Featured Soundbyte: Third Eye Blind, Loosing a Whole Year?

Third Eye Blind have been promoting their self-titled debut for more than a year. The record has remained on the Billboard top 200 album charts for 70 weeks and, with the release of the latest single, "Jumper," it shows no real sign of plummeting. The constant touring, culminating in this summer's Bonfire Tour with openers Our Lady Peace and Eve 6, has kicked up their momentum and added to their fan base.

The Bonfire Tour's first leg has burned out, but the band remain energized and ready to kick off a West coast trek next month. Lead singer Stephan Jenkins says: "(touring) is something that I would do for free. I really like just playing music, I like playing in a band. Sometimes we get really stressed out and feel a lot of pressure. The hardest thing is not having a normal sleep schedule, so a lot of times I look really beat, really tired. But when I walk out on stage I just get so energized by the fans and the energy that they have that I feel alive again, every night. Sometimes I'm very quiet during the day, and I just go off at night."

Jenkins acknowledges that "going off" night after night has elevated the band from potential one-hit-wonder status and won them respect as a bona fide concert attraction. "I think playing live the last year has been crucial to people understanding what Third Eye Blind is about," he says. "I think that if you see us play live you can get what Third Eye Blind is and what it's about, and the music--if you hear it on the radio or you see a video you cant. So I think it's very, very important. We're not an MTV band. Our process of developing has been very organic from the beginning. It was five years before we came out with this record. And then it was a really long year of touring before we emerged in the sort of growing musical consciousness. And that's been good, and people come and respond to us because of the music, not because of anything artificial and I'm definitely proud of that."
The band have managed to write new material while performing the first record every night. The second album will probably be recorded in early '99 and, according to Jenkins, it'll have a good beat and we'll be able to dance to it. "I just think groove will be more important, maybe, a little bit more featured than it was on the first record," Jenkins says. "I'd like it to be that way--something you can put on and sort of have the groove take you all the way through the album."

Bring up the specter of the dreaded sophomore slump and Jenkins will answer directly and without hesitation. "I don' t have anything to prove," he states.

In light of the band's total disregard for everything from videos to their many detractors to their own sleep requirements, it's possible that they are actually unfazed and, after more than a year, perhaps, now, fully charmed. You can catch 3EB this fall.

-Jaan Uhelszki