On a particularly warm night in 2007, just before they started a tour around the northeast, Garrett Cummings, Taylor Cummings and Abe Kline still hadn’t picked a name for their band. When a friend gestured to the now-sweaty guitar Kline was playing and asked if it was new, Kline replied, “Yeah, the sweat’s brand new.” From then on, the group had found their name: New Sweat.
“We thought those two words together described the sweat of playing a gig and getting yourself onstage and people dancing,” Kline, who plays bass and does vocals, said.
The band name has been up on the chopping block a few times, but the band members say it’s too late to change now. They just released their first CD in December, called No Instructions.
The band said their sound is influenced by all genres, from ‘90s grunge to Hootie and the Blowfish.
“I’d say [our sound] is a rootsy pop-rock,” said Garrett Cummings, who plays guitar and does vocals “It kind of takes on its own blend. We just play what we think sounds cool.”
The group has also adopted some country and folk styles into its music. Many of the songs are about the charms and complications of country culture. Garrett Cummings said that they were inspired by the “small coal-country town” of Bloomsberg, Pa., where the three grew up.
“We’ve been playing together since eighth grade,” drummer Taylor Cummings said.
Not only did they play together throughout middle and high school, but the Cummings played in bars around N.C. State when they were in college. While they were all visiting their hometown, Kline, who studied at Pennsylvania State, joined them.
“I’ve always looked up to my brother, and then he asked me to play with him,” Taylor Cummings said. “I thought that was a pretty huge honor. It was fun to play Friday and Saturday nights, just with my brother, on my little broken-down drum set.”
The band came together once Taylor and Garrett Cummings graduated and Kline moved to Raleigh. In 2012, Douglas McCullough was incorporated into the band. McCullough, an acquaintance of the Cummings through attending NCSU, sings and plays piano.
“Doug made the mistake of revealing that he has a velvety smooth and powerful voice,” Garrett Cummings said. “He smoothed out all the edges.”
The band’s vocals incorporate three-part harmonies between McCullough, Garrett Cummings, and Kline, with Taylor Cummings singing backup.
“Anytime you hear a band with three part harmonies your like ‘Oh yeah, these guys can sing,’ whether they can sing or not,” Garrett Cummings said.
Garrett Cummings wrote the song structures for the tracks on No Instructions, but each of the band members wrote the parts for their own instruments.
“We just kind of make up our parts and fill them in along the way,” Kline said.
New Sweat says that in the future they would love for more people to hear their music, but they are content with continuing to perform just to enjoy each other’s company.
“It’s sort of a band of brothers,” Garrett Cummings said. “It’s one of those things where you would enjoy it if you were doing it anyway, but you enjoy it especially because you’re with your best friends and family. … The three of us grew up together.”
“Because we’re like brothers, we can be honest and be like ‘hey man, that sounds like s***, stop doing that,’” Kline said. “There are no hurt feelings because you can’t break bonds like that.”
Even McCullough, who joined the band recently, agreed with the sentiment.
“You see a lot of bands where the chemistry doesn’t work because everybody’s egos are playing, but for me to come in, mediocre at my instrument, and learn on the job, these guys made it fun,” McCullough said. “There was never any pressure.”
New Sweat plans to write more songs together and put out another album eventually. Until then, the band can be seen performing live at local venues in the Raleigh area.
