The cereus flower is a small desert plant that blooms from the dry land at night.

This natural anomaly inspired the name of the Knoxville band Cereus Bright, a duo comprised of Tyler Anthony and Evan Ford, who both believe that life is more than just the good, beautiful bloom — instead, it’s about the dry dirt that brought the flower to life as well.

At least this is the philosophy the two have stuck with since. At around 11:35 a.m., Panera Bread on Cumberland Avenue is crowded with students, faculty and other lunch-goers engrossed in their personal conversations. Ford and Anthony sit at a small table discussing their own business.

Anthony, songwriter, lead man and self-proclaimed “bearded human,” graduated from UT with a major in psychology and a minor in child and family studies. Ford, background vocalist, instrumentalist and songwriting assistant, also manages most of the administrative matters. The junior in philosophy and economics sported thick, black-rimmed glasses and blonde hair. The two regard Knoxville as their home despite having different birthplaces — Anthony from Memphis and Ford from Nashville.

“I guess we have all three cuts of Tennessee,” Anthony said.

Anthony had always been interested in music but said he struggled to find the style he wanted to play. Once he arrived at UT, he began playing with his former girlfriend in the summer of 2011.

“It was us singing together that really helped me find my niche,” Anthony said.

The two performed together until the end of the year, eventually deciding to part ways.

“Young romance mixed with young music endeavors just got really confusing and put a lot of pressure on it,” Anthony said.

Once the new year rolled in, Anthony said he felt at a crossroads with what direction to take the band in. He decided to bring some friends together to play, but Ford stuck out, forming the group. The two had randomly played together at Anthony’s brother’s house. Ford picked up the mandolin, never actually having played the instrument before, but managed to dabble well enough to impress his new bandmate.

“I’m about a year into mandolin,” Ford said, smiling.

From there, the two spent the remainder of the year solidifying plans regarding the band and making all the details concrete.

Their sound is folk, with both members playing guitar.

“Folk has this rich history of storytelling and moral education and introspection,” Ford said. “It’s sort of been lost recently, like folk has been turned into this sort of escapist love song tradition. We sort of want to go back to the communicative element of folk with stories and truth rather than trying to get away from the real world.

“Sometimes you need a mandolin to do that, I guess,” Ford chuckled.

Now with a plethora of folk artists rising to the top of the music charts, evident by the showings of various folk bands at the Grammy Awards, the current music scene has started to become more receptive to Cereus Bright’s style. But, Ford argued, that pool of mainstream folk artists bypasses what the musical genre truly stands for, instead of maintaining the personal essence of the music. It’s where Anthony says he pulls his inspiration from.

“I really believe that there’s a wealth of material and substance below everything we encounter,” Anthony said.

He said we live in a generation of “floaters,” those who live through life without mindfulness and take in the environment around them.

“They stay on the surface and kind of numb themselves from the real things,” Anthony said. “I always just kind of see the deeper things and feel the deeper things. Music helps me go to those places, but then also my hope and goal is that through the music I create or we create, we can take people there as well.”

Sometimes it’s the really menial things that inspires Anthony to write and sometimes it’s the most painful of life’s circumstances, such as performing with your ex. But life is a range of experiences for Cereus Bright. It’s the good and the bad of life’s experiences. For them, it’s the whole journey that counts.

Even in a context of darkness and dryness a beautiful thing can still emerge, grow and thrive in that place.

Last November, the band released their first EP titled “Goldmine,” (available on iTunes), which marked the first show when the band really felt legitimate.

For once the band finally felt complete as their ambitions have led them to seek opportunities outside of merely entertaining friends.

“It sort of put us in a different light,” Ford said. “We’re the real deal about this.”

“We’re trying to be at least,” Anthony said, smiling.

For now, the duo has plans to stay in Knoxville. In the digital age where musicians are boundless, thanks to social media mediums, they say there’s no rush to move to a bigger city to broaden their audience.

“It makes having to move to a big city less important,” Ford said. “For the time being, we’re really enjoying having a hometown that we can really count on. If we play our cards right, we can be the biggest show in the city.”

Cereus Bright will play at 8 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Camp House in Chattanooga and again at 8 p.m. on March 8 at the Square Room in Market Square.