The San Francisco band Leopold and his Fiction sounds like the White Stripes meets Bob Dylan.
Lead singer and songwriter Daniel James has a gravelly speaking voice, which sounds clearer when he sings but adds depth to his onstage vocals.
"I smoked for a really long time like seven years ago," he said. "But I don't think that has anything to do with it."
He moved from Detroit to San Francisco to be a fiction writer and get an English degree.
"I got bored of writing long stories, 300-page stories," he said. "And midway, I just kind of took the stories and made them less wordy, and they turned into songs. And I've been playing guitar my entire life."
Leopold and his Fiction play at Burt's Tiki Lounge on Monday night. The band is touring the U.S. this month, starting in New York City at a 1,000-band festival.
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"You travel to a place, and it brings out the best or worst in you, finding out things you didn't know were there," he said.
James said he yearns to visit France but wonders if he's just being tricked by the glamorous front of an old-world country seeped in art history.
"I'm obsessed with a lot of different things, sometimes in some ways heavier than others," he said. "I love San Francisco, but I also love leaving San Francisco as much as being there. I'm feeling the need to get out, and maybe 'out' is another country, possibly. I think maybe it's like preparing myself to get out of here but not necessarily taking a big step. Everything I do is way over-calculated. It's really thought-out - everything."
Five months ago, he got a romantically linked drummer and bass player.
Drummer Jon Sortland said he found James on CraigsList.com and that they got along instantly.
"They had a chemistry right away, so I wanted to come in and hear," bassist Micayla Grace said. "Suddenly, I felt this connection to the music and wanted to play really badly. I asked Jon if he would mind if I auditioned for the band. He was sort of reluctant 'cause we're boyfriend and girlfriend. We've been in a relationship for five years and in different bands. It was so fun we instantly started talking about going on the road. Months later we were on the road."
Sortland said he's not the type of drummer to sit off in the back of the stage.
"I'm playing up on the front," he said. "I play the keyboard and drums simultaneously and do a lot of back-up singing."
Grace said she welcomes the challenge of playing in the band.
"I wouldn't say it's easy - (Daniel's) definitely hard to keep up with, but he's become a really close friend," she said. "He's very motivated - sink or swim. It's do or die. It's good to collaborate with somebody who has all the drive in the world."
