Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel are Mates of State. The San Fransisco-based couple and parents of two performed at the ACL Festival this weekend on Friday afternoon, supporting their latest album Rearrange Us. While being a married couple in a two-piece band is cool, there is much more to know about the creative duo. Contributing writer Candace Birkelbach had a date with the Mates that revealed the genuine passion these two have for making music.

What is the main thing you hope people will find in your music?

Kori: I want it to make them feel good. I want them to feel happy when they leave and have emotion when listening. I don't want it to be background music.

Jason: Something where you actively have to participate in it.

How do you feel about playing at ACL? Do you prefer large or small venues?
Kori: We played here a few years ago and this time the weather is better and we loved it last time anyway, despite the heat. You can't go wrong with Austin. It's definitely in our top three behind San Francisco and Chicago. I would hate to do a tour of all small venues or large ones. You appreciate things about both. When you play on a big stage, monitors are nice and there's so many people there to see you. In smaller venues, people are really there just to see you and they're not just floating by. You can tell when you look out who's there to see you if they're just casually walking by eating nachos.

Jason: I was thinking last night about how many shows we've played here, maybe twenty over the last ten years. If you play all festivals, it gets kinda bad. A lot of times, people may or may not know you and it's a challenge, but at the same time they don't care.

How did you begin your music career?

Jason: It started when we were like five and started to discover music ourselves, graduating from "itsy bitsy spider" to T.L.C. It was weird when it turned into a career, though. We never really thought about it that way. We quit our other jobs to do this and realized we have to actually make money to do this. This was always a fantasy job. (ed. note: Kori was a teacher and Jason worked at a women's cancer center.)

Kori: I feel like it's always been a part of us. I've just always known I wanted to play music.

What are your future plans for new albums?

Kori: I don't know, I can't wait to find out actually. Now that we've found a good tone, I want to experience with tones more and see what we can come up with.

Jason: Honestly, when we go on tour, I really can't wait to get back and start writing music. Sometimes I wish we could spend three years working on a record rather than one.

What do you do when you're not on tour?

Kori and Jason: We read a lot, go to movies, hang out with friends, exercise and play with our kids.