Set list:
01 - Motorcycle Drive By
02 - Horror Show
03 - Wounded
04 - Anything
05 - Never Let You Go
06 - Invisible
07 - Jumper
08 - Losing A Whole Year
09 - How's It Going to Be
10 - Eye Conqueror
11 - 1000 Julys
12 - Narcolepsy
13 - I Want You
14 - Semi-Charmed Life
15 - Graduate
16 - God of Wine
Download the interview:
Segment
1 (17mb)
Segment 2 (17mb)
Segment 3 (22mb)
Whole Interview in one big file (55mb)
Transcription:
Jen: I’m all nervous
Stephan: How are you doing?
Jen: I’m doing good.
Stephan: It’s your yearly routine you get nervous.
Jen: yeah. You should ask Ruby I was hyperventilating on the way down here… but anyway. So, I thought I was gonna have a second to prepare but lets hop right into it. I want to ask you about several of the things that seemed to not happen lately like the Rock Star Movie soundtrack and then American Pie 2. I know it was rumored that you guys were going to have a song on that.
Stephan: yeah, um…well… I guess it’s kind of the concept of… we’re planning on making a really big album. Like really…We’re really pumped. We think we’re going to make the best album we’ve ever made. There was some advice given to us recently again from Bono, which is that the really big, sort of, appearances are marked by big silences, so we’re like, we need to lay low. We need to get off the radio, ya know? They’re still wearing out Never Let You Go and still playing songs from the first record and Deep Inside of You. So… doing these soundtracks… they were really high-profile soundtracks were like… you know, you never really go away. So we’ve been… basically it’s a decision to hibernate. And then I went off and did Rock Star, doing the Breathe benefit and doing all this other stuff… it’s getting all this attention which doesn’t really quite fit the plan but… you know? But most things don’t really come out the way you plan. Isn’t that true?
Ruby: What about the DVD?
Stephan: Which DVD?
Jen: The DVD of the live show, I think you talked about doing that.
Ruby: and the fan video
Stephan: we’re making a… we got a lot of material from the last 2 tours, um the Red Summer Sun tour and Dragons and Astronauts… and… we’re gonna make a movie of the recording of this next record. And then that’s gonna be on—what we’d like to do is an enhanced CD so that you could play the album and then put it in your DVD player because a lot of people have both. And you can watch how these records come together. How it comes together now because the way it comes together now is really cool. So… um…
Jen: Well let’s talk about the new album then.
Stephan: Okay
Jen: You said, I think you told us before you had about 40 songs that you were tinkering around with
Stephan: I was beginning to introduce them too.
Jen: Yeah we heard that "go down on her for an hour" or something like that.
Stephan: [recites lyrics] She’s fogging up the mirror with vapor around her body, soap glistens in the shower, and I just wanna be right here, go down on her for an hour, or maybe stay and let the day just fade away in a wild dedication let the moment of hope take hold and let it run and never look back at the damage we’ve done, but she catches me watching, covers herself with a towel, a little angry, and she only sees a voyeur.
Jen: What’s that song called?
Stephan: um…
Jen: untitled?
Stephan: I think it’s going to be called "An Old Friend Coming Over" It’s funny it’s like… I just talk about real stuff ya know? People go down on each other, they really do.
Jen: For an hour, yeah.
Stephan: if you’re lucky! If you’re inspired! But yeah, I’ve been writing a lot and um… those guys haven’t even heard that stuff, I was just sort of…
Jen: messin’ around
Stephan: yeah, because we’ve been building our studio so we haven’t played together, I just went and made a film, so I’ve been gone for the last, almost 2 months.
Jen: Are there going to be any collaborations on the next album? I know you had been talking about doing some stuff with Fred Durst? Is he going to be on the new album?
Stephan: He’s going to be on the new album.
Jen: He is? For sure?
Stephan: Yes.
Jen: What do you think about that? Do you think that the Durst/Limp Bizkit fans and the Third Eye Blind fans mix?
Stephan: No, I don’t think they mix, I just think it’s music, you know? I think that that… you know… it’s funny I really want to kind of reinvent ourselves, like, I really want to make good radical [inaudible]… and I think Fred does too. And so, we’re not really saying, you know… that we’re making some blending of Limp Bizkit and Third Eye Blind as it’s known. Fred and I just wrote a song together. I think it’s one of the best songs that either one of us has ever written.
