Bands consisting of three musicians are more the exception than the rule. Most bands consist of multiple musicians because it is rather difficult to play many instruments with a small line-up. Yet these bands exist, and I think that most of our readers can name several bands in which three members play all the instruments. Rush is of course the most famous example, but also Genesis once consisted of three members playing all the instruments themselves.
Well, there happens to be a band from Wales that also consists of three musicians, and they certainly have been influenced by the aforementioned acts. These three musicians call themselves Tribe3; the band consist of the following members: Jonathan Kinsey (vocals, drums, additional keyboards), Chris Jones (guitar), and Steve 'Yip' Hughes (bass guitar, keyboards, bass pedals). To date they released two albums: Tribe3 (2023, see review) and Life Amongst Strangers (2025, see review). These albums sound great; they should be in possession of lovers of progressive rock. For the readers of Background Magazine who don't know this band yet, I recommend reading the interview with the band members below!

L to R: Chris Jones, Jonathan Kinsey & Steve Hughes

I read that you have been active on the local prog and fusion scene on and off over the last forty years! Did you start making music when you all were teenagers?
Jonathan Kinsey (JK): "Unfortunately, we are no spring chickens! Chris and Steve bump up the average age of the band, ha ha! We all have been in different prog bands over the years. Chris and I were also in a prog-fusion instrumental band together, called The Dougs for about ten years."
Chris Jones (CJ): I was given my first guitar for my twelfth birthday. I loved Status Quo at the time, and I managed to get my head around twelve-bar blues fairly quickly. I discovered Rush around four years later which set the tone for my style, particularly from a chordal perspective, and from that moment ideas started to flow."
Steve Hughes (SH): "In 1983 I joined my first prog band called Ezra. We were initially at school together. I left the band in 1994 and didn't play again until 2014. When I started again I had the intention to begin an instrumental fusion band like Bruford and Brand X, but obviously we were not so good as them! This slowly morphed into Tribe3 with Chris joining the band in 2019 and Jonathan in 2023."

Is it true Jonathan, that you adapted some of the instrumental pieces to include your voice and lyrics just like Twelfth Night did when Geoff Mann joined them?
JK: "I just added my vocals and extra keys onto the already existing songs. The one exception was Lament, which was arranged together."

When did you start working on your eponymous album? Did it turn out the way you have hoped for? I think it's a strong sounding prog rock album with a top production.

Debut album art

JK: "The production is courtesy of the mighty Tim Hamill. He is just fantastic."
SH: "Thank you for the feedback and the vote of confidence. As Jonanthan just said, Tim did a fantastic job of ensuring the tracks were layered correctly and you can hear all the instrumentation that makes it a full sound. So, yes we were very pleased with the end result."

It seems to me that your debut album is not a concept album with connected tracks. Or am I wrong?
JK: "No, you are right. It is not a concept album. We would like to write a fully fledged concept album in the future though."

With a line-up of three band members people might think about Rush, but it is surprising how little Rush influences can be found on your debut. However, on Fear Is The Key and Calm Before The Storm I noticed some. Am I correct?
CJ: "Calm Before The Storm has a Rush feel in certain sections. The big open suspended chords in the intro, the arpeggio seven-eighths section, and during the solo you can hear the influences of Alex Lifeson at the fore."
JK: "Rush are a band that all three members enjoy. Chris has seen Rush playing live over fifty times. However, some people said that Fear Us The Key sounds like Black Sabbath. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm as I only really know Paranoid and Iron Man."
SH: "On the first album we used the Mellotron Choir and that is a nod more to Genesis. However, we attempted to incorporate various moods into the tracks to hopefully sound like Tribe3 as opposed to one particular influence."

In my opinion The Downfall Of The Birdwatcher sounds like The Beatles with modern musical influences. Am I right?
CJ: "Personally, not in the slightest!"
JK: "I deliberately recorded the backing vocals to be slightly psychedelic, and yes, I am a fan of The Beatles. I was trying to aim for harmonies more like The Pretty Things at the time though, particularly on their album S.F. Sorrow (1968)."
SH: "The track in question has a quirky feel to it with the lyrics having a potential double meaning. As for the sound or the vibe, it has a jazzier feel in places, not something you would associate with The Beatles."

The pompous keyboard sound with bass pedals made me several times think about Genesis. Are they a major influence, and are you Steve responsible for the Genesis sound?
JK: "You can't have prog rock without pompous keys and bass pedals, ha ha!"
SH: "Both Jonathan and I admire the Genesis 1973-1976 period. We've incorporated the Moog Taurus pedals, that I'm the proud owner of, and the classic Mellotron sounds into the sound of the first album."

Chris, how did you create that amazing guitar sound while playing one of those excellent guitar solos? Who influenced you?
CJ: "Thank you! Every guitar track was recorded through Neural DSP's Quad Cortex. A staggering piece of gear of which I've barely scratched the surface. I suppose my approach is forged from the open chordal style of the mighty Alex Lifeson, and the soloing of the late Alan Murphy. He was an exquisite player. I was fortunate enough to see him live with Go West and Level 42 in the eighties, prior to his tragic death. My favourite players these days though are fusion monsters like Scott Henderson, Mike Landau and Wayne Krantz. If I could convincingly play a single phrase from any of those guys' tunes, I could die happy."

