San Diego’s Thee Sacred Souls have had a whirlwind last couple of years, going from cutting demos and playing lowkey gigs to signing to Daptone, who released their eponymous album in 2022. It also included hitting the road for a full year, which was both hard and also thrilling, the trio tells Rolling Stone’s On the Radar.
They went “from playing shows in backyards and living rooms and alleys” to now having big crowds on the road, bassist Sal Samano says. “It’s a crazy experience, that many people just singing, having a good time.”
While it has been a great experience, it also has its challenges. “It’s not that glamorous, you know, but we’re getting our sea legs,” drummer Alex Garcia says. “and got to see like, we pretty much like drove throughout the country a few times.”
“Touring extensively kind of shatters the rose-colored glasses. I think if you love the music, then it’s not a bad thing. It just kind of gives you a little dose of reality and you have to try to figure out, ‘how do I remind myself that I love this and then I love being a human,’” singer Josh Lane says with a laugh “’cause sometimes you go from place to place and hotel to hotel, you can lose sight of that a little bit. And so all in all, I would say it’s been a beautiful experience.”
The band toured on their self-titled debut, which includes the song “Can I Call You Rose?” “It’s kind of like the genesis of how we formed as a band,” Garcia says. “I had written an instrumental in July of like 2018, and I wasn’t sure what to do with the song. It wasn’t complete until Josh came along and just literally recorded the vocals on the spot that same day I showed it to him.”
It was kismet. “A lot of times when I’m coming up with melodies, I just use placeholder words so that the melodies and syllables can flow, and then we’ll take it back and write lyrics to that,” Josh adds. “In this particular instance, I was just kind of looking around for some something that would spark the placeholder words, and there was this big blanket that had roses on it that Alex was using for sound reinforcement in his garage soundproofing. Instead of it being placeholder words, it ended up just being the idea and it just flew.”
The band is already working on their sophomore album. “I’m like, really excited to keep writing for the second record,” Garcia says. “The main difference with the songwriting approach, currently is that we don’t have a home studio anymore to to demo, but I actually am taking that as a challenge now because I’m hearing more of like, the full song in my head, which is kind of good because you’re kind of forced to like, really hear each part. And so each part is more intentional.”