Jen: and it’s not like either, it’s a whole new kind of …
Stephan: it’s just kind of this dark heavy rock song. It’s called Misfits. I was talking about that, that’s kind of what I do, I make music for misfits.
Jen: Right yeah you’ve said that several times. So Fred Durst, anybody else?
Stephan: Some thoughts but not really, it’s not really going to be an album of collaborations. It’s gonna be about what we do… I’d like to work with one of the guys from the Skratch Piklz. There’s a song called Good Man.
[sings] And all that she wanted was a good man.
I want to have them like making a rhythm, like, I want to take what you do, I wanna play it and make it into vinyl and he’s going to scratch it in this very weird sort of haunting way.
Jen: So is he a local DJ?
Stephan: Yeah the Skratch Piklz, like… they’re a band of DJs and they’re certainly the best DJs in the world. And they’re from the Bay Area.
Ruby: They’re from Daly City.
Stephan: Yeah Daly City. I mean what they do is, it’s like scratching on a symphonic level.
Jen: Well, speaking about the collaborations, the Breathe benefit, how did that come about? What made you decide that you wanted to put something together like that and how did you choose the bands that are going to be playing?
Stephan: Well I wanted to do something for my Mother and I wanted to do something lasting. And it’s really really important for me, for my own sense of… I think I’ve given a lot of thought over the last 7 or 8 months about what is really important to me and um… it comes down to this really simple statement which is that I want to enjoy this life that we’ve been given. And being a misfit myself, I think I always put a lot of obstacles in the way of that and um… I think I’ve really been trying to address that. And one of the tenets of that is that I want to share it with other people. And one way that that happens is to use philanthropy and… you know I always noticed… this makes me feel good. You know? I enjoy it, I like it. So… putting Breathe together as a yearly concert is a… something that I do because making that contribution makes me feel really good.
Jen: So it’s going to be an annual thing?
Stephan: Very selfish
Jen: No it’s not at all actually
Stephan: um… yeah it’s going to be an annual concert, that’s the idea, to do it every year.
Jen: Every October?
Stephan: Yeah, pretty much. It seems like a good time of year to do a show. I was just blown away by the uh… we were just gonna put on a show—we were just gonna go play the Greek in LA and have like a charity concert and then everybody got involved.
Jen: Oh yeah, everyone… of course it’s tragic what happened to Aaliyah.
Bobby: I’m sorry to interrupt.
Jen: No problem.
Bobby: I just need you to look, I added it in, Narcolepsy wasn’t even on here so.. Narcolepsy was 9, but also How’s it Going to Be was 9. Want me to just add another song in? [knocks tape recorder over] I’m sorry. This is what I printed that you re-typed.
Stephan: Wait, which is which here, Bobby?
Bobby: What’s that buddy?
Stephan: Which is which?
Bobby: This is what you typed, this is what I typed.
Stephan: Oh. Have you left anything out from here?
Bobby: Nope, I printed just as it was in the computer.
Stephan: I don’t know if we’re actually going to be able to play Invisible.
Bobby: Okay
Stephan: Hey Arion! Arion! We can’t play Invisible, right? It’s not there yet.
Arion: Well it’s better than some of the other shit we played. I don’t know about that end part, I’ll just try to remember it.
Jen: Oh please! Please! If it’s new, please!
Stephan: Alright ok…
Arion: I say, I say YES, I'd play it.
Stephan: Hey Bobby
Bobby: yes
Stephan: put it in after 1000 Julys.
Bobby: what? Invisible?
Stephan: no no no uhh Narcolepsy.
Bobby: And just add another song so we’ll do 17 songs?
Stephan: Why add another song?
Bobby: Well that’s... cuz Narcolepsy is not on this list, that’s fine—that’s what was on this list for some time.
Stephan: Yeah yeah yeah.
Bobby: Ok. Cool.
