This was almost my first year of being appointed chairman of the label, this historic label with the Afghan Whigs and Björk, but I didn’t have anything that had the pop sensibility with the edge… those two different things. I felt like… “Hmm, isn’t this fresh? Isn’t it a new view of modern top 40 music?” It instantly connected with me… his voice, the lyrics, the melodious hooks. I remember getting the music from my VP of A&R and meeting with a lawyer in the business who I did a lot of deals with - a passionate music guy, Tim Mandelbaum - and they talked about the band for many days before I got the opportunity to meet them in L.A. Salazar: We were in some little hallway and Jeff Buckley said, “You sound great!” It was a lot of fun, but Clive didn’t think Stephan could sing, which he took as a bit of, “Well, I’ll show that guy.” It was in some room at some rehearsal space, and Jeff Buckley was there too and he came in and sat down to listen. “Here I was, lap-dancing all these people…”Ĭadogan: One of our first showcases was for Clive Davis at Arista in New York, and it didn’t go very well.
Third Eye Blind 'Repudiates' Republican Agenda, Draws Boos From GOP Crowd in Cleveland One of those was “Semi-Charmed.” He had it with a stripped-down drum machine and electronic bass on the first non-band demo. It was kind of one-dimensional, acoustic guitar troubadour-y first position thing with basic guitar chords and some bohemian rapping. When I met Stephan he had a demo with two or three songs out of the six that would see the light of day on the album. I was playing with Stephan in 1993 and we had a show opening for the Counting Crows in April of 1994, and Kevin showed up a couple months later. Jenkins: From the very early ’90s I was working and writing and trying to get a band together, then someone would quit and join another band, or someone was a drug addict, and I’d put up fliers to find new members, and then the night of the show the drummer would quit and I’d be back to zero. Did things change when Kevin and Arion joined? No, not really.Īrion Salazar: Nothing in the band happened until Kevin joined. Between Stephan’s place in the East Bay in Oakland and my place is where most of the songs were written. We started writing, and what would come over the next two years was the bulk of the debut album - a lot of which came together in a little shack in the back of my parents’ house in Oakland, where I was living after I graduated from college. We hit it off and I liked some of stuff he was doing. He approached me at a club and asked if I wanted to jam and get to work. Kevin Cadogan: I was playing with a mutual acquaintance in a band and Stephan had heard me and some of my songs and guitar playing. Then I went on to try to get bands together. There was no overnight success.
Third Eye Blind started as a songwriting effort of mine and then some guys who were engineers and keyboard players in studios.
He thought it was rambling, and it was - it was too different. Randy Jackson heard it and really liked it, and took it to Donnie Ienner, who was then President of CBS Records. I didn’t have a band or any musicians, just these songs in my head. When I first recorded it and played it it was pretty much done. She sang me a song called “ What’s Going On” and I sang her this song called “Semi-Charmed Life.” I remember sitting in a room with this other songwriter who worked down the street - she was a waitress - and she came up and sat on the bed and we played each other some songs and I realized years later that the songs we played each other had sold 17 million records… it was Linda Perry. The drum loops on the final record are the ones that I originally recorded. Stephan Jenkins: I wrote “Semi-Charmed” before I met Arion or any of the people in that make-up. “I didn’t have a band, just these songs in my head.” ( Editor’s note: The accounts of how some songs and portions of the album came together do not always totally agree.) Here, in their own words, is the story behind Third Eye Blind. Third Eye Blind Explains Trolling Republicans at Charity Gigįor the album’s 20 anniversary, Billboard spoke to Jenkins, 52, former bandmates guitarist Kevin Cadogan and bassist Arion Salazar, Elektra Records Chairman and CEO Sylvia Rhone, who signed the band, as well as “Semi-Charmed Life” video director Jamie Morgan and album co-producer/engineer Eric Valentine.
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