What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
The 3148s (Thirty-One, Forty Eights) is an inside lawyer joke. Given that 3/4th of us are lawyers it seemed appropriate. It’s taken from the Michigan NoFault statute that awards attorney fees for services that are “so excessive as to have no reasonable foundation”, which summed up our band pretty well.
What makes our sound unique is that we all come from very different musical backgrounds. Ian Coote (vocals, Guitars, Keys) comes from a more Americana and folk rock background and draws influences from Tom Waits and the Eels. Greg Jones (vocals, guitars) ventured more into blues and classic rock with everything from Led Zeppelin to Jack White. Tom Jones (drums) is our resident metal head who cut his teeth drumming to Metallica. Jason Seifert (bass) is all over the place, growing up listening to lots of new wave (Depeche Mode and the Cure ) and punk (Dead Kennedys to NOFX).
How do you approach songwriting?
Typically, either Ian or Greg will bring a song to the band that has most of the components put together. Then we all get into the rehearsal space and work it out – adding pieces. For Ian’s tracks, this usually means Greg and Jason speed up the tempo and crank some gain. For tracks Greg brings, Ian adds melody and another layer of musicality that makes the song more dynamic and complex. The songs then morph into something new that sounds more like The 3148s .
Our themes are really all over the place. We’ve got songs about traditional and relatable issues like relationships and love, to esoteric songs that draw inspiration from stories from the Old Testimant and the French Revolution.
Why do you write what you do?
It really depends. The batch of songs on our first EP, Domestic Bliss, were largely inspired by Married life. All of us are married and most of us have kids, so that experience lends itself to some very interesting inspiration. Our second EP, Sanctuary, was written during lockdown and really, the first time we played the songs live together was in the studio. That album leads to a more dissident tone and themes. In general though, the songs that are penned by Ian predominantly involve love, loss and relationships. Whereas the songs written by Greg are more topical or based on whatever historical narrative that he is taking a deep dive into at the time and how that history relates to what is going on today.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Making a setlist is always a blast as we really have a common goal of putting together a show that is just as fun for us to play as it is to listen to. We have a few songs that are always in our setlist, “My Old Lady (Don’t Tolerate)” off our first EP “Domestic Bliss” is a staple. It started off as our opener as it has a blistering opening riff, but it’s ended up as a closer that we can all go nuts to.
A lot of our songs, in the studio, have a keyboard part. However, due to logistics of where we play, Ian has transposed most of the keyboard parts to guitar for our live shows. Also, Ian is a great front man, and sticking him behind a stack of keyboards really takes him away from connecting with the audience. Something he is great at.
What plans do you have for the future?
We currently have two new singles coming out through The Animal Farm Music. The first, Guillotine will be released on July 8, 2022.
We are also promoting a big charity gig here in Detroit for ALS research, a cause that is very personal to us and that we are passionate about. You can find more info at www.lawlapalooza.org