Hello! 3D brings global grooves to Cleveland stages

Hello! 3D calls itself “a weird experiment that has gone right.”

The Cleveland band is like a musical passport filled with stamps from Peru, Colombia and other corners of the globe.

They create a high-energy blend of Latin American music with a psych-rock energy that resonates with local audiences.

Bandleader Jake Fader has spent decades making music, from touring with an Afrobeat band to producing for film and TV.

For the past six years he’s been channeling those global beats into Hello! 3D.

“It all came from hearing some classic Peruvian psychedelic music from a compilation called ‘Roots of Chicha’ and hearing this cumbia rhythm that's baked into there,” Fader said.

Cumbia is the heartbeat of Hello! 3D’s sound. The dance music from Colombia blends African, Indigenous and European influences.

For bassist Ed Sotelo, it’s also a link to his heritage.

Sotelo’s parents came to the United States from Argentina in 1970, and while he grew up on country, R&B and soul, he later explored Argentine styles like tango and folklore.

Hello! 3D has given him a way to explore those roots while fusing them with his punk and hard-rock background.

“It was a way to kind of reconnect to something that I hadn't really been looking for until much later in my musical and personal life,” Sotelo said. “So, it's kind of neat to be able to do that and expand on everything that I'd already been playing.”

Learning from Latin American legends

Fader first dreamed up Hello! 3D after years of collaborating with musicians around the world.

He reached out to Sotelo and guitarist John Gálvez, who has Peruvian heritage.

The lineup quickly expanded to include Cutty Banner on keyboards and vocals, percussionists Neil Chastain and Tim Lane, along with drummer Joe Tomino.

Fader said the band is “greedy with drummers,” having three of the best in the region on stage together.

The band’s debut came in 2019, opening for Los Mirlos, Peruvian psych-cumbia pioneers featured on “Roots of Chicha.”

The legendary band was formed in 1972 and has released countless albums. They performed for thousands of attendees at Coachella this year, marking the first time a Peruvian band had played the festival.

Fader said seeing how Los Mirlos’ music and rhythm can transform a room has been inspiring.

“We've been really lucky that, over our time playing, we've got to watch that on multiple, on many nights,” he said. “We see that this rhythm that we're playing our version of brings people joy.”

Ygal Kaufman

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Ideastream Public Media

Creating a sound all their own

From that first show, Hello! 3D’s reputation grew.

Cleveland crowds embraced the group’s adventurous sound, showing up for both original sets and performances alongside international acts like Sonido Gallo Negro from Mexico City and Altın Gün from Turkey.

Sotelo said Hello! 3D’s songs expand beyond traditional cumbia, focusing on how the songs feel rather than adhering to a single style.

“The guys bring in different tunes that are from all sorts of different places,” Sotelo said. “They're looking at the entire big picture of like, ‘What emotion or what movement do we want the song to evoke?’”

Each member contributes ideas that evolve through shared improvisation, collaboration and curiosity.

Even as they explore new rhythms and textures, the band has developed its own musical language that makes any song unmistakably theirs.

“This being unique to this area is part of it,” Fader said. “Audiences feel the joy that we feel. And what's fun about it is that we also now have our own language inside of it.”

The band’s name has its own unique story.

It came from a video game created by Fader’s young son, Ellis, called “Hello 3D.” Fader adopted it as the band’s name and paid Ellis $10 up front, with annual royalties.

Now that the band has grown in popularity and released a couple of albums and singles with thousands of plays, 11-year-old Ellis is reportedly ready to renegotiate the deal.

Hello! 3D will share the stage with Free Black! at the Grog Shop on Nov. 29. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the show starts at 8.

With a growing repertoire of experimental compositions and more live shows ahead, Hello! 3D continues to blend psychedelic and global sounds in ways that feel both fresh and familiar.

For the band, the goal isn’t to stay inside any one box. It’s to follow the rhythm that moves them.