Q & A: Meg and the Right Sound 'just kind of happened'

In the basement of a band member's home in Manheim, Meg and the Right Sound broke out soul-inspired covers of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alabama Shakes, along with playing one of its original songs, "Rome."

On that recent Tuesday, the group — which is made up of lead singer Meg McDermott, guitar player Jason Sherman, bassist Chris Jakubowicz and drummer Jeremy Bentley — sipped beers and talked about the band.

McDermott will perform on Saturday with Mark DeRose at the Lancaster Dispensing Co. The band also has several shows coming up in the area during the next month.

Q. What's the best way to describe the band's sound?

A. Bentley: "My interpretation, almost from an outside perspective — [was] that it was like soul — soul music, but with an indie vibe. And then maybe something you might hear on WXPN."

A. McDermott: "I don't know who we sound like exactly. Sometimes I compare us a little bit to Alabama Shakes mixed with like — I don't know. We do some Lake Street Drive stuff, also. So it's a little soul-ish, a little indie rock."

Q. How'd the band start?

A. McDermott: "We've been playing together since late April of last year, so we've been playing for about a year. We started off as a duo — and, I didn't think [Sherman] want to play with me, so I asked his wife. I was like, 'Uh, think he'd play guitar for me?' And it just kind of happened. We've all kind of known each other through various things and church, whatever, for a while."

Q. What's the future outlook for the band?

A. Sherman: "We definitely want to have an original record. But we're also not really in a hurry to get there because this isn't — at this point — this is not like career aspirations. This is more like good friends. We want to have fun, we want make some music, we want to get paid for it and we would love to bring some beauty into the world."

Q. Anything that I didn't bring up that's important to mention?

A. Sherman: "Despite the fact that we're a year in, we're definitely in our infancy, and still kind of finding ourselves. And, I would say, honestly, a year ago, the project started a lot more casually than where it's at now. Like, a year ago — originals, eh, we just wanted to play and have fun and make a couple of bucks and have a good time. And it's just kind of grown from there, and now we're at the point where we're kind of ready to kind of take the next step and kind of try to define what our sound is."