The LA Times wrote about Seven Mary Three, “The members of rock band Seven Mary Three belong to a minority of young rockers: those willing to acknowledge that the road to commercial success is paved with compromise.”
Seven Mary Three formed in 1992 when two post-secondary students with the same first name met midway through their junior year while attending the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jason Ross and lead guitarist Jason Pollack were both born in Kansas.
“When I met Jason and heard him sing, I really fell into it.” – Jason Pollack
Pollack moved to Virginia later on and told Deseret News, “I listened to all my parents’ classic rock albums, the radio; really anything that sounded melodic and good. I also went to see a lot of local folkie mountain music. I learned to play at college and realized this is what I wanted to do. When I met Jason and heard him sing, I really fell into it.”
Ross and Pollack both pursued degrees in the arts. The duo soon began writing songs but Ross was nervous about getting on stage and performing in front of people, telling Rolling Stone, “I’d always kind of wanted to perform, but I was too much of a coward to get onstage. Jason was able to push me into it.”
Within several months of writing their first song, the pair performed as an acoustic duo before adding Bassist Casey Daniel and drummer Giti Khalsa and began playing local coffee shops and clubs and doing their best to avoid the highly lucrative college party circuit that would have forced the quartet to play covers in their sets.
“At a typical show, there’s a 35-year-old guy wearing a hand-tooled leather belt & his name carved in the back standing next to a teenage goth girl.” – Jason Ross
Seven Mary Three would build a pretty big local following. Ross told Spin Magazine who the typical fan of the band was in the early 90’s, “At a typical show, there’s a 35 year old guy wearing a hand tooled leather belt & his name carved in the back standing next to a teenage goth girl.”
Churn is Released on 5 Spot Records
On the strength of their original compositions, the band was able to gain a grassroots following in both Virginia and in Florida. It was during this time that the band wrote, recorded, released and produced their first record Churn on their own label, 5 Spot Records, which they sold at gigs.
The band would press nearly 5,000 copies, mostly through funds that they made off their concerts with the record landing in some Best Buy stores in Orlando and about 10 independent chains between Williamsburg and Orlando. Chris Bayer, who owned an independent record store in Williamsburg, would admit that Churn was one of the store’s top 10 biggest selling records of 1994, even outselling Pearl Jam.
Ross told Las Vegas Weekly of the overarching themes of the album, saying, it’s “one of people dealing with things in life, dealing with your feelings, dealing with your fellow man, dealing with women, and how you really have to work at it.“
“Cumbersome”
The album’s opening track, a song called “Cumbersome” would catch the attention of a local Orlando radio station WJRRmby playing a demo version of their song “Shine”. WJRR added “Cumbersome” to their rotation in January of 1995 and every time the song was played on the radio, the phone lines lit up.
“When I first heard ‘Cumbersome’, I said to my promotions director that these guys are the next Collective Soul.” – Steve Robertson
Steve Robertson, WJRR Assistant Program Director would tell Billboard, “When I first heard ‘Cumbersome’, I said to my promotions director that these guys are the next Collective Soul. I got the same feeling from this song that I got from Collective Soul’s ‘Shine’.”
Ross would tell Spin Magazine how things came full circle for the group when they opened up for Live, “Me and my friend came down from Tampa to see Live and man, we were blown away. At the end of the show, Ed reached out and pulled me and my friend on stage. 3 years later we were selling out 10,000 seater arenas and opening for Live.”
The band would soon ink a deal with indie label Mammoth Records who had a partnership with Atlantic. Ross would tell Ear Of Newt, “Mammoth is really into nurturing bands through different stages in development. It’s such an eclectic group of bands on the roster that you don’t feel like you’re competing with the other bands for attention.”
Music of Seven Mary Three Inspired by Anxiety
The music of Seven Mary Three would be inspired by the same anxieties as their Generation X peers. Ross would tell the LA Times, “Our parents have been through divorces, and it’s had a tremendous impact on us. I think that often our ideals of the perfect family unit or any romantic relationship are just that, ideals and we love more in our minds than in reality. Can you be faithful? Can you be everything that’s desired of you? Are expectations simply too high? It’s a very difficult, but essential, part of the human condition to try and understand.” These anxieties and trials show up in tracks “Devil Boy”, “My My” and “Margaret”.
