Modern Suspects: a name, a band that just might grow on you

Listen to the Modern Suspects in the latest Sound Nook Session.

Avery Norwood and Bella Galardo
September 30, 2015

Modern Suspects is a band based out of Denver. They often play at local venue, The Black Sheep. After about three years of working on the Claymore Disco project, the three musicians, Tyler Frees, Garret Myers, and Bart Williams, decided to pursue their own line of music, creating the band, Modern Suspects.
The band’s goal is to produce a positive and exciting role model for other people wanting to begin a band or pursue music. They released their first single, “Sequel”, on December 2, 2014 and released their most recent single, “Told You So”, on March 3, 2015. They hope to release their third single soon this year.

Prospector: How did each of your passions begin for music?

Garret Meyers: With me, it started because I saw a video performance of John Tesh at Red Rocks. I thought it was the coolest thing to play at a venue like that and have a band there with you; after I saw the video I immediately became inspired.

Bart Williams: I first started paying attention to music in junior high. I found some bands that I really enjoyed. My dad always had a guitar that he would always get out maybe once or twice a year. He knew three chords on it but I was always fascinated with him being able to play guitar so from there I told him to teach me the three chords he did know. I dove in to some of the music books that he had and from there it kept growing and growing.

Tyler Frees: For me, one of the first things was listening to songs on the radio and picking out the bass parts and really listening to that more than anything. I picked up learning how to play some other stuff along the way.
Prospector: How did you guys come up with the band name?

Tyler: I kept suggesting all of these names that started with “The” like The Hives. We all kind of hated those, so I said The Suspects and we all liked that part of it. I think it was Garret who said “What about The Modern Suspects?” Like any name, it takes a while to grow on you. I’m very glad we chose it.

MUSIC VIDEO SHOT AT MANITOU SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL IN THE MODERN SUSPECTS SOUND NOOK SESSIONS.

Prospector: Who writes the songs?

Garret: We all have different roles in a song so we all write them. Most of the time I’ll write melodies and I’ll typically start with lyrics and then we’ll typically all sit down and rewrite parts of it or change lyrics. Sometimes I will write a verse and Bart will write a line in the chorus. Once we have the foundation of a song then we sit down together with our instruments and we slowly add parts in.

Prospector: What is your favorite venue to play in?

Garret: The Blue Bird Theater in Denver for me because it’s beautiful. It’s probably the coolest venue. The first time I was there I saw Owl City years and years ago. Ever since then I’ve always been like “I want to play here”. It’s just the coolest place. When you walk in, the ceiling and the stage and everything else are beautiful.

Tyler: One for me would also be The Blue Bird but another one would be a venue called The Church. It was literally a church and they kind of converted it into a nigh club, somewhat. They mostly do EDM and that sort of thing there. We played up there for a festival called “Westward,” which is a big concert festival that Denver puts on. It was an awesome experience because there’s stained glass on the side and you can see the beams are super high. Playing in there was really super cool.

Bart: I would say my favorites are the outdoor venues. Usually the ones that a giant production crew comes in and sets up the huge speaker racks and light systems and things like that. I just love being outside so any of those stages.

Prospector: What is your favorite song to play live and why?

Bart: For me it would probably be “Told You So” because it has quite a big dynamic to it from being really soft to being really full and powerful. There’s a lot of different elements in the song; a lot of different instruments that get highlighted and there’s a lot of really high energy.

Tyler: My favorite song to play live would be “Sequel” because that one has more of a unique message than some of the other songs. Some of it is definitely at the heart of the band and there’s just something freeing to me to play that song; it always has a good vibe.

Garret: I’m with Bart on this one. I like playing “Told You So” as well because that song is known by the majority of the people that are coming to our shows. It’s played on the radio here in Colorado Springs so it’s really cool to be on stage and seeing people that you don’t know sing your songs.