Third Eye Blind(unsigned)Third Eye Blind (Unsigned) By LISA JANN The Daily Californian - Oct 20, 1995 It's astounding to think of how many bands have managed to ascend the Lower Sproul concert junket, rocketing into the world of bigger and better. Case in point: 'twas a mere four years ago that a certain homegrown trio of punks, noggins a-flailin' in impressive synchronicity, was known to grace the austere two-foot elevation of the ASUC Superb stage. Not to say that cranking out music for an audience of burrito-chomping, smoothie-sucking luncheoners is the sure-fire launchpad to rockstardom, but like it or not, it wasn't long after their free noontime gigs that Green Day started to do pretty well for themselves. And so, yet another crop of boys from the 510 area code gets their big shot at inflating the Lower Sproul legend. Three-quarters of Third Eye Blind scored undergrad diplomas from Cal, and the remaining one-fourth is the former bassist for Bay Area fave Fungo Mungo. One self-description assessed their sound as "John Denver meets the Velvet Underground," but there's no need to worry about the country road taking you home. Third Eye Blind produces catchy, comfortable rock, fronted by the earnest, frequently pleading vocals of guitarist Stephan Jenkins, and rounded out by Kevin Cadogan on guitar, Arion Salazar on bass, and Counting Crows defector/drummer Brad Hargreaves. It's 3EB's user-friendly brand of spic-and-span tuneage, replete with unobtrusive riffs and rhythms, that has reportedly sent record execs into a slobber; still unsigned, and without a real demo, industry hounds already envision 3EB on the shelves of a music store near you. Thus begins Third Eye Blind's ride on the treacherous train to uncertain fame -- first stop, their nanosecond as the Next Big Thing. Already, one local critic has had the audacity to pose the question, "Stephan Jenkins: The Next Billie Joe?" Jeez, it's enough to make you lose your lunch.
Third Eye Spots a Big GigThird Eye Blind Spots a Big Gig Unsigned S.F. band to open for Oasis by SAM WHITING Chronicle staff Writer San Fransisco Chronicle, Apr 13, 1996 With a pinata full of live crickets, a songbook of wordy rock and a brazen approach, San Francisco band Third Eye Blind went to New York for an audition and came back booked for the biggest hormone-hop of the season - opening for Oasis tonight at the Civic Auditorium. "The show was sold out long before we got there so there won't be one Third Eye Blind fan in attendance," says vocalist and songwriter Stephan Jenkins, who expects to be confronted tonight by "9,000 girls who want to hear'Wonder Wall,"' Oasis' big hit. They may all come to see the British wanna-Beatles rattle off teenage hits, but they'll know Third Eye Blind by the set's end. Jenkins is darkly handsome in a Chris O'Donnell way and wears the hairline bangs that Paul Simon popularized with "Bookends." Jenkins describes his band's sound as "Edie Brickell meets Suicidal Tendencies," and his haunting baritone leaves a finish similar to the Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis in "Under the Bridge." With a style that ranges from loud thrash to quiet and dark acoustic, the band consists of Jenkins, 28, who grew up in Palo Alto and has an English degree from the University of California at Berkeley (which seems to be required of poetic Iyricists following Counting Crows' Adam Duritz); bassist Arion Salazar, 24, who also plays in the funk band Fungo Mungo; Kevin Cadogan, 25, a guitar prodigy who was working with Joe Satriani at age 13, then quit for the Berkeley High ska and punk scene; and drummer Brad Hargreaves, 23, a replacement for original drummer Steve Bowman, who started out with Counting Crows. Together about a year, 3EB (as they nickname themselves) cut a 14-song demo last February "and we decided we were really great," says Jenkins, who laces everything with irony, including the band's name. His older brother, George, was a college pal of Duritz and the influence is apparent. "Miss Jones taught me English but I think I just shot her son," is the opening Iyric to the ballad "Slow Motion." The demo was sent to all the major labels, and met with enough interest that when 3EB headlined at "The Fillmore Sessions" last month, the crowd of 750 was dotted with industry types. Reporting on that show, Hits magazine placed 3EB in its "Buzz" column on rising unsigned bands. Two weeks ago, Arista President Clive Davis invited 3EB to do a showcase in New York. Insular and territorial about the San Francisco scene, the band demanded that a few cases of Anchor Steam beer be delivered. "We were just being snotty rock star types," Jenkins says. The band takes pride in flouting the commercial tease, so it decided to push it a little further. The Sad Clown It is customary at 3EB shows for a pinata to be dangled over the mosh pit and eventually busted open to spill out candy and treats. For Arista to get the full 3EB effect, Jenkins brought along a pinata of a sad clown. Since the audience consisted of "20 middle-aged men in suits and Clive Davis," 3EB didn't figure there'd be a lot of moshing and pinata smashing. So the band also brought a baseball bat, to be on the safe side. The lights went out and 3EB played for 20 minutes and abruptly stopped. Then Jenkins grabbed the bat, whacked the clown and out sprayed the crickets, chirping away. They wanted locusts to imply a plague, but couldn't find them in a pet store. The crickets made the point just as well, sending the suits scrambling. "Everybody was upset, including the crickets," says Jenkins. "By that time they were quite sure we weren't an R&B act." The high jinks continued a few days later when 3EB met with Epic executive Dave Massey, who had signed Oasis. Massey asked when 3EB was playing next and Jenkins, quick on his feet, answered "April 13. Why don't you put us on the bill with Oasis?" Massey stared at Jenkins. Jenkins stared back. So Massey called his bluff. "I said it as a joke," Jenkins recalls, "and he picked up the phone and said 'consider it done.' And it was" 3EB will play a 40-minute set tonight, and on Friday April 26, will play much longer "back in our living room at the Paradise Lounge for a really small show,"says Jenkins who prefers that level of intimacy. "I like to look people right in the eye when I'm singing." No Surprise Ending Meanwhile, six labels are vying for the recording rights to 3EB and Jenkins is concerned that word has gotten out about the cricket pinata. "It will wreck the surprise when we go down to Geffen next week," he says.
