Marvelous 3 - Let The Good Times Roll

September 1999

by Paul Gargano, Metal Edge Magazine

  The '80s are little more than a distant memory to some, with the '70s lingering farther behind as the storied home of Saturday Night Fever, but don't tell that to Marvelous 3.

  Frontman Butch Walker, bassist Jayce Fincher and drummer Slug share something in common with the lot of us who remember our best friend's brother's T-top, the free-spirited romp that accompanied Aerosmith and the guitar-driven, power-pop harmonies of Cheap Trick pumping from the speakers, and tearing down a backwoods street at double the speed limit without a care in the world. It's how we grew up, and though the '90s have become a meaner era for rock, Marvelous 3 aren't about to let the good times stop rolling. The trio first came to national attention via Southgang, a late '80s rock outfit that may have been marked by their hair, but didn't stop there. They evolved into The Floyds as the '90s came into full swing, applying a funky flair but, according to Walker, "trying to be something we really weren't," Walker detailed the transformation to Marvelous 3 when we spoke amidst their recent tour with Collective Soul, as single "Freak of the Week conquered radio waves, and the Atlanta threesome was hot off appearances on late night TV's Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and David Letterman. "I think Leno was the most fun," he recalled. "It was the best performance and I was in red leather from head to toe. Then, he put us on the couch and we got to talk. It was great to feel like more than just a piece of musical meat. It showed that we actually have a face and a personality." The same personality that shines through their explosive Elektra Records debut, Hey! Album, and the interview that follows, Walker's conversation bristling with the same animation that marks his band's guitar-based, pop-rock sensibilities and their infectious approach to performing...

P: I want to focus on the present, but I want to at least make mention of your past, years ago in Southgang.

B: I appreciate that, and that makes me happy because one of the hard things about persevering is -- and I give ourselves credit for it -- living down your past. It's hard to live above it, and for us, every time I put something new together, I have to answer a million questions about my previous bands. It's almost like being asked about your ex-wife when you're sitting in front of your new girlfriend all the time. But I'm used to it, it's no big deal at all, and like I said, we're very proud of it. It's cool. It's just like I said, I like people to know what we're doing now.

P: Watching Marvelous 3 live, you can tell that you've been together for awhile. You've just got it down. You just get up there and have a good time without the face full of attitude. Performance wise, did you think music was coming back around in that directions?

B: Absolutely, I think that's the one thing that mattered the most to us. We saw that grunge was pretty much dead and kids were looking for a new outlet -- the kids that didn't feel used and abused and related with Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain's credo, you know? The thing is, we were that other group of kids that grew up on the Dazed & Confused soundtrack, driving camaros and listening to Motley Crue and skipping class to go smoke in the bathroom. Basically, we were kids of the '70s and '80s and that's what we grew up on. It never really left our blood, but we had to go through the '9-s and go through our freak-out, find ourselves phase because that was the era we spent our 20s in. Now that we're in our late 20s, it's easy to finally go, "You know, I think we fit best right there at home" --- Which is playing pop rock. Rock that is influenced by what we grew up on, which was anything from heavy metal to new wave to punk. I think that it sat well because, at this point, people got the gist of our "Don't give a shit" attitude. They got it. They were like, "Oh, well, I see. This band just doesn't give a f.ck what I think. They're gonna do this anyway, regardless if I bash them for not being grunge." And we were just really happy to finally just say, "You know what? We've been doing this for so long and we don't know if we'll ever get a break, so at this point we might as well just go out and have fun with it and shake things up and scare people a little bit." So, that's what we did. We went out and shook up the system a little bit when we went out and played. People were like, "Whoa! What is this? This is kind of like... This is old school," And it's not so much retro. I don't write lyrics and songs based on 1981, I just try to pull some musical taste from that era, if there was any --- some of the production values and that kind of thing, and some of the elements that made it so f.cking spitfire, it was just so rock and fast and fun and then put it with timeless songs about timeless subjects and see what happens. And sure enough, it stuck. People were like, "Wow! This is cool. This is different." And we were like, "It's not so different. It's just what we grew up on. You just haven't been exposed to it yet there, kid!"

P: It's impossible to not get caught up in the energy and charisma wen you perform, and there are very few bands that have that ability.

