It’s a small city, located about 45 minutes northeast of Altanta, occupying a land area of only two and a half square miles and claiming a population of less than 5,000 people.

The town’s first Starbucks opened just last year, but given its proximity to Atlanta, it’s no surprise that further development plans are bringing new commercial life to this once-quaint, Southern town.

Welcome to Flowery Branch.

It may not be home to much, but Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters, a regionally-based modern folk band, claims the town as its primary rehearsal space.

“I love Atlanta and Athens, but I feel like there’s a lot of distraction in a big city like that,” Moon said.

And for Moon, who is the driving force behind the band’s creative endeavors, even the burgeoning development of Flowery Branch can be creatively stifling. When he and his fellow musicians aren’t rehearsing, Moon retreats to his home in the even more rural, even more removed Murrayville.

“I feel like living in a big city, everything . kind of gets lost,” Moon said. “[The country] is a much more open space, and there’s a lot less clutter. The calmness of being [in a natural environment] definitely has an effect on my songwriting.”

Despite the simplicity of Moon’s natural surroundings, the band’s songs are contrastingly rich, sonorous and elaborate. The sound has roots in classic folk, country and rock, which is juxtaposed with simply-constructed but intensely personal lyrics that explore the various avenues of the human condition.

“Everything that I write, at least to me, has a lot to do with the internal part of living, the unconscious part of your consciousness,” Moon said. “A lot of it’s about that particular moment – just when you’re most alive – and trying to get to the core of that.”

Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters, which formed just over a year ago, features Moon on vocals, guitar and blues harp. The band is rounded out by Johnny Sanders on guitar and lap steel, Kyle Heard on rhythm guitar, Jacob Smith on bass guitar and Dru Edmonson on drums and percussion.

But it didn’t start with a newspaper ad or a boredom-induced get-together. According to Moon, the band’s formation was a sort of happy accident.

It all started two years ago when Moon and Sanders began recording an album in their home studio. After a year of intensive writing and recording, the two began playing with three other musicians, and it was then that the casual collective evolved into a full-fledged band.

“When [Sanders and I] recorded the first album, [starting a band] was never really the plan. I just had all these songs I was writing, and it just kind of turned into a project, then it turned into an album, then it turned into a live band.” Moon said.

The group’s first album, “Meridian Road,” was self-released in March, and this summer, the band will tour the United States in support of the record. After the tour, the band will return to the studio to begin self-recording their second album.

“The next album already has a lot more of a . definitive direction,” Moon said. “Everything has a lot more atmosphere. All the newer stuff just feels a little bit more alive.”

According to Moon, the forthcoming record’s newfound vibrance is due in part to the addition of Heard, Smith and Edmonson, who were not featured on “Meridian Road.” The next album will be a more accurate reflection of the band’s current live performance, a sound that has evolved considerably since Moon and Sanders’ earlier days.

“I like the change a lot more now, and I really like the way everything sounds,” Moon said. “It’s really starting to feel like these are definitely the right guys.”