Russell Mark says he’s not a folkie, and that traditional blues forms and structures don’t really trip his creative trigger much. He also says he’s not a political writer, per se. But on a recent Saturday in Pasadena, CA where songwriter Mark and his classically trained musician wife Mika Larson reside, Mark’s distinctly nasal voice, one that could seemingly etch glass or cut steel, powered by his guitar and Mika’s supple cello, galvanized the crowd of No Kings protestors, estimated at several thousand that day, from the stage created at Pasadena’s City Hall.

Vox populi with a side of street-smarts.

Mere presence – simply showing up – in the setting is a form of activism. And while Mark and Larson, known as The Nextdoors, don’t deliver the righteous sting of, say, Phil Ochs, they tickle rather than assault the listener along the lines of the deft satire of Tom Lehrer, a witty household standard in Mark’s childhood home.

It’s also no surprise that Allan Sherman’s classic folk parody album “My Son, the Folksinger”—where “singer” rhymes with “linger” and “finger”—was also family fare.

And, as far as politics go, The Nextdoors are the co-founders of Pasadena’s “Neighbor Day,” a new, now-annual event so in tune with the foothills communities that Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo agreed to preside. After jamming in backyards during COVID, the pair stepped out to do their first public show at a low-key local joint called the Wild Parrot Brewery on Pasadena’s famous Colorado Boulevard where the Mayor introduced the band to the packed house. The band has morphed into the area’s unofficial house band ever since Gordo named them “…one of the true gems of our city” in 2023.

The Nextdoors took their name from the popular neighborhood listserv app when they both lived in cooler nearby Silverlake. Mark says, “We thought it would be funny to form a band and write songs based on the absurd posts in hipster LA – from veganism, to NIMBYism, indie cred, and all the arguments that ensue.”

When they relocated to the Pasadena-Altadena area, they learned that Nextdoor is generally Karen territory, populated mainly with indignant posts about the area’s rogue peacocks, scorned by many residents because they scream bloody murder, poop everywhere, and may scratch your car’s paint as they admire themselves in the reflective finish.

Mark and Larson now are finding new connections to folk standards as part of being invited to play at events devoted to social justice and human rights in LA, the land of fires and ICE. Mark explains, “the organizers requested songs like ‘Which Side Are You On?,’ ‘We Shall Overcome,’ ‘This Land is Your Land,’ and to find that these still resonate is really remarkable. As for me, I’m still not a political songwriter, but we really want to show up for the Pasadena community that has been here for us.”

As a multi-gifted kid in Minneapolis (she’s also an artistic portrait photographer), Larson studied classical cello beginning at age six, leading to college years at the Manhattan School of Music. She says, “I’ll show Russell videos of my biggest cello influence Rostropovich playing, and then he’ll put on a Jeff Beck live video for me, and both our minds are blown.” This mutual mind-blowing keeps the sound fresh and full of surprises, including a turn, turn, turn back toward the cause-minded music that preceded disco.

While Larson appreciates bluegrass, both of The Nextdoors were summer camp kids who grew up on pop-folk staples like Joni’s “Circle Game,” John Denver’s “Country Roads,” and the unsinkable sing-along “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.”  Their own sound developed naturally, and reflects a wide variety of influences. Mark says “We’re not the Lomax family or the Seeger family out in the Delta a hundred years ago capturing field recordings. We’re in favor of letting go of genres, but our sound and instrumentation does steer us in a particular direction, which we happily follow.”

Speaking of nasal, Bob Dylan was a staple in the family 8-track player when Mark was growing up in Tucson, AZ.  Mark’s vocals also today bear a strong kinship to one of his favorites, Tom Petty. What his songwriting forgoes in terms of the faux-naif is more than compensated with hum-worthy melodic fluency that echoes two other boyhood inspos—Paul Simon, and that glitziest of pop Piano Men, Billy Joel. Mark says, “To me, Paul Simon is the most underrated acoustic folk guitar player there is, and the pinnacle of creative songwriting.”

Older siblings in both the Mark and Larson households introduced tougher, edgier influences—60s rock, British Invasion the Ramones and others from the punk/indie playlist—which nudged the musical sensibilities of the two future Nextdoors away from the earnestly acoustic, as well as conventional “storytelling” songs.

