The Breakmen believe in learning to swim by jumping in the deep end. Just weeks after the acoustic quartet came together in 2005, three of its members piled their instruments—bass, guitars, mandolins, and banjos—into a ’67 Chevy Bel Air and took off across the country, bound for Ontario. They played wherever they could find a stage and someone to listen, although they didn’t have a big repertoire or even a name at first.

“It was tough going,” says Archie Pateman, one of the Breakmen’s trio of writers, interviewed in East Van with fellow songsmith Ben Rogalsky. “But the best part of this band is how much we like each other, so even when things get difficult it’s not that bad because we’ve developed such common respect and trust. And that really strengthens the music.”

The Breakmen draw on a spectrum of North American roots genres and styles—above all, bluegrass, old-time, folk, classic Nashville twang, and alt-country—to create songs with their own distinctive stamp. Pateman, Rogalsky, Lee Watson, and Matthew Lawson are all multi-instrumentalists, which gives variety to the timbres and the textures of their arrangements. It’s the quality of the vocals, however, that raises the Breakmen a notch above other Canadian bands working a similar vein.

“Each of us sings lead,” Rogalsky says. “Our voices are roughly in the same range, and we can all go pretty high. The tones really complement each other on three- and four-part harmonies. And we pay a lot of attention to phrasing and things like getting vowel shapes right.”

“Ben has done a lot of arranging and composing for theatre and dance, and he really knows the math and theory of it,” Pateman adds. “So he can say things like ”˜You’re doing a sixth harmony, try a seventh.’ He’s really meticulous.”

The Breakmen honed their craft as singers and players in countless bluegrass and old-time jams. And Pateman and Watson, the group’s main writers, created a body of story-based songs that draw inspiration from the likes of Willie P. Bennett, Fred Eaglesmith, Townes Van Zandt, and Steve Earle. In 2006, the Breakmen recorded an excellent self-titled debut disc, with U.S. Dobro ace Ivan Rosenberg as producer.

With compositions such as Watson’s sensuous country ballad “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” and Pateman’s brisk and witty “Becoming a Poet”, the Breakmen made a stir in B.C.’s roots music community and beyond. For two years the band toured relentlessly, from Toronto to San Francisco. In 2008, it was back in the studio to record When You Leave Town, with Rosenberg once more at the helm.

“The album took about six months in all to make,” Rogalsky says. “We love the recording process—it’s great to be able to get so deep into a composition and flesh it out. It’s such a different way of experiencing a song than doing it live.”

The Breakmen developed impressively as an outfit between their two recordings, and continue to grow. Harmonies are now even tighter, instrumentals are crisper and more confident, and the overall sound is more coherent. “All of us have hit our stride as players, which is very exciting,” Pateman says.

Several newer compositions on the band’s current set list have a touch of country rock, like Pateman’s “Brookmere”, a song suffused with nostalgia that evokes a fading historic community in the Nicola Valley. And there are darker works. “Hospital Moon”, cowritten by Pateman and former Vancouverite Marc Berubé, is about compassion and helplessness in the face of a loved one dying. Watson’s mid-tempo country ballad “Leaving California” tells of the broken dreams of a down-and-out yet resilient musician.

“I think everyone’s writing is getting deeper and more mature, and that means some of the songs are slower and more introspective,” Rogalsky says. “In the early days, we often found ourselves as a party band. We did that for a while, though it’s never really been our thing. Our shows are definitely still high-energy, but it’s become so important to us for people to be able to listen to what the songs have to say as well.”

The Breakmen play the Mission Folk Music Festival main stage on Friday (July 24), with workshop appearances on Saturday and Sunday (July 25 and 26).