Stephan: We’re not going to do Deep Inside of You
Bobby: Ok, yeah I don’t have that on here. So I’ll just add Narcolepsy. Gotcha. Umm… we’ve got meet n greet starting---
Stephan: [in British accent]---NO we’re not doing fu’in' Stone 'Enge! [quote from Spinal Tap movie]
Bobby: --so I’ll fix this, we might have to take a break, I’ll get everyone assembled, we’ll come back, we’ll get you finished.
Jen: Ok, thank you.
Stephan: Alright and we’re back.
Jen: You’re skinny.
Stephan: I’m beyoked! [note: I think he said "beyoked" I don't really know. lol]
Jen: You’re what?
Stephan: I put on an inch in my arms—
Jen: --have you been working out?—
Stephan: --and an inch on my chest. It’s bigger.
Jen: No, but your face is thinner.
Stephan: Yeah I stopped eating all that shit.
Jen: And we saw pictures from the Rock Star premiere and you looked very uh… very nice… your body right now.
Stephan: well thank you. I just did this movie where there’s like 3 sex scenes. I’m like naked in this movie constantly and it totally makes you work out. You have to have abs, you just do.
Jen: Yeah we loved… we went and saw Rock Star the other day.
Stephan: Did you have a good time?
Jen: yeah we did. We loved it.
Stephan: Did you think I was funny?
Jen: yeah the wig. We cheered when the opening credits came on, your name flashed up.
Stephan: Lot of people didn’t recognize me in that movie, I was very glad. I was really like, right on, you didn’t know it was me. Cuz that’s NOT me, you know. That’s something people should know. I don’t act like that—
Jen: oh you still had your voice, same accent and everything
Stephan: Well you’ve got your voice, your voice is your voice unless it’s like you know… [inaudible "use it"?] Yoko Ono…
Jen: You call people "cocksmokers"
Stephan: No I mean, I just don’t have that mentality. It was fun, I really enjoyed it. So where were we?
Jen: I think that Bobby was going to steal you away.
Stephan: Well he’ll steal me when he steals me.
Jen: So let’s talk about your movie. It’s called Angelic Tuesday, right?
Stephan: yeah.
Jen: And you have a lot of naked scenes.
Stephan: yeah
Jen: What’s it about? Like just general synopsis. Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Is it a porno?
Stephan: It’s a story about this guy who’s a—no it’s really sort of a classic kind of, it’s really a great sort of Hollywood script. It’s a very small independent film and I did it because I had the window of time and it was the lead in the film and so it was this opportunity where I’m carrying the film to find out, you know… I mean to have that… to see what that was like. You know, and sort of to test the assertion of being an actor, I guess.
Ruby: Did you audition for it?
Stephan: Did I audition for it? Yeah I read for it. Go in and get the gig ya know, that’s part of acting. In rock, I get to do pretty much what I want and this is like, you know a film. Coming from music almost works against you and you have to kind of convince people. But making movies for me is a hobby really. It’s like what I really enjoy doing in my spare time. And you know some people like to jet-ski and some people like to collect vinyl Japanese toys and I like to make movies. So now I’m getting my chance to do that and uh… it’s kinda getting handed to me and I’m glad.
Jen: Do you have any other movies that you’re going to be—
Stephan: No, I really want to work on—
Bobby: --I need ya bro
Stephan: Okay. I really want to just work on Third Eye Blind and make this album between now and February and really not do anything else. Just really be into that. I think that’s enough. I think that I’ve in a lot of ways, added more onto myself a lot times than I can do. In some ways, that’s been very disruptive and I think there’s nothing more valuable and rewarding for me than making this album. I don’t think [Bobby] really needs me.
Jen: So you don’t think your acting career will hurt the band? Or you’re hoping it won’t.
Stephan: Well uh hurt it in what way?—it’ll hurt it if I suck
Jen: Hurt it in, pushing back the recording.
Stephan: No.
Bobby: Ready?
Stephan: Yeah, to do what?
Bobby: Meet n greet. Right now.
Stephan: Yeah just get those guys [points to Tony, Arion, Brad] Get them to come to the table.
Bobby: they’re all here
Stephan: Good, I’m here too.
Bobby: Look Arion’s coming over
Stephan: alright. Let’s pause this for a second.
