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Live 3 pics
(Spring 2006) by George Dionne
If you're really tired of the same-old-same old, then I highly suggest Woodstock,
New York natives 3. Led by vocalist/guitarist Joey Eppard, 3 recently re-released
their 2004 album Wake Pig (read
CD review) under their new label Metal Blade
Records. You must erase any preconceived notions about the band's music due
to their
label's
legendary heavy metal status.3 break boundaries, create intricate and textured
music, and quite simply walk a unique path of their own. Rock Is Life would
like to thank the fans of the Official 3 Message Boards for helping with
the questions.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about 3, how would you describe
the group’s
music to me?
JE: I think our musical philosophy is sort of a very
inclusive type of philosophy in that we’re a collective of individuals. We have five very different
personalities in the band, but the content is for everyone to be themselves.
It kind of gives us a very three dimensional kind of a sound. I think we
strive for balance in our music and this kind of ties into the concept in
the name, in that we kind of draw from three different genres creating what
we do. I’m into singer-songwriters. I love great songs and melodies,
and we combine that with some more progressive rock influences.
RIL: So the bands name was inspired by the three genres that you
have put together?
JE: That’s one aspect of it, for me it’s just an obsession. As
far back as I can remember the number three just represented something inspiring
to me. I just see it everywhere I go. It’s just interwoven in to reality
for me.
RIL: Numerologist say the number 3 is inspirational and optimistic.
JE: Yeah, I think there is some truth in that, and even in the way that we
live, there is a three dimensional space the way that we define time. Three
is also past, present, and future. In terms of what we are as a form, we
have a body, mind, and spirit. You can go on and on using three.
RIL: Your music isn’t what I exactly expected to hear on a
Metal Blade release. How did you hook up with Metal Blade?
JE: I think it started when we did our first real
national tour in 2004. It was our first real tour and we made a really
good impression on the audiences
we played in front. We created enough of a vibe that labels started to get
interested. Metal Blade got a hold of our CD and [Brian Slagel] fell in love
with the record. I think that they wanted to diversify a little bit, and
I think they found something they really believe in. We hung out with them
and they were really good people. We’re into working with them, and
we’re the odd band out, and it’s kind of working to our advantage.
RIL: You released Wake Pig earlier on a smaller label; did you change anything
when you released it through Metal Blade?
JE: We changed a lot actually. The original release
was for the October 2004 tour and it kind of came up quickly. We had to rush
the record out and make
things happen. They literally had to drag me kicking and screaming out of
the studio to the mastering session just because I liked to take my time.
[Metal Blade] presented the opportunity to complete the mixes to my own satisfaction,
and that’s what I did. On five of the songs, the mixes have really
stepped up and I’m a lot happier with them. In addition to that, we
added a lead guitar solo to “Amaze Disgrace.” Also, we added
vocals to the song “Where’s Max,” which was an instrumental
on the first release. Then we added two brand new songs that really would
have been on our next record, but we decided that since we’re not going
to release a record for a little while, this record kind of needed it. We
decided to out those two new songs on this record; “Circus without
Clowns” and “One Way Town.”
RIL: How do you think Wake Pig differs from your first album Paint
by Number?
JE: One of the main differences for me was the
way in which they were made. The band had been around for a couple of
years for Paint by Number, and
we were working with a producer that didn’t let us track any of our
material. He basically pulled all the pop songs out of everything we were
doing. I like to sort of balance things out a little more. There is prog
stuff on that record, but a producer is like a filter; you know they filter
certain elements out of your sound in accordance with there own vision.
For me it was the only way to manifest the music in my head and my mind
was to just do it on my own and produce it myself. With Paint by Number
we were working with a very talented producer, but he was someone, in my
opinion, that was watering down the vision. For Wake Pig we decided that
we would spend the money on all the gear to build our own studio. I think
it takes a little more time to take on that much responsibility to do it
right. Basically you have to divide yourself as producer, engineer, and
artist. Wake Pig is my favorite record that we did.
RIL: Wake Pig is a really good album. I can honestly say that I’ve
never heard anything like it. That’s what really caught my ear. You
just don’t hear that much original material today. When the album came
my way, I was expecting head banging thrash metal, because it’s on
Metal Blade. Then I hear this progressive…I can’t even describe
it. It has elements of everything. This is album is so good. Nobody else
is doing this. I have read that Coheed & Cambria have been compared to
you, though I haven’t heard anything from them to say different.
JE: We actually go way back with them. They used to
open shows for us under a different name. The original drummer of 3, who
played on most of Paint
by Number, is my brother. After that record we were on Universal for a stint.
That fell apart and he quit playing drums for a couple years. I forged ahead.
Our friends in Shabutie, which was an earlier version of Coheed and Cambria,
needed a place to rehearse. We let them rehearse in our living room for about
a year before they hit the road. Now they’re huge! Those guys are doing
so well.
RIL: Would you say the comparison of your music to their music is accurate?
JE: Yeah, I think that when you look at popular music
today, it’s fair
to make a comparison between our bands. We grew up in the same scene and
we are inspired by a lot of the same things, but at the same time there are
a lot of superficial similarities. Once you get into the records, we’re
really different. On the first listen of 3, you may think I have a similar
vocal range to Claudio of Coheed. He appreciates what I do and I appreciate
what he does. We’re friends, we grew up together, but at the same time,
if you listen to each record twice, you realize these are two different bands.
RIL: Your video for “Alien Angel” debuted on MTV2’s
Headbanger's Ball in March. Tell me a little about the video.
JE: It was a lot of fun to make. We had a very specific concept for this
video. Are you familiar with the John Carpenter movie They Live?
RIL: I love that movie! Rowdy Roddy Piper! Definitely.
