When singer/songwriter Kelly Pardekooper was attending the University of Iowa on a scholarship for pole vaulting, he had no idea that singer/songwriter would one day be a part of his official title.Ten years later Pardekooper fronts Kelly Pardekooper and the Devil’s House Band, an alt-country/americana foursome which has spawned a five-month-old album, “Johnson County Snow,” and is in a constant state of touring throughout the Midwest.Pardekooper was 23 when he first picked up a guitar and 30 when he released his first album — a solo work called “30 Weight” recorded in his basement.”I had a whole different kind of athletic life up until then,” Pardekooper says of his days before music. “I’ve always loved music. I kind of had hippie parents who have a great album collection. But I didn’t really get into the writing and the singing until [my early twenties].”Now 32 years old, Pardekooper admits he is definitely a newcomer to the music world, acknowledging the fact that most musicians that come through Iowa City are around 22 or 23 and have been playing for years.But Pardekooper isn’t fazed by the young kids. He’s actually sitting quite comfortably.”It took me a while, I wanted to make sure I had a degree and a house; it was my own conservative nature,” Pardekooper says from his Iowa City house. “But it was just not to be denied. It got to a point where the songs were coming out and the band was making them jump.”It was a two year stint in Boulder, Colorado that first sparked the music fire in Pardekooper. When he returned to Iowa City, he knew what he wanted to do.”That’s when I picked up the guitar,” Pardekooper says. “There’s so many like Grateful Dead fans out there who were playing and I figured I could learn to play this thing, and that’s kind of when it started.”Pardekooper has taken his band to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas and ventured to New Orleans for the Cutting Edge Music Conference.Those trips gave this relative music newcomer a crash course on the music industry, helping him decide what direction to take his career.”The best part of our education we got down at South by Southwest,” Pardekooper admits. “We got to see a lot of great artists on indie labels. Some of the major label artists we saw were real young and were really not there yet. They looked very pretty — man, they were dressed to the nine. But they couldn’t play their instruments real well, they couldn’t pull it off live.”That’s where Pardekooper and the Devil’s House Band, which includes guitarist Dustin Busch, bassist Atom Robinson and drummer Matt Winegardner, decided they were going to stick to the indie label side of things.”That’s not where we’re at, I’m not interested in being a pop star,” Pardekooper says. “I’m much more interested in trying to carve out a career.”With that decision made, the group mapped out their touring strategy, which predominantly focuses on the Midwest.”We’re just trying to make big circles around Iowa City,” Pardekooper says speaking of Omaha, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City as key spots. “Midwest is the region we’re most interested in right now. Because it is such a small market in general, there is more of a freedom to do things.”Since Pardekooper and company are a little over a year old, he admits they are still paying their dues as a band playing in little towns all over Iowa, though they have yet to play in Ames.”If we’re based in Iowa, I think it’s important that we play in Iowa,” Pardekooper says.While pushing the 2000-release “Johnson County Snow,” Pardekooper has discovered that although it provides lots of freedom, there are definitely things he dislikes about the Midwest music scene.”I would like to see more people into live music,” Pardekooper says. “I’ve talked to people who have done this for a long time, they believe that compared to 30 years ago, less people come and see live music now.”Along with admitting that the presence of dance clubs and other entertainment forums are in competition with live music, the music mediums such as MTV may be what’s bringing the most damage.”I think with music videos and stuff, they get used to seeing perfection,” Pardekooper says. “A live band’s not gonna be perfect, but you’re gonna get that one on one connection.”One thing Pardekooper sometimes struggles with is the genre that the band is placed in, as he feels most labels are constantly changing meanings from year to year.”We are definitely a mixture of rock and country,” Pardekooper says. “We have some straight ahead country-rock songs. But even that’s a tough term. They called the Eagles country-rock and we don’t sound like the Eagles.”