Hailing from Houston, TX, this power trio consists of Matthew Cobb (Lead Guitar/Vocals), Christian Mireles (Bass), and David Shorey (Drums).
no rehearsal’s focus as a band is to break the pre-conceived notion that “young people” can’t keep up or have music of both technical and emotional value. Drawing influences from the seamless guitar heavy pop sensibilities of John Mayer, the melodic intricacies and atmospheric tones of The Neighbourhood, the raw, gritty blues packaged for mainstream media shown in The Black Keys, and the band dynamic and ability to just make solid pop music seen in The 1975.
Although the technical formation of the band is in 2009, this lineup has been together since summer of 2014. Before that, no rehearsal performed at SXSW 2013 at Berklee College of Music’s Day Party at Brush Square Park, and performed at New Daisy Theater on Beale Street as the Houston Youth representative for the Houston Blues Society in the International Blues Competition. Since this solid lineup, no rehearsal has amassed a solid following in Houston having performed at large venues such as the main stage at House of Blues Houston, and opened for some of Houston’s rock royalty such as Seasons After, and Escape (former members of Stride). They have even performed the official broadway scores of “Hairspray” and “Grease” the musicals!
In this interview, the band dives deep into their influences, challenges, and their newest project.
Full Q&A plus links and a stream of Back To Fall are below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
We’re a trio, from Houston, TX. My name is Matt Cobb, I’m the lead guitarist/vocalist for the band. Christian Mireles is the bassist, and David Shorey is the drummer. We are all 19 years old, and are currently an independent band.
Our genre has certainly become quite the mix. It’s at the point where it’s hard to define anymore. It’s really become a project by project basis, rather than an all encompassing genre.
For me, I was incredibly influenced by the Beatles. From there I began diving into more blues and thus ended up idolizing John Mayer for his ability to blend my love for blues and pop (just as the Beatles did), but in a more modern sense. The focus on the guitar, the ability to craft stories, the pop appeal, everything Mayer stands for, appealed to me.
For Christian, it began with Black Sabbath and has since transitioned into Indie/Alternative with The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys. For David, it started with classic rock like Rush, and The Eagles, and stayed there ever since.
With our first project, Late in The Midnight Hour (2015) it was all about blues rock, and focusing on the dynamic of a band, and what a live take feels like to an audience. It was raw, and it was the perfect representation of us at that time. It was pop songwriting, with ripping guitar solo’s, extended instrumental breaks, and just the feel that started my love for music and guitar in the first place.
How long have you been creating and sharing your music with the public?
I’ve had the band “no rehearsal” since I was in 7th grade (2009). We performed around our town of Atascocita/Humble/Kingwood during that time. This lineup formed the summer going into our senior year of high school (2014). We had been writing since then, and got into our first commercial studio, at the very end of senior year (2015). We started recording at Sugarhill Studios in Houston, TX, in May of 2015, and then released our debut EP, Late in the Midnight Hour, October 3, 2015. That was our first real project that was available on soundcloud and band camp, as well as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc
Who or what influences your playing and/or writing? Also, what motivates you to keep going
Matt: My playing has always been influenced by John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jimi Hendrix. Those have always been my top 3 when it comes to the guitar. In terms of writing, once again it falls with John Mayer, but also some of the modern indie rock/pop bands like Matty Healy from the 1975 or Jesse Rutherford from The Neighbourhood, have lately been inspiring my writing. I like Mayer’s ability to write a story, establish a sophisticated instrumentation behind the words, while still captivating a wide audience with pop appeal. With Healy and Rutherford, I like their ability to capture the rawness of reflection. Their writing delves into themselves in a way that can put your life into their experiences, as if you too have experienced it.
Christian: In terms of playing, I started with a love for Black Sabbath, but lately, since I’ve been apart of no rehearsal, I’ve connected to The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, and The Neighbourhood. The bass wasn’t necessarily my first choice of instrument, but it’s what the guys needed, and without those bands, I wouldn’t have even had the interest in filling a spot for a band like I am now.
