The Walcotts — Tom Cusimano (vocals/guitar), Laura Marion (vocals), Jim Olson (drums) and Devin Shea (violin) — play perfect driving-on-the-freeway music. The band’s rootsy, rollicking soulful sound is reminiscent of Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen, but is entirely the Walcotts’ own. The boy-girl harmonies, backed by horns, pedal steel, fiddle, and piano, feels familiar but altogether new.

Myspace premieres the “on the road” music video for “So Much For Love, ” which comes out on their upcoming set, Let The Devil Win, on Sept. 19. Cusimano talks to Myspace about the Walcotts’ roots (heh), and meeting his now-wife on Myspace. You’re welcome, Tom!

Hometown: Burlington, VT (4th generation in fact)

Homebase: West Hollywood, CA (with my wife and 18 month old son)

How did everyone in the Walcotts meet? What made you want to form a band together?

It's a ragtag tale...a few of us had a band together years ago, we couldn't get arrested and eventually put it to bed. The itch gets you though, to write, create, record and play shows. So after about a year of various projects I called up Jim (drummer) and Devin (violin) and about five other musicians (who I had known from varying projects around LA) to see if they were interested in recording some tunes I had been writing. It wasn't to start a band per se, it was to just create something new with no pressure...you know, for fun!

With four songs written we went into the studio for one day and recorded all four songs. A couple months later (after having not done anything with the recordings), I got a call to open for the band "America" at Humphrey's in San Diego (my old band had played there with them before). Since the old band was no more, we pitched this new nameless entity...and they liked the music, so we picked a name and had the four songs mixed to make an EP. With that we got a few music placements and suddenly we were a band with opportunities...so we've just kept at it ever since. There was no master plan to become a band, which I think is why it flowed somewhat naturally into who we are today. It's not all the same folks from that first session, but the vibe and musical ideals are, and that is really the foundation of what made us The Walcotts.

Did you grow up in a musical household? How did you discover music?

I did, but not in the way that my parents were musicians...my dad was a rock & roll DJ until I was a little kid, my mom says she "can't carry a tune in a basket". But with my dad, since he had been a DJ since college (late 60's) and had an incredible record collection (which I basically poached when I was 13) I was surrounded by music. The way my dad talked about Motown, Stax, Atlantic Records, Dion & the Belmonts, The Beach Boys, Phil Spector records, The Beatles, etc - I thought he was friends with all these guys. It was bred into me...there was never Raffi or kids music in the car in our family, it was always classic rock radio, oldies stations, or tapes/cds from his personal collection. I was probably the only kid who knew Dion, Buddy Holly, Little Richard songs in my class growing up. I did love Peter, Paul & Mary's "Puff The Magic Dragon", that was my first concert, I was about 4 or 5. I apparently fell asleep during the show and they woke me up for that song. I now sing that song to my son before he goes to bed every night.

My dad was my first influence musically, then my brother Michael (3 years older), then my Uncle Donald and then my friends. My older brother Michael got a guitar when he was 10 and I got a snare drum, I started on the piano at 8 (lessons from a nun at my school), eventually we had a piano in the house. I sang in choir and school musicals as well. My uncle provided some guitars for my brother which I would always play when he wasn't around. I loved the whammy bar on the electrics and would occasionally break a string and then play dumb when he discovered it. My uncle was a guitarist and even studied flamenco music while in college in Spain. He was also obsessed with Eric Clapton, I thought they were friends for the longest time by the way he talked about him. My uncle introduced really introduced me to Eric Clapton, Blues, Flamenco, world and Jazz music. My friends and my appetite for anything musical influenced the rest...from Nirvana and Pearl Jam to Stevie Ray Vaughn or Digital Underground, Prince, Dave Matthews Band or Elmore James and Freddie King...I was and still am obsessed with music, all kinds!

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Prince, The Band, Little Feat, Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Allen Toussaint, Freddie King, anything Motown, anything Stax, Atlantic Records (Ray Charles), Tom Petty... I have a lot of favorites...it's hard to narrow it down, but those come to mind quickly.

How do you describe your music to someone who's never heard you before?

Typically (with trying to not sound like an idiot), I'll say it's a rock & roll band, somewhere in the vein of all of the artists and labels I mentioned above. It's almost easier to say all the genres we're not, but that we are some strange amalgamation of all of those genres at the same time, like Levon Helm said in The Last Waltz, “Bluegrass or country music, if it comes down to that area and mixes with the rhythm, and if it dances, then you’ve got a combination of all those different kinds of music...it's Rock'n'Roll".

Why are you called the Walcotts?

Naming a band is weird thing, it's one part "what has no one used in the world before" and one part "what won't make us sound dumb". As you may have picked up on, I am a big fan of The Band (have been since 9th grade when a friend gave me a greatest hits CD). "W.S. Walcott Medicine Show" is a song by the band that captures F.S. Walcott's Rabbit's Foot Minstrels traveling show from the youth of Levon Helm in Arkansas. There is a line in the song "Saints and sinners...all kinds of people you might want to know" and since we are such a large band when we play live it was fitting, plus the idea of having an influential lyric name your band is pretty cool to me. The Rolling Stones did from a Muddy Waters song, so we figured, why not...plus, no one had used the name yet, so that helped!

Does living in LA influence your music?

For better, for worse LA is a melting pot of everyone's dreams and ambitions mixed with a lot wild nights, crazy opportunities, entertainment business culture, class society and a lot of entitlement, that said, I love it here and I don't think I would change it! There is so much music that has been created here, or been influenced by this place for one reason or another but I think for us, it just comes out distilled like any other influence...we're not an "LA band" like The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, CSN, or Guns 'n Roses or Motley Crue, I'm not sure things like that even exist here any more, maybe Dawes (they're from Malibu)...we don't live in the "artist areas" like Echo Park, Highland Park, or Silver Lake - we're not "avant garde" like so many of those bands/artists try to be/are so that doesn't really influence us. I think we just like the beach and the weather like most people here and this is where our home is.

Why is your album called "Let The Devil Win"?

"Let The Devil Win" is a song on the record that is a bit of a good time song about letting loose a bit. The record as a whole has a few different themes, but letting loose comes into play on more than a few occasions on the record. I think the idea of the "medicine show" kicks in as well - there are romantic ideals in the characters/stories. Scorned lovers, sex, aging and trying to make sense of growing older, redemption, resilience, and last, but certainly not least, hope! For as dark as some songs may be on the record there is always a sense of hope, even if just for a short time.

Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?

I think I wrote my "first song" in 2nd grade. It was about 12 measures long for my piano lesson with the nun...it was an instrumental. But the first song I consider my real first song is probably "Someday Soon." It was about leaving home and moving west, growing up...almost encouraging myself to pursue my dreams. I wrote it in college and eventually recorded it with the old band...prior to that I wrote a lot of garbage that I hope will never see the light of day.

Do you have an awesome Myspace-related story as a musician?

My Myspace story isn't exactly music related, but you might like it...

In 2005 I was setting up a personal myspace page and in doing so I added my high school (a small high school in Vermont). Once I did that it showed you who else from your high school was on myspace. I recognized an old friend (crush) who was a grade below me that I had lost touch with. Turned out she was living in San Diego, I was living in LA about 2 hours north of her. I invited her to my birthday party about a month later, and she came up with her friend. I got extremely drunk at my birthday, threw up everywhere and she went back to San Diego the next day. Coincidentally her birthday is two days after mine, so I sent her flowers and said how great it was to see her. We started emailing, texting, chatting on the phone and I went to visit her a few weeks later...we've been together ever since. We just celebrated our 8th anniversary on July 26th. So, thank you!