“Cumbersome” isn’t exactly a word you’d expect to hear in the chorus of a monster rock hit. But that awkward adjective proved anything but for Seven Mary Three.
“I couldn’t have predicted that song would have the eternal life it seems to have,” said bass player Casey Daniel during a call from his home in Orlando.
“We had a little taste of [success] with a couple radio stations and specifically one in Orlando playing [‘Cumbersome’ from the self-produced ‘Churn’ disc] back then, so we had kind of gotten the one-city idea of what it would be like to go that well everywhere,” he recalled. “So when we went in to do ‘American Standard,’ we were hoping that success would continue on everywhere else.”
And it did. In addition to “Cumbersome,” the 1995 major label debut, “American Standard,” included “Water’s Edge” and “My My” and went platinum.
“I think, especially in a lot of decades, there are a lot of things that date music,” Daniel said. “We’re lucky in the fact that back in the ’90s, there was enough of the modern
technology that we still use today with the way albums are recorded that we recorded onto tape and then put it into Pro Tools, but the sounds aren’t dated.
“It’s not the amp of the day; it’s not all electronic; it’s not all Auto-Tuned;it doesn’t have any of those pitfalls that go in and out of style if you just have four guys in a band with their instruments and singing directly — that’s the real vocal track.”
Daniel, singer-guitarist Jason Ross, guitarist Thomas Juliano and drummer Mike Levesque continue cranking out real music. The group also known for the hits “Lucky,” “Wait”
and “Over Your Shoulder” is working on its seventh studio album.A live disc, “Backbooth,” was released in 2010.
“We’re a live band,” Daniel said.
“If people come to the shows, then they’ll stay interested in the albums and everything else because that’s the real deal. It’s hard to get people to buy music a lot of times nowadays because they can steal it, but you can’t go to a show without getting up off your butt and going and doing something.”
Seven Mary Three will headline the Mad River Harley-Davidson Ohio Bike Week show June 2 at the Yuengling Concert Pavilion, 5316 Milan Road, Sandusky. Gates open at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 day of the concert; VIP passes are $25.
Coincidentally, the band’s name came from the TV show “CHiPS.” Officer Jon Baker’s police call sign was “7 Mary 3” — seven stood for his patrol beat, “M” meant he was a motorcycle unit and three was his unit number.
“We were in college at the time and it was old reruns running during the middle of the day, and we had been playing with a different band name almost every show and trying to find something that worked,” Daniel said. “I guess we either had a good show or a bunch of people came out that night, so [Seven Mary Three] stuck.”
Read about more events at www.ohiobikeweek.com
