3 Heads lead singer Heath Francis shows the way during the group’s CD release party Sunday night at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach. Photo by Susan Weingartner (www.susanweingartner.com)

It was much more than just another night for a band on the rise.
You could even say it was a Eureka moment for the heads from Humboldt County.
As the 3 Heads rolled into the final chorus of Spaced Out Sunday night at the close of their Straight Faced CD release party a half dozen young women held up their fully lit cigarette lighters 20 feet from the stage.

Standing side by side with their well-toned arms thrust in the air, the string of flaming beauties brandished a flickering row of mini-flame throwers that bathed the packed room of more than 200 devoted fans in a gauzy, celestial light.

The soaring harmonies pouring out of 3 Heads lead singer Heath Francis and his life-time sidekick Pat Cleary, the driving, insistent beat, their see-inside-your-soul lyrics and the waves of golden light filled up the back room at Saint Rocke ‘ the upscale club on PCH formerly known as the down-scale dive Pitcher House ‘ as Jessica Hoxie leaned over and explained the conga line of fiery women circling the power-pop band.

These girls like to show their spiritual connection to the band and to their music, she said. It’s become like a ritual at the end of their shows. It’s not always the same girls, either.
Hoxie, a Lawndale school teacher, calls herself the band’s number one fan.
I’m personally responsible for more than 40 people being here tonight, she said. They’ve got a lot of fans around here.

Hoxie has been to dozens of their concerts and performances since they first washed up in Hermosa Beach five years ago as reluctant refugees from the wild weeds of Northern California.
Forced to leave their beloved home turf by the need to see just how far their prodigious talents could take them, the 3 Heads story is an eternal LA story of new kids in town and dreams deferred as they faced the harsh reality of making it in the cutthroat world of big-time music deals.
It’s a jukebox jungle where new-in-town bands typically sign brief, pay-to-play contracts at big-time venues like the Whiskey and the Viper Room just to get exposure and to stand out from the musical masses crowding the city of eternal angles.

We did that pay-to-play thing for a while, at first, Cleary said. We didn’t like it.
It’s a story that goes back to long before Hollywood was a housing project called Hollywoodland.
Many actors today are finding more work in Halifax than Hollywood, but for most musicians LA is still the Mecca, the promised land of talent scouts and industry events and access to film and TV soundtracks that it has been for more than 100 years.

So they come in a never-ending stream of young men and women gifted with musical talent and big voices and a hard-earned, home-grown mastery of their craft.
Once they get here if they have to wait tables by day while they work on their dreams by night, well, so be it.

It’s all part of the journey.
And at the end of the journey is LA, where the name-label deals are made, the established rock-pop-soul talent hangs out and the raw talent comes to be bought and sold ‘ if they can attract a buyer.

From Humboldt to Hermosa
Through one of those lucky, random twists of fate ‘ We knew a friend who lived in Hermosa, so that’s where we came when we left Eureka, Cleary said. Hermosa proved a good fit for their spiritual approach, crystal clear harmonies and tender-tough-guy lyrics.

There’s no angry punk writhing on stage while spitting out vengeful, violent lyrics.. In their most popular songs like Holiday, Home and My Space, they’re all about spreading the love while exploring the byways of the heart, the joys of lust and the spiritual quests of the soul.

I just love the sweetness and the spirituality and the strength of their music. Every time I’ve seen them play they always connect with their audience, Hoxie said. It’s their beautiful voices and their beautiful vibe. But they’ve got a real kick to their lyrics too. I love their song ‘No Excuses.’
A minute after Hoxie turned her attention back to the music, Sue Butensky stopped by to explain that she is the biggest 3 Heads fan around. As a long-time Redondo Beach musician who’s seen a lot of wannabes come and go, she said, she thinks she recognizes big-time talent when she sees it.
And she thinks she saw it instantly three years ago.

I was in a band playing with them at the Blue Cafe in Long Beach. I walked in and they were on stage. I was immediately immersed in their music like I never have been before, she said. From that moment on I wanted to see them every chance I got. I’ve seen them perform more than 25 times since then.
It’s a combination of things, she said. They have incredible songwriting, very creative and thoughtful and insightful. And they only play original songs, only their own music. It can come across as catchy power-pop with great hooks, but if you really listen to the lyrics the connection between Heath and Pat is so tangible, so emotional, that it creates magic on stage with their voices. It’s authentic and real.