David: I’ve always been inspired by the sounds of classic rock, since my dad was a disc jockey in the 80’s, he has hundreds of thousands of vinyls in the house from that time and even before. I grew up on The Beatles, Rush, The Eagles, etc. My drumming has always been hugely influenced by Neil Peart of Rush. Rush is my favorite band of all time, with him being the bulk of the reason that I am so fascinated by them.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
Before, with Late in the Midnight Hour, we had had a collection of songs that I had written, as well as some new ones that we had written together. Winter and My Girl were demos from my sophomore year of high school that we revamped and made our own since David and Christian weren’t in the picture at the time they were written.
A.M, Afterthoughts, and He Loves You, were written amongst the three of us. We had been earning a lot of money doing local restaurant gigs around our town, and playing as a house band for a non denominational church. Since we had enough to record a whole E.P. on our own dime, we decided to begin our first venture into recording our music for the public, at a commercial studio. Our goal at that time, was solely to get our foot in the door and put our name out there. Did we hope that we had struck gold with the record? Of course we did, but our main goal was to have music to our name. Fast forward 9 months later and now the goal is totally different.
With this new project (That is still currently untitled) we wanted to take the more commercial approach to our music. There’s a song on the previous EP that is 10 minutes long. With this EP, the goal was to keep all the songs under 4 minutes if possible. It’s much more pop inspired, specifically the 80’s and also modern indie rock/pop.The recording process was more precise as we did each instrument bit by bit. Drums played to a click and scratch instruments, and the rest of the band overdubbed each part to the drums. Before, it was all a full live take. This time was precise, and every part was calculated and brought to it’s full potential. We wanted the tracking to be as pristine as it could be since we were sending these songs off to Los Angeles to be mixed and mastered by big name engineers. Now it’s not a matter of just having music. Now, we want to reach the widest audience we possibly can.
What was the last song you listened to?
The new Hunny track, Colder Parts.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl is a fad. It’s just nice to have a physical embodiment of the music you like, with some extra content like booklets and pictures and such. Cd’s are obsolete, and if you’re talking about MP3’s specifically, then I’d take Vinyl, but if you mean digital music in general, then that would be my preference. Digital music can’t warp, or break, or sound scratchy, it’s an exact representation of what you created, and it’ll never age. If we’re talking merch, CD’s and MP3’s hardly sell apparently… It’s all about vinyl
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Apple Music. Me and Christian are both subscribers, while David is subscribed to Spotify. I just love everything Apple does, and I support all of their endeavors. Although, none of them are paying artists like they should be… But that’s a whole different story. Bottom line, Apple has the Drake Exclusives (and apparently Frank Ocean too) and that’s good enough to us.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what are one or two of the biggest challenges you face when trying to attract listeners to your music?
Our age. Being as young as we are makes people have a certain pre disposition that they shouldn’t take you seriously. It’s also really hard to come up in the live music scene when we have to turn away our 19 year old friends from strictly 21+ venues. Age has been the biggest challenge by far
Do you gig, tour or perform? Do you ever live stream? Where can music lovers see you live?
We do gig, It’s mainly in the Texas area (Houston the most) but we are trying to start touring, once we start building some buzz to make touring worth while. We live stream all of our shows on Facebook, that’s been a good way to connect with our audience thus far. If you live in Houston, come through, until we make it to your neck of the woods. I would love to play in Tennessee… I almost ended up going to Belmont to attend the Mike Curb school for recording engineering.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more of your music?
Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Soundcloud / We’re also on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, etc.
Any last thoughts? Shout outs? Words of wisdom
Shout outs to Isaac Chavez-Garza from Houston, TX, who tracked our whole EP at Third Coast Recording Co in Kingwood, TX, and his own studio in Houston, SoLow Studios.
Shout outs to Eric Palmquist at Palmquist Studios in Los Angeles, CA for mixing and adding additional production to our EP.
Shout outs to John Greenham in Los Angeles, CA, for mastering the EP.
The lead single, Back to Fall from our forthcoming EP, released on July 29th, and Can’t Stop being the following single, is releasing August 12th.
Big thanks to Middle Tennessee Music for seeing potential in our track, Back to Fall, and for featuring us in their interview!
Matt – Lead Guitarist/Vocalist for no rehearsal.
