If you close your eyes and listen to 3rd Attempt you would never guess three of the members of the quartet aren’t even old enough to get a driver’s license.

But, this group of teenage guys rock out like seasoned arena veterans.

The group got together at Dace’s Rock ‘N’ More Music Academy in Maple Valley a little over a year ago.

Dace Anderson, founder of the non-profit music school, said 3rd Attempt is one of the best new bands he’s heard in a long time.

Drummer Patrick Ota, 14, had played in a band with Taylor Isitt, 14, who is the singer, songwriter and guitarist, in the past.

Ota and Brad Patrick have been friends since they were in fifth grade when they met in band class.

Patrick, the bassist, is a 15-year-old former drummer who decided to take up bass in seventh grade because “I thought back then everyone wanted to play guitar and I wanted to do something different.”

“Patrick and Taylor got into a band together, then their bassist and guitarist dropped out, so, we joined,” Patrick said.

By “we,” Patrick was referring to himself and Brad Cleveland, who also plays guitar. Cleveland, 16, is the oldest of the group, a sophomore at Tahoma High. The rest of the band members are students at Tahoma Junior High.

Isitt said he got into music five years ago.

“There just wasn’t anything really special about me at the time,” Isitt said. “I wanted to have something I could be proud of. It’s really changed the way I look at and feel about things as I’m sure it has with everyone else in the band.”

He first joined a band at the tender age of 10 and “at the time, you’re cool if you’re in a band.”

“Now, it’s all just because music is probably the greatest thing in my life,” Isitt said. “This is by far the best band I’ve ever been in.”

Patrick and Isitt described the songwriting process as a collaborative effort.

“I will come up with a song and bring it in,” Isitt said. “If we like it, they’ll come up with their parts and I’ll show them what my part is and we’ll build off of that.”

Isitt will write the lyrics, Patrick explained.

“Then (Ota) makes a drum beat then I find the bass lines,” Patrick said. “We all put a portion of our skill into the songwriting process. But, Taylor makes the foundation of it.”

Isitt said they will try and figure out what kind of sound they’re looking for with each song, too, and it helps that “we’re all musicians with similar tastes.”

Each of them said they like listening to rock, particularly classic rock, while Cleveland said he also likes to listen to everything up to ‘90s-era alternative rock.

Patrick said he likes “to listen to as big of a variety of music as I can.”

“I listen to classic rock, that’s my favorite kind of rock,” Patrick said. “Sometimes I might want to listen to country and sometimes I might listen to old school hip hop.”

Meanwhile, Ota enjoys listening to rock and hip hop, but being a bit a of joker he said he listens to “whatever the cool kids like.”

Isitt came up with the name, 3rd Attempt, because “it was my third solid band,” so it was the third attempt, so to speak.

At this point, the band has about eight songs written, and they’re working on their debut album which is tentatively titled “Depletion.”

They played covers for a couple of shows.

“I just think that we had something else so why should we play other people’s music when we could make our own and turn it into something good,” Isitt said.

And from there on out, they have played nothing but original music.

At a recent show members of the audience told them their sound was something akin to Pearl Jam, but strains of Led Zeppelin, the Who, as well as ‘90s-era alternative rock artists that have influenced the group can be detected in their songs.

“It’s tough to describe,” Cleveland said of the band’s sound. “We don’t sound like any band in particular.”

Right now, Isitt said, the goal is to get the album finished in time for Field Day at Tahoma Junior High at the end of the school year.

They’re playing for the event and potentially 1,200 new fans, Isitt explained, and they’d like to sell their record.

The band just needs to get the album finished.

“We just need to get some money and record the album,” Isitt said.

Beyond that, the boys all hope 3rd Attempt can make the most of the opportunity it has to make music.

Ota said he would like to get out and play more music with 3rd Attempt.

“I want to see if we can get on tour,” he said. “That would be cool if we could go on tour and be seen.”

Even if they don’t make it, Isitt said, then “it’s still something enjoyable to do.”

“I would still like to make it a career,” he said.

Cleveland said he wouldn’t be opposed to 3rd Attempt making it big and becoming rock stars.

Patrick said he would like to go on to bigger things.

“I want to start doing paid shows,” Patrick said. “I’d like to eventually get discovered … and record in a professional studio. Maybe even bigger than that.”

Check out 3rd Attempt at www.myspace.com/3rdattemptmusic to hear rough cuts of their music.