JE: We were able we borrow clips of the actual movie
to put in our video. I wanted to run with that concept of a conspiracy, kind
of rolling the
masses into submission and keeping people far from really thinking. We
used that as a motif for the video, and it came out great. We had a very
small budget, so I had to put a lot of work into it in order to really
pull it off. I had to build the mask for the aliens from scratch at home,
because there was no money in the budget to hire a special effects person.
It probably would have doubled the budget. We really put our hearts and
souls into the video. It’s been getting a lot of rave reviews and
I think the concept can be taken as a campy sci-fi thing, but at the same
time there is a metaphor there that I think is important, especially today.
RIL: Do you want people to guess what the metaphor is?
JE: You can actually watch the video several times
and the metaphor is not to hard to guess. If you remember the concept of
the movie They Live, with
the sunglasses sort of revealing that we live in this reality that’s
actually an illusion. It’s sort of like the Matrix in that there’s
this underlying truth that we are constantly being hypnotized to not be
conscious of. I see that everywhere I go. I’m traveling all over
the country, and I see that in popular music too when business people run
the music business. That’s why you end up with all these carbon copy
bands. People look at us like we’re crazy because we have a unique
sound. To me I think it’s much healthier for culture if we have people
just making music and being themselves, other than trying to make money.
I think that self-regurgitation of style degrades out culture.
RIL: As a music fan do you think the Headbanger’s Ball of
today accurately represents the music scene?
JE: You know I’m not the metal guy. I mean, I love music and I love
good music, so I appreciate metal and I appreciate flamingo, classical, Joni
Mitchell, Elvis Costello, Sly and the Family Stone, and Stevie Wonder. I’m
the guy who just loves good music, and I don’t get MTV either. I haven’t
even seen Headbanger’s Ball, so I guess it’s hard to comment
on that. I wish the DJ’s had a little more control about picking out
the cool new stuff on the radio, instead of it being so political and business
oriented. We’re out here fighting everyday just to keep this thing
alive and to make it happen. For us to get a video, if we can get a video
in rotation on Fuse; that would be huge. Let us take it to the next level
very quickly.
RIL: You work on a couple of side projects besides 3, is there currently
anything you’re working on?
JE: I’m very focused on 3 right now for the moment,
but I do have a build up of solo records. I released a solo record in 2002
called Been
to the Future. Then I made a solo record called Joey RX that
has yet to be released, because I’m focused on 3. I’m turning down phone calls left and
right of people wanting to do stuff. On top of that, there was another record
I did with Jerry Marauder, who was Peter Gabriel’s drummer for years;
a super talented guy that’s played on a million records. I did a really
great record with him, but it’s another thing just sitting on the shelve.
It goes back a couple of years now. I feel like I’m whoring it, and
I just want to release it. I also have a side project with some of the members
of P-Funk and that’s a band called Drugs.
RIL: I’ve read about that you were a member of that, what’s
that band about?
JE: It’s a funk band, kind of like seventies era P-Funk style material
and Sly and the Family Stone. I’ve written a few songs for it, and
we’ve done some touring in Europe. It really plays a lot into who I
am and what I bring to the table in 3. Trust me, there are not a lot of guys
in this genre that have shared the stage with George Clinton and Gary Cider,
and worked with people who can really sing there asses off. I’ve learned
a lot from those guys; just the locomotion and syncopation of the music really
moves me. I really appreciate it.
RIL: What the worst thing that has ever happened to you on stage with 3?
JE: The worst thing? God I think I must have blocked it out. I try not to
harp on the downers.
RIL: Bizarre or funny?
JE: I’ve had some embarrassing things happen when I first started playing
on the scene. I didn’t own any belts, so when I was really getting
into it, my pants just started falling down. I didn’t know what to
do. I couldn’t stop playing. The owner of the club ended up coming
over and snapping a bunch of pictures of me and putting them up on the wall.
That was pretty embarrassing. Every situation is different, and I’ve
come to expect the unexpected. I roll with the punches and I try to make
the best of it.
RIL: How long is your current tour scheduled for?
JE: We’ve been out for about three weeks now, and we actually have
three more shows. Then we’re going to go home for a minute, for about
a week, and then we’re playing some shows on the East Coast. In May
it looks like we’re going from the Midwest to California. We’ll
see what’s going on in June. We’re hoping to get to Europe
a little bit later this summer for some festivals. The response in
Europe has
been great. RIL: It’s always great for
a rock band.
JE: Yeah, I was just blown away. When the record came out in January, the
attention I got over there was just way more than we got over here.
RIL: 3 played at Woodstock in ‘93 and ’99. I don’t mean
to sound wise here, but if you didn’t state that fact on your website,
do you think anybody would have remembered?
JE: We went on stage early. We went on about noon on
Friday, when people were just starting to show up. I mean there were still
about fifty thousand
people there, but it’s another sorted story about getting close to
what could have been a big exposure for the band; then kind of getting screwed
out of it. At the time we were being managed by the promoter of the festival
Michael Lang, and they were making a movie; the Woodstock ‘94 movie.
The subplot of the movie was to be our story. They had been following us
around for months, filming our rehearsals. The plan was to give us this prime
spot on Friday, like eight o’clock on the main stage to break the band.
We were just kids and we were artist. No one was telling us what to do.
Basically,
the local community of musicians were up in arms over this; that we were
getting a shot to play Woodstock and we had only been on the scene for
a few years. They put a lot of pressure on Michael Lang, so we got nudged
from
the prime slot to being an opening act. They really didn’t have there
shit together on stage; for the circular stage that rotated. The stage was
divided in half. There was a band on the other half getting ready, so our
monitors weren’t working. While we were playing we could hear the other
band thru them. RIL: There you go, that’s your worst moment on stage.
JE: I guess that’s the one I blocked out. Thanks,
I feel so much better.
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JOEY
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