[Stephan gets up to do meet n greet, but returns to us almost immediately]
Jen: Ruby’s dying to know this. What do you think of Alana Davis’ cover of I Want You?
Stephan: [pause]
Jen: Do you like it? Are you happy with what she did with the song?
Stephan: uhh… ya know, I mean I’m flattered to be covered, I think that’s really great. That was a song that never, a lot of people didn’t get to hear and if she wants to go take it and, you know, have people hear it that’s fine.
Ruby: Did you have any input in it?
Stephan: She changed the lyr—no I didn’t have any input. I heard it when it was done. I heard it on the radio.
Jen: I love it.
Stephan: She changed the—she changed the lyrics. That’s cool she made it her own…
Bobby: Your fans are waiting, bro.
Stephan: Ok I’ll be right back.
[Stephan returns after a 10 or 15 minute meet n greet and we have him sign 3eb swag for giveaways, including many copies of Stephan’s cover of San Francisco Magazine. Stephan expresses his contempt about his pictures and the writing in this issue.]
Stephan: I hate this.
Jen: I know, you said.
Stephan: It's vile.
Jen: No it’s not! I really like those pictures. I think they’re good, I think they’re very artistic.
Stephan: I think it like borders on malice.
Jen: Did they approach you about that? Did they want you to do the cover?
Stephan: Yeah, but it’s like…
Jen: No comment?
Ruby: You think they purposely took the worst pictures, in your opinion?
Stephan: It’s not even that, I don’t really care. I don’t think that I need to be "glamour boy", I don’t think that’s what holds Third Eye Blind’s music together. But um… it is kind of bizarre to me.
Jen: Well it sold 8 copies to us. We actually have those as giveaways.
Stephan: Everything I said in there, the quotations are accurate. But it’s like… I don’t know… to pit us against… how do I put this… Third Eye Blind has paid every single due there is to pay. We played the Mabuhay individually, I’ve slept on every single floor, I’ve tried so many ways to get bands together, all for the purpose of living my life on my own terms, which is the DIY ethos. That’s what we’ve lived from the beginning. Our manager is my best friend, he wasn’t some big industry guy. He is now, but that’s because he made himself that, from working with us and because we’re a loyal group of people and we stick together. We do things ourselves. I produce our records, we don’t have outside bigwig producers. We built our studio in San Francisco, we’re totally dedicated to San Francisco in its best sense. And um… it’s like, because I speak my mind or something, it’s easy to be fucked with. There’s some sense of… pit us against some… I don’t know… it’s just annoying, it’s just annoying… I believe in things being precious, and you know, I don’t like them getting all blown up. Most of our albums are not, most of our albums you don’t, most of our albums are of songs that are very hidden and you know… not all part of the public consciousness, you know? But it’s like, we haven’t been anointed to look at that, which is really annoying. No one ever goes ‘y’know what? they also play better. They’re also better musicians’ that’s just like not said, you know? Well, whatever, it doesn’t matter. We do what we do.
Jen: You don’t pay people to get you on TRL and things like that.
Stephan: No, no no… in a sense, I don’t think we’ll ever really be a media-appointed band. But I do think that the more, sort of, the subculture of the band will grow in the next album. I think that’ll happen a lot. The last album is very very hard to make. It was made in 6 months, the band was basically breaking up and um… we weren’t working together. It was very divisive, it was just very hard to make that record. We still did things on there that I’m proud of, but it was flawed. Now we really have such a better sense of ourselves.
Jen: More synergy?
Stephan: Much more synergistic. Much more… there’s just a lot more joy.
Jen: Well, speaking of joy, we read recently on MTV.com that you were depressed for the majority of last year, that you said you were experiencing depression. Is that true?
Stephan: I wouldn’t say that was depression, in the sense that, like, not waking up in the morning or any of that kind of stuff.
Jen: taking meds?
Stephan: No meds. I wasn’t… that’s not accurate.
Jen: Because I know that a lot of people when they read that they were like YES because they feel that the best Third Eye Blind lyrics come from a state of depression rather than a state of joy.
Stephan: Yeah I’d like that to change. But um…
Jen: They were like ‘Yes he’s depressed that means more good stuff coming out of him!’
