In less than 7 weeks after its release Seventeen Days -- the album by rock favorites 3 Doors Down -- has been certified platinum. The band hit the million mark while touring in Europe in support of the new album. We didn't want lose our chance to ask a few questions and find out how did a small band from Escatawpa get signed with major label. Go on and read!
Ultimate-Guitar.Com: The song "Loser" really caught my attention. Is it about a real persons problem with addiction?
Chris Henderson, 3 Doors Down: Yes it is, it's about a friend of the band that basically got caught up in drugs real bad. And the song's about him calling himself a loser.
It seems in every town when a band "gets out" the Seattle syndrome starts. Most try to copy what worked for the first band. When you got signed, did all bands try to make Escatawpa the "Seattle" of Mississippi?
Well it would be really hard to do that. I mean we're really the only band that came out of there, you would have to start spawning some major label fucking acts to start to do it. It was one of these things where people were wondering if it would become the Seattle of Mississippi. But I mean were the only band from Escatawpa. It would be easier to kind of generalize the Gulf Coast or Mississippi, cause in the last five years there's been 4 major label acts come out of Mississippi, out of that area. And 3 of them from Jackson County, where we're from.
Aside from being a great band, how did you get Universal Records attention?
We did it the old fashioned way, we fucking worked are asses off. And basically played gigs in local bars and made enough money to make an independent release and we went in a studio there in Mississippi and recorded some songs. And Kryptonite was one of them and we took that record to the radio station, and asked them to play it. And of course they said "yeah right well play it", and you know fuck off. They didn't play it. It took them about a year, we took the record to the radio station for a full year before they finally listened to it. And they heard Kryptonite. The program director was like shit, I mean "I'm going to add this. This is a great song". He added it to rotation, and a week later, I was in New York City.
How long did the band have to "gig" in small dives before getting a break?
7 years.
Did a rep come to see you or did you have to do a show case somewhere for them?
We had to go to New York and showcase. We showcased at CBGB's.
In your most wild dream, did you ever think you would have achieved the amazing success that 3 Doors Down has?
Absolutely not, I still pinch myself everyday.
Has the band kept its roots, or has everyone moved of to L.A.?
No, man. LA's the land of fruits and nuts, right? No, we all still live in Mississippi. My whole family's there - my parents, my wife's parents. I've got four kids and their grandparents are there. Aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone's there. I don't want uproot them to take them to LA. So, I'm still living in Mississippi, and I'm not going anywhere cause my dollar goes way farther there than anywhere else.
The video for "When I'm Gone" had a lot of footage of soldiers in it. Are some of the band from military families, or was it a salute to give those that deserve credit some respect? Very cool, by the way.
A little bit of both. I'm from a military family and obviously, I was in the Navy for a long time. That kinda hit close to home for me. But we wanted to give the soldiers some respect, cause they're doing a job that, obviously, they didn't want to do. Some of them didn't understand why they're there and they're dying and they're not doing it for the money. We wanted to give them a little something back to let them know that we appreciate everything that they do cause if it wasn't for them we'd all be speaking German, right?
Songs like "Kryptonite," "Loser," "When I'm Gone" "Duck & Run," "Be Like That," and "Here Without You" are huge hits. Were they easier to write that the rest? Do the multi-platinum songs "flow" better than others?
Not really. It's one of those things. "When I'm Gone" took about five minutes to write. "Kryptonite" and "Loser" were both written within five minutes. "Duck And Run" took a couple of days. "Be Like That" was written in about five minutes. "Here Without You" took like almost a month to complete. It's a case-by-case thing. Either you do it or you have or you don't. And when you don't, you know you don't. And when you have it, you know you have it. So, we saw some shitty ones that flow. "Tough" that people don't like. So, it's a case-by-case basis.
Can you tell which ones will be "hits" while writing them, or are the ones you least expect to do well hit?
You could kinda tell when you write the song. Everybody in this band is a pretty good judge of music. We obviously write music that people can relate to in some way which is the reason why we're doing as well as we are. We have a good idea when a song is written that it's gonna be a decent hit or a fucking smash. It's not us so much as the people at the label and management. They really can tell when they hear it. They're like, "Alright, that's the one." So, that's kinda what we do. We bounce it off everybody in our camp and we get the general consensus from it. Pretty much you know when you're writing it if it's gonna do well or not do well.
Has your lifestyle changed dramatically, or are you still "small town" at heart?
My lifestyle's changed one hundred percent. I went from fucking working my ass off everyday to really working my ass off even more everyday, but in a different way. Instead of getting up at 7AM and going to work for eight hours, I get up at fucking noon and work for forty-five minutes. I'm still small town at heart. You can't take that kind of conditioning out of someone's psyche by just changing their environment. It really has to be a choice to change and I don't think that I'm ready for that yet. So, yeah, I'm still small town.
"Seventeen Days" went platinum in something like 2 months. Have all your discs in that sort of time?
No, the first one took about three months and the second one took six. Who knows how and when that shit works. We're very proud to have achieved it.
Are you mauled in public by people back home, or are you still treated as how you were years before all your success?
Nah, I'm pretty much mauled in public. It's hard to go anywhere. In my hometown, it's really bad cause it's such a small place. Everybody recognizes me. It's hard to get a bag of ice cause I've got to allot an extra twenty minutes to talk to everybody on the way into the store and on the way out. It takes me twice as long to do anything. But I'm ok with that. I don't have a problem with that cause the alternative is the shipyard. So, I'm very happy to stop and talk to anybody.
Any dreams not yet attained you still hope to accomplish?
I'd love to win a Grammy. That'd be a dream come true. I've come close a couple of times, but I've failed to get it. So, that'd be something that would be kinda cool.
Any words for youngsters wanting to play in a band?
Yeah, it's really kinda funny. My advice would be to give it "the old college try" and not take it too seriously because it can make you or break you. If you shoot really hard for success and you don't achieve it, it can ruin your life. I've seen it happen a million times so I would say, "Just have fun and enjoy it." That's what you should do. This life is fun. It's a lot of hard work but it's really rewarding and really fun. If you enter the music business at any level with the wrong attitude, it's gonna chew you up and spit you out. Have fun with it and make sure you're always having fun. If you're not having fun, it's a job and not art anymore.
My final one is real dumb, but you never know. Did stardom ruin your life? do you ever wish things could go back to the way it was before?
Hell no! I love it, man. It's beautiful. It's really everything that you'd expect it to be. It really is all that and then some. Sometimes it can be a drag which anything can be a drag. But it's a lot better than what I was doing. I mean, I'm not welding anymore. So, that's cool.
Thanks Chris!
| POSTED: 04/29/2005 - 08:21 am |
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