The 123's

I recently conversed with Jordan Reynolds over Facebook about his band, the 123's, a folk/rock band that has been causing a splash in Keene for the last three years.

Tom MacLennan -When did you start the band?

Jordan Reynolds- I started writing my first 123's song the summer before college (Springtime). I moved to college and, as always happens with me with a change of environment, I had a HUGE burst of creativity. I wrote a bunch of songs the month I got here. I met Megan Allyn, a former music major, who played flute and sang with me, this was the core of the group.

TM- What were your first gigs?

JR- Back then they used to have open mics in the Night Owl Cafe on a weekly basis; this was probably our biggest gig at this point. It was pretty fun, people used to come and watch and play, it's kind of too bad they don't do that anymore.

TM- I understand the lineup has changed frequently, what can you tell me about that.

JR- Our friends Dan started playing guitar, and Alec started playing bass. We practiced in my tiny triple in Carle and in Megan's room in Randall. People got pretty annoyed. Especially when my friend Charles Walker, another former music major and GREAT singer/songwriter/drummer/guitarist/musician in general, started playing drums with us. We played around campus but were, for the most part, upstaged by other bands that had been around here longer. Charles transferred back to New Jersey and Dan decided The 123's may not have been his thing; we still thank him for the name idea. We began playing as Me on drums/voice; Megan on flute/piano/voice; Alec on bass. We were not the tightest ensemble. Megan and I started playing as a duo. We didn't play as much my junior year. Charles transferred back and started playing with us again. As well as some other random people a couple of times. Charles, again, moved back to Jersey. TJ started playing with us. Then Chris Meyer who introduced me to Chris Robinson, who I had never even met before. This was the quintet we played as for a while. As we got a little more serious Chris Meyer decided he could not make the commitment; then TJ; then Megan. Chris and I played a show or two together as we juggled around some names of drummers. Sean played with us; he was great. We've worked the past few months as a trio on working on and polishing some of the songs I've written the past few years.

TM- What are your playing/songwriting influences?

JR- We have lots of influences. We all love lots of rock music: Coheed, The Mars Volta, Zeppelin, Death Cab, the list goes on. Some of my biggest songwriting influences are Death Cab, Simon and Garfunkel...mostly Simon, Connor Oberst and, lots of my friends music and people I play/have played with. I kind of hate Bob Dylan. We all REALLY LOVE the people in our music scene right now.

TM- Whats the current situation in the group?

JR- We've since played with some other great musicians like Joe Viola McConaughy, Nate Shower, and other members of the KSC music department. We have started working on our first full-length album at Handsome Grandson studios in Keene. You watched as we won biology club's battle of the bands!

TM- That’s great thank you.

JR- No problem.

The 123's on Facebook