The Spare Buttons — made up of singer Lia Booth, guitarist Cameron Booth and bassist Eric Pittman — became a band by accident. Cameron was invited to play a few songs at a gig, so he asked his wife Lia and friend Eric to join to help fill out the set. “It went so well, we decided to make it a thing.” The trio — which honed their chops busking on the hard streets of downtown Long Beach and playing all sorts of venues around Southern California — are all fantastic musicians on their own as well. Lia released an EP called A Beautiful Friendship with some of her musician friends; Cameron has released his solo singer-songwriter work and they’re all working on original tunes to record as part of their folk project, Restless Lamplighter. And when they’re not performing smooth jazz standards? There’s swing dancing, gardening, writing … “But date night is almost always sushi. We love sushi. If you tell Lia she's getting sushi she'll cry,” Cameron says.

We chatted with the band about its beginnings, influences and songwriting techniques. Hop to the next page to read the full interview.