We spoke to Bing band The Three 4s before their Spring Fling gig

Towards the end of my interview with Eric, Joe and Scott of the Three 4s, I asked them to label the genre of music they are. They dismissed my suggestion that they were an indie band and all agreed they were much more than just “Alternative”.

After careful consideration, Guitarist Eric Sabshon hit me with “Alternative Groove” Now that I have listened to the recording of this interview over again I’ve come to the realization that there are few phrases that capture The Three 4’s than Alternative Groove. It captures their coincidental meetings and formation, the diversity of influences and playing styles they bring to the band, how original their sound is and how much fun they have playing together.

So here’s Alternative Groove band, the Three Fours.

Okay so how did you guys all meet?

Eric: So I met Joe at orientation and we started playing together during the first few weeks of school and we met Scott our bassist when he just wandered into my room and he took Joe’s Guitar.

Joe: No he brought his guitar and asked if he could play and I left because we had been playing for a couple hours and I wanted to take a break and talk to people, so I left and then I came back and Scott was sitting playing on my amp and I was like ‘who the fuck is this kid’ and he was a really good guitarist.

Eric: So we thought we had found a replacement for Joe already.

Joe: I was like awesome it had been two weeks and I’m already getting kicked out of the band but Eric had my back.

Eric: So we made Scott play bass and we found Allie our singer, actually through Yik Yak, we had been looking for a singer and a drummer.

Joe:  And Someone actually told a drummer in Seneca to shut up and we saw it and were like hopefully this kid’s good and we sprinted to Seneca.

Eric: We heard this kid playing and he was horrible so we went upstairs to ask the room next door if he was any good and they were like nah he sucks so we got to talking about our band and we said we needed a singer also and there was a singer in the room and we were like “Do you guys know anybody?”

Joe: Allie was the one talking and she wouldn’t say anything they were pointing at her like she could sing she could sing and we got to texting she sent us some stuff and we listened to it.

Eric: And then Pete our drummer, we met while we were playing an acoustic show, I believe it was a holiday open mic night in the Delaware great room so we just played one of our songs we did a good job and he approached us and was like do you guys need a drummer and we had him come down and we played some songs to show him what we played.

Joe: He’s actually a grad student so we kinda make fun of him for being so old we originally thought he was 28 we were like yeah he’s definitely married but yeah we basically all kind of met coincidentally.

So when did you guys start playing shows?

Joe: Actually our first real show was battle of the bands, Eric and I had been playing music together since September and then like it just finally came together we didn’t want to do anything major we were kind of just working up to battle of the bands.

Eric: We had finished all of our songs before battle of the bands and we learned our two covers the week leading up to battle of the bands.

What covers did you guys play?

Eric: We played adventures of a lifetime by Coldplay and treasure by Bruno mars we had to do two songs that had been played at the super bowl.

Have any of you guys played in bands before?

Joe: I played like in a jazz fusion jam band freshman through junior year and we played battle of the bands and we won three years in a row and we recorded the album at a studio.

Eric: And I actually have a band, The Humble Cheaters, from people I knew from home that just released our debut EP called “Yeah Come On”

Who came up with the Three 4s?

Eric: We were going through a bunch of different band names, there was mom, like mom exclamation mark Mom! Our first album would be mom! And the album name would be salivating and it would just be us like at a dinner table salivating with like a mom yelling at us.

Where did the Three 4s come from though?

Eric: Well the three fours are my room number I live in room 444 and its actually where we all started playing.

Joe: whenever we practice now its always in his room it makes no sense people are always like what does that even mean but it does have significance we were just like oh I’ve never heard of another band with numbers in it before.

Eric: Jackson 5 and Maroon 5

Joe: See too many fives we are 3 and 4

Eric: Well there are trios like the John Mayer trio

Dave Brubeck quartet

Eric: Ben folds’ five

Joe: Lets keep naming stuff like three doors down

Eric: Yeah so basically any band with numbers is similar to ours except we have two numbers

Three is describing the number of fours you guys have so it’s really a number within the context of your band title

Eric: yeah but that would make it 12 I mean are we 12?

Joe: Jesus

You might as well just be 12

Eric: Yeah okay so we’re the 12 now

You also have to cut the “the” in The 12

Eric: We are 12

Alright so back on track how do you guys write songs?

Eric: Joe and I do most of the music, we have always played a lot together, whenever we had an hour off we would just play together and build off of each other the guitars happen first then the bass then the drums and then me and allie write the lyrics, well actually we do the guitars and then scott and Pete will add in what they think the bass and drum parts should be and then we tweak it from there if we have a specific feel that we want

So who inspires you guys musically?

Eric: well I’m inspired by a lot of different musicians

Joe: yeah I think that we all listen to different types of musicians and music

Eric: really? I don’t think so

Joe: Yeah like I listen to a lot of alterative music and Eric listens to a lot of like improv and rock and you listen to a lot of jazz and allie listens to a lot of softer folk indie and Pete listens to a lot of progressive rock

Eric: So we are a bunch of different genres mashed together and we are 12 now, yeah I guess for I would say its Steely Dan and Frank zappa and john Mayer

Scott: Stevie Wonder and The Eagles inspire me really

Eric: You like The eagles? The Eagles suck

Scott: What the fuck man?

Do you actually dislike the eagles?

Eric: Yeah I think they suck

My girlfriend actually hates The Eagles and hotel California specifically

Eric: yeah its just one of those songs that like so synonymous with classic rock its just what people who don’t like rock think of when they think of classic rock because its so overplayed.

While we’re on the subject of classics we hate, I actually think stairway to heaven is boring

Eric: yeah I can listen to it maybe like once a year and then I’m done

Joe: I have always been into kings of Leon and they influence our style because they know how to do intricate stuff and also have a popular appeal, I also like Tame Impala and mac DeMarco

Eric: Oh I met Paul McCartney that was pretty inspiring.

I was in east Hampton driving with my girlfriend at the time and I look over and I see this old left hand green rolls Royce so we follow him and he pulls over by this old bar and he gets out and we start talking about music and life and he was like “Oh yeah I will look out for you guys”

Okay so you said that Stevie wonder and The Eagles influence you and you are also jazz oriented?

Scott: Yeah well not so much jazz oriented but jazz influenced

Joe: Yeah he’s funky too

Scott: I am pretty funky

Eric: What does your dad do

Scott: My dad is in the real estate and hotel business

Oh I thought he was leading you into something cool

Eric: Like his dad is Paul McCartney

Scott: Yeah my dad is actually Paul McCartney so I guess you could put that in Eric met my dad

Okay so your EP is ‘Salivate’ probably coming out mid may, what do you guys have on it so far?

Eric: So we have chatter formerly known as E for Eric

Joe: Yeah when we first write songs we give them joke titles, like we also have sinking down that was originally called reggae bullshit but besides that we have fool and Anaheim. So on that EP we’re going to have Chatter, Sinking down, Fool and Anaheim

Do you guys plan on touring?

Eric: yeah after the EP probably after the summer. We are recording a four song EP at Business District recording in Johnson City, that we are expecting to release before school ends probably mid- May.