3oh!3 Interview
Interview with Nathanial Motte of 3oh!3
Words by Brendan Monteiro
3oh!3 are the whacky duo that have got the whole world in a spin with charismatic grooves and tongue in cheek lyricism that could have the grouch jamming. They are driving in the fast lane of the pop world at the moment but Sean and Nat posses something more down to earth then the facade that majority of mainstream entertainers have. What they posses is the same heart and passion you find in your every day run of the mill punk rock kid and it’s this that fuels the energy for their reputable live performances. At this present moment their myspace plays for Don’t Trust Me are at the staggering figure of 87 200 162, which is by far the most I have ever seen, so there is no doubt that these two know how to create good music. A brief conversation over the airwaves brought a little clarity to the machine that is 3oh!3 and this is what Nat had to say.
Firstly thanks for taking the time out to speak to Clink Magazine.
Yeah, no problem, I heard you were at the show last night and did a review of it so we really appreciate that.
It really was a great show, now lets get on to how 3oh3! came about, apparently yourself and Sean met in physics class, how did the whole band start then?
We actually both grew up in Boulder, Colorado and we ended up going to university there. As you know you have to pick certain subjects and we both picked physics so we ended up in the same class. He looked familiar to me and we ended up talking about musical interests, which at the time was sort of underground hip hop stuff and we kind of vibed on that. He was a DJ for the local college radio station and I was doing MC stuff and writing and doing freestyle. So that is how it started, there was no intention of playing shows, we would hang out and work on music and have some beers. After a while we started putting our stuff on the computer and we started writing a little more different sounding music, like more electronic, and it just has evolved from there. Our intention was to make music that would be fun for us to make.
You briefly mentioned your influences, are there any influences that you have that would suprise people?
Yeah probably I guess, as far as influences go it’s not like we are trying to sound like somebody that has influenced us. I think maybe we are trying to take part of their ethic whether it’s performing. For instance a band like NOFX, we really respected them as far as the sound they have. I listened to them out of high school and in to college and I had a lot of punk rock influence, hen I had someone like Sage Francis, a rapper who would put on the best live performances and then there is a lot of pop stuff too.
Are there any parts of Hip Hop that aggravated you to maybe make a change in the way you carry your music out?
I kind of got fed up with certain parts of Hip Hop, a lot of people were afraid to put the energy that punk rock puts into it and make things crazy. I think with Hip Hop people are a little more close minded and just put their hoods up and nod their heads. Why not focus that energy and put on a good show. POS does it so well, he gets down in the crowd and everyone there feels like they are a part of the show and that is the best thing that you can do as a performer.
Labels get thrown around at all musicians and the word Crunk gets thrown your way a lot, what are your feelings on that?
It’s funny because we have maybe two songs that we have written that could maybe be classified as crunk but the rest of it is not, in no way could the rest be associated with that. I guess to me it doesn’t really make sense, for us it’s obvious that it’s all a bit electronic but we try to bring some sense of rock or pop into it as far as our live shows. I think we just go with electro-pop or electro-rock and I think that electro is the over arching point of it.
That is true, but I get the feeling it’s a lot more complex than that and you guys seem to have the spirit of punk rock, especially in you live performances.
Yeah, those were always big influences for me especially, and we had to put that same energy into us with two microphones, that is what we are trying to do at least. I just saw a band called These Arms Are Snakes and the singer was just insane on stage and I was captivated the entire time he was on stage. And that is what I have to do, I have to go crazy. Like Andrew W K is the same thing, he just pumps up the crowd and those are the kind of people that I am inspired by with being a performer.
What did working with someone like Mat Squire add to the 3oh3! camp that it didn’t have before?
Well he has done stuff like panic at the disco but for me I saw it as someone that has done some things a little experimental but still within the pop world, and he was kind of right on that fringe. We didn’t necessarily want to be a scene band but we definitely knew that he was capable of working with the software that we were used to. Also he captures vocals really well and he has a really good idea for the formats of songs. We right these songs but we are not necessarily in the mindset of “oh we need a bridge here”. We right the songs how they naturally come out and it was nice having a third set of ears.
Your music is very different, how did kids react to you during the Warped tour, which is predominantly more a punk festival?
For us when we came out the gates we were pretty unknown and we kind of went with that regard. So we went in with the mindset that we were going to play the kind of show that we always play and if people like it then that’s great. We went out there and the people recognised that component of high energy. I think that for some of the people that go to Warped Tour it was about time that they heard something a bit different. The fans that go to Warped Tour are always great and they’re usually there to have a full day and have a great time. So it was good for us, we felt they welcomed us with open arms. Even this last Warped Tour I was a little nervous because NOFX was on it and I am a huge fan, anyway Fat Mike came behind the stage when we were in San Francisco and came up to me and said “I just want to introduce myself, I’m Fat Mike”. The thing is he is kind of notorious for ripping bands off and so I was like “hey it’s a pleasure to meet you, Im a really a big fan”, he then replied “the first time I heard you guys I didn’t know if I liked it but I heard you guys today and It’s great, I love it”. So I don’t really care if anyone else in the world doesn’t like my music, but Fat Mike does and that meant a lot to me and was a really big moment in my life.
It must be great getting that kind of response from somebody you looked up to while growing up.
Yeah it is, it’s really affirming of what you have done, we have put in a lot of work into this band and it’s great having that from somebody who I idolised as a kid.
People seem to get the wrong impression of 3oh3! that it’s all just satirical, how does that make you feel?
I wouldn’t say we are satirical at all, I think there is a difference between having fun with music and making fun of it. We are not trying make fun of rap at all but that is definetly where we come from, like I can’t sit down and write a song without some kind of rap inspired influence. It is what it is honestly and they can take it for what they want. If people listen to it and think that it’s tongue in cheek, they should just know that we go into writing with the mindset to try and have fun. We don’t see it as us being satirical, we definitely have a sense of humour and know how to have fun with the music we are making.
It’s not the only negative things that is circling around the internet these days, there are a lot of people on forums claiming that your lyrics, especially in the song Dont Trust Me, are very misogynistic?
I don’t really know but I think people just like to pinpoint certain things and yes we do have Hip Hop theme to it and Hip Hop in general has never been the most fair to women. To us though we are not trying to be misogynistic or sexist in our ways and if they look at it they should have some sense of humour. When we wrote that song we had just been broken up with by our girlfriends and it’s kind of like a bitter vent of those circumstances. People like to think it’s misogynistic but I would like to think of it that if you’re going to listen to it then you should realise that we never intended to offend anybody with that song.
That makes sense, if you had to look at any band you could probably point out some form of so called misogyny.
If your angry at a particular girl and you write a song about it then suddenly becomes about every single girl in the world. You just want to say “hey it’s not about all women, just this one women that ripped out my heart”. Majority of our stuff is about women, we love women and I don’t think that we are misogynistic in our nature. You have to listen to the song with a sense of what it really is and also a sense of humour.
Last question then, the YouTube video of Katy Perry stage diving during your performance has become quite popular, did you guys know she was going to do that?
We didn’t, we are friends with her and she was on the stage during that warped tour. I think she might of had some problems that she needed to vent out so she came out on the stage and and dove off. I had never seen anything like it before, the minute she dove off the stage I was thinking “man some 14 year old is getting a handful”. She was getting kind of violated out there but it was crazy for us that she came out and showed us that she liked our music.
She is quite the stunner.
She is very hot, and kind of likes to hang around naked which is kind of a bit weird.
Thanks again for that.
Thanks man and thanks for coming out to the show.
