Band Interview: The 3148s
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with alt-rock band, The 3148s.
1. How did you get started as a band?
We are a group of litigation attorneys who started out chatting over drinks after depositions that quickly found common ground though our love of music. Ian Coote (Vocals, Guitar, Keys, and whatever other instrument he can get his hands on), Greg Jones (Vocals and Guitar) and Jeff Smythe (Vocal and Guitar) started off this venture as a cover band and quickly recruited Jason Seifert (bass) and Tom Jones (drums, and the only one smart enough not to be an attorney) to round out the band. Beginning in a garage in Detroit, Michigan as a project to play at local attorney events, quickly morphed into our own sound and we moved from covers to a catalogue of originals. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, Jeff left the band, but the remaining 4 of us have pressed on. During the quarantine, we released a series of “socially distant covers”, an ambitious project where we covered some of our favorite tunes while never actually being in the same room (or city) as each other. This led to a bout of inspiration where we started really focusing on our own music, and have continued writing more of our own songs ever since.
What started out as a bunch of lawyers covering some cool tunes at law related events has turned into regular gigs, both headlining and supporting national touring acts, all over Michigan.
2. How would you describe your sound?
Our sound has been described as “Americana run through an alt rock meat grinder”. Ian will bring these awesome Americana/Folk melodies to practice, Greg will jam on them and add a blues/classic rock framework, Jason will add a punk rock/new wave groove and then Tom will make sense of the madness and fill out the backbone of the song. We all come from very diverse musical influences, which we have blended together to make a sound that is very much our own.
3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?
Our musical influences are all over the map. Ian (vocals/guitar/keys) gravitates more towards Americana and Indie Rock (Tom Waits, The Eels), Greg (vocals/guitar) is into the more bluesy Alt and Classic Rock (Led Zeppelin, Jack White), Tom (drums) is our resident metal head (Metallica, Arch Enemy) and Jason (bass) draws his inspiration from punk and new wave (The Cure, NOFX).
4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?
Streaming music is the great equalizer for independent music. It used to be, that if you wanted people to hear your music, you either had to be signed to a label or burn CD’s yourself and hope someone would listen. It is so much easier to txt or email someone a link to your YouTube. It also means that if someone hears us live, they can immediately have access to all of our music. So in that way, it has been a huge help in getting our music out there. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that our music would be streamed on YouTube more than 100 times, let alone several thousand times, as it has been.
The big downside is that there is SO much music out there, a lot of great bands get lost in the shuffle. That’s been our goal, to make something that is good and interesting enough to not get lost in the shuffle.
5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
Considering that we are all litigation attorneys (except for Tom, who was the only one smart enough to not go to law school), a large portion of our non music life is dedicated to our day jobs and family. Ian is pretty much always creating music on any instrument he can get his hands on, but he is also quite the carpenter. Greg enjoys golfing and can often be found at the gym. Jason also runs an independent pro wrestling company, Sanctuary Fight Club.
6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?
Our next big venture is headlining a festival benefiting ALS Research, a cause that is close to the heart for the band. You can find more information on this at www.lawlapalooza.org. We also have a new batch of songs almost ready for recording and hope to head back into the studio in the fall.
Links
Website | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
