The Sawtelles
Audio Feed
Old State House Food Court
Hartford
September 1, 2026
With their colorful clothing and headgear, Julie and Peter Sawtelle look like the kind of psychedelic couple who have captivating and off-beat stories that can keep listeners entertained for hours.
Indeed, their sets typically run for two-to-three hours or more. For their debut at the Old State House Square’s Audio Feed concert series, they provided the audience with an hour-long tour of their more recent releases.
Emptiness plays as critical a role as sound in their music. Peter told me his goal is to make their music sparse but lush at the same time. At the food court Tuesday, what they didn’t play was as important as what they did.
I asked them to describe the music they make. They called it mellow, drony, trancy, vibey – all before turning the question back on me: How would I describe their music?
“Vibey,” I decided, to describe the Sawtelles' mix of pop, indie rock and old- fashioned noodling, all tuned down to give the overall sound a moody, contemplative feeling. After the concert, Peter explained that he uses around 30 alternate tunings for his guitar to achieve the bigger sound that he wants.
Their story is as interesting as their music. The two were married back in 2000, and began performing together a year later. Peter is a trained jazz and concert drummer; he also writes music. As Julie tells the story, Peter became tired of people being unable to play the music he wrote the way it sounded in his head, so he decided to do it himself and switched over to the guitar. Julie became the duo’s drummer, although she said both of them are “just kinda doing our own thing” on the instruments.
I’d say she’s being modest, because even if they weren’t trained on the instruments they played, they both did a great job of creating space in their songs for the sounds to swell and ebb naturally without feeling rushed.
Their music is also challenging, dealing with the ambiguities of life without coming down on one side or the other. Take the song “Game,” which Julie described as having a 1940s noir feeling. In keeping with noir, the song is ambivalent about its own subject matter, but not in a disinterested way. The lyrics describe chasing a life that we see on TV, but not being prepared for the consequences:
From Technicolor to Film Noir
The vision is oh so similar
A girl and gun or cheap guitar
The outcome is familiar
As with the music itself, what’s not said is the point. What is the familiar outcome? Well, we don’t know that until we get there, even though we imagine something very clear as we chase technicolor dreams.
The Sawtelles don’t make huge demands on their listeners to "get" their music; would bea rather large ask. We’re left to fill in the blanks ourselves, and that’s a unique experience when listening to music.
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Jamil goes to check out Erin Earth and Cazz Piano.
