For members of the Threds, performing is all about rocking out.

“It’s a fast-paced rock ‘n’ roll show – high energy,” Matt Willis, the Threds singer/guitarist, said.

The members of Kent-based band the Threds, who have been playing together for a year and a half to two years, will be releasing a five or six song EP early this summer.

The EP, which will be released independently, is the band’s first release. The songs were recorded last summer and still need to be touched up.

“We’re a little bit perfectionists,” Willis said.

To record the songs, the members of the Threds packed all of their equipment in Newton’s living room, which they call the “music room,” and put mattresses up over the windows.

“We recorded it in like a week, I think” Willis said.

During recording, the band members had to make a last-minute trip to Roselyn’s Music in New Philadelphia.

“He’s like the most kick-ass music store owner, ever,” said Seth Newton, the band’s keytarist/pianist. “He let us rent an entire drum set for like 25 bucks, and he stayed after-hours to like help us out.”

The members of the Threds have different influences between them – they can’t even listen to the same music while riding in the car together.

“Like, we had a three-hour drive up to Toledo to see my girlfriend,” said Jeff Sikes, drummer, “and we would sit there like, no, no, no, no, no, while we went through each other’s collections.

“We could barely listen to the same music,” he added, “and it’s not that we hate each other’s music, but we all listen to different stuff.”

Sikes is influenced by Dave Mathews, as well as classic rock and hard rock. Willis is influenced by bluegrass and country music, and also the Detroit rock scene – Iggy Pop and the Stooges, the White Stripes, etc.

In spite of the band members having diverse influences, Willis and Sikes started the Threds and began playing together at house parties.

“We were playing together and it was just a two-piece thing,” Willis said, “and we didn’t really have a bottom to our sound – so we thought it would be good idea to pick up a bass player.”

Sikes knew Newton from when both lived in the town homes, and asked him to join the Threds to play the bass parts on the keytar, and play keyboard too.

Newton plays the keytar because, he said, he is a piano guy.

“Pretty much though, it just rocks,” Newton said. “You just look at it and you’re thinking, ‘Man, I wish I could have one of those,’ you know. Everybody wants their own keytar.”

The band members describe their sound as just straight rock ‘n’ roll, with none of the pre/post prefixes to categorize it, and they don’t want people to take them insanely seriously.

“I guess we just want to be known for rocking,” Willis said. “We want people to come to the shows and have a good time.”

Contact ALL correspondent Gabe Gott at [email protected].

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