Third Eye not Blind to Elektra dealThird Eye not blind to Elektra Deal Contra Costa Times, May 11, 1996 We're shameless gloaters here, so we're not too shy to tell you that the Bay Area band we told you was the Next Big Thing very well may be. Third Eye Blind has just inked a two album deal with Elektra. Those of you holding on to the Jan. 20, 1995, edition of TimeOut can see that we predicted stardom for these San Francisco lads. (And, by the way, you should have recycled that paper by now.) Singer Stephan Jenkins will produce the album -a rarity for firsttimers on a major label. They'll begin recording in July. Look for a fall release and club and college circuit tour to follow. Jenkins was promised creative control over the album, one factor that helped Elektra win a bidding war over Columbia, Epic and Madonna's Maverick label. Madonna's people even offered to fly Jenkins to Budapest so he could meet with Evita II. The band declined. They were more impressed by Elektra chair Sylvia Rhone. "She knew the Iyrics to our songs," Jenkins says Friday from his current home in Berkeley. "She didn't say, 'Hey, we're gonna get you on MTV tomorrow' or badmouth the other labels. She was just really enthusiastic about our music."
Blind AmbitionBLIND AMBITION San Fransisco Chronicle Datebook -Feb 2, 1997 The Bay Area's Third Eye Blind was wooed heavily by several major labels last year and now 3EB is no longer San Francisco's best un-signed band. With a debut CD due from Elektra in April the group is about to embark on tour but is making some Bay Area appearances beforehand. Formed by UC Berkeley grad Stephan Jenkins (vocalist-songwriter), 3EB also features guitar wiz Kevin Cadogan, drummer Brad Hargreaves and bassist Arion Salazar. 3EB's music is richly textured with layers of sizzling guitar, Jenkins' ear-candy vocals and Hargreaves' electrifying percussion, not to mention an ironically skewed world view in Jenkins' Iyrics. Having already opened for Oasis, 3EB has a visionary future, and that's more than just blind luck.
Third Eye Blind Sees Promise in
ElektraThird Eye Blind Sees Promise in Elektra Heavily Courted Act's Debut Eases Into Market BY STEVE KNOPPER Billboard Magazene -Mar 15, 1997 NEW YORK - Simple honesty convinced Third Eye Blind, a San Francisco quartet being wooed by several major labels, to choose Elektra. At a dinner last May, the label's VP of A&R, Josh Deutsch, stood up and said, "The companies you're looking at are all very good, and I think you'll be successful with anyone. We hope you choose Elektra." "That was his pitch," says lead singer Stephan Jenkins, who until then had loosely followed the do-it-yourself ethic and was suspicious of the music industry. "There was a lot of dignity to it. They never slagged anybody else." It helped, too, that Jenkins had looked into the crowd during an earlier Los Angeles showcase and seen Elektra's chairman/CEO dancing and high-fiving her friends. "It was really Sylvia Rhone directly," Jenkins says. "She seemed to get in and understand the music. She was saying, 'l like what you're doing now; and I want Elektra to help you do it The band, which had heard strong pitches from Maverick. Epic, and several other labels, had planned to make its signing decision the next morning. But after an impromptu band huddle with the band's manager. Third Eye Blind surprised Elektra and announced its decision to sign immediately. "I really felt like they gave us their trust," Jenkins says. "I produced the record and they never hovered over it; and they never pushed me. And I needed more time--it was two months late and it was never like, "Where is it, where is it, where is it?"" Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut, due April 8, is catchy guitar-rock built around Jenkins' downcast, sometimes nightmarish, lyrics. A repetitive chorus of "doo doo doos" makes the first jingle, "Semi-Charmed Life," sound like easygoing pop, but it's actually the story of a junkie's descent into crystal meth addiction. The album, written mostly by Jenkins with musical collaboration from guitarist Kevin Cadogan, recalls a more aggressive Smiths or a moodier Jellyfish. California alternative rock radio stations have already pounced on "Semi-Charmed Life." L..A.'s influential KROQ and San Francisco's KITS put the song in regular rotation by mid February, and Jay Taylor, PD of San Jose, Calif -based KOME, says his station is "pounding it" at the rate of 35 plays a week. "It's power pop, but it has attitude," Taylor says. "It's just so catchy. It's got a summertime feel to it." Rhone, who calls Third Eye Blind "one of my personal signings," says Elektra's marketing plan is to ease the band slowly into widespread media exposure. The