Super Group

A ‘Better Life’ for 3 Doors Down

By Alan Sculley

IT WOULD BE logical to think that 3 Doors Down knew they had a hit on their hands with the song “Kryptonite” well before that song was ever released as the lead single from the band’s first CD, The Better Life. A version of the song, included on an early self-released CD, landed on the playlist of WCPR in Biloxi, Miss., and stayed in rotation for 25 weeks.

The success of that song helped 3 Doors Down get a major label deal with Republic Records, part of the Universal Records group. But guitarist Chris Henderson says the band didn’t come onto the national scene with heightened expectations because of the early success of “Kryptonite.”

“What happens is we’re from the South, and the South is like its own little world down there, especially where we live, Mississippi,” he says. “It’s like living in a bubble. We thought while it did well here, what does that mean? This is one of the smallest markets in America. It did well here. That doesn’t mean it’s going to do well in New York City. Come on, those people there are bombarded with every different type of music you can think of.”

Obviously, “Kryptonite” has gone a long way–right to the top of the mainstream rock chart–and far enough to have propelled 3 Doors Down’s debut CD on its way toward 5 million in sales. And with a two other singles, “Loser” and “Duck and Run,” having hit the upper reaches of Billboard magazine’s modern rock charts, it’s clear that there’s more to 3 Doors Down than “Kryptonite.”

The success of The Better Life is quite an achievement, given the humble beginnings of this band. 3 Doors Down were formed by singer/drummer Brad Arnold, bassist Todd Harrell, and guitarists Matt Roberts and Henderson about five years ago in the small Mississippi town of Escatawpa. (A drummer, Richard Liles, has since joined, enabling Arnold to move out front as singer.) The group built a following by playing around the Southeast, recording their indie CD to sell at gigs in 1997. But it was a decision to pursue a slot on a “homegrown” show dedicated to area talent on WCPR that eventually paid the biggest dividends for 3 Doors Down. Over the course of a year, the band made some 10 appearances on either the WCPR’s “homegrown” show or the station’s morning show before “Kryptonite” was added to the playlist and record labels tuned into the band.

Judging from the material on The Better Life, 3 Doors Down’s songs were far better than the band thought when producer Paul Ebersold got involved in the project. With a guitar rock sound that sits comfortably alongside mainstream acts like Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind, songs like “Kryptonite” (known for its line “If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman”), “Not Enough,” “Better Life,” and “Loser” are all built around meaty guitar riffs and melodic vocals. Though 3 Doors Down are hardly innovative in style, one thing that separates them from bands like Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind is that their songs are built around heavier guitars, which add an appealing dose of crunch to the band’s sound.

THE APPROACH 3 Doors Down take to music is as straightforward as it seems. “I think that the key to rock and roll in America today–this is just my opinion–is you want to keep it simple, and you want a groove in there; you want harmony and you want melody,” Henderson says. “You just want simple songs that people can relate to, songs about life, everyday life, because what everybody is faced with every day is everyday life.”

With sales of The Better Life climbing past quadruple platinum, it’s possible that 3 Doors Down could be the Matchbox Twenty of 2001, a band that seemingly comes out of nowhere and sees its debut CD become a monster hit. Henderson isn’t fazed by the idea of the band selling upwards of 10 million albums.

“That’s what we want, that’s what we’ve always wanted. That’s what anybody in a band wants,” he says. “I look at it like this: There are so many people in bands who want to do this, and there are so many bands that don’t make it, that aren’t successful. One or two are, so when you’re successful, man, you’ve got to take it and run with it. There are a lot of other bands that want to live the life through you. Basically, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to everybody else and to all of our fans to do the best we can and take everything that comes to us. So as many records as they want to buy, man, . . . let it get as big as it possibly can get and we’ll handle it.”

By the same token, Henderson says he and his bandmates aren’t going to let the success of The Better Life become a distraction when it comes time to record the next CD.

“We’re going to approach our next record just like we approached our first one,” he says. “We’re going to write some songs, we’re going to go in the studio, and we’re going to see what happens. That’s really all you can do, and if you try too hard, you know what, you’re going to make a mistake and step on your feet.”

