and even that VH1 band Flickerstick, among other things.

Here are the two sides of the Foxymorons...

While the listener can spot different musical influences on the band, you pull things off with enough panache where it seems that you might have actually "discovered" these groups after you started making music together. Is this accurate? I guess I ask this because of my own musical education. For example, "discovering" Gram Parsons, because the Lemonheads did "Brass Buttons," the Velvet Underground, because of R.E.M., and The Fall because some critic said Pavement was influenced by them. I suppose it's a generational thing.

David Dewese: Those are the same bands that exposed us to the same influences! Jerry and I kind of jumped into music and songwriting together. Both of us were average geeky Top 40 music listeners in high school. But sometime in college--when the boredom of studying hit--we both fell in love with music. We dove into bands, 'zines, videos, bootlegs, guitars and songwriting. One band led us to another band. He'd tell me about someone and I'd tell him about another. We'd feed off each other.

Our colleges were about three hours apart, so the cassette trading began that way, sending each other mix tapes of our latest discoveries. (Eventually those tapes were filled with new original songs.) The Lemonheads did in fact lead me to Gram Parsons. I read a Gram Parsons biography in college and fell in love with the story, the music, the bands, and all the characters. My college band used to play "Brass Buttons," "How Much I've Lied," "Six Days on the Road," and quote Gram sayings from a live bootleg album. When I moved to Nashville, I named my band after a Gram Parsons song called "Luxury Liner." We got to meet [Western clothes designer] Manuel and wear Nudie Suits in concert. We met Emmylou [Harris] and Philip Kaufman. He's the guy known as the road mangler that "stole" Gram's body from the airport and burned it in the desert. They all came to see us play. Then we discovered the Beach Boys and the alt-country dream was over for the Luxury Liners. Luckily some subtle Gram stuff snuck into the Foxymorons. Jerry will deny this.

Jerry James: Yeah, we've always been a little behind. When we were in high school we were listening to really terrible music, essentially whatever was on the radio. We were passive music listeners as I suppose a lot of people are. But when David and I were both about 19 or 20 we both went to the same church in Mesquite, Texas, and we found this old drum kit that was probably used a couple of times for Christian pop songs or something. So we brought a tape recorder in, and David had an electric guitar, and we started making really noisy music--along the lines of Half Japanese or something--melodic but really trashy and loose.

What are some of the benefits, if any, of the long-distance manner in which you write songs together, with David in living in Nashville and Jerry in Dallas?

David: My big move to Nashville has been the greatest thing ever for our band. We hate each other's company after a few days, so we're not very good friends if music isn't involved. Jerry actually moved to Austin recently, so now we're even further apart. I'm excited to see what kind of success that'll bring us. It's the perfect working relationship for us; I couldn't (and wouldn't) imagine it any other way.

Jerry: I think it keeps it exciting and interesting. There's nothing like getting a tape full of song ideas in the mail or to listen to my answering machine and hear that David's played a pop masterpiece into it.

I know that because of your geographical location, you have had a limited number of gigs. Any chance of that changing in the near future, or even of a tour or gigs outside of your respective regions?

David: Definitely! We've been trying to figure that stuff out. We actually really enjoy playing concerts. Every time we do it we have a blast. Believe it or not, but our first concert ever was at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin. Our second concert was in Los Angeles--so we actually had a nice intro to gig life. But lately we've had a hard time booking ourselves outside of Dallas and Nashville.

Jerry: We'd love to play more live shows, but because David lives in Nashville and I'm in Texas it's virtually impossible. Each of us occasionally plays solo shows billed as the Foxymorons in our respective corners of the world--but even that's rare. In the meantime, we'll continue to do what we've been doing, play the rare sloppy live show with our friends filling in on the other instruments when we can pull it off.

Could you tell us about the members of the extended band when you guys play live?

David: It's never the same. However, the super secret weapon that is always present is our pal Jackson Chang from Dallas. He's our keyboard player and dancer. He actually has no idea how to play keyboard but he makes the shows so much fun. We really just wanted a keyboard player and he's developed into this Bob Nastanovich [of Pavement]-type character. He totally steals the show, but we like it that way. Other live players have been Carlos Jackson from the Shells [Dallas], Scott Carpenter and Chad Edgington from the Luxury Liners [Nashville], and even my wife Andrea from the band Verde [Nashville]. Our friend Will Johnson from Centro-matic [Denton, Texas] even played some drums on our last album...a Foxy first. Usually we play all the instruments no matter how good or bad we are at them.

Jerry: The extended band is a cast of characters. Chad Edgington was David's roommate in college and moved to Nashville with David and co-founded The Luxury Liners. He's in law school now, having given up on the rock-and-roll dream. He looks and dresses like your grandfather except he's about 26. He sometimes plays guitar or bass for us. Then there's Jackson Chang, the fan favorite. He plays keyboards, tambourines, shakers, a whistle, etc., and dances like a madman. He's really the funniest guy I know. He also has a funny website called godmadefriedchicken.com. Sometimes David's wife joins us on bass. And on drums we'll usually have the Luxury Liner drummer, Scott Carpenter, fill in, or occasionally our pal (and record store clerk) Carlos Jackson.

David: Sadly, that was not a lie. He played [South by Southwest] and had to borrow an electric guitar and amp.

Jerry: The sad truth is that I didn't own an electric guitar for a long time. I usually would beg one of our friends to let me borrow a guitar for live shows. I really just didn't see the big deal about owning one. But somehow over time David's tricked me into getting gear. He's pretty sneaky. He used to send me catalogs with Post-it notes marking all the guitars and amps I needed to consider. And when he came home on holiday, he usually would pick me up at my house--ostensibly to have a fun afternoon hanging out or something--but instead he'd drive us to every guitar store in town. I'd always end up coming home with a bunch of expensive music stuff that I didn't mean to buy. I don't know he does it. Somehow David gets his way. Anyhow, I own an electric guitar now.

David has the Luxury Liners up in Nashville. Jerry, do you have any other musical outlets besides the Foxymorons?

David: Jerry is actually the wedding singer.

Jerry: No, the Foxymorons is essentially the only project I have any interest in. The Luxury Liners are a great outlet for David because it's the band that always plays really cheery, poppy music with lots of harmonies and a little country influence. The kind of music I like to write fits in with the sensibilities of the Foxymorons 100 percent of the time.