Jonathan, when you joined the band did you play the drums and sing at the same time, or did you use drum tracks or an additional live drummer?
JK: "Two years ago, I was the last person to join, and a singer was already in place. He left after a couple of months, and I was asked to be the singer. I accepted, but I wanted them to get another singer afterwards. I didn't have any aspirations to be the lead singer, and initially I only did it to get the album finished. This was the first time, I have ever been the lead singer, as I've always been a drummer who sang only backing vocals. I rewrote all the lyrics and vocal melodies over a three-month period, as we were close to recording the album. Initially, we used my drums on a backing track live, but now Greg Paulett is our live drummer, and I'm the studio drummer."

Did you have any influences on the keyboard parts? Do you play on stage more keyboard parts than on the album to help Steve?
JK: "For the first album, I only added some additional key parts and melodies that I played live. On the second album I played probably sixty percent of the keyboard parts and because of that, I have a lot more to do on stage. Steve plays some of my parts and I play some of his too."

Your promising debut was followed by stand-out performances at the Prog For Peart Festival, where the band received a standing ovation. This was repeated at the subsequent HRH Prog Festival. How did that feel, and is it easy for you to copy your complex music during a live performance?
JK: "It was just fantastic and a validation for all the demanding work we put in. We genuinely thought our music wouldn't get much further than our front doors. The reception gave us the belief we were doing something right. We practiced a lot, both individually and as a band. I had never played keyboards live before, so it was a baptism of fire."
CJ: "We were a bit dumbfounded by the reactions we got to our festival appearances last year. It was quite bizarre. We had rehearsed a fair bit beforehand, so we felt reasonably confident we could play the stuff! The tracks are quite long and involved, but with enough rehearsals"

Was it difficult to record a follow-up album? When did you start working on Life Amongst Strangers?
JK: "Surprisingly no since Steve had plenty of material. I wrote a few songs, and The Front Line was written by Chris and myself. Steve was the songwriter on the first album, but Life Amongst Strangers had three songwriters. We find we could collaborate well between the three of us and started Life Amongst Strangers a couple of months after the release of the debut album."
SH: "We're extremely fortunate to also have enough new material for the third and fourth album to release over the next couple of years. So, we're in a particularly good place when it comes to the creativity side of things."

Is Life Amongst Strangers a concept album? According to the song titles it could be the case, and what do you mean with the album title?
JK: "There is a loose concept about communication or the lack of it. The concept wasn't intended; it just appeared to be a common thread throughout the lyrics. The title track is about my fascination that everyone you see has a story to tell, but you can never get to know about their lives. I call it my curtain twitcher song."

Would you please tell me a bit about the lyrics of the individual songs? By the way, on Voyager you sing about Alea Jacta Est. What does it mean?
JK: "Alea Jacta Est is Latin for 'the die is cast.' I have Asterix the Gaul to thank for this quote, and I have been an avid fan of Asterix since I was a child. Any Latin I know comes from that comic book. For instance, did you know the Latin for wild boar? Well, it's 'singularis porcus', ha ha!
But seriously now, Voyager is about the two probes moving further from Earth. A distance that humans cannot currently hope to achieve. It is from their point of view and experience.
Falls Like Rain is about the power people can exert on those below them and the question whether we can or even should change that.
Last Encore is simply about Romeo and Juliet's final scene, from both perspectives.
Requiem For A Friend is about Jez Rowden, the first person to give us the belief that we had music that other people may really want to hear. Sadly, he passed away before we started hitting the UK festival circuit.
As I told you before, Life Amongst Strangers is about my fascination that everyone you see has a story to tell, but you can never get to know all the stories.
The Front Line is about any static warfront, but it is mainly influenced by World War One and the current war in Ukraine.
Evening Tide is about the relationship between the Earth and the Moon, which is slowly drifting away. There is also a secondary meaning of a failing relationship from one person's perspective."

The high level of the compositions remains on your second album. Most bands struggle with composing good songs for a second release. How did you manage to maintain the high musical level, and do you agree this album is strongly influenced by Genesis?
JK: "Chris and I submitted a lot of music on the second album, including full songs. The three of us get on very well together and we consider ourselves equal partners. We have agreed that we share writing credits, no matter who came up with the initial song idea. It is Steve and I who are the Genesis fans though."
SH: "Our objective is to blend our musical ideas to create tracks that can be identified as Tribe3. I may start of with a bass riff or keyboard part that's then complimented with ideas that are layered on top by both Jonathan and Chris, that is drums, guitar, more keyboards and of course vocals. We don't intentionally start out to write a song in a certain format. However, our musical influences do have some say in what we produce. It's already been documented that we all like Rush, two of us like Genesis and Yes, however, all three of us admire King Crimson, especially the period 1972-1974 and the period 1981-1984. So, it's inevitable some of those influences are bound to come across in the tracks from time to time, but we try to put our own stamp on them rather than sounding too much like those bands. The use of the bass pedals allows us to vary the light and shade of tracks such as Lament and Dawntreader - off the first album - and Voyager - off the second album. There's no bass guitar on these tracks and as a result this helps us create varying moods and soundscapes within the music."

