Ben Littlejohn and Dennis Sager, better known as Bent Denim, started making music all the way back in elementary school in Dallas and with the help of recent Tulane graduate and manager Connor Crawford, the duo has amped up its efforts to reach the professional level. The band will perform 9 p.m. Saturday at Saturn Bar with underground favorites Alex G and Elvis Depressedly.

“Dennis and I played in bands probably since I was in fourth grade,” Littlejohn said. “It was never really that serious, Connor actually made it serious. He got a hold of our early recordings and said, ‘we should do this.’”

Sager, the band’s vocalist, also graduated from Tulane in 2013. He first played piano at age three and was classically trained. He began taking guitar lessons in seventh grade, which was when he first started performing with Littlejohn at a small church in Dallas.

“Ben and I used to do basically a cover band,” Sager said. “My first gig was in seventh grade … which means Ben was in third grade.”

Sager laughed. At the time, he was the only singer in the class, and Littlejohn played the bass, which made them stand out in their teacher’s eyes.

“Everyone wanted to play guitar, and ‘School of Rock’ had just come out,” Littlejohn said. “It was cool, he made his own rock school.”

Littlejohn and Sager continue to make music despite living in different states. Sager has remained in New Orleans post-graduation, working as a tutor on the Westbank. The former English major still dreams of writing a book one day, likening songwriting to a form of poetry. Meanwhile, Littlejohn attends Belmont University in Tennessee. His brother, a Tulane graduate, also occasionally drums on their recordings. The distance has actually strengthened Bent Denim’s sonic bond.

“I don’t think it would really work if we were in the same place,” Littlejohn said. “I’ll make something, a beat, and I’ll send it to Dennis where it’ll sit for a month, two months, and then I’ll get it back … even if we did live in the same place we would still do it separately.”

Sager echoed Littlejohn’s sentiments, citing the separation as a positive for his poetic musings.

“It is a lot of alone [time],” Sager said. “You and thought, you and a microphone, you and a computer. That’s where all the weird vocal stuff that I write is the consequence of — me being alone at two in the morning.”

Littlejohn’s bedroom production combined with Sager’s haunting, shimmering vocals creates a distinct sound. Claiming a wide variety of influences ranging from Sparklehorse to Eminem to A Tribe Called Quest, Bent Denim’s music can be hard to pinpoint.

“We came up with this hilarious descriptor that’s not really real, called ‘Nyquil-Pop,’” Littlejohn said. “It’s becoming real. Every day it becomes stronger. To my mom, I just say we’re a pop band. And she’s like, ‘Pop? Like Justin Bieber?’”

Unsurprisingly, the band does not sound anything like Justin Bieber, or any other pop outfit. Actually, in the context of the duo’s recording process, a hip-hop comparison makes the most sense.

“Rap is interesting because it’s beats and then lyrics, and what we do is beats and then lyrics,” Littlejohn said.

Bent Denim will release its first proper album April 28. The record, titled “Romances You,” features a collection of ten intimate tracks centered on woozy, dream-like, drum-backed piano compositions and an impressive lyrical sprawling of personal tales of triumph and tribulation. For those who missed out on snagging tickets to Buku Music + Art Project or desire a less Electronic-Dance-Music-driven concert experience, Bent Denim will provide an intimate performance in one of the city’s coolest venues. Take this opportunity to see them before they blow up following the release of this astounding record.