Photo courtesy of Christina Feddersen.
This fall, The Roosevelts will perform in more than a dozen cities, including Birmingham.
It’s been quite a year for Mountain Brook High School graduate-turned-musician Jason Kloess.
In April, his band, The Roosevelts, released its first album, a 10-track debut titled “The Greatest Thing You’ll Ever Learn.” Along with bandmate James Mason, Kloess watched as the album climbed the iTunes charts, making it all the way to the No. 5 album spot.
The Roosevelts are quick to say they don’t want to fit into a mold when describing their music. On their website, they say their music is “Southern-raised indie-rock” and “harmony-driven American rock, with a ’70s sensibility.”
Still others call their sound “warm, rootsy pop.”
However it’s defined, one thing is clear: The Roosevelts’ music has resonated with audiences.
This year, their songs were picked up by Whole Foods Radio and Paste Magazine. In March, ABC’s “Nashville” featured their song “This is Life.”
“We were thrilled to see our first full-length do so well,” said Kloess, the band’s guitarist.
Kloess and Mason, self-proclaimed “brothers in song,” have been playing music together since they first met nine years ago in Austin, Texas.
Mason, the band’s lead singer, said a mutual friend half-jokingly mentioned the two should get together to play some music. It was a joke at the time, he said, because starting a band was not on either of their minds.
Mason had every intention of going to medical school as he worked his way through college as an ambulance medic.
Kloess, who had recently graduated from Auburn, had begun to settle down in Austin and develop a career in the area’s tech startup community.
How the two were drawn into music felt serendipitously timed, Kloess said.
“It seemed like every single step of the way, before we could decide to step away from playing music, someone would encourage us to continue,” he said.
Eventually, the duo made the decision to make the band their full-time gig and moved to Nashville, where they continue to reside today.
It wasn’t until the first time they were in the studio together — four years ago on President’s Day — that their producer asked for their band name.
“We weren’t ready for that question,” Mason said with a laugh. “They told us they needed a name by the end of the day.”
Kloess said they sat together going through a list of names when “The Roosevelts” occurred to them.
“We thought, ‘It’s President’s Day. There were two of them, two of us.’ It worked,” he said.
It just so happened that both Kloess and Mason were also Eagle Scouts, yet another common factor with the presidents known for their conservationist views.
Today, the band’s momentum continues to grow.
This October, The Roosevelts will perform at the Austin City Limits music festival, an accomplishment Kloess said made him feel like a “mega fan-girl.”
“It’s been on my bucket list for years,” he said.
On Sept. 24, the band will perform at Birmingham’s WorkPlay — the sixth show in a concert tour set to begin in Austin that will also hit New York, Atlanta, Chicago and a dozen other cities in between.
As if music didn’t already keep them busy, Kloess and Mason also founded The Roosevelts Beard Co. after neither could settle on a beard oil they truly liked.
“We started researching which oils to use, which fragrances to mix, really just for ourselves at first,” said Kloess.
The products eventually made it onto their merchandise table and were met with what Kloess described as “massive community interest.”
“Even women buy it for their hair,” he said.
Through all their recent success, The Roosevelts said they like to keep the focus on being grateful to their fans and supporters.
“It’s all a testament to our fans and the relationships we have built over the years,” Kloess said.
For more information, including tour dates and ticket information as well as the Roosevelt Beard Co., go to wearetheroosevelts.com.