Stephan: ‘You’re gonna make me a good record.’ I was really… yeah it was hard, it was hard.
Jen: Lot of personal stuff?
Stephan: Lot of personal stuff. Lot of really heavy personal stuff. But, I wasn’t depressed because I was really committed to confronting it and dealing with it and really looking at, really re-evaluating what I really want. And I feel like I’ve come through that, like I know what I want, I know how to get it, and I’m gonna do it.
Jen: Now it’s just the strategy of how you gonna get there.
Stephan: I’m getting there. Yeah so… so who was being depressed, I guess it was kind of… I never said ‘woe is me’. Sometimes you gotta really like check yourself. I think that, you know… even in the 3 years before Third Eye Blind was signed, I never slowed—I never looked up, you know. I made the record, and then I went off and made the Braids and then we went on tour, came off, immediately made another album, we made videos, we went on tour, we just kept going and it never stopped for years. There were things really deep down that were bothering me and I think that I used the seduction of the life I was living as a way of kind of avoiding it.
Jen: Putting off dealing with the problems?
Stephan: Yeah. Putting off dealing with stuff. That’s not good so, I think now, I smile a lot more easily. Like I see photos of myself now, I see photos with fans when it was like hard for me to smile. To the point where I was just like "you know I don’t think I want my picture taken. I just don’t want to do it." I just don’t feel that way, I feel much more connected to people, I feel much more sort of easy inside. And um… much more… giving and giving to share.
Jen: Yeah, I would say this interview is an example of that.
Stephan: You've always got any interview.
Jen: Well since we’re talking about writing, a fan wanted to know do you ever get writer’s block when you write lyrics for the band?
Stephan: Sure
Jen: And how do you get past it? Do you just walk away from it and just wait til the inspiration comes back?
Stephan: ya
Jen: just, divine inspiration?
Stephan: Yeah I don’t beat myself up about it. It just, it kind of, um… you keep coming back to it and mess around and think and feel and…
Jen: And I know you said a lot of times that the feeling you get from maybe music, someone playing around on the guitar and you hear things...
Stephan: ya
Jen: that inspires words...
Stephan: Yeah, I just play chords in different voices and find things and you know, and then writing with Arion, he’ll play something in a different way and that will give me a prompt. So it goes like that.
Jen: If you wrote an autobiography about yourself, which, we expect one day..
Stephan: [shudders out loud]
Jen: because we know you love to write. What would be its title?
Stephan: um… pshhh…
[long pause...thinking hard about this one...] [laughs]
Jen: stuck?
Stephan: "How I Got to be a Star Crossed Pimp"
Jen: ok, Mr. Pimp. Here’s our winning question, we held a contest. All of these questions here were submitted by fans, I can’t even tell you how many thousands of questions we went through—
Stephan: [to Ruby] Do you still do your thing?
Ruby: yeah
Stephan: do you?
Jen: Ask Wooby?
Ruby: I haven’t in a while.
Stephan: I love that thing.
Jen: Kick her ass
Stephan: It’s so fucking funny.
Jen: make her do it! Do it!
Stephan: It’s so right—it’s so right on point, you know. It’s like, it’s just great.
Jen: She likes to beat you up. But um, star crossed pimp, the winning question here is this fan, she says ‘you have the looks and probably the potential to be a porn star, so if you were ever to do a porno, what would your porn star name be?"
Stephan: uh…
Jen: And that’s the winning question. Of course it has to be about sex.
Stephan: What would be my porn name?
Jen: Yeah.
Stephan: um…
Jen: Questions that you would never get asked by Rolling Stone!
Stephan: [long pause]
I don’t know. I think you’re going to have to give me one.
Ruby: There’s always that—y’know your middle name—
Stephan: --I never watch porn. I don’t watch much porn.
Jen: WHAT!?!
Stephan: I really don’t. It’s like—
Jen: WHAT!?!
Stephan: I don’t watch much porn!! Like spank-trovision and that kind of stuff. I don’t know, it’s like…
Jen: You had to at some point in your life.
Ruby: What about that stuff on like HBO and Showtime, the soft stuff.
