Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

The Third Degree with Third Eye Blind

This article first appeared on Oct. 21, 1998.

When Stephan Jenkins began piecing Third Eye Blind (3EB) together five years ago, he must have had a nagging suspicion their success would fall into place like this. Jenkins first hooked up with bassist Arion Salazar, and after a string of other players, guitarist Kevin Cadogan and drummer Brad Hargreaves.

Almost two years after their self-titled debut LP, 3EB is still riding the wave of popularity. The band has toured the world and the U.S. several times in support of the record, each time to a larger fan base.

The group was initially scheduled to be an opening act, but the only two groups 3EB supported were U2 and the Rolling Stones before being thrust onto the main stage themselves. Jenkins' attitude belied the group's ascension. "I never had a fall-back job," Jenkins has said, "because I was afraid I would fall back."

Guitarist Kevin Cadogan called lasvegasweekly to wax philosophical about Vegas, humility and the nature of time.

1. Do you like to play Las Vegas?

Cadogan: It's a strange culture out there in Vegas. Last time I was there we played a show at The Joint with Smashmouth and we were at this hotel, and you know how they always have these steak specials, lobster for 50 cents? People were lined up for it, while the restaurant upstairs charging regular prices was empty.

These are the same people who are throwing down five bucks on a table and losing it and not thinking about it, and then they go, "Well, let's wait two hours for the steak special." I just don't understand that. If they paid a little bit more, like basically the amount they would lose on one hand, in a regular-priced restaurant, then they would have an extra two hours to lose more money.

2. Do you gamble?

Cadogan: I do, I do (wistfully). I spring for the normal food. I can't leave a casino without losing the money I've set aside to play with or I feel like I'm not getting the full experience. You're supposed to go and gamble and then spend the rest of the night drinking and commiserating with your friends on how much money you lost. That's the whole point of it.

3. Do you have a set amount of money you put in your pocket and then play with that until it's gone?

Cadogan: Yeah. Although I'm getting a little bit more money now, so you better keep me away. Actually I was pretty lucky, I started to feel like James Bond on the blackjack table in Reno. Getting that James Bond feeling when you're winning over and over again, and you're trying to impress somebody.

4. Was this recently?

Cadogan: Everything that I've done in the last two years feels like it happened two months ago. Time just becomes an arc.

5. You've sold a lot of records, but you're still kind of a "buzz band." Why?

Cadogan: We're still kind of a secret to a lot of people, because we haven't been exposed in a lot of major publications like Rolling Stone or Spin. People are discovering us and they're still able to have feeling that they know a band that other people don't know about.

6. You've said as a band you admire performance bands like The Clash and The Who, and obviously that's carried over into your onstage ethos and how you present yourselves. People enjoy the live shows?

Cadogan: Yeah, definitely. I think that's why people are coming back to see us and they're telling their friends about us. It's not like a dull experience. You go to a city and you play for a thousand people; you go back and you play for five thousand people. Something's changed. We couldn't have sucked too badly.

7. In the Bay Area, San Francisco especially, you guys took a lot of unfair criticism.

Cadogan: In the (SF) Weekly and those things. I think there was a perception that Third Eye Blind didn't pay their dues as a band. We were able to get a little (mention) in the (San Francisco) Chronicle. I think that kind of set a tone (of skepticism). And Stephan always had a real sort of rock star presence about him when he played. I think people want to see a certain amount of humility and self-deprecation when they're watching bands that are starting out. He was too much of a natural.

8. What's wrong with a little self-confidence, especially for live entertainers?

Cadogan: I don't know. I guess we were coming up at a time where it was kind of unfashionable. I had just come out of a band that was playing a lot of "sadcore" music. The singer would say, "This is another song about sadness and frustration," and the critics would go, "Yes! This is great." It started to get depressing after awhile. Music does reflect your moods, and it also can develop your moods.

9. Does it bother you that many fans of "Semi-Charmed Life" didn't know what the lyrics were about? (It's about crystal-methane and a destructive relationship). Is it necessary for fans to understand the lyrics?

Cadogan: No, not at all. I was a big fan of early R.E.M., and their music was not about lyrics at all. They were unintelligible. I've always been more about listening to the music than the lyrics. It was funny for us to see "Semi-Charmed Life" succeed so much, to achieve that level of mainstream success, when the lyrics are so raunchy. I think as long as you don't say anything about God or just straight out swear, you can pretty much get away with it. Like on "Losing A Whole Year," the lyric: "I remember you and me used to spend the whole Goddamn day in bed," and radio programmers would go, "Oh, he said Goddamn." This in the Bible Belt. But you can say, "Crystal Meth will lift you up until you break," or you can say, "Those little red panties they pass the test face down on the mattress," and it's kind of like well, whatever.

10. Tell me about one or two of your more notable shows.

Cadogan: We played at a couple of Army bases which are always really amusing because they're always just so fucking rowdy. People out there have been doing push-ups all week, and they have one night to use all that push-up force. We played this one show--I think it was in Augusta, Georgia--they knocked down the barrier. It was like, "Push-ups! UGH!" Then you see all those little laser lights that everyone has now. You've got to be a little more concerned about those at an Army base.

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