The term “Americana” is a point of departure. From Burbank to Brooklyn, pickers and plunkers of wildly varying skill-levels don boots and Stetsons and warble about prairie moons, chopping cotton and a million other things they’ve never experienced, all in the quest for alt/country cred. In this way, Americana becomes cosplay bordering on parody, like a “Hee Haw” rerun without the mighty Buck Owens.

Mark explains “When we did a radio campaign for our debut album, the promoter suggested we should file ourselves under ‘Americana.’  Hey, fine, ya know, and that worked out for us, we even got a number 1 single at a radio station in Wisconsin out of it. But it still doesn’t define us, it just helps find us a little musical home.”

Larson formed her first rock band,  Channeling Owen, in NYC after college, rocking an electric cello onstage. She recalls “The cello and the electric guitar occupy the same sonic space. They can do a lot of the same things, especially if your cello is plugged into a Mesa Boogie stack!”

Of those early club dates, she recalls, “It was amazing playing some of the same venues as some of my music heroes – Ramones, Blondie, Velvet Underground. Then again hailing from Minneapolis, there’s no choice but to see Prince as the ultimate rock star. My mom even let me ditch school to crash a filming set of the ‘Purple Rain’ movie and find a perch to watch from.”

A recording engineer and music tutor as well as artist, Mark says, “I’ve always considered lyrics as a delivery system for melody. I’m a melody-first guy. Heck, my high school band was all instrumental, no singer.” Thus, it makes sense that the traditional folk story-song structure wouldn’t necessarily come naturally to The Nextdoors, but that’s exactly what their new release is – entitled “The Ballad of Grandpa and his Tiny Desk,” the song was written as an entry for NPR’s annual Tiny Desk contest.

And while it didn’t win, they’re not bitter, and in fact they decided to put it out as a single to support NPR and other public radio stations who now face an uncertain future due to massive cuts in arts funding.

Mark says “This song is us at our folkiest for sure, it’s a lot of fun. It needed a really percussive, plucky acoustic guitar sound, and I ended up going with my Washburn WG-27SE, a 40^th birthday gift from my then-just-girlfriend Mika, my bandmates in my various bands at the time, and my long-time mentor/friend/employer David Pack (singer/songwriter of Ambrosia.).” Like Willie and Trigger, Mark’s most weathered axe is his ride-or-die. “The guitar means a lot to me. It’s kinda falling apart, but I’m trying not to let it,” he says.

“I wrote the chorus a little high for my own voice, and wanted to have a female vocal singing the upper part – we’ve known Susie Glaze through years of Dylanfest performances, a Torrance festival that just celebrated its 35^th year, and she brings such an authentic folk sound to what she does. We asked if she’d join us, and she agreed!”

Glaze comments, “I love the music of The Nextdoors, and working with them on their new song ‘Tiny Desk’ was really fun! Their original songwriting is so engaging and musically original, reaching a high level of emotional awareness and heartwarming storytelling.  I had a blast with Russell and Mika, adding harmonies and even making a video!  Their skill in the studio is remarkable!”

With eternal props to the great Pete Seeger, who never really did threaten to cut the newly electrified Dylan’s power-cord at Newport in 1965, unlike folkie purists, Mark and Larson embrace the magic of the mixing board. “Being a recording engineer and producer growing up enthralled by the sounds of the Beatles, Genesis, and other production-heavy groups, I certainly love to dive deep sonically. But this song really called for simplicity. No doubled vocals or guitars, no electric guitar underpinning, no crazy effects– it’s no-frills, just as it should be,” Mark adds.

The new tune drops November 7^th on all major platforms, with Bandcamp.com as the primary vehicle for the fundraising. On the first Friday of each month, Bandcamp forfeits their normal share of the profits, directing more to the artists, which in turn allows the Nextdoors to direct more to the beneficiaries including the Public Media Bridge Fund and LAist.com (Pasadena’s NPR station). Larson explains “We figured there must be someone focusing their efforts specifically on saving the most at-risk public stations, and we found the Public Media Bridge Fund is doing just that, run by the non-profit Public Media Company.”

As for what’s next,  The Nextdoors are slowly working on a sophomore album, and even have a few more songs based on ridiculous listserv posts up their sleeves. But their loftiest goal right now is the creation of a hybrid folk-string quartet/rock opera piece that Mark is writing.

Mark says “I won a grant from the City of Pasadena to create a musical time-capsule of this place in this moment, and I wanted to incorporate folk guitar simplicity with the chamber music that’s Mika’s real love, and some of the ambition of Pete Townshend to boot.”  The opus will be staged in the summer of 2026.