T.3 is composed of Liam Fennecken, Jim Hogan, and Brendan Jacob Smith. Having achieved viral success and having previously released a debut EP, T.3 now is decking the halls this holiday season with their new holiday themed EP, FaLaLaLonely. 

Fennecken and Hogan initially met while attending Penn State University. After attending a concert by Hyannis Sound, Cape Cod’s professional acapella group (of which all members are alumni), the pair met Smith. 

“Brendan graduated from Ithaca College in 2019, and right at the beginning of 2020, he asked me and Liam to come shoot a video, just make one song cover, just for fun,” says Hogan of the group’s formation. “We went over there having known that he was an incredible acapella singer from this Cape Cod group, and we shot this video. It went pretty viral, and we have never really stopped singing together ever since. That was four years ago now, which is kind of crazy.” 

The video in question was the group’s signature cover of “Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2. The original TikTok reached millions of views, which resulted in the trio gaining close to half a million followers and over 7 million likes. In 2021, T.3 brought their vocal talents to the national stage, by auditioning for America’s Got Talent, where they received a standing ovation for their performance that has amassed over 4 million views on YouTube. 

“It was wild,” says Fennecken. “It was a truly a natural, viral moment. We weren’t even planning on putting it anywhere, and we didn’t really use TikTok or anything yet. Jim was like, ‘I just made a Tiktok. You want me to put it on there?’ And then, like, a couple days later, it was like, ‘Uh, guys?’” 

Since then, the trio of veteran actors continues to produce new acapella content that still manages to gain viral acclaim on TikTok, with videos that usually average likes in the hundreds of thousands. 

I can’t help but point out that the group’s obvious rare talent, coupled with the rise in the necessity of social media apps like TikTok to bring awareness to new music, seemed to have created the perfect recipe for something like the formation of T.3, a sentiment that the group seems to agree with. 

“Without that video going viral, I don’t know if this group would still exist,” Smith reflects. “I mean, we just did it for fun, just for us. We weren’t planning on doing it for anybody else besides us. And then when people enjoyed it, we were like, ‘Oh, I guess people do want more of this.’ So in some ways, without TikTok and social media, I just don’t see how the group could have thrived in the same way.” 

With that sense of awareness toward the shifting tides of the music industry comes a sense of gratitude for it. “A lot of people who come to see us live have seen us exclusively on TikTok. So it’s cool that social media can be a platform for people to discover your music.” 

On top of releasing a full holiday EP, T.3 will also be embarking on a holiday tour. 

“We’re hitting up a bunch of cities we’ve never been to before, and we’ve got a whole bunch of Christmas and holiday stuff planned, and we’re really excited,” Fennecken excitedly gushes in mentioning of the tour. 

“Vocal music really kind of steps into the spotlight around Christmas time and the holidays. So, we’re pretty excited to be part of that this year, and really kind of give people some Christmas cheer. We’re going to have Christmas lights, and we’re gonna decorate the set. We’re just excited to get out, and see people, and meet the people who do the silly little TikTok dances that we make, or people who just saw the brand new song we released, or people who have been watching us since that ‘Into the Unknown’ video. Anybody that comes out to the shows we love to talk to, we love to meet afterward. We’re super stoked to get out there. And we all love we all really love Christmas too. So it’s like we’re a little nerdy, geeky about that, so we’re stoked about it this year.” 

FaLaLa Lonely features four tracks, including the titular original song, and covers of songs like “Let It Go” from Frozen and more standard holiday songs like “O Holy Night.” Notably, the EP also features vocals from singer Joshua Lee Turner. 

“I met Josh a decade ago when we were performing a symphony show together with the Indianapolis Symphony, and we just became very fast friends,” explains Hogan. “Watching his up rise in the last 15 years has been really incredible, and now that he’s doing this new project with The Bygones is amazing, too. They’ve really taken off. But basically, collaborating with Josh is of a hang out. You go to his house, and you come up with this arrangement with these musicians, and then you just sing it a couple times while his wife Kelly records it. And then you it always comes out to this magical little thing. I struggle to find a better way to explain it.” 

With an upwards trajectory that seems to only continue to rise (the group notably performed at Carnegie Hall with acapella legend Deke Sharon), things seem all but certain for the tour to be successful. But as for what’s next for T.3, the band seems pretty content to let the journey unfold. 

“I think we just want to keep getting out in front of as many people as we can,” says Fennecken. “I think every every year, we’ve kind of branched out a little bit further and connected with a little bit more people, and the tours reached out a little bit further. And we want to get to LA, we want to get to Chicago. We want to get to these places where we know people are listening to us and want to see us, but we just haven’t been able to get out. For whatever reason being a touring band is hard and expensive, but ideally we’re able to tour to more places and be in front of more people. We really just have the goal of continuing to be able to put out music that we love and that we’re proud of.” 

You can buy tickets to the FaLaLa Lonely Tour here.

You can stream the new holiday EP from T.3 below.