Hailing from Torrance, CA, the 131ers are Kaleb Davies (vocals/guitar), Ryan Dawson (drums), Chris Graue (bass), and Greg Wilmot (guitar). The indie-rock foursome has created a local buzz with their unique genre-bending sound which is poised to spread to the masses. The band is set to release their new album, Nothing’s As It Should Be, on June 15. Check out Rome below!
‘The band came together in pieces. Kaleb and I met in high school Track and Field. We hated each other at first but ended up bonding over the band Young The Giant and started playing music together. We would actually ditch track practice, buy Taco Bell, and go rehearse at Kaleb’s house’ – Explains Ryan.
Since the release of their 2016 debut album, the band has been playing shows, honing their chops and gearing up for the release of Nothing’s As It Should Be. Continuing to infuse rock n’ roll with funk, edge and soul, the upcoming album is 11 solid tracks of rock n’ roll ear candy, recorded in their self-built warehouse studio, produced by Vince Walker (Suburban Legends) with Ryland Steen (Reel Big Fish/America) behind the board for the first single Face On. ‘Our music is definitely influenced by Southern California. A lot of our favorite bands are local, Chris is also involved in making music videos for a lot of SoCal bands which lead to Vince Walker, singer of Suburban Legends, coming in to produce.’ says Kaleb
The name of the band comes from an error in early MP3 tagging technology. These files carry data including title, artist, album, and more. The genre tag options were severely limited, and many artists found themselves unable to fit neatly into any of the boxes they could check. Several of these artists would leave the field blank, generating an error displaying “131” in the genre column of music playing software. As a child, Kaleb noticed that several of his favorite artists carried this error and would go on to call their box-breaking sound “indie rock.” 131 later became the short code to define this genre in MP3 tags.
This past August, Kaleb and Ryan found themselves caught in the middle of Hurricane Irma during what was supposed to be a vacation in Puerto Rico. They had to participate in preparation efforts with people they had just met and now call friends while they rode out the storm in a hostel. When they returned home they deeply wanted to find a way to help so they founded Artists For Disaster Relief (www.afdrmusic.com), an organization they set up to bring musicians together to fund charity efforts around the world. Their first project, Arecibo, is a compilation album released in January 2018 via Pledge Music with all proceeds going to Friends Of Puerto Rico (www.friendsofpuertorico.org.)
The band has also taken the reins as organizers, bookers as well as performing at the Avaline Music Festival which will take place May 25-28 at Avaline Ranch, located near King City, California. A fundraising event for the Guidry Foundation, an arts and education charity. Four days of camping, swimming in a natural water hole, hiking and live music on May 26 and 27.