Watch CBS News

Band Bio: SomeKindaWonderful

Fateful encounters at Cleveland bars rarely lead to musical mythology, but SomeKindaWonderful have a dierent kind of story to tell.

A three-piece featuring Jordy Towers (vocals/lyrics), as well as Matt Gibson (guitar) and Ben Schigel (drums), the genre-bending group came together after Towers became another casualty of the major label system. Once signed as a solo act, he refused to become another faceless persona and the label eventually left him hanging on the vine. Towers knew it was time for a reset and headed to Ohio to re-examine his life.

"I'm not the type to be defeated easily," says Towers. "You know, most people move to LA to make it, but I had to leave LA to nd my path."

During a fateful trip to visit family in the suburban Cleveland town of Olmstead Falls (pop 9,000), it was there in January 2013 that Gibson and Schigel, two local musicians, crossed his path. Intending to just grab some beers at a local bar, they found much more than they had anticipated when they came across Jordy.

"We were basically a band without a lead singer and he was a lead singer without a band," says Schigel. "We headed back to our studio the night we met and literally three hours later our rst song 'Reverse' was done."

To call "Reverse" the product of fate is an understatement. Endlessly catchy, the song feels both modern and classic, nodding to '60s soul and contemporary R&B with the dynamic range of big-room pop-rock and cinematic emotion. Its structure, which features Towers unraveling a backwards narrative with a cadence that merges rap and soul, provides a novel lyrical framework to a unique sound.

"It's an R&B soul rock record," says Towers. "It sort of mirrors my move from LA to Cleveland. That path is reversed from what you'd expect. Nothing is deliberate. Just like how we met, it's natural and all about the music. I still can't believe I met my musical soul mates at a bar in Ohio."

SomeKindaWonderful's debut album is slated for a Summer 2014 release via Downtown Records.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.