Thirty years ago, Third Eye Blind blasted onto the music scene with a self-titled album that went six-times platinum and included the enduring alternative-rock hits “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Graduate,” “How’s It Going To Be” and “Jumper.” A double-platinum second album, Blue, followed two years later.
Then the radio hits stopped coming, with 2000’s “Never Let You Go” marking the last top 10 single for the band. So it might seem surprising that Third Eye Blind still headlines outdoor amphitheaters and other large venues these days. In fact, on Aug. 28 the band performs at the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park.
But Third Eye Blind’s popularity endures. And Stephen Jenkins, Third Eye Blind’s founding member, songwriter and singer, noted that turnout for his band’s concerts is actually bigger than ever. So how does it feel to live in this kind of welcome reality so many years after the release of the blockbuster, self-titled debut album?
“Implausible would be the word, probably,” Jenkins said in a phone interview. “Really, it feels like I’m on this ride, and more than anything else it reminds me about the basics. It reminds me of the things that I value, which is being musical, being authentic, being in a genuine exchange with the audience. All of those things are the things that remain the most important to me.”
The barrage of top-10 radio hits that launched the band’s career may have dried up after “Never Let You Go” (from Blue), but in other ways Third Eye Blind has actually experienced a resurgence in popularity over the past decade.
That span saw Jenkins and drummer Brad Hargreaves—the remaining members of the early Third Eye Blind lineup—enjoying a period of stability, with guitarist Kryz Reid and bassist Alex LeCavalier each now in their second decade with the band and keyboardist/guitarist Colin CreeV, a member since 2019, rounding out the current lineup.
With this unit, the personalities and the priorities of the band members aligned in a way that didn’t always happen with the original band.
“This band … we love each other,” Jenkins said. “We like to be together, and we’re like a bunch of puppies. I think what makes this band jam is our sense of empathy, really, more than anything else. We like to make space for each other on stage, and that’s what makes it jam.”
The current band members not only have the right chemistry, with Jenkins leading the way as songwriter—they’ve also been quite prolific. After releasing only two albums over the 15 years following the release of Blue in 1999, Third Eye Blind began releasing music at a steady clip, including three full-length studio albums: 2015’s Dopamine, 2019’s Screamer and 2021’s Our Bande Apart. In addition the band released two EPs, 2016’s We Are Drugs and 2018’s Thanks for Everything, plus Unplugged, a 2022 album with acoustic versions of songs from across the group’s catalog joining the band’s catalog. The group also released a concert album, Live at Red Rocks, in 2024.
Jenkins feels that along the way his attitude toward songwriting and recording loosened up, and that accounts for Third Eye Blind’s increased musical output.
“I think it’s really just a lack of judgment,” he said. “I think I was always being hard on myself in the past and I probably still am, but something has improved there. Something has gotten better in some ways and I’m less critical of myself and more able to get into it, to make music. So I think that’s the reason.”
He’s also pleased with the quality of Third Eye Blind’s output. In fact, Jenkins considers Our Bande Apart to be his favorite album to date. Largely written during the pandemic, that album found Third Eye Blind going old school by recording the songs live as a band in the studio, rather than recording instrument by instrument. The organic approach to recording is a key reason Jenkins is so fond of Our Bande Apart.
“Again, it’s kind of that lack of being overthought and judged,” Jenkins said. “The tracking of that record; we all just went in the same room and played the song. If it felt right, we kept it. If it didn’t, we all went back in the room and played it again. We didn’t go around changing and overdubbing our songs.
“So we resisted the urge for perfection, and when I listen to a lot of music now, I don’t feel anything from it because I don’t feel the human urgency of it,” he added. “A lot of it is just pitch corrected and tempo corrected. It’s all made on MacBook Pro, and it just doesn’t do anything for me. And we managed to make a record that wasn’t living in those kinds of constraints.”
The live-in-the-studio approach of Our Bande Apart proved interesting in that it followed Screamer, an album very much crafted in the studio, with plenty of modern, synthetic sonics incorporated into a set of songs that blended rock with a variety of other styles, including hip-hop, trap and electronica.
“It was exactly the opposite [of Our Bande Apart],” Jenkins said of Screamer. “It was basically as slick as I could make it. The whole point of that record was to almost beat pop in its own game. That’s what I was thinking about that one.
“I really like that record,” he continued. “I think it’s exciting. But definitely, it’s just a different approach on it.”
Exactly what songs Third Eye Blind plays while on tour this summer is an open question, as Jenkins said the band has plenty of options.
“We have a lot of music, and there’s a lot of different stuff that fans want to hear. If you go on Reddit and ask, ‘What do you want to hear this summer?’ if you get 50 different responses, you’ll get 50 different songs,” he said. “So we try to do things like almost being DJs, and we try to mix ourselves as a live band and weave in different things back and forth. So that’s how I’m looking at making this set.”
Third Eye Blind performs at 7pm on Friday, Aug. 28, at Graton Resort & Casino, 288 Golf Course Drive West, Rohnert Park. For tix and info, visit graton.com.