B: We've always prided ourselves in the fact that we can go onstage and tear up any-f.cking-body. And, without trying to sound too cocky, that's just because we don't go up there with a competitive attitude, we just go out there with confidence because we've done it for so long. For the last seven years, when we were playing to nobody -- and I don't mean nobody, we had fans, but I mean playing in the grand scheme of things to 10 to 30 people a night, sometimes when you're playing to just the bartender --- you had to do something to keep from just walking off the stage and going, "I'm quitting doing this and going back to making doughnuts." It was all about being able to get up there and connect with each other and put on a show that was fun, so when we left, we'd leave that night with a buzz, going, "Damn, that was fun. That was fun tonight and there was nobody here." We had so many show like that too. God!

P: The three of you have been together since Southgang, right?

B: Uh huh --- it's been 12 years now.

P: Did you do something musically between Southgang and The Floyds?

B: Pretty much, that was just it --- we just spent most of our time trying to get that going and on the road, which is a good thing. That band was good for basically being able to learn how to grow up and move away from home and do everything on your own --- sell your own records, book your own tours, sell your own merchandise, and make a living doing it. We were a good "do-it-yourself" empire, playing to mostly the underground circuit. It went well, but I don't think it was right musically.

P: And Marvelous 3 evolved from The Floyds?

B: Yeah. Basically, I was writing a bunch of songs that weren't those kinds of songs anymore, from a different viewpoint. I'd gone through a bitter divorce and I'd gone through some other things in life that shook me up at quite a young age and put me on my own, and I did a lot of living and growing. The writing was different and I was just coming from a different place at that time towards the end of it, and we decided for personal reasons that we wanted to take an indefinite hiatus because we were just burnt. We had done 250 shows a year for like five years, and we were just tired. We had done the whole country, anywhere we could play a gig, and it just got old, stagnant, so we took a break. And I conceived Marvelous 3, which was something I kind of set out to be just a side project for myself --- I went in and recorded some of the material because I just couldn't sit at home and do nothing. I went in the studio and took Slug in there, who played drums, and he loved it and brought Jayce in to play bass, because we knew each other well enough that it just made it easy to play. I always brought the songs in anyway and just said, "Here's what I got," and they would put their bass and drums to it and that would be it. It was the same formula, but different style, but it fit. We all kind of grew up on the same relation and the same influences, so they were able to tap into that whole feel of where I was coming from on these songs even after five years of doing something completely different. They said they wanted to be a part of it, and I was like, "Yeah, I want you two too," so that was the Marvelous 3. And sure enough, right after that it started skyrocketing, it started booming for us. Everybody started coming out to the shows, the buzz caught on, the first record Math and Other Problems came out and it just tore up. The critics even liked it, which was funny because I was like, "Man, they'll hate this," But we didn't care. I could of cared less. We just went out there and played shows and shook shit up and did it old school, and everybody loved it. Then the labels started sniffing around, and about that time the program director of 99X in Atlanta, which is the modern rock station, embraced the band and embraced the songs and loved the album. This was for the second record that came out, the independent release I was getting ready to push on Marvelous Records which was called Hey! Album. She heard it and said, "I want to play your songs on the radio. I think you have about five singles here." I was like, "OK. Twist my arm!" So the minute that started, it just flooded, the weasels f.cking came in droves, and sky was the limit. But that wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was going with a label that had a little more integrity about the whole situation, which I felt to be Elektra.

P: Do you think there is a lot of integrity left in music today?

B: No, not at all. We've got bands out there f.cking cashing in... I don't want to start sounding like one of those insecure bands bad mouthing other bands, but I'm just not very satisfied with the lack of effort that has to go into doing something these days to make it big. We've trained kids on Kerry Springer and stuff like that, so that their mentality is pretty shallow as it is --- if you give them a shallow rock song with that mentality, it's going to sell huge, but if you give them something with a little bit of integrity and depth, they don't want to hear it. It upsets me that it's like that, but I'm not going to insult the intelligence of the United States. We have plenty of smart kids out there too, that love what we do, and if that's the audience that we are going to appeal to... I'm not saying that we only appeal to smart kids --- because we're not smart ourselves, we grew up dumb-ass suburbanites, stoners --- but now I"m 29-years-old and I don't want to write about getting laid Friday night in my Camaro. I'd rather write something that's got a little bit more integrity and depth to it. But, yeah, I'd say a lot of the industry has lost its integrity. That's me without trying to grovel too much. I'm just happy that there are enough people out there buying our record and making it sell as well as it is. I can't believe that that would ever happen, to tell you the truth.

P: Your lyrics are deep, but you never lost the catchy pop feel. Are you trying to hit a few different levels?

