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Third Eye Blind (and their record label) have big
expectations for their upcoming Crystal Baller
release.
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The last time Third Eye Blind entered a studio to make a CD, the band was coming off a 1997 debut CD that had sold more than four million copies and spawned major hit singles in "Semi-Charmed Life" and "How's It Going to Be." Not surprisingly, the band felt the urgency to finish their second CD, Blue, and maintain their momentum.
"Making the Blue album was really tough, very hard because the band was really, really under an enormous amount of pressure," says frontman Stephan Jenkins of that 1999 release. "I was being compelled to write and produce, (to) record an album in six months, and I said 'OK.'
"I think that we did some things on that album that are some of the best things that we've done so far," he continues. "The song 'Wounded,' I just think is one of the things that I'm most proud of. And there are other things that I really love on that record. I only just listened to it recently. But I felt that if we had stepped back and given ourselves more time to do it, we would have gotten closer to our truest intentions."
For their third CD, Third Eye Blind have not allowed themselves to be rushed into declaring the project finished before they are fully satisfied with the music. After completing tour dates to support the double-platinum Blue, the band came off the road and in early 2001 began building their own studio, before beginning work in earnest on Crystal Baller last September. But with sessions nearing the one-year mark, Jenkins says the group's label, Elektra Records, is eager to see the CD reach completion.
"It's not finished, and I don't know, I get a lot of pressure from the label to have it done now," he says. "But I don't know. I just feel like we're making the best record we've ever made. And it's funny, it's the most sort of spontaneous and raw record we've made, but it's also the most beautiful, I think. It's this combination, and I don't know, I just feel the process of making it goes the way that it does, and I can't really change it."
The importance of finishing Crystal Baller is great enough that the band members are taking recording equipment on the road during their current tour with the Goo Goo Dolls, and they also plan to spend a week in mid-August in a New York City studio, recording during the day and traveling to venues for shows during that time in nearby cities in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Part of the reason the band's label, Elektra Records, wants to get Crystal Baller ready for release, Jenkins says, is because the CD is turning out so well.
"We started to play the label some of the (new) songs and they're like 'OK, we've got a big hit record on our hands,' " Jenkins says. "That means they can start to taste it. So they're like 'Where is it? We want to set it up. We want to do this and we want to do all that.' You know what, there are albums like (U2's) The Joshua Tree and (Fleetwood Mac's) Rumours, and things like that. Those bands were all in horrible trouble with their labels before they put those records out. Then they put them out and everybody was happy. Hopefully, they (Elektra) will be happy."
Certainly the three original members of Third Eye Blind -- guitarist/ vocalist Jenkins, bassist Arion Salazar and drummer Brad Hargreaves -- are happier now than during the Blue project.
Following completion of Blue, the band, in January 2000, fired guitarist Kevin Cadogan and brought in Tony Fredianelli -- who actually was Third Eye Blind's original guitarist before Cadogan. The ousted guitarist, who co-wrote many of the band's songs with Jenkins, filed a multi-million dollar suit against Third Eye Blind, the group's management and Jenkins claiming breach of contract and wrongful termination. In his suit, Cadogan claimed he was fired because he didn't agree to a deal that would have netted the group $1 million in exchange for releasing an EP and starting their own record label under the Elektra Records umbrella.
Cadogan also charged that producer's credits and songwriting royalties had been withheld from him and that despite an oral agreement between group members to split ownership in the band, Jenkins had formed several Third Eye Blind entities without his consent. Third Eye Blind and Cadogan reached an out-of-court settlement in June, just before the case was to go to trial. Jenkins declined comment on the terms of the settlement or Cadogan's claims against the band. What he did say was that the differences with Cadogan involved more than the band's business affairs.
"Well, you never heard us say that it had anything to do about profits or ownership of the name," Jenkins says. "That was just never it at all. I mean, that just wasn't what was happening. Bands are people who have ... a band is together, held together by a common concern for each other, and if (you lack) those kinds of things, then you're not a band. And if you're not a band, you can't make music together."
Asked if he and Cadogan had a power struggle over who would set the tone as the chief songwriter and leader of the band, Jenkins moves the subject in a different direction.
"God, I don't even know. It was so long ago," Jenkins says. "It really was a long time ago. You know, after that initial part, I just sort of dropped it. I just moved on. Tony was in the band originally, so to us it really made sense and felt right. We've never looked back. I want to be really clear that it's four guys in the band. This isn't between four people. It was between three people and one. Brad, Arion and I take a real joy in each other, and Third Eye Blind is a family, and it's our life's work and it's something where we are sort of a circus family. We love touring."
Jenkins takes pains to emphasize that the band members have taken on more of an ethic of teamwork since Cadogan was fired. This is worth noting because the singer, who began recruiting players for the San Francisco area group in 1993, has frequently been portrayed as being controlling and a confident-bordering-on-cocky bandleader.
And though he remains the group's principal songwriter, Jenkins emphasizes that Third Eye Blind is a band in the true sense of the word, and that songwriting in the group has become more collaborative on Crystal Baller.
"It's always been sort of embellishing," Jenkins says, describing the role other band members play in the songwriting process. "I write a song, and somebody else in the band really embellishes my song and takes it to another place. Tony does that in a huge way. So does Arion. Arion and I are very close and really partners in what we do.
"I think that the band is really together, that we're closer to each other," he continues. "We have the original guitarist (Fredianelli) in the band. He has this enormous desire to put that sound out there. So he's just really, he's a huge lift. And I think Arion and I are much more fearless at what we do."
THIRD EYE BLIND plays the Riverbend Music Center with the Goo Goo Dolls on Friday.
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