(audience cheering) - [Julia] We are so grateful for tonight.

We are Similar Kind.

If you like us, here we are.

Thank you so much!

(audience cheering) (gentle rock music) ♪ Just tell her I'm usually low ♪ ♪ You and me, oh yeah ♪ ♪ 'Cause you've got me feeling like there's something ♪ ♪ Went home without a love song ♪ - My name is Ben McNamara.

I am the guitar player and also like the manager, kind of, for the band.

Like, okay, we got a week.

We don't need to like stress about it.

It's like, we have two days.

I wanted to start a band when I was in high school.

I was in another band with Evan and Miles, who's the drummer and keyboard player of the band now.

- Alright, so let's play the song.

- We're gonna play this magical song I wrote, about three days ago.

1, 2, 3, 4.

(gentle guitar melody) - When we first started, yeah, it was just me and him making music like in my garage.

And we made like a little EP under the band name Similar Kind, but then took it down.

'Cause we were like, we're gonna start over.

(laughing) (gentle guitar music) - That was like the beginning of the beginning.

(gentle rhythm) So we were using, like a bottom line, you know, like the cheap gear and basically trying to figure out what we were doing.

But it definitely helped.

So it was a learning process and we had to redo things a bunch.

But it was fun.

(gentle rock music) So, Miles knew Ben and Ben knew Miles.

And Miles would come down from Reading or Easton and come jam with us.

And he, honestly, he's probably like, one of the best drummers that I know.

(drum beating) - We were trying to find musicians to play with before we met Miles.

And we were, you know, using Craigslist and using like all these like message boards to find people.

And you get like, some interesting people showing up and getting people who are like dedicated to play was like the hardest thing I would say is.

(indie rock music) (muffled singing) ♪ And now I'm even in control ♪ ♪ And anyway, now I won't come down ♪ - I didn't really know Evan, but I knew Ben and then he just like knew that I sang and he recorded demos for an old band that I was in.

One day he just like randomly reached out to me after my band had ended.

Later he reached out and was like, hey, do you wanna start a band?

Like, we're looking to make like Rex Orange County type songs.

And I was like, okay, yeah, cool.

And then that's when I met them.

♪ To stop me somehow ♪ - I was really nervous, to be honest, the first time.

'Cause I hadn't really like grown a confidence of playing with people.

I could play to songs, like in my room, in my basement by myself.

But I had not really worked with anyone yet, so.

Yeah, it was definitely intense for me.

Now we got Nate.

(funky bass music) - I remember going up to Julia and be like, you guys need like a bass player like forever, 'cause like I'll totally do it.

Can you remember that?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

Honestly, not really expecting it to go, not expecting it to go this far, but expecting it to be like, not saying we're like huge or anything, but we're kind of like doing pretty well.

(groovy rock music) ♪ All I do is hide ♪ ♪ And you twist your arm ♪ ♪ You'd rather be understood ♪ (metal clinking) - The writing doesn't take long.

It's, that's the easier part.

It's the recording and once we get here, for instance, we recorded a song, I Don't Wanna Fight Anymore.

Just the vocals alone took five weeks.

♪ Life is a party ♪ - Okay, so there's our beat.

I think the whole song, probably like five months from start to finish when we first started recording until the moment we got the master and released it.

So it's been, it takes time.

- [Ben] Usually it starts with, usually I'll come in with like a chord progression or something, or something that I've been like messing around with for a little while.

And I'll bring it like, hey, what do you guys think of this?

- [Julia] And then they'll jam on it and like tweak it over the course of a few practices probably.

And then, once they get set on like a song structure, then I'll voice memo record it, and then take that for a while and like write lyrics and melody to it.

- All of a sudden you feel like something in the room, I don't know how to describe it.

I'll like, oh, that's a song.

Like, all right, let's go back and like try it again.

And we'll, you know, that's kind of part of being in a band is being able to listen to everybody and kind of, you know, we're all in it together.

So it's kind of one of those things where you gotta be cool with that.

- I think our new song, I Don't Wanna Fight Anymore is definitely my favorite.

Just 'cause it's like my favorite song that we have.

And I mean, not anymore 'cause it'll be out, but when we've played it before, we used to play like thirty-minute sets and then that song would be the only song that we had that was unreleased.

And so there were a few different times when like, we'd play that song and then after the song would end, I'd be like, all the songs that we have, like are out on streaming services.

And everyone's like, "Yeah!"

And then I'm like, except that last one, like, that'll be out soon.

And they're all like, "No!"

So it was cool, like, people really get into that one.

So I really enjoy playing that one live.

One, two.

One, two, three, go!

♪ Just the two of us, with these parked car conversations ♪ - [Ben] And we started playing and we played our first song and like everybody in the audience knew every single word to like, every single song.

- [Miles] Just a complete overload of energy that was too strong, like, I felt like I couldn't hit the drums hard enough.

- [Ben] We all just like looked at each other like, holy (beep), like, whoa.

And we all just like had like these huge smiles on all our faces.

And it was like one of those things where I was like, yeah, I could do this forever.

Like, that was my moment of like, wow, I really love this.

I don't wanna do anything else.

♪ Please turn off the radio, I can't believe ♪ - It's gonna be a mess.

- We're selling (beep).

(Miles sputtering) - [Julia] The craziest thing that's ever happened with like a fan interaction was someone recently got a tattoo with our band logo on it.

♪ Quite alive ♪ ♪ You belong with me, why can't you see ♪ ♪ Just the two of us with these parked car conversation ♪ - [Ben] Most of the stuff in the last couple videos have been just my friends, like, yo, you guys got any ideas for this?

And they're like, yeah, I got this or I got this.

Hey, you wanna come help?

And everybody's always down.

So, it's just getting my friends together and being like, hey, what do you got?

- [Julia] Whoa, how do you balance that on your finger like that.

- I don't know, dude.

It's a skill, dude.

(feet scraping) - [Julia] That is so bad.

- [Ben] That was literally so bad, wow.

- [Julia] It was way better than yours.

You didn't even have the form right.

- [Ben] I would say we've probably clicked more recently than before, I mean, I would say we're probably all spending more time with each other now that we're, you know, going on tours and we've been like spending more time writing music together and kind of solidifying that everybody has like the band now.

Like, I like to say when anybody asks, how long have you guys been a band?

I like to say like, we've been a band for like two and a half years, but I feel like it's only been a year.

(beep) it up.

(laughing) I'm hearing documentaries about you.

(dissonant music) (upbeat rock music) - [Julia] If you're a young musician and you wanna start a band, like start it now.

Or like, if you're a young artist and you wanna make music, just start doing it now.

- [Evan] Keep writing music, keep promoting yourself, and keep just sharing with the world.

And it doesn't matter how many people say no.

If they don't like your stuff, just keep making it.

- [Ben] Don't let anybody tell you your thing sucks.

Do the thing that you love and if you love doing it, you'll eventually find the audience or the, you'll find the people that really love what you do and you'll be able to, you know, do it.

You know, nobody can tell you anything otherwise.

♪ Nobody loves you like I do ♪ ♪ Nobody sees what's going on ♪ ♪ Nobody loves you like I do ♪ ♪ Nobody see what's going on ♪ ♪ Nobody sees ♪ (upbeat rock music)