American Standard
Following the success of “Cumbersome”, the band relocated to Orlando and Mammoth opted to release the group’s debut record under a new name called American Standard. Their label had Seven Mary Three re-record most of the songs while throwing in a few new tunes. The album was given a new title to make the record sound more palatable to rock radio.
The label would issue a shortened 4-minute version of “Cumbersome” as the lead single from the album where it would receive heavy play on MTV, and would peak at No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It also had crossover appeal, peaking at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
“Water’s Edge” and “My My” Chart in the Top 20
The band followed up the success of “Cumbersome” with two other well received singles. Both “Water’s Edge” and “My My” would chart in the Top 20 of the Mainstream Rock charts.
The album would go on to sell over 1.1 million copies in America and be certified platinum. Seven Mary Three were frequently compared to other bands at the time including Hootie and the Blowfish and the Dave Matthews Band.
Ross would tell Rolling Stone, “I think the reason bands like Hootie, Dave Matthews, and, to some degree, ourselves have done as well as we have is that there’s a work ethic and a willingness to give to the audience.”
While the band had a lot to celebrate, they also had a lot of criticism lobbied against them from critics who compared them to other popular 90’s alternative rock acts including Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam.
“The comparisons used to upset me, but I’ve convinced myself to be secure in my own identity.” – Jason Ross
Ross would handle such criticisms with grace, telling the LA Times, “The comparisons used to upset me, but I’ve convinced myself to be secure in my own identity. As a young band, it’s part of paying your dues, and you’ve got to survive your influences.”
By 1997, Mammoth would split from Atlantic and this resulted in the band’s follow-up album, RockCrown being put in limbo and delayed for almost half a year. The dissolution of Mammoth’s relationship with Atlantic resulted in the band jumping ship to Atlantic. A deal was worked out with Mammoth, however, which would still share in profits from the record and help promote the album.
“The last six months have been a serious test in patience and faith.” – Jason Ross
Jason Ross told Billboard in 1997, “The last six months have been a serious test in patience and faith. It’s like trying to believe in a new religion or something. There’s all this mystery out there and you have people telling you that everything is going to be alright.”
Fans of the group were surprised with the sound of the band’s second record, RockCrown. It showed more introspective lyrics, heavier folk influences, an organ player and softer-sounding song arrangement. The band members, however, didn’t see the change in sound as straying from their roots.
RockCrown was met with lukewarm reviews and a less than stellar commercial performance. The album peaked at No. 75 on the Billboard charts and only sold around 300,000 copies.
The band returned the following year with their follow-up titled Orange Avenue that was met with even less fanfare. It peaked at No. 121, sold around 150,000 units and it would serve as their final album for Atlantic.
Jason Pollack Leaves Exits Seven Mary Three
By 1999, Jason Pollack left the band for good and Thomas Juliano was brought in to replace him. The success of “Cumbersome” seemed to haunt the band. The group would admit that some people would walk out of their concerts after they played the song.
By 2002, the band landed back with Mammoth Records and released their follow-up album, The Economy of Sound, selling around 50,000 copies. Mammoth would soon fold into Disney’s Hollywood Records and the band was once again left without a label.
“The first time it happens to you, you become pretty jaded, and anger is the first reaction.” – Jason Ross
Jason Ross would look back at the band’s career up until this point, telling the Orlando Sentinel, “The first time it happens to you, you become pretty jaded, and anger is the first reaction,” referring to being dropped by the label.
“The second time, you’re a little more seasoned and you can say, ‘This is the way the business works.’ The third time, you force yourself to be positive because maybe that little hint of negativity is what people are seeing and you definitely don’t want them to see that. It’s the only way to be. I can’t say that the last record did what we wanted it to do, but I did my job.”
Seven Mary Three put out two more albums including 2004’s Dis/Location and 2008’s Day & Nightdriving, both of which failed to chart.
Seven Mary Three Calls It Quits
By 2006, the group’s drummer would leave the band and in 2012 the band called it quits for good.
As recently as December of 2021, the band posted on their website that they are sitting on tons of unreleased music, some which had been written pretty recently and some that was written years ago.
Fans could go on the band’s website to sign up and get access to the material, some of which would be free, while others would have a nominal fee attached to them. The band’s website would stress that no live dates seem to be coming in the near future.
Like this story? Check out Have You Heard About The Time MTV Gave Away Jon Bon Jovi’s Childhood Home
Check out our YouTube channel