Discography
What does the name "Third Eye Blind" mean?
In interviews, the band usually says that they got really drunk or pulled out a Ouija board and picked the name, but here's my interpertation on why they picked it.
The third eye is the spiritual sight (or inner eye) of Hinduism and other forms of spirituality. "Seeing" with your third eye supposedly puts you in a more peaceful, trancelike, yet conscious state. With the state of music and the rest of society being so cynical now adays, Stephan thought the name would be fitting. In otherwords, "music for a blind time", Third Eye Blind.
Third Eye Blind was originally dreamt up in 1990 when Stephan Jenkins decided to form his own band after numerous stints with local San Francisco Bay area bands including beat poetry hip-hop group Puck and Zen. There were numerous false line-ups before the final band line-up was decided. Stephan says that they had problems getting a band "that really gelled." It eventually took a year and half to get the bands line-up as it is today.
First to join the band as it is now was ex-Fungo Mungo bassist Arion Salazer who Stephan persuaded to join the band.
Several shows were played with a different drummer and guitar player before Kevin Cadogan was met after approaching the stage after the show at the Paradise club in San Francisco. It turned out Stephan had heard a demo tape of Cadogan's and so it wound up with Stephan praising Kevin, rather than Kevin praising Stephan. The band says that Third Eye Blind's sound really developed after Kevin joined the band, who helps write most of the songs.
Drummer Brad Hargreaves joined the band because he was a friend of Kevin Cadogan's.
Jenkins says the final line-up came together because "The way this band came together was because we don't fit in."
The name for the band was decided because it was ironic. Stephan says: "It's not a mission statement or anything like that. I always have liked names with wit and irony. I was a big fan of Camper Van Beethoven. The name also reflects a certain sense of magic and dreams - we thought that was very lacking in music when we started - music for a blind time, if you will. It also takes the piss out of that phoney spiritual thing. Third Eye Blind has always been about real things."
They then started to write a fourteen track demo tape. There influences are said to come from the genres of punk, power pop, beat-poetry and funk as well as numerous individual artists and bands.
The demo tape was then sent to record labels. Third Eye Blind, though, were still considering doing the album independently because they wanted complete independence.
The demo tape was heard and 3eb were invited to New York to do a live demo for Arista president Clive Davis. Being "snotty rock star types" the band demanded a few cases of Anchor Steam beer be delivered.
A few days later, the band met Epic executive Dave Massey, who wanted to hear 3eb live. Massey asked when 3eb were next playing and Stephan replied "April 13. Why don't you put us on the bill with Oasis?" Massey stared at Jenkins. Jenkins stared back. So Massey called his bluff. "I said it as a joke," Jenkins recalls, "and he picked up the phone and said 'consider it done.' And it was"
Jenkins says of the show "The show was sold out long before we got there so there won't be one Third Eye Blind fan in attendance". The bands task at the show was to warm up 9,000 or so Oasis fans. The band was warned that, like English soccer fans, the crowd might throw objects at them. But instead of just serving as target practice, the band won the crowd over big time. Brit-pop fans crowd surfed and even called the local heroes back for an (gasp) encore. The band were reportedly paid double the original fee for doing such a good job.
After this, the record labels came calling including Epic and Maverick. There main demands of a label was complete self control. They say they approached the record labels saying "don't tell us what to do. We're gonna make the record we wanna make."
They eventually signed with Elektra records after a bidding war on the premise of complete independence. The contract is reportedly the largest debut contract out of the San Francisco Bay area. One of the other reasons they signed with Elektra was the labels Chairwomen Sylvia Rhone. She was really into 3eb's music. Stephan says it was really Sylvia directly who made them sign because of the way she was into the music and promising independence.
There debut self-titled album was released late in April 1997. The independence the record label promised when they signed came true with the band doing the cover art work, all the production of the album themselves and also doing their own posters.
Tours supporting U2 and the Rolling Stones helped the album along. They also ended up doing a headlining tour on one that they were meant to be supporting after James, who 3eb were meant to be supporting pulled out of a tour. The tour continued with 3eb headlining.
the album tracks were becoming so successful that Elektra undertook a slowdown plan for the album after non-single releases started being played on American radio stations due to requests. The single 'Semi-Charmed Life' gained the most requested status on some radio stations and it was heavy played on others.
They also appeared on Conan 'O Brien and were asked to change some of the lyrics to 'Semi-Charmed Life' because they were explicit in references to sex and drugs. Despite agreeing they would, the band continued to perform the songs in unedited format. The video to 'Semi-Charmed Life' was shown heavily on MTV, though with some parts cut out. The single was eventually rewarded with a 1997 Billboard award for rock track of the year. It was also nominated for seven of the local San Francisco Bay area music awards, Bammie awards.
Further releases followed from the album including the singles Graduate, How's It Going To Be and Losing A Whole Year.
They have since spent over a year touring the world in support of the album and have been writing new songs while on tour.
