Kori Gardner sounds just like a real, down-to-earth, air-breathing person – and somehow it’s believable.

“I’m really interesting – I watch movies and I listen to music,” says Gardner, one-half of organ- and drums-based duo Mates of State, on husband and bandmate Jason Hammel’s cell phone.

Gardner says at Mates of State’s live performances, many people have that feeling of familiarity with the duo.

“People feel like they’ve experienced something more intimate and I think they feel like they know us,” she says. “I think it’s partly because we aren’t the band that gets on stage and knows how to show off and act like rock stars. In fact, we’re always embarrassed just to talk on the microphone.”

Gardner and Hammel, who wed in 2001, formed Mates of State in Lawrence, Kan., in 1997 and hit the road to California shortly thereafter. She says their relationship certainly makes it easier to tour, which is exactly what they’ve been doing since their crusade to San Francisco, Gardner says.

Though Gardner and Hammel’s marriage seems to play a big part in many of the duo’s songs, she admits they’ve never really written love songs.

“People think we have songs that are just about each other, but how many songs in your life can you write about each other?” Gardner says.

She says they write songs about things that happen in their lives together, which sometimes corners their songs into a love-song category, when in reality Gardner says their lyrics go beyond experiences that are bound by marriage.

Whether Mates of State rely on each other for lyrical substance, they certainly have to pull their weight musically. Contending between vocal call-and-answer and harmonious unisons, the duo compensates with organ and drums to maintain the traditional sound of bass, treble and drums-based music, Gardner says. Both coming from a series of bands before the birth of Mates of State, Gardner says they know how essential a full sound is, especially when creating it live.

“It took a lot of getting used to not having any people to bounce ideas off of, but at the same time it’s a lot easier just because it’s two people,” Gardner says. “We just feel that if we could fill the space with two instruments instead of the traditional four or five, why not?”

And since it really is just two people – not including their new daughter – they have to deal with gaining people’s attention more in their music than their marriage.

“We are definitely different people as parents than we are as musicians,” Gardner says. “But I think that side of us you’d never really see watching us play live. I would like to think that when we are playing we are totally uninhibited, too.”

Ultimately, Gardner and Hammel may be singing out of their love and experiences together, but Mates of State are more than married.

“We are just really excited to play music and I think people understand that we are not trying to be anything else but that,” she says.