Stephan: oh soft is terrible! It’s so frustrating! I have this lighting guy that goes ‘Man, last night, I was trying to wank and, like, they wouldn’t show me the money shot. I threw my fucking shoe at the TV!’ I said, ‘What are you doing wearing shoes and beating off?’ Like that’s weird. I don’t think you can have sex, even with yourself, with your shoes on, I just think that’s WRONG. You know?
Jen: We have a fan that wants you to do Stephan’s Porno of the Month, like the book club, the book of the month.
Stephan: There’s this one guy, he does, it’s like this uh… Dalia… what’s her name? Dalia-somebody-or-another, and he does this exhibitionist stuff. But it’s like… it’s never like… I don’t know… porn’s like… I’d like to MAKE a porn film. Because it’s never like, it’s never really dirty. It’s raunchy but it’s not like, it’s not really like dirty. Like wrong. Like ‘ooo that’s so dirty’. You know what I mean? So rarely, you watch movies and you see someone… you know… like, of course she looks like that, of course he looks like that, of course they’re gonna fuck.
Ruby: Well there’s also lots of porn on the internet.
Stephan. Yeah. I don’t know… it’s like um… I would say create your own. Let’s just put it this way [smiles] I don’t really need to watch porn. If you catch the drift. It’s a perk.
Jen: So if you don’t have a porn star name, do you have a name you prefer to be called, then? Like, Big Daddy?
Stephan: I think Daddy is definitely like… you know, a lot of girls don’t understand this. It doesn’t mean it’s your dad, it’s DADDY. I definitely think the sexiest thing to be called is "Daddy".
Jen: haha "I like it when you call me big daddy!"
Stephan: yeah
Ruby: Big Poppa
Stephan: Girls who won’t call you Daddy get offended when you say "cunt". You know? Which is just like, I think it just totally misses the point, which is like, we’re going to get together and we’re going to do some wrong things.
Jen: Do you have a favorite album that you like to groove to in the bedroom?
Stephan: yeah there’s these weird chants, it’s like this freaky, almost like medieval church music.
Jen and Ruby: [laugh snort snicker]
Stephan: It’s pretty damn blasphemous. [laughs]
Jen: OH NO
Stephan: yeah… that one’s working
Jen: top or bottom?
Stephan: Top
Jen: I’m embarassing Ruby here.
Ruby: No you’re not.
Stephan: It’s a good question, though. Some people are flexible though.
Jen: Do you have a sex toy collection?
Stephan: Yes
Jen: You do?
Stephan: I do.
Jen: french ticklers? What?
Stephan: It’s all there.
Jen: okay
Ruby: moving along
Jen: yeah, moving along
Stephan: I think everyone should have one
Jen: oh absolutely
Stephan: you know? If you don’t have some stuff that makes a good hard flacking-slapping sound, then your collection is incomplete, because sometimes people need some ironclad discipline.
Jen: So what’s the funkiest thing Third Eye Blind asked to have on hand backstage at all your shows?
Stephan: funkiest thing?
Jen: uh huh. you know what I mean? Some rock stars want specific things that they need backstage.
Ruby: like only blue M&Ms
Stephan: yeah, to some extent I feel like that’s sort of fucking with people. It’s like… [looks beyond] there’s a big group of people over there and I really don’t want them to come over here. I definitely want my space respected, but at the same time I don’t want to be imperious-- there’s kind of a badass… We’ve always got Belvedere Vodka. There’s always a lot of celery, carrots, that kind of shit. Sometimes I eat the celery, I don’t eat the carrots much anymore.
Jen: But nothing funky though? Like… sex toys?
Stephan: No. Let me think. It’s so hard to stay healthy on the road, like when we’re on tour, it’s more sort of healthy kinds of stuff and when it’s like a longer tour, then we want kind of have an environment made up so there’s like, a sofa that comes with us and we have like, chairs and the room gets sort of made up in a certain way and lights. And Arion needs music around him all the time. Like I need a lot of quiet, he has to have music all the time. So he’s always got a system there with various kinds of music. And what he does is he obsesses on it. So he’ll play the same thing really loud over and over again and then move on, he’s just like that, he’ll just wear it out. So that’s really important to him.