company wants heavy radio play, of course, and has already submitted a "Semi-Charmed Life" video to MTV, but Rhone wants to begin at triple-A and modern rock radio before trying for broader outlets. "We have a very deliberate plan, very well paced because this kind of a song can fly out of your hands before you can pull in the reins on it," she says. "This record, on its own momentum, is going to cross over faster than we expect." The slowdown plan, she says, is "so it doesn't seem like this overhyped, first-time, tremendously successful project that doesn't have depth to it. I don't want to lose the depth. We're in a very fast-food marketplace right now that can chew you up and spit you out. I want people to digest this project and for it to live with them for two years." Third Eye Blind became a bona fide band when San Francisco guitarist Cadogan approached the stage after one of Jenkins' shows to praise the music. It turned out that Jenkins had heard Cadogan's playing on a demo tape and wound up praising him instead. They became the band's core and eventually recruited well-known local bassist Arion Salazar and jazz drummer Brad Hargreaves to round out the lineup. Jenkins writes all the words, but he and Cadogan frequently sit down to brainstorm musical ideas. "For example, 'Narcolepsy', that song is about post-sleep paralysis. You're awake. but you can't wake up. You're conscious now, but you can't open your eyes: you're paralyzed," Jenkins says. 'Kevin was telling me about what that was like. He was sort of goofing on this riff and I just started singing it back to him." Third Eve Blind plays opposite moods off each other. The melodies, from the soft, folky "I Want You" to the metallic, grunge-like opening song "Losing A Whole Year," are consistently shiny and happy. But Jenkins' lyrics are about Prozac, car wrecks, dead Russian authors. whipping boys, vampires, and jealousy. Though the album sounds nothing like Nirvana, Jenkins borrows the happy-but-tormented with-guitars strategy from Kurt Cobain's playbook. "I always see the humor in the dark situations, and when things are really going bright and cheery I always see the skeletons in the dark corners," says Jenkins in a phone interview from his San Francisco home. This life we lead, it's always a mixed metaphor: and the song 'I Want You' says, 'There will be no regrets when the worms come 'That song, to me, is the only cheerful song on the record --and even that one is like, 'bones weeping in the grave.'" Jenkins doesn't want listeners, drawn in by the melodies, to overlook the lyrics' darker conclusions. "Semi-Charmed Life" may be the ultimate summer single, but "it's about a time in my life when it seemed like all of my friends just sort of tapped out on speed," Jenkins says. Like the drug, the song is "light and shiny on the surface, and then it just pulls you down in this lockjawed mess . . . The music that I wrote for it is not intended to be bright and shiny for bright and shiny's sake," Jenkins says 'it's intended to be what the seductiveness of speed is like, represented in music."
Third Eye Blind San Fransisco Chronicle, Mar 16, 1997 Personnel: Stephan Jenkins, vocals, guitar; Kevin Cadogan, guitar; Arion Salazar, bass; Brad Hargreaves, drums. Formed 1994, San Francisco. The Story So Far: After several years of toil on the Bay Area music scene, it seems Jenkins' time has finally come. Under a production deal with Atlantic, he scored an international hit with the Braids last year as the brainchild behind the Berkeley-based hip-hop duo's cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." He recently signed the biggest publishing deal ever for an unreleased artist. To top it off, he was offered a production deal at Elektra to develop new acts. "I've struggled for a long time," Jenkins says. "I'm well accustomed to sleeping on the floor. But I've always done what I wanted. I've never had a fall-back job, because I was always scared I would fall back." Now he is preparing to conquer the world with his own band, Third Eye Blind, which is already getting impressive airplay on pivotal area radio stations like KITS, KOME and KFOG. Sound: Influences range from Camper Van Beethoven to David Bowie, but don't discount Jenkins' stealth hip-hop and R&B leanings. "It's a real subtle thread, but you can hear it," Jenkins says. In other words, it's strong rhythmic rock designed to dominate MTV and alternative radio in the near future. Selling Point: Pride. "I'm fiercely from San Francisco," Jenkins says. "It has been a real priority for me to keep it local. Besides, the food here is far superior to anywhere else on earth." Album: "Third Eye Blind." scheduled for April 8 release on Elektra.
