(glockenspiel riff) ♪ In the world.

Close your eyes, ♪ ♪ forget my name ♪ ♪ You'll be fine out there in the world ♪ (audience applaud and hoot) (accordion polka solo) - While we wait to be able to do shows again, I just go door to door, as surprises for people, whatever the occasion.

A birthday, anniversary, or just because...

Try and cheer somebody up 'cause COVID is a bit of a bummer (ha).

(polka tune by band) I borrow from different styles that we borrow from like, like Finnish humppa music.

- Like klezmer or Balkan influence, and all the other, you know, styles.

- But growing up, my mom made me join a klezmer band, so.

- We're doing new klezmer.

Okay.

- I like how it's fused with a rock beat.

♪ Take a look at my tulips, drinking the April rain ♪ ♪ They're colorful as rainbows... ♪ - Miles writes the tunes, um, and he's pretty amazing He's got a pretty catalog - like an encyclopedic knowledge of European folk music that a lot of the music's based on.

So, he comes up with the melodies, and then the rest of us go to work.

I write the lyrics.

It's a, it's a really beautiful, sort of, you know, working partnership we have.

- I was originally a guitarist playing like pop rock and things like that.

What turned me on to accordion and then those different kinds of music...

I would hear or see a band that I really liked such as Gogol Bordello, but they would infuse rock music that I was very familiar with.

They would mix it with these kind of world music things and the different instrumentation, like fiddle and accordion.

And I thought it was such an interesting mix.

Then it opens you up to this whole other world of music, and I just tapped into that.

♪ I'll slice you up and put you in boxes ♪ ♪ And mail you to Timbuktu ♪ - Most of what I do has been very loud and straightforward.

He spent all this time, like learning how to play a Radiohead song, which just subverts everything about tradition.

And then, like, you have to learn the tradition to be able to see what you're subverting.

(band performing live) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ - This would be the first time where I put together a group that really executed the vision that I had for the kind of music I knew I wanted to do.

- My first time I met Miles, accordion.

Okay?

What what kind of music is this?

- I played in a band with Dan, our bass player a long time ago, and then he got into a band, and the drummer of that band played drums with Miles in another band, and word got around about this trombone player named Joe.

And I was conscripted in the playing brass for these guys.

- I was just sitting in my room doing your homework, I get a message from this guy.

He found me on Google, which at the time, I didn't know it was possible.

♪ Well, every now and then in the bleak affairs of men ♪ ♪ A tide of fortune will come along ♪ - I was fairly new to Norfolk and I started playing coffee shops in the area.

I was doing an open mic at The Cure.

Some people that were regulars put me in touch with Miles.

We connected and got together and started writing music.

♪ No, no, no.

I never been... ♪ - When Miles (indistinct) me up, I was already in a few different bands and I was in between jobs.

He sent me some demos of some of his tracks he did with his accordion and it reeled me in.

(drums played live) - While we wait to be able to do shows again, we're working together really to, to write as much as possible and plan for the next album.

Unfortunately, in terms of performance, there's really not much you can do.

You just gotta wait it out.

(accordion polka solo) - That is my way of keeping myself sane while we wait to be able to do shows again.

So, I've just been going all around Hampton roads and occasionally even outside of town.

I did like a wedding in Stanton, Virginia, and a surprise out in West Point, Virginia.

It's mostly around here though.

I just go door to door as surprises for people; Whatever the occasion, a birthday, an anniversary, or just because... to try and cheer somebody up and just play for people.

And hopefully, I think it helps brighten their day.

And then I think it helps with brightening mine too.

(Woo) - Do you know any Metallica?

(accordion introduces song) ♪ And now you're young and full of whim ♪ ♪ Saying you're in love with him ♪ ♪ He plays you like a little toy ♪ ♪ But you keep saying, he's your boy ♪ ♪ But when you're old and gray ♪ ♪ You'll see things in a different way ♪ ♪ Unlock the door, let me in ♪ ♪ I'll be a perfect gentlemen.

♪ ♪ Now you're young and full of whim ♪ ♪ Claiming you're in love with him ♪ ♪ He treats you like a little game ♪ ♪ But you stay with him all the same ♪ ♪ But when you're old and gray ♪ ♪ You'll see things in a different way ♪ ♪ Unlock the door, let me in ♪ ♪ I'll be your perfect gentleman.

♪ (accordion and band playing)