BAND OF BROTHERS: Roger Palmer, left, and his younger sibling James Palmer have been attracting attention in the local music world with their band, XROADRUNNER. Their roots in Princeton and Montgomery go back three generations.

By Anne Levin

Roger and James Palmer have been making music together since their early childhood. Recently, the Princeton natives — Roger, a recent graduate of Rutgers University who teaches at Princeton Child Development Institute; and James, a student at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Massachusetts — have taken their talents to the next level with the release on Spotify of two of their songs.

Their band, XROADRUNNER, has developed a following in New Brunswick. The siblings can boast multiple musical talents. Both play guitar and drums. James is a classically trained cellist.

“He plays a plethora of instruments,” Roger said of his younger brother. “We’ve been practicing for a number of years. I played drums independently for three years. On top of guitar with James at home, I taught him the drums. He was my little prodigy when he was growing up. I taught him guitar, too. He finally decided to take it seriously through school, which is something I didn’t.”

With the band, James plays bass while Roger handles guitar and vocals. “On the recording, it’s just the two of us,” Roger said. “In some of the songs, I’m on drums; some he’s on drums. We take pride in the fact that we do it all; just the two of us. But when we play live, we have a drummer.”

Roger describes XROADRUNNER’s style as “alternative rock, hard rock,” he said. “Our influences are Radiohead, and the bands Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys.”

The brothers have always written songs together. “We have lots that we’ve just kind of sat on over the years. We recently decided to hop in the studio and try to record them,” Roger said. “We did some demos, recorded on our own. We’ve been sitting on nine songs at this point, and have two released. We’re hoping to release all of our music. We’d like to drop an album. That’s kind of our end goal.”

Roger and James grew up in Princeton and Montgomery. Their Princeton connections include mother Molly Lependorf, a clinical psychologist in private practice; stepfather Mario Cucchi, who owns Thomas Sweet ice cream and candy stores; and uncle Gabriel Lependorf , a local personal injury attorney. Going back further, their grandfather was assistant director for 40 years of Princeton University’s counseling service, and their grandmother was a public defender in Trenton.

The brothers started taking XROADRUNNER seriously when Roger began writing guitar snippets and lyrics in his bedroom. “James started adding sweet bass parts underneath, and from there, they both knew they wanted to take this to the next level,” reads their official bio. “Combining the vintage sound of the Strokes in the early 2000s with Metallica-esque riffs, Roger and James consider music a form of connection where they can build off of each other’s energies and work to each other’s strengths. Their vision for a laid-back yet musically intricate aesthetic reflects their unique personalities; while Roger writes the more general structure for songs, James uses his extensive musical background to fill in the finer details.”

Once they drop an album — hopefully by December at the latest — the brothers are hoping to expand beyond Princeton and New Brunswick. “We want to go and find some gigs in New York,” said Roger, “or in Boston, if James keeps cultivating his connections there.”

XROADRUNNER can be sampled on Spotify, Instagram, and YouTube videos.