COVER STORY:Third Eye BlindCOVER STORY: Third Eye Blind by Ashley Davy Taken from BAM magazine, 4/18/97 "If the crowd throws stuff at you, just be ready." Those were the encouraging words the members of Third Eye Blind heard right before the biggest show of their lives. Their mission: don some freaky threads, tune up the gear and get 8,000 people ready for the world's most infamous wankers, Oasis. Instead of encouraging pats on the back from the crew and the proverbial "break a leg" well-wishing from management, everyone surrounding Third Eye Blind prepared them for their inevitable failure: "The Oasis crowd is really fanatical. You guys don't have to keep going--really, it's OK--you can walk off stage at any time if you don't feel good." So, rather than those of fat new bass strings and cheering teens, the sounds dancing around in Third Eye Blind's heads were of scrunched Coke cans, shattering bottles and the occasional airborne Red Rope. But, by the time they broke into their third song, "Narcolepsy," the fans were crowd surfing and slamming into the stage. When the set was over, the Oasis faithful called Third Eye Blind back out for more. After the gig, the band was paid double their original fee agreement. Yep, Third Eye Blind has arrived. All the tell-tale signs are in place: The band signed with Elektra last June, just released a debut record, filmed a video and is gearing up for an international tour this spring. The single, "Semi-Charmed Life," has not only hit the airwaves, but it has already garnered "most requested song" status on Live 105. "In the last year things have happened really quickly," admits Third Eye Blind frontman Stephen Jenkins. "But, it ain't been easy. We've been playing music all our lives. Nobody gives you anything; you've got to take it." Four years ago, after numerous stints in local bands, including the beat poetry hip-hop group Puck and Zen, Jenkins ventured off on his own. "I wanted to find people who weren't trying to fit into some scene," he says. "I wanted to find people who had a spark of their own. And I wanted to create an environment for that spark to flourish." Jenkins set up shop in a low-rent studio in the bowels of SoMa and started making demos. But getting a band together "that really jelled" didn't come quickly. "The process was difficult," Jenkins says. "There was every kind of problem and false start." Eventually, the false starts were out and the final lineup was established. Jenkins convinced ex-Fungo Mungo bassist Arion Salazar to join. Guitarist Kevin Cadogan randomly walked into a Third Eye Blind show at the Paradise, went up to Jenkins and introduced himself. Drummer Brad Hargraves came along through a friend of Cadogan's. "It's not about joining a particular club," Jenkins say. "The way this band came together was because we don't fit in." The music created by these misfits draws from lot of different influences: punk, power pop, beat-poetry and funk. Third Eye Blind stumped Gavin convention programmers, who tagged the band's performance with a kaleidoscope of different interpretations from "Led Zeppelin meets the Clash" to "black music." Most of the songwriting is a collaboration between Jenkins and Cadogan. "Exuberance and meloncholy are the two emotions that drive my music," says Cadogan. "I think it's more interesting to have these contradictory forces working together, rather than creating mono-thematic songs." The result is often bouncy pop songs about isolation and loss. This ironic construction is most evident in "Semi-Charmed Life," a cheery little number about speed addiction. The inability to find a meaningful connection with others is at the core of Jenkins' lyrics. Cadogan says his collaborator's lyrics are about "loss, but not having lost." "If there are any themes at all," Jenkins says, "they're sort of reconciling yourself with what happens to you in this life, and making some sense of that. On the surface, I'm a very cheerful person, but deep down I just love that dark winding road. I relate well to things being grim." Jenkins sounds like a proud papa when discussing his bandmates' playing: "The way Kevin plays guitar always sounds like Kevin," he says. "Kevin plays in open tunings, which allows him to play a rhythm part and a melody part at the same time. It's this big, wide, expansive playing style. And Arion, he's not just a root-note player; he's always doing a counter melody to the vocals. And Brad, Brad had a totally had a different way of playing," continues Jenkins. "He isn't your standard straightforward rock drummer. He brings a lot of jazz influences to his playing and he can really hit. Together, they create this really lush, thick, big sound." All four members of Third Eye Blind were born and bred in the Bay Area, and they take their roots seriously. According to Jenkins, their music is "by, of and for San Francisco and the Bay Area." "DIY" are initials that fly from the lips of a zillion artists, but Third Eye Blind seems to adhere to them. "We were never a member of one of the local scenes going on. We've always wanted to create our own sort of world. The ethic of that was to always do it yourself. Think for yourself. Everything for and by ourselves--our own posters, our own artwork, our own album production." Jenkins and Cadogan even penned the treatment for the video for "Semi-Charmed Life," recently shot in the SoMa district. "DIY's very important to us," Jenkins says, and he sees no contradiction in signing with a major. "We haven't whored ourselves in any way. You don't have to do that. All you have to do is just say, 'This is how we do things' and the label can either come along or not. Elektra has really come along. We don't write songs or make the music that we make for something or someone else. We would be doing this whether we were on Elektra or at a gas station or sitting up in my room. It's the same thing. It's just a question of how many people you reach with it." On the way home from Gavin, Third Eye Blind encountered a ghost of San Francisco punk past. "This big limousine picks us up from the airport," Jenkins says. "There's this old Asian American guy driving it. And he starts talking to us, 'Yeah, I used to be punk rocker,' he says. And he's like 60. And we're thinking, 'Whatever.' 'Yeah,' he goes on, 'I had a club in North Beach, the Mabuhay.' And I was like, 'Hey, I played at the Mabuhay in 1985.' And Kevin says, 'I played there in 1985.' In the old days, the early/mid-'80s punk scene in San Francisco where the Nuns and DKs got their start was the Mabuhay, and we were all playing there when we were 15." "So, we've been around the block," says Salazar. "It's been a long time coming." Album: "Third Eye Blind." scheduled for April 8 release on Elektra.
