Band of the Week: Hello! 3D

MEET THE BAND: Jake Fader (guitar, keyboards), Cutty (keys and guiro), John Galvez (guitar), Ed Sotelo (bass), Joe Tomino (drums), Neil Chastain (percussion)

TRIAL BY FIRE: Back in 2015, Fader made a Latin instrumental rock record with New York-based Ray Lugo. They recorded a double album as a group they called Los Terrificos. Fader says it was at that time that he became interested in psychedelic music from Peru and Colombia. “I really fell I love with that music,” he says via phone from the Cleveland studio where he was working on music for the next Cleveland International Film Festival trailer with Tomino. “I wondered what it would be like to play live, particularly the groovy stuff, like the chicha and cumbia. I also wondered who would be interested in Cleveland.” He first talked to local bassist Sotelo, and then, Hello! 3D played it first show in 2019, opening for Los Mirlos at Now That’s Class. The band even told Fader that the show was its favorite on the tour that year. “It was trial by fire; it was kind of scary,” says Fader. “You had all these people there who were really into the music. Hello!3D wasn’t a studio band at this point; we had really only rehearsed a half-dozen times.”

PSYCH 101: Most of the band members had never heard much of the particular styles of music that Fader embraced, so there was a learning curve involved after the band formed. “[Percussionist] Neil Chastain is an encyclopedia in Latin music, so he was well-versed," says Fader. "John Galvez wasn't familiar with the style at the time but knew and composed other Latin music. Ed  Sotelo had heard some of it. Cutty had heard some of it. They weren’t all into super-into cumbia, but they knew. Everyone is coming at from a different perspective, and we all had to learn to play it.”

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: “Old Bus” equally sounds like it belongs on a the soundtrack to a Western film or a comedy. “That was the first original I wrote for this group,” says Fader. “I had a lot of fun with it. I took a crack at writing something lighter. That was hard for me. I can write something minor or dark, but I struggle with writing something happier. It’s like when they say comedy is the hardest genre.” The careening “Thin Air and Alcohol” has a manic energy to it. “I had this melody that is a little closer to Peruvian Chicha. Having someone like Ed [Sotelo], who is super steeped in punk and Joe  [Tomino], who had played harder and faster music can bring something to it. I wanted it sound like it’s always on the edge of breaking. It evolved over time, and those guys made it into that energy. We always have to make sure we play it fast enough. That is normally not a band’s problem.” Fader says the band might not put out an album in its traditional sense. “We have a collection of singles that will probably accumulate into a new record,” he says. The band worked on a bunch of songs last October and has slowly added originals to the live sets. “The live show was 80/20 covers, but it’s tipped to maybe 70/30 in favor of originals now,” says Fader. “I could be really off with the math, but we’re writing more than we’re learning new covers. John is a great writer and Ed writes too.”

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: hello3d.bandcamp.com.

WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: Hello! 3D performs at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, in the House of Blues Foundation Room. Admission is free.