Jen: This is gonna be a hard question probably—
Stephan: --just because we don’t have sex toys backstage, Jen, does not mean, that does not mean that it is not, on occasion, debauched.
Jen: I’m slightly disappointed, I have to admit.
Stephan: really? You didn’t think to bring a dildo with you?
Jen: Keep the ladies occupied while they’re waiting.
Stephan: The girls, they’ll do their own thing. If they’re willing to get back there, they want to, like, bring the show.
Jen: Maybe they’ll bring their own, who knows? BYOD.
Stephan: Yeah.
Jen: What’s the biggest misconception about Stephan Jenkins?
Stephan: [pause] biggest misc—
Jen: you’ve had some negative press
Stephan: biggest misconception?
Jen: mm-hm… as far as publicly. The fans would know...
Stephan: Mostly I would think it’s arrogance. I think in the media I’ve been perceived as that way and it’s such an easy tag.
Jen: the cocky guy?
Stephan: yeah it’s that whole kind of thing. I think people who know me tend to think that I have a lot more empathy than somebody who would be characterized as being arrogant.
Jen: Does it bother you to have tha—
Stephan: Also I think there’s something that’s almost flippant, and it’s like I really care very deeply about music and what it does.
Bobby: 10 minutes to show
Stephan: really? God, we haven’t played in so long.
Jen: I’m really excited.
Stephan: Oh my God, it’s going to be… ooh..who knows… I’m really in a state right now where I really want to reinvent ourselves. I love the music we’ve made, I stand by it, but I’m so all about the next phase.
Jen: A new challenge
Stephan: Just, where it’s going to go. I really feel like we’re a band that hasn’t arrived yet.
Jen: Well a lot of times in the real world, when you have the same job for a number of years sometimes you crave just a change of scenery, a new company maybe or a totally new profession maybe.
Stephan: I don’t crave that. I’m doing exactly what I want to do with my life.
Jen: Right, but I mean within your profession, though, it’s just like you’re changing jobs. You’re changing maybe the style of the next record. Is that—
Stephan: Yes
Jen: --kind of what you’re saying
Stephan: very much so, very much so. And I’ve had such radically different experiences the past couple of years. And that’s what I’m really writing about.
Jen: If you weren’t playing music right now, what do you think you would be doing as an alternative career?
Stephan: Making films.
Jen: Right, film school guy.
Stephan: I’d be acting in movies and I’d be
Jen: so you would definitely be in entertainment?
Stephan: Yeah I like storytelling, I like narrative storytelling and being involved in that in some kind of way
Jen: Do you do that? (note: I thought he was saying he wanted to be a storyteller - like read for people - oops)
Stephan: Narrative storytelling?
Jen: uh huh
Stephan: I think that’s what my songs are.
Jen: Well I know that, but I mean, literally?
Stephan: Write stories? I write a lot.
Jen: Do you ever share any of that, or is it something that you keep just for yourself as like a journal?
Stephan: I think at some point I might want to try and publish some of that stuff. It’s just what I write. I’ve written a story that might turn into something, that might turn into a novel or a script or something. But, probably if I wasn’t in Third Eye Blind, what I’d be trying to do is trying to get music together. I’d be one of those actors who really really wants to do is be in a band. You know? Which is, so pathetic. That’s why I just see doing films as something that I do on the side, and I do it because it’s really fun, I enjoy it. I’m happy where I’m at and what I’ve done, I’ve made enough bread, I’m famous enough and all of those kinds of things, all of those kind of surface things are not what I’m looking to. That’s not what I’m looking to feed, it’s really about, to be able to do it. The process.
Jen: What do you personally want to be remembered for? Do you want to be remembered for your fame or do you want to be remembered that you raised X amount of dollars for breast cancer? What would you like to be remembered for? Say if you were Aaliyah and you died on a plane, what would you want people to remember you for? They talk about her: she’s the nicest girl, really had her shit together, really young, very intelligent…
[Announcer comes on stage to announce the show. Crowd cheers]
Stephan: On a personal level I think that I love some people really deeply. My family, the people who are close to me, people who have become my family. Somebody who reached people with music and made that small but sincere reach-out to them. [pause] But you know, one time a plane was going down and all I thought ‘wow that was weird.’ The one thing I said, ‘Existence - that was very strange. How weird.’ You know?