Third Eye Blind Creeps Toward Celebrity StatusThird Eye Blind Creeps Toward Celebrity Status by PAUL FREEMAN Times Correspondant Contra Costa Times May 2, 1997 It isn't semi-tough to figure out why Third Eye Blind's single 'Semi-Charmed life' has been getting so much airplay on stations like KITS FM105.3 (Live 105) and KALC FM 97.3 (Alice). Melodicly, it's infectious. But the members of the Bay Area band are still surprised to hear it on the radio. "It's funny that it gets played" says singer/songwriter Stephan Jenkins, "because the lyrics are totally filthy. 'Semi-Charmed Life' is about taking speed and having sex, and they play it on top 40! It's a joke!" "There's this bright exterior and underneath there's this dark stuff about this junkie's decay into speed addiction. That's not hidden at all. but people listen and think, 'Hey! Feelgood summertime song!' The whole band has this Sex Pistols kind of feeling of, 'We've just completely fooled everyone!'." 'Semi-Charmed Life' is also in heavy rotation at MTV, although that cable network has cut a few words here and there. Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut album on Elektra hit stores recently, and the band will tour as the opening act for the British pop-rock outfit James. You can catch the two bands Monday night at the Fillmore. Meanwhile, Jenkins, who produced the Third Eye Blind album has been franticly trying to complete similar chores for the Atlantic band the Braids. "It's been a lot of stress for me and I'm not handling it very well" he admits. "Producing is a big responsibility. Time is marching upon me. This morning I woke up at 4:30. It's wearing me down. I'm looking forward to going on tour. That'll be like a vacation. The tour manager will tell me where I need to be and I show up there, that's that." Jenkins, a lifetime San Fransisco, founded Third Eye Blind in 1984. He sought other musicians who had their own sound and found Guitarist Kevin Cadogan, bassist Arion Salazar and drummer Brad Hargreaves. They selected a name that had an ironic ring. "I've always liked smart-ass names, like Camper Van Beethoven, one of the great unsung bands. Third Eye Blind makes music for a blind time. For me, music is the only thing that rises above the gray frey of the banal." At a time when Third Eye Blind could be on the brink of a breakthrough, band members shy away from discussing commercial potential. "That's verboten, we just want total control over the art we make, whatever that is." Perhaps some of the band's independant spirit comes from its Bay Area origins. Band members divide time between Berkeley and a loft San Francisco's Chinatown. "San Francisco expects things to be differnt, noncommercial and trend-setting. For a city so small, it's so sophisticated. It generates so much amazing stuff. At the same time, it can be very cliquish and conservative." As the band's reputation grew, record companies came calling. Epic wanted to hear the group perform live. So Jenkins suggested that they add 3EB to the Oasis show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. "They said, 'If people throw bottles at you, you can leave the stage. We won't be mad,'" Jenkins recalls. 3EB got loaded on pub ale on the big night. "Instead of feeling pressure, we were like 'We're going to destroy Oasis! Let's show them how to play some rock!'" They earned an Encore. Of all the record companies that came courting, they chose Elektra, because the label promised not to interfere with the band's music. That's probably jjust as well because the band delivered an album with unique, appealing songs. "The record holds together. It's kind of about loss in some way, reconciling yourself to things you've lost, things that have been blown." Jenkins is about to lose any hope of anonymity. The other day, he was walking in San Francisco, above Haight, when a young female fan stopped him. "She wanted my time. I was in my own little world and it was like being awakened out of a dream. It was flattering but it also shocked me. I love the idea of being a celebrity, being recognized and let in free, seeing your video on MTV. But I don't need people asking, 'What do your parents do? Where do they live? Tell me what kinds of drugs you've taken. What is this song exactly about?...' You've got to decide early on how far you're going to let this all go."
Third Eye Blind, But Hardly Tone DeafThird Eye Blind, But Hardly Tone Deaf Have the riffers run dry? SF band puts melody rock back in the mainstream. New York Daily News -May 26, 1997 Fans of rock melody haven't had much to sing about for most of the last decade. The era of grunge found most guitar parts putting the emphasis on force and riffs rather than sensitivity and tones. Now that strategy has gone the way of flannel shirts. With the assention of acts like Foo Fighters, Ben-Folds Five and the latest wave of Brit-Pop bands, rock acts have once again regained their sense of what's singable. At the moment, there's no better example of the shift than the sudden success of San Francisco's Third Eye Blind (Which plays Webster Hall June 4th.) Band leader Stephan Jenkins explains, "There were such rigid confines when we were coming up. To play guitar badly seemed like a requirement, and there was like this lyric handbook where you could only talk about industrial-strength self-imposed angst, which you sang while you looked at the ground. That's not what we wanted to do." Instead, 3EB created resiliant melodies as anchors for big-burned rock chords and licks. As with Ben Folds Five, the group's tunes recall the fluidity of '70s pop, only propped up by a hard rock skeleton.