3 Doors Down headline Fox Fest 2001 on Saturday, July 14. Lifehouse, Tantric, and Seven Channels also perform at the Crusher’s Stadium in Rohnert Park. Gates open at 1 p.m. Music runs through the early evening. Tickets are $30. 707/543-0100.

From the July 12-18, 2001 issue of the Northern California Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Spin Doctors

New discs spotlight deejay action

By Karl Byrn

Greyboy Mastered the Art (Ubiquity)

Pete Rock Petestrumentals (BBE)

WHILE PURE, hard dance sounds like techno, house, and drum ‘n’ bass remain the face of electronica to the mainstream, DJ cut-and-paste abstractionists are really the heart of any of the field’s endlessly crossbreeding subgenres. San Diego DJ Greyboy is the go-to leader of San Francisco’s Ubiquity label, and he’s one heck of a groove crossbreeder. His third disc, Mastered the Art, is a typical DJ poly-stew, as Greyboy dips his brush into hybrids like acid-jazz ambiance, lounge hip-hop, world-folk big beat, and electro-trance soundtrackisms. What makes Mastered the Art a standout is Greyboy’s novel employment of Eurasian (especially Mediterranean) stringed instruments as not mere flavoring but as the foundation of several breakbeats–sitar power chords in the title track, slabs of ukelele anchoring scratching on “Hold It Down,” plucked harp figures and Spanish guitar in place of hip-hop’s piano loops on the very Wu-Tang Clanish cuts “Uknowmylife” and “Smokescreen.” Much of the disc evokes a soundtrack without seeming as if it would work as a soundtrack, which is good–Greyboy is at his strongest when he messes up his own jazzy slickness with dirty global funk. A more subtly stunning piece of DJ groove-collage work is Pete Rock’s Petestrumentals. Rock’s second outing sans his rapper-partner CL Smooth, the disc is technically a set of hip-hop/jazz instrumentals, but the sturdy smooth-lounge tracks speak in a voice that’s majestically controlled and independent. Rock’s craft is complex understatement, using simplicity to layer depth into spare grooves and inverting normal ideas. On “Hip Hopcrisy,” a piano loop is spliced, diced, and recombined at multiple angles over a monotone bass pulse. Two cuts later, on “Pete’s Jazz,” a vibraphone loop plays the part of droning thump while bass provides melody and color. Petestrumentals is a must for fans of abstract hip-hop; as a plus for electronica fans, the consistent beats could edit into a rave club mix as easily as the distant, spacey fills could add warmth to a trance festival.

Gorillaz Gorillaz (Virgin)

Tricky Blowback (Hollywood)

NORCAL avant-garde hip-hop producer Dan the Automator trademarks himself with smart funk-collage collaborations like Handsome Boy Modeling School, but his latest project, Gorillaz (with Blur’s Damon Albarn), is a limited loop of casual clichés. Gorillaz was created as a cartoon, but as Cheez Whiz it’s not only low-fat and low-sodium, there’s barely enough aerosol to push the corn out of the can. The beats and grooves are weak, peppered plentifully with global-kitsch hooks that are as fake as the druggy pseudo-dread of the disc’s reggae-dub ambiance. When Buena Vista Social Club vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer guest stars on one cut, it’s as if the Automator is saying, “Hey, we’re Latin, too!” But like every empty, silly nuance on Gorillaz, that Latin nod is a dumbing down to an alt-rock notion of Funky Stoopid. Like the Automator, trip-hop point man Tricky has also traded groove innovation for alt-funk clichés. Guest stars don’t help him either; on his new disc, Blowback, the presence of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on two cuts shows Tricky meeting the mainstream halfway with tame aggro-funk where he once ignited the underground with edgy electro-soundscapes. Tricky no longer seems an auteur presenting trip-hop as the dark side of electronica’s family tree; if the disc’s title and smoking-kiss cover art suggest a metaphor for breathing one’s own exhaust, then the damage of such secondhand smoke is evidenced on the disc’s smartest moment, a trite recasting of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” as synth-pop with tropical accents.

From the July 12-18, 2001 issue of the Northern California Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.