Jake Tropf said combining R&B and 90s grunge rock is about the closest explanation for his vocal type. His abrasive and aggressive-like tone isn't typical for a folk duo.

"For whatever reason, I never thought I'd find somebody to be able to sing with my vocal type," Tropf said.

Tropf, also lead guitarist in local band Isabella, found the right harmony with bandmate and bassist Colt Buehler.

"Colt just really meshes really well with me in that aspect," he added.

The two went back to their "blue collar town" roots to kickstart their folk-blues project Atlas May.

They grew up listening to music with gospel and country undertones.

"Both my parents were really into music growing up, so I've been listening to music like old country and old rockabilly, folky kind of music, even since I've been born," Tropf said. "From the pre-50s on, and a lot of that music is still my favorite music. It hits close to home."

Tropf is a Bell City, Missouri, native, and Buehler is from Perryville. Their alike small town upbringings also paralleled genre preferences.

"Grandpa plays gospel and he plays some old country, and then taught my mom how to play acoustic," Buehler said. "She started playing gospel and old country, and I grew up listening to gospel and classic rock and blues."

"It's always just kind of been there," Tropf said. "We both were into it, so it just seemed to make sense."

Everything's in a name, so "Atlas May" had to act as an accompaniment to the genre.

"A lot of the music that we write has a lot to do with the Mississippi River," Buehler said. "It's close to home. Missouri is mentioned quite a few times, and so we're looking for something kind of like that, something to do with the Mississippi or something to do with Missouri."

They stumbled upon the name of Atlas May, a fictional character who runs a speakeasy in the caves out of Saint Louis.

It had that blue collar charm they were looking for, so the name stuck.

They made an official debut with their name last Tuesday at a performance at Mixing 10.

Aside from similar backgrounds, it's safe to say after five years of friendship Tropf and Buehler know how to work together.

When he set pen to paper writing songs, Tropf reached out for collaboration of ideas and a smoother live performance. Buehler was an obvious choice to add as rhythm guitar and harmony vocals.

"I will usually come up with the initial idea or ideas or song structure or melody, do something to get the snowball started," Tropf said. "Then once I have some sort of coherent idea I can actually show it to him. At that point, he will put his spin on it or give me input, and then we'll work on it together from there."

They respect each other as musicians but more importantly they respect each other as individuals.

"[It] gives me somebody I can really bounce ideas off of and [who] brings enough to the table to where it's exciting to work with it," Tropf said. "It's not like just having a yes-man. Colt is not a stage musician. We are a group, and we've been really trying to enforce that. I think it comes through we're a two-man group. ... It just works."

Tropf said Buehler has a much more laid-back personality compared to his "take the reigns" approach, but they've got a rhythm.

"We've been playing together for a really long time," Buehler said. "We knew that we could do it. Personality is a huge thing whenever it comes to band members. ... We knew that could do it, and then on top of that, whenever we played together it worked really well."

According to Tropf, the process isn't vastly different playing as two rather than five with Isabella, just "condensed."

He said Atlas May is more vocally than musically driven because it's an acoustic project. But either way, it cycles back around to working as a team.

Buehler said there are plans for growth in the future. The two hope to add more members, returning to a full band concept.

Even as two, their sound strays a bit from the characteristic mellowness of acoustic music.

"We have to play at venues like this [Mixing 10] because we're loud and we're yelling and we're singing really loud," Buehler said. "It's really energetic regardless of being acoustic."

Tropf said he likes to stay consistent to around three to four shows every month. Writing an album is also in the works, and he said soon they'll release some of their recorded demos.

Still, Isabella isn't going anywhere. The band is booked for shows over the summer and is looking to get back into the studio to record a full-length album.

Tropf said with more shows booked, the band is working on the release of a single first to give audiences a fresh look at what they've been working on.

"I've had this question come up a lot about, 'What? Is Isabella gone now that you guys have this project going?'" Buehler said. "Isabella still practices once a week. We all have life going on outside of band practice and stuff, but we still make an effort, we're still writing an album, we're still working hard and see each other weekly and make sure that is a priority of ours."

Tropf and Buehler dedicate at least once a week practices for Atlas May as well. Not as strict of a schedule is necessary for a duo, but as a music education major at Southeast Missouri State University, Buehler said it can be difficult to schedule around school and work nevertheless. Tropf graduates from Southeast this spring with a degree in classical guitar. Part-time jobs prove just as demanding.

But it's all for the love of music.

"A lot of our favorite artists even fall into different genres, and one that we both agreed on that we both liked [was] the blues, folk genre," Buehler said. "Whenever we started rolling with this, it just kind of came out."