Blind-sidedBlind-sided Gunn High School alum Stephan Jenkins and his band, Third Eye Blind, bust right out of the gate and hit the top of the charts with 'Semi-Charmed Life' by Jim Harrington Palo Alto Weekly Jun 6, 1997 It's refreshing to find that, even after one huge hit, Third Eye Blind vocalist Stephan Jenkins is still acting somewhat like a rookie rock star. For instance, it doesn't appear that he has been at the game long enough to grow weary of the multitude of phone interviews from the media. If he has grown weary--if he finds it necessary to force his enthusiasm--then perhaps he should be an actor, not a rocker. Jenkins comes across as likable, easy-going and friendly. He opens up and spills forth opinions, stories and other data casually, seemingly unconcerned about how the quotes will appear in print. That is unless you want to talk about his past. Getting information from Jenkins about his boyhood and teen-age years in Palo Alto is difficult. But he does freely offer his opinion about the current state of affairs in Palo Alto--and it's not pretty. "It's terrible what's happened to Palo Alto," said Jenkins, who laments that it is no longer the type of place where kids can roam around barefoot on their bikes. "I'm sort of blown away by the influx of cash." Jenkins, a Southern California native who moved to Palo Alto when he was six, returns to the Peninsula on Friday, June 13, to perform with his band as part of the multi-act Live 105 B.F.D. modern music festival at the Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View. Knowing that he's talking to his hometown paper, Jenkins still sidesteps questions about his time spent in Palo Alto the way kids dodge balls on a playground. Since Jenkins wasn't talking, we went looking. A little archival research showed that the mysterious one was part of the Gunn High Class of 1983. Looking through his senior yearbook, it doesn't appear that Jenkins was involved in any sports, clubs or school-sponsored musical endeavors. The only real insight comes from the space next to his senior yearbook picture. There's a Lacrosse symbol, a drawing of a guy surfing, nods to ska music and the Police (the band, it's safe to assume, not the badge-carriers), as well as the slogan: "Success--all it takes is all you've got." That may not be enough information to quench the curiosity of Jenkins' rapidly increasing fan base. Still, if you want to gain more insight into the vocalist's Palo Alto days, all you need to do is listen to the band's recently-released, self-titled debut. "A lot of the record is actually written about people in Palo Alto," Jenkins admitted during an interview. And so when record buyers are singing along with the lyrics, they are, at times, actually singing about Palo Altans. They are singing about real characters such as two particular sisters, who shall remain nameless, that attended Gunn with Jenkins. "They were big influences on me," Jenkins said of the two sisters. Whatever the influences are--they are working. Third Eye Blind (3EB) is a hit. In three weeks, the San Francisco-based quartet's debut has been selling as many as 16,000 copies a week. The album's catchy single, "Semi-Charmed Life," has spent four consecutive weeks as the most played song on alternative radio. And, perhaps most importantly, radio stations are now playing a number of other different tracks from the album. "It shows we are dealing with a whole album," said Brian S. Gross, a publicist with Elektra Records, 3EB's label. "We are not just dealing with one song." No they are not. The most surprising aspect about "Third Eye Blind" is its consistency. From the grinding guitar and bouncy vocals on the opener "Losing A Whole Year," the pop-filled "Semi-Charmed Life" and the pretty, acoustic guitar-driven "Jumper" to the full-fledge rocker "London" and the griping lyrics on the slow closing songs "Motorcycle Drive By" and "God Of Wine," there are simply no throwaway tracks on the album. That's a very refreshing change in these days of one-good-song-per-disc alternative rock bands. One-hit wonders are so prevalent that any time a new band scores a lot of radio play with its first offering, it is--usually safely--thought that is all the band has to offer. "Semi-Charmed Life" has been such a phenomenon that 3EB has already come across people that assume--at least until they listen to the whole album--that the band is destined to be a quick flash-in-the-pan. Jenkins says he's not concerned. He believes the band--and the album--are built to last. "It's just what people think. And we have never thought that way about us. We've never thought that 'Semi-Charmed' was the big song on the album," he said. "I don't have any anxieties about us being a one-hit band." If you really press him, Jenkins will tell you that his three favorite songs on the album are "Narcolepsy," "God of Wine" and "I Want You"--but he does so begrudgingly. "I really like them all. These songs are our little babies," he said. "We put 14 songs on this (one) record because we couldn't make a double album. We had no intention of putting any filler on this album." Prior to signing a contract with Elektra--in what the San Francisco Weekly reported was the single largest new-band contract ever generated out of the Bay Area--3EB had already played several high-profile gigs. The band grabbed coveted opening slots for the Bay Area's own Counting Crows at the Fillmore and for British-rockers Oasis at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. (They also opened for Heavy Into Jeff at an Earthwise Productions show at the Cub, a.k.a. Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto, back in early 1995.) The Oasis gig is the most notorious. The band's task was simple, just warm up 8,000 die-hard Oasis fans. The legend goes that the band was warned that, like English soccer fans, the crowd might throw objects at them. But instead of just serving as target practice, the band won the crowd over big time. Brit-pop fans crowd surfed and even called the local heros back for an (gasp) encore. In a cover story on 3EB, BAM magazine reported that Jenkins and the boys were so impressive at the Oasis show that they were paid double their original fee agreement for performing. Third Eye Blind has even struck up a friendly rivalry with the infamously disagreeable Oasis boys. This is not the type of ruthless--and ridiculous--name-calling affair that Oasis has with fellow Brit-poppers Blur. It's more like barroom bravado. "It's sort of our soccer team is better than their soccer team," Jenkins reasons. "There is no rift between Oasis and Third Eye Blind." After the Shoreline gig, the San Francisco rockers will meet the British wankers again at yet another mega-radio show for the powerful KROQ in Los Angeles. When asked if he is looking forward to seeing Oasis again, Jenkins can barely contain his enthusiasm. "You bet I am. I can't wait," laughed Jenkins, reserving special attention for the notoriously troublesome Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher. "I'm going to pick Liam up and spin him around." The L.A. stop is the last in what has been a successful, seven-week headlining tour that wasn't even supposed to happen. The national trek was supposed to feature 3EB in an opening slot for the more-established British band, James. When James pulled out, the tour continued anyway. And so the band is selling out venues in cities like New York. Third Eye Blind is simply making the best out of what is potentially a very stressful situation. "The mantle of headlining has just been thrust on us in this very early stage in our career," he admits. Playing live is the fun part. What's scary, Jenkins says, is having to completely open himself up in the songwriting process to find lyrics that ring true for millions of listeners. Coming up with a song like "Motorcycle Drive By," with the plaintive cry "And there's things I'd like to do that/You don't believe in/I would like to build something/You know it's never going to happen," doesn't put Jenkins in the safest of places. "That is me, unsheathed and open for judgment," he states. "And it's a position that not many people find themselves in." Not many people find themselves on stage in front of hordes of screaming teen-agers either, but that aspect of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle doesn't seem to bother Jenkins at all. "The great thing about playing live is that I have no fear at all," he said. "That's a great feeling."
