Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have been labeled with descriptions as varied as the ten people on their roster. Call them “cultish,” “Nashville-meets-LSD,” “existing in a blissed-out alternate universe” or whatever else. This is a band that wants to make good-time folk-rock music and have fun doing it, Polyphonic Spree comparisons be damned.

It’s a strategy that’s working. Their 2009 debut, Up From Below, continues to garner interest, as do tracks like “Home” and “Janglin” which you’ve surely heard somewhere by now. Their tracks have hit everything from Ford commercials to Gossip Girl. Guitarist Christian Letts took a break from the road to talk to DCist about the band’s past, present and future.

How did you come together as a band?

Alex [Ebert, vocals] and I have been friends since we were three, so we’ve known each other for a long time, and the drummer [Josh Collazo] and I’ve known each other for about 15 years, so it’s a collection of a bunch of old groups of friends coming together. It’s sort of having a band and calling it friends, and since that first show at the Troubadour [in Hollywood], it just stuck.