They may have a low-key name for their group, but The Quiet Life has no plans to lull the audience at the next Live at Edmond Town Hall Concert on December 20. The energetic foursome led by brothers Sean and Ryan Spellman will take care to ensure that fans and newcomers to their unique brand of music have a rousing good time.

In fact, anyone under age 18 can access the show absolutely free with valid ID thanks to underwriting from Wells Fargo Bank, and all the rest are sure to get their money's worth at $20 for general admission tickets.

The group, which formed in New London, has honed its craft touring the lower 48 as well as Alaska in a veggie oil fueled van, playing festivals, clubs, coffee houses and living rooms. Along the way, Quiet Life produced two projects including their latest offering, Housebroken Man.

That album also stars Jim James (“My Morning Jacket”) and Cary Ann Hearst (“Shovels and Rope”). According to an advance from the group, it is a record that embodies the spirit of their live show, replete with fuzzed-out Leslie-simulated pedal-steel guitar pedals and twangy modified vintage amplifiers. 

But don't try to pin down Quiet Life as a folk band. They also shrug off labels like Americana, country rock, or rootsy.

Frontman Sean Spellman, who spoke to The Newtown Bee ahead of the next weekend's Newtown show, described Quiet Life's growing catalog of music as the product of its members' unique talents, energies and chemistry. When tape is rolling, Quiet Life simply is what it is in that moment: defying categorization in favor of the kind of blissful, authentic creations its members seem to produce almost effortlessly.

The Spellman brothers along with snappy guitarist Thor Robert Jensen, and piano man Philippe Bronchtein has also caught the attention of other journeyman acts, most recently on tours supporting Dr Dog, Alabama Shakes, The Head and The Heart, and The Lumineers.

Newtown's audience, however, is in for a double treat, with local guitar and mandolin phenom Korey Brodsky opening the show.

Brodsky catapulted to fame in 2013 when he was tapped to front the International Bluegrass Music Association Youth All-Stars. His group includes recent Berklee summer program scholarship award recipient Sofia Chiarandini on fiddle and lead vocals, multi-instrumentalist Dick Neal, mandolin player Michael Sassano, and veteran upright bass player Rick Brodsky, Korey's dad.

Before delving into discussions about music and the band's history, The Bee wanted to learn more about the environmentally friendly way The Quiet Life gets around from show to show.

Newtown Bee: Is it true that Quiet Life is just a front so four environmentalist musicians can have an excuse to get out behind venues after your shows and go drum diving for vegetable oil to fuel your van?

Sean Spellman: Absolutely [laughing] it's a front - that way we can be as discreet as possible.

Bee: What came first, the band or the veggie oil van that gets you guys around?

Spellman: The conversion came after the band formed. It was facilitated by the need to be on the road all the time. We had wanted to convert to grease [fuel] for a long time, so when touring started to become unaffordable just because of fuel costs, that was the catalyst for doing the conversion.

We're not trying to make it our schtick, we've always been connected to the planet. My brother and I grew up surfing off the shores of New Jersey, so we were members of the Surfrider Foundation, so that respect for the planet has just carried on into our musical lives as well.

Bee: Does your music originate from material that you and your brother started writing together years ago, or is it currently a collaborative result among you two along with Thor and Phillippe?

Spellman: Most of our recording as Quiet Life has been the work of me, my brother and Thor. Phillippe has been with us for about a year. Housebroken Man is a collection of random tracks, so I might bring in an idea for a song and we'll hash it out together.

Bee: Had you and your brother been playing together since childhood?

Spellman: It probably wasn't until we were in college that we decided music was going to be a serious thing. Before that it was just messing around. So at that point we decided that we were going to start touring.

Bee: Was Thor on board by then?

Spellman: Thor was living in Pawcatuck (CT) back then, and we had seen him around playing with another band. And I had written a country song and needed a raging [Fender Telecaster] player. So I just called him up and told him he was the only one I knew around the area who could do it justice. So for awhile we would do shows and just call him up to do this one song called "Downtown." But gradually, over the course of a couple of years, he became a full member of the band. Then Ryan and I moved out to California and Thor stayed in Connecticut, so there was about a year when he wasn't touring with us. But we got to the point where we were able to start flying him out to do tours and now we all just come together for recording or tours.

Bee: How did you meet Philippe?

Spellman: We met him in Portland. It's funny because I'm a huge Springsteen fan, and there was this venue I heard about called Badlands. So come to find out that Badlands was actually Phillipe's house -- he was promoting shows in his basement, and I got a call from him one day asking if I wanted to play there. We became friends and I had no clue he even played piano until about six months later.

Bee: Did you bring him in as a session player for recording?

Spellman: No, we were going to play at South By Southwest, and we wanted someone to fill out the sound and our old guitar player said to call Phillipe because he plays sax and piano. It turned out he was already going to Austin as well, so we asked him to join us and it turned out to be one of our biggest gigs ever. I was showing Phil the parts in the van right before we went on and he really kicked ass. We just looked at each other and said if he can do this well not even knowing anything about us, we want him in the band.

Bee: Looking at your videos, there are a lot of tangential elements that remind me of The Band. But I heard that you reject getting categorized as Americana, or Folk, or Folk-Rock? Do you all as a band have common influences?

Spellman: It's interesting because we all have completely different influences. Maybe my brother and I have the most similar influences although it's hard to think of one band or artist we all relate to -- maybe Tom Waits. We all bring certain things to the table as far as taste that we all can agree on. We are all being turned on to a lot more new stuff -- and it's really cool because a lot of the music is from bands that are friends of ours, or bands that we end up on gigs with. I know we all like Cotton Jones and Dr Dog -- so those bands are quietly seeping into the Quiet Life, especially on the new album. We also saw Sturgill Simpson, a country singer from Nashville and he was a big inspiration for all of us. So right now I think we're relating more on new things than we are to bands we've all been listening to for 20 years.

Check out the Quiet Life's adventures in veggie oil touring here.

Get to know Quiet Life and their music here.

Live at Edmond Town Hall shows continue to raise funds for ongoing renovations and upgrades at the historic building at 45 Main Street. Tickets are $20 each and are available at edmondtownhall.org/liveateth. Additional information is available at facebook.com/liveateth.