Third Eye BlindThird Eye Blind by KEN BAKER People magazene -July 28, 1997 This San Francisco quartet's debut album serves up a melange of guitars, keyboards and percussion in a seductive collection of pop-flavored pop--sans repetitive rifs and vocal vapidity. Frontman Stephan Jenkins's Johnny Rotten-ish voice may sound kind of vaux Brit, but his words usually ring true. Whether mourning a lost lover in "Losing a Whole Year" or wisely affirming his bedrock beliefs in "Semi-Charmed Life,' Jenkins has a knack for summing up a world of emotion in a single line--which makes for a fully-chamed album. (Elektra)
Semi-Charmed LivesSemi-Charmed Lives With Third Eye Blind, seeing is believing by ELYSA GARDNER Details September, 1997 There are still some places on earth where sex, drugs and rock & roll do not mix, and, odd as it may seem, one of those places is the set of Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Stephan Jenkins has just discovered this. Jenkins is the tall, handsome, decidedly extroverted singer of Third Eye Blind, whose chart tipping single, "Semi-Charmed Life" has earned his band its first TV gig. The quartet are about half way through sound check when their publicist informs them that certain lyrics have been ruled not-ready-for-post-prime-time. The crystal-meth reference has to go, "I fell asleep inside you", and "She goes down on me" won't wash, either. "They suggest 'fell asleep beside you,' and 'goes down with me,'"the publicist says. Jenkins smirks, "There's nothing illegal about felatio," he bellows into the microphone, oblivious to the clutch of fussy looking female staffers gathered around the stage. "Except in South Carolina." Half an hour later, jsut before the show tapes, Jenkins muses over the requested revisions - which he will ignore - in a nearby coffee shop. Between bites of tomato salad, he leans forward and, in his best just-between-us manner, reveals the lyrics he origonally wrote for "Semi-Charmed Life," which would undoubtedly send O'Brien's crew scrambling for Pat Robertson. "I wrote about the raunchier aspects of sex," he admits, scratching his oddly appealing Abe Lincoln-style beard. "I mean, that's what sex is, it's a dirty business. But I don't think I'm obsessed with it. I'm not, like, Prince." Not by a long shot. There is little about Third Eye Blind's slick, accessible music that could be called iconoclastic or groundbreaking. On their self-titled debut, the band - which also includes guitarist Kevin Cadogan, bassist Arion Salazar, and drummer Brad Hargreaves, all in their mid 20s (Jenkins is 28) - blend earnest craftsmanship with taut, guitar-driven arrangements that genuflect before the college-rock gods of the '80s and early '90s. But as Jenkins sees it, Third Eye Blind are maverics in their own right. "We didn't come together because we wanted to fit into a scene,"Jenkins says, "I don't wanna make this sound too grandiose, but we had the sense that we were special." They weren't alone. Third Eye Blind were courted by several record companies before accepting a contract with Elektra Records last year. The deal was touted as a personal victory for Elektra Chairwoman and CEO Sylvia Rhone. The other three band members, who, periodically, exhibit less alpha-male qualities than their front man, seem unphased when asked if Rhone's personal involvement places any extra pressure on them. Sylvia "was interested in us for how we sounded then," sums up the boyish Hargreaves, shrugging. "We sound way better now." Jenkins agrees, "We always approached record companies by telling them, 'don't tell us what to do. We're gonna make the record we wanna make.' Sylvia has been very supportive, without hovering over us...Although I have to say, she was furious with me when I grew my hair out, I had this really short cut, and when I let it grow a little, she was like, 'Aw, baby, that's now happening!'" Aside from the rigors of travelling on an all-male tour bus, "It's like fuckin' Lord of the Flies in there," Jenkins laments--Third Eye Blind have adapted well to their role as fledgling major-label act. Not for these boys the preoccuption with indie cred favored by some of their peers. "I've been trying to sell out for years," says Cadogan, grinning. "I just never knew what line to stand on." Then again, you wouldn't expect a group that puts forth sentiments like, "There's a demon in my head that starts to play/A nightmare tape loop of what went wrong yesterday" (from "Narcolepsy") to take its image too lightly. "I don't really like the term 'pop,'" says Jenkins. "It gets interprited as 'dismissable.' I've never felt that way about Third Eye Blind. There are fourteen songs on our album, each of which we bled for, all of which I really love. If anybody had any questions about that, I'd say, 'Spend some time with the album.' Are a 'pop' band? Are we 'here today...'?" He smiles, charmingly. "I don't think so."