The pre-natal, pre-determined BFF connection
Yes, it’s true that there are four members of the 3 Heads. But with all due respect to bass player Jared Fisher and drummer David Banks, who each bring special talents to the collective sound and the sexy soul of the band, the real core of 3 Heads is the two original members ‘ lead singer Heath Francis and lead guitarist/co-vocalist Pat Cleary.

Our mothers met in Lamaze classes in Eureka, Cleary said. And we’ve been best friends since we were four years old and we met on a soccer field.

Taller and stronger, Cleary was the better athlete ‘ still is today, at least on the Live Oaks basketball court ‘ but Francis was the more musically precocious one, getting noticed and singled out early on by his music teachers for his powerful, expressive voice that can scat low, swing high or sizzle in the middle.
I started singing professionally when I was five years old, he said Monday, the day after the Straight Faced CD release party. But I’ve never had a feeling with an audience like we had last night. I’m still flying from it, just thinking about it.

Since he doesn’t smoke or drink, Francis has to take his flying-high inspiration from his music.
He takes his music very seriously. He works real hard at it, said Butensky. He’s very professional, but very spiritual in his approach at the same time.
For both Francis and Cleary that commitment goes back to their earliest days making music together. Because neither one has ever taken a music lesson of any kind, they learned by listening to Stevie Wonder and U2 and other ’70s and ’80s groups.

Right away we started messing around as kids with cassette tapes, Cleary said. We kept progressing, and by high school we were writing our own stuff. Usually either myself or Heath will come with a rough idea of a song and then we collaborate from there.
After several stabs at college ‘ Cleary finally graduated from Sonoma State ‘ the two friends ended up back in Eureka and went right back to making music.

I was writing a lot of songs, Heath had several of his own, and soon we put out our first CD, called ‘The World Was Ours,’ Cleary said. After that, we wanted to expand and get out from behind the redwood curtain.

Pay to Play
They landed in Hermosa really proud of having their first CD and eager to get going on their next step to the big time.
Our first gig ever down here was at Suzy’s, Cleary said. At first, we just played locally, and it was all free. We never had to pay to play in the South Bay.

But soon they wanted to expand to Hollywood and they started heading up to the Sunset Strip where they reluctantly went the pay-to-play route.

Typically, the club wants you to guarantee a certain amount of people showing up for your performance, Cleary said. So we would get a party bus and try to transport people from the South Bay to the shows.
But they quickly saw the downside of busing in your own fans.
You have all these people all pumped up, you play six songs, and then the next band comes on and their fans move up front, he said. It’s very frustrating for the band and its fans. There’s a lot that goes into getting everyone to places like the Roxy, the El Rey or Room Five.
And there was a financial downside too.

If you don’t meet the quota requirements, you don’t get paid. If we’re supposed to bring 30 paying customers but only brought 20, then we get nothing because we didn’t meet the quota. If we did meet the quota we would get half the door.

Building one fan at a time
After dozens of pay-to-play gigs, they decided to go with a build-from-the-bottom-up strategy and re-focus on building their South Bay fan base.

While they make enough from their music to produce their CD’s and maintain their web presence, they’re not too proud to admit they pay their basic bills with day jobs. Cleary is a personal trainer, teaches Physical Education at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Hermosa and also coaches their basketball and flag football teams. Francis works at The Spot as a waiter and says he is grateful for the job.
It’s the best job I’ve ever had outside of music, he said. The owner is wonderful, generous and supportive of my career.

Part of building their local fan base involves reaching out to the community when their fans ask them to. A few months ago Hoxie, the Lawndale elementary school teacher, asked Cleary and Francis to spend an hour with her class.

I just love their song ‘Spaced Out,’ so I taught my class the lyrics in the chorus, Hoxie said. But I didn’t tell Pat and Heath.
Sure enough, after they talked to the class about the process of making music, Hoxie asked the two original Heads to sing Spaced Out.
We were playing it acoustically for her class, Cleary recalled. And when we got to the chorus, out of nowhere all these kids started singing it back to us. It gave me a chill up and down my spine.

The chorus the kids sang:
Before you take your steps,
Before you blink your eyes
You’ve been swept away
We never saw your prize.

Paul Teetor may be contacted at paulteetor@verizon.net. ER