Harrisonburg, VA
Illiterate Light thrives on subverting expectations. Though just a duo, Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran create surprisingly expansive music—moving between thunderous, reverb-drenched rock and intimate introspective folk. Formed in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 2015, the multi-instrumentalists began making music while studying permaculture and working together on an organic farm, where they developed both their collaborative sound and deep connection to the land.
This agricultural foundation profoundly shaped their artistic vision. Their latest album Arches (2024) directly addresses environmental crises through songs like “Norfolk Southern,” confronting the devastating 2023 Ohio train derailment that released hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere. As shape-shifting musicians who push genre boundaries, they’ve evolved from their 2019 Atlantic Records debut through critically acclaimed releases including Sunburned, which SPIN Magazine called “one of the best albums of 2023.”
After several summers of bike touring in the mid-2010s, Illiterate Light developed their bicycle and solar-powered ‘Bike Stage’ at the legendary Newport Folk Festival in 2022, where audience members pedal stationary bikes to help generate electricity for performances. As passionate hosts and curators of the bike stage, Gorman energizes each performance by engaging the crowd: “We are all live music lovers, but what will touring look like 25 years from now? We don’t have all the solutions, but today we’re planting seeds for the future.” This innovative approach creates an interactive experience that reimagines traditional concert energy consumption while building vibrant community engagement.
Their “massive” live performances—as described by the Washington Post—feature Gorman playing foot-pedal synthesizer while shredding guitar and Cochran crowd-surfing from his standing drum kit. Through dedicated touring and creative experimentation, they continue to merge their artistic vision with meaningful environmental action.
What inspired you to become an 11th Hour Racing ambassador?
At our core, we are a rock band whose job is to make music, take people on a journey, and wake them up—when someone leaves an Illiterate Light show, every fiber of their being is pulsing with life. We believe music has the power to bring people together to collectively dream up a new future, which aligns with 11th Hour’s mission of using performance to spark meaningful change. In his poem ‘Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,’ Wendell Berry writes “invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest, that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest,” and this philosophy speaks directly to our hearts as artists. Our passion for environmental and cultural transformation grows from understanding that real progress is long and patient—we must take action today, even though we won’t see the full harvest of this work in our lifetimes. We’re excited to become 11th Hour ambassadors because we share this same burning drive to make changes now, using our music to rally people around the future we need to build together.
Why are you passionate about ocean conservation?
Our passion for ocean conservation grew directly from our time working on an organic farm, where we learned that nothing exists in isolation—soil health affects water quality, water quality affects watersheds, and watersheds flow to the ocean. When we transitioned from farming to music, we brought that systems thinking with us and sought tangible ways to share this understanding with other music lovers, which led us to develop the bike stage. Though our roots are in the mountains of Virginia, performing each year at Newport Folk Festival—hosting a stage powered by solar and bike energy surrounded by sailboats—has expanded our awareness of ocean health and reminds us how land and sea are truly interconnected.
Project Name: Road to Newport
Project Mission: Dreaming up a healthier future for live music through biking, community engagement, and artistic innovation.