Third Eye Blind Sees SuccessThird Eye Blind Sees Success By EDNA GUNDERSEN USA Today, October 11th, 1997 Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. It may be a cliche, but it's also the formula that has vaulted Third Eye Blind to stardom. The San Francisco rock band is leading a fully charmed life thanks to Semi-Charmed Life, a chirpy rock tune with a dark undercurrent about drug addiction and kinky sex. The song, No. 7 in Billboard, is thus far 1997's most-played song on all radio formats. It spent 10 weeks at the top of the modern rock chart and propelled sales (now nearing 1 million copies) of the quartet's self-titled debut album, a pop chart fixture the past six months. The band's profile, expanding with second single Graduate, will be boosted further this fall. Currently on its own U.S. tour, Third Eye Blind (a.k.a. 3EB) was chosen to open eight stadium dates for U2, starting Oct. 26, and six for the Rolling Stones, starting Nov. 25. The success of 3EB doesn't surprise its cocky front man, Stephan Jenkins, though he is amazed that Semi-Charmed has been embraced by the mainstream. "This is the first time a song about sex and speed is a hit," he marvels. "I was quite sure people would be offended." The bouncy clip and cheery doo-doo-doo chorus belie the habit-forming song's bleak tale about a speed freak in a disintegrating romance. "It sounds bright and shiny for a reason," says Jenkins, 28. "That's the way crystal meth feels. It's a sunny-disposition drug. It's supposed to sound attractive because the song is about the allure of a decadent lifestyle. But it's also a cautionary tale. There are real consequences to the choices we make. Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break." Don't jump to any conclusions. Though Jenkins often writes from experience, this tale was based on observation. "It's certainly not about me," Jenkins says. "I've never been a speed addict. It refers to a time some friends brought speed into San Francisco, and I watched so many of them develop a problem. I take no drugs whatsoever. In the song, speed is more metaphorical, a narrative vehicle. "On the road, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't eat dairy. I lead a healthy life. And here I have the drug song of the season." Jenkins, a former literature major, formed 3EB in 1994 with guitarist Kevin Cadogan, bassist Arion Salazar and drummer Brad Hargreaves. Weaned on '60s rock ("We heard the Beatles and Bob Dylan while breastfeeding"), the band feels little connection to current alternative trends. "There's a whole collage movement in the noise-pop, post-grunge world," Jenkins says. "It's interesting and cute but very safe, full of vapid melodrama but no emotional commitment. One reason we formed this band was not to fit into that." The immodest singer proudly catalogs the band's strengths: a varied sonic landscape, a sense of groove from funk and hip-hop influences, and solid melody and songwriting skills. The band didn't swoon for the first label that came courting. "These are multinational corporations that have bottom lines to deliver," Jenkins says. "We are the product they sell. That's the reality. We're trying to make music entirely on our own terms. Rarely are these two things mutually supportable. We didn't have a bidding war, but luckily we did have a couple labels interested in us. Elektra was the most supportive and organized and focused." Third Eye's fast rise prompted "a moronic element in music journalism" to paint the band as a one-hit wonder. Jenkins is confident of 3EB's lasting potential and resents the notion of the band's overnight success. "We've struggled as much as anyone I've heard of," he says. He's not altogether pleased with 3EB's rep as morbid, though he agrees the music reflects his fascination with the dark side. Narcolepsy examines the paralytic terror that grips sleepers as they awaken. Jenkins, who produced and wrote (or co-wrote with Cadogan) all 14 songs, dwells on Prozac, vampires, car crashes and all manner of loss. "But we're not Joy Division," Jenkins says, referring to the gloomy British group whose lead singer committed suicide. "It's not like anyone in this band is going to off himself. I'm a cheerful person. I may deal with dark themes, but there is something redemptive or uplifting about it as a whole. "I don't apologize for the lyrics I write. They can be raunchy and graphic, but they're not sensationalistic. The album is about things we've lost and things we could never get. Maybe it's my character flaw that I'm always pulled between those two points."
Making The GradeMAKING THE GRADE Maximum Guitar January 1998 by Ken Micallef With single after single riding high on the charts and their debut album selling gangbusters, Third Eye Blind have graduated top of the class. Guitarist Kevin Cadogan and singer Stephan Jenkins are indeed enjoying a charmed life. Charging into the the Steve Miller meets Lour Reed street stride of "Semi Charmed Life" at Manhattan's Supper Club recently, Third Eye Blind storm their worshipful audience like an ascending rocket ready to explode. With their hit tale of oral sex and drug addiction neatly lodged 11 weeks, this San Francisco Bay Area band command the stage like the rockstars they always dreamt they would be. Bono look-alike Stephan Jenkins is natural rock presence, crouching like Oasis' Liam Gallagher one minute, hopping up and down like Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha the next. Meanwhile, guitarist Kevin Cadogan is Third Eye Blind's backbone, maneuvering through the band's ever-changing song styles with the skill and savvy of a baseball pitcher dropping a sinker for a wicked curve. Cadogan's the mellow foil to Jenkins' bravura and overt confidence, while bassist Arion Salazar and drummer Brad Hargreaves combine low-end melodicism with good old-fashioned slam.