B: Sure, I think a lot of that comes from growing up on different styles of music. Nothing knocked me out more when I was a kid than going and seeing Tommy Lee's drums fly across that f.cking roof of the Omni in Atlanta. But again, there was always something else there in music that got to me, too. That wasn't all show and no substance. What also got to me was going home and listening to Queen records or listening to Elvis Costello records, or Billy Joel or Joe Jackson --- it was more brainy, but still kind of punky, it had some sentimental value. Also, I grew up a complete romantic myself. I was very passionate about whoever I was in a relationship with at that time, and my family and things like that, so it wasn't like I was heartless person that couldn't relate to lyrics like that about getting your heart ripped out by somebody, or writing about people around me that were feeling some sort of pain, joy or whatever, some sort of emotion. I Just think there aren't enough people fusing the two elements together --- you don't have somebody crossing the show and flash aspect with the sentimental braininess of certain pop-rock, either. I don't see what's wrong with crossing those two, there's no one else really doing it. You've either got Rob Zombie, or you got Jason Faulkner or Elliott Smith, but you don't have somebody bringing both elements in. I think we'll either f.cking hit or we'll miss!

P: What are you looking at tour wise?

B: I'd like to put together a package tour that is based around nothing but bands like what we're doing, which is actually bands that go out and put on a show and rock and can offer some sort of vibe instead of having to be strictly one-sided. You can have Korn's Family Values, but you would never be able to put a band like us on that bill because it wouldn't fit. It's all too hard, with the B-Boy mentality --- OK, that's cool for 14-year-old boys, but what can we do that's just about the big rock show? I'd be just as happy if we ended up getting on a bill like that, but those bands would eat us for breakfast. I don't, personally, hate everybody else --- I would love to go out and tour with one band this and then a band on the opposite end of the spectrum the next, but the way music's segregated itself because of the attitude that the people have taken on, it's a sad thing. Maybe we can bring that back a little bit.

P: Was the Elektra deal something that caught you by surprise?

B: Absolutely. Everything did. There were other labels offering three times as much money, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was going with someone that was going to be able to really believe in this from cover to cover instead of just going, "Oh, I like that one song. That's great, we can work with that."

P: I'd imagine your audience is pretty diverse?

B: It's the biggest mutt audience I've ever seen! And I love it! We've got old metalheads, punkers, older fans, older couples, young girls, young guys, we've got black, we've got white, we've got everybody, and I love that. I think it's cool because that's how you start bringing it together, even it it's on a much smaller level. We could have easily followed the trend and tapped into something that's already got one specific demographic and probably be a million seller by now. But I don't think I'd be very happy and very proud of myself. I'd like to think we're trying to fuse elements together to bring a wider demographic together.

P: Where did the name Marvelous 3 come from?

B: I was sitting in a bar one night trying to think of a name for this, and I couldn't come up with anything. My friend Ian was sitting next to me and we were just sitting there getting drunk... It was just so frustrating... It had been weeks of, "Man, everything's taken and there's nothing cool out there anymore." Every band name out there is a one syllable, one-word band name, and I was so sick of that. Everything was starting to become such an artistic statement, instead of just slapping you in the face with a cool name... We were listening to the music over the speaker --- I brought the demo version of the album to the club, and we were the only ones there --- and he was telling me how "marvelous" it sounded. He's British, so it rolled off his tongue ad sounded so good when he said it. He said [putting on a British accent], "Why don't you call it the Marvelous 3?" And I just hugged him, wrote it down on a napkin, and went home and passed out in my clothes and woke up with a napkin in my hand that said, "Marvelous 3." And that was the name of the band.

P: How about Hey! Album, that doesn't exactly roll off your tongue?

B: Same thing --- it was like bringing it back to the old school when they were calling albums, albums --- when they actually were albums and records, before they turned into CDs and lost their passion, and lost their fire and their warmth and their balls. I think the industry lost its balls at that time. SO I was just trying to call it something to bring it back to old school. "We're doing our new album," but it's not really an album, so if we're gonna have to put something on a CD, we can at least call it an album.

P: After 12 years together, does it finally feel like the three of you are getting some vindication?

B: Absolutely, we're having the time of our life. We are so supercharged right now you wouldn't believe it! It's almost like we just started this now because we're going, "Oh my God! Look at this. We're selling this many records a week now! We've never sold that many ever! We're selling out clubs and we're playing to big places and theaters with bigger hands, and we're playing on these festivals with 20,000 and 50,000 people." We're reveling in the moment because we're not used to it. We've kind of been in what we call out little deprivation chamber for the last sever years, so now we're getting our shit out of our system and having fun and just rocking out and loving life and not taking it so seriously.