The Lagoon Brothers to perform set Tuesday at The Bishop

Sophomore Clayton Blackwell said The Lagoon Brothers is more about a friendship than it is the music.

In 2008, Blackwell and Edward Joyner’s hometown of Columbus, Ind., was under water in what many would later call the flood of the century.

Both Blackwell and Joyner’s homes were affected by the high waters, but it would later be this experience that would help them to define the next two years of their lives.

“We realized we were in the same situation,” Blackwell said. “We started to go down to the lagoon to just stare at the water and talk about simple things that common people would talk about, and really, that’s where it began.”

Blackwell said that though the flood took a lot of things away, it really put what’s important into perspective, and it was that idea that inspired the two friends to start making music.

“We just started to write songs,” Blackwell said. “It then eventually came down to realizing that we can start playing them at shows.”

The folk duo has since been piecing together demos between jobs and school. Though they have yet to release a formal EP, they have a strong song list, which they casually titled, “It’s All Hearsay.” Joyner has also been working on a solo album about Indiana.

The band has played shows in Bloomington and plans to play Tuesday at The Bishop along with Austin Hoke and the Mayors and The Natives.

“We most look forward to playing our song ‘High Omens,’” Blackwell said. “It’s really a personal song. However, I think everyone who listens can take a piece from it.”

The folk band pulls from the member’s own past experiences when writing. However, Blackwell said most of the music can be left open for the listener’s interpretation, and that’s the beauty in it.

“The most we could ask is for a crowd that listens to the music and sees it through the lens which it was written but then takes it for something they can relate to,” Blackwell said.

Junior Austin Hoke, lead vocalist of Austin Hoke and the Mayors, said he would like a crowd to simply listen, enjoy and dance.

Similar to The Lagoon Brothers, Hoke said he likes to focus music around life’s little experiences. Hoke also said he can relate to The Lagoon Brothers in a different way.

“We all go to IU now,” Hoke said in reference to the other members of his band. “But we’re all originally from Nashville, Tennessee.”

Hoke shared how Nashville was recently affected by a flood as well, leaving many homeless. Though Hoke and the other members were not directly involved with the natural disaster, he said they relate to hometown roots influencing their music.

With Hoke having a father who is a professional musician in Nashville, the country capital of the world, Austin Hoke and the Mayors definitely have an evident southern rock and country twist to the band’s otherwisefolk music.

“We’re excited about Tuesday’s show,” Hoke said. “I’m really excited about our new song ‘Carnal Arm,’ which we plan to play last in our set.”

Along with headlining band The Natives, both The Lagoon Brothers and Austin Hoke and The Mayors look to play a great show.

“We hope you sit close, clap along and hopefully want to hear more,” Blackwell said.