Jonathan, on the latest album you sound like Steve Hogarth of Marillion. Even during concerts your performance resembles him a bit with your movements and gestures. A coincidence or another influence?
JK: "I'm a big Marillion fan indeed, both with Steve Hogarth and Fish. I don't deliberately try to emulate Steve Hogarth, but he does have a great sense of melody. We are both the same height! My father is also an influence. He was a front man and very theatrical. It was my father who initially suggested using light as part of my 'act', and I have developed it even more ever since."

You even were mistaken for Charlie Bramald (Ghost Of The Machine, Shadows On Mercury) because you do like a bit alike. How could this hilarious incident take place?
JK: "Ha ha, yes! Good old social media. The advantage is that Charlie Bramald and I have become buddies. I call him my prog nephew! Hopefully, we will share a stage in the future and really confuse everyone."

Requiem For A Friend was dedicated to Jez Rowden. It really sounds as a beautiful church tune to say goodbye to someone you love. How important was he for the band?
JK: "Jez Rowden was the first person to give us the belief that we had music that other people may want to hear. He was the first to review our debut album and our debut show. Sadly, he passed away before we started hitting the UK festival circuit last year."

Requiem For A Friend is followed by the title track that gets you right into your heart after the more personal mellow tune of Requiem. Was it the intention to show that after a loss the world is still going round as if nothing had happened?
JK: "That is an interesting perspective, but I wrote Requiem the day I found out that Jez passed away. There is no intent in the song other than the feeling of loss and the emotion of writing it at the time. Initially, it wasn't intended for the album, but it really seemed to fit the intro to the title track. Life Amongst Strangers is just about people watching.

Album art 'Life Amongst Strangers'

SH: "Initially, I had written the title track and when Jonathan wrote Requiem it was agreed the two could segue into one piece of music. Jonathan continued the choral aspect of his piece onto the opening keyboard section of Strangers that gives it that sense of continuity."

The album has a beautiful cover and inside there is an amazing picture of people on the airport going to their next destination. Who was responsible for these pictures?
SH: "I've been fortunate in sourcing both album covers that the other two liked. Chris is 'guilty' of sourcing the airport image."

According to social media, humour is part of the band. Who came up with the idea to get dressed like some famous people and copy them, and Steve is your wife Alison responsible for some of the great live pictures of the band?
SH: "The three of us share the same sense of humour. Things that make us laugh are comedies such as The Fast Show & Blackadder. So, even though we're all getting on a bit in age, we are still big kids at heart!"
JK: "Humour is important. We wind each other up on stage by teasing one another. There are definitely no egos in this band. As far as the pictures are concerned: if you mean some of the AI pictures on our Facebook page, then that's the work of Russell John Morgan. Russell seems to enjoy making me look like I'm several kilograms heavier and taller than I am, ha ha! Alison took some photos, but Bela Alabastrom and others are responsible for the majority."

You released all your albums independently. Where record companies not interested in releasing your music?
SH: "Less than two years ago, October 2023 to be precise, no one outside a handful of local people didn't know who Tribe3 were. There was no back story to the band, that is some of us had been in other previously known bands, so people could have a connection to our past activities. So, we came out of the blue so to speak. We approached a Welsh label to gauge if they would be interested in releasing the first album. However, nothing materialised, so we decided to release it ourselves. It's fortunate we've received very good reviews from a series of influential prog related publications and online sources for both albums. We're pleased to report that we are now working with Progrock.com's Essentials, a great American label run by Mark and Rayna Monforti based out of Chicago. We are excited at the prospect of working with a label that specialises in prog rock bands, and they have some great bands such as Ghost Of The Machine and Charlie & Co, already signed to the label."

In the UK you already started performing live on stage. Do you have any plans to bring your music to Europe?
JK: "Yes, we have if the opportunity arises. The dreaded Brexit has caused huge issues for bands playing in Europe, but we are working on it."

And what is next?
JK: "This year is about raising the profile of the band. Next year we hope to be playing lots of dates throughout the UK and hopefully something in Europe may come to fruition too. We started on album number three. There is already a fourteen-minute song that is getting longer, but album three has no deadline. We want to be sure we are happy with what we have before releasing it."
SH: "We will shoot a few videos to promote certain tracks over the coming months, and we will map out demos for album three. We also play at the great Nene Valley Rock Festival in September in England."

Thank you for answering my questions, and I wish Tribe3 much success!
SH: "You're welcome! Thank you very much for taking an interest in the band, we truly value your support!"