[Jen and Ruby blink in confusion]
Stephan: but I … I don’t know… so now whenever a plane takes off, I pray, every single time. I started praying and now I’m like really sort of… and that sort of carried over. I think I have this really sort of, I think I’ve had this very strange relationship with God. Sort of refused to acknowledge God and had to invent God for myself, because you know, major religions really don’t work for me.
[loud cheers from audience in the background]
Ruby: A lot of people have to do that.
Stephan: huh?
Ruby: A lot of people have to do—
Stephan: --I just think they’re horribly flawed. Christianity is based on judgment and laws and that’s not how I work with people. Would you take the good with the bad - I don't know how you do that. It's not important to me at all that Mary was a virgin. You know, I REALLY don't care. But uh, the sense of… the sense of Providence in that the… the… Divine power that guides our destiny has become kind of a contract with me. Like if you’re willing to get in there, you know, and I think embracing some sense of universal good and those are the kinds of things that I’ve resisted and lately in a way, embraced more.
[guitar tech gestures to Stephan]
Stephan: [to guitar tech] uhhh it’s the standard distorted
Jen: So I guess we’re gonna have a contest to have the fans to give you a porn star name, then.
Stephan: Well let’s take it from Monty Python: Biggus Dickus. Biggus? Dickus?
Jen: Are you guys leaving right after the show?
Stephan: yeah
Jen: going home?
Stephan: zip
Ruby: oh don’t forget to sign these, we wanted to give these away.
Jen: please, they’re giveaways for the fundraiser.
Ruby: and this is for the breast cancer...
Jen: did you see this? The little candle.
Stephan: oh that’s nice.
[autographs stuff]
[fan stops by for an autograph]
Stephan: there you are. And this? Do you want this left in the plastic?
Fan: Um you can take it out if you want.
Stephan: well if you want to keep it in the plastic that’s cool… but then you won’t get his. I’ll just do it this way. But you can’t take it out of the plastic.
Fan: alright thanks
Stephan: you’re welcome
Jen: I guess I’ll ask you a couple questions while you’re signing that stuff.
Stephan: sure
Jen: Yikes yikes yikes! Umm… do you know any other languages besides English?
Stephan: uh.. yeah… uh, French?
Jen: uh-huh. Just French? You speak it pretty fluently?
Stephan: uh
Jen: Now, the Stendhal book the Scarlet and Red [actually, Scarlet and Black], did you read it in English or French?
Stephan: No no, I read it in English. Right now I’m reading Life in the Year 1000. It’s so rad. Yeah it’s just hilarious.
Bobby: [gestures to Stephan]
Stephan: [to Bobby] Dude, all I gotta do is put on something I can sweat in and I’m good.
Bobby: okay, [comes with menu] do you wanna pick something for afterwards? Do you want me to just pick it for you? It’s Denny’s, you want like a Boca burger?
Stephan: Denny’s!?!
Bobby: Come on dude, look where we are.
Jen: All American Slam.
Bobby: Want breakfast?
Stephan: What did Arion order?
Bobby: a Boca Burger.
Stephan: yeah Boca Burger. What is that? It’s like a tofu burger or something?
Bobby: yeah it’s tofu and grain - it’s pretty good actually.
Stephan: Can I get a salad, cuz I don’t want to eat the bread.
Bobby: I’ll just get a side salad
Stephan: the dressing on the side, I don’t want to have .
Bobby: yep you got it.
Jen: One more, sign the tag.
Stephan: Just sign the tag?
Jen: yeah
Stephan: ok
Jen: We think it’ll wipe off anywhere else.
Athena: Excuse me, are you Stephan?
Stephan: yes
Athena: I wanted to meet you. I’m sorry if I’m interrupting
Stephan: how do you do? what’s your name?
Athena: I’m Athena, I’m from Star 101 we interviewed you on the air a couple days ago.
Stephan: uh huh. oh cool, was it alright? Cuz I was sound asleep.
Athena: No no you were fine. It sounded like you were a little tired but that’s cool.
Stephan: uh, my assistant came into my room, went [knocks on table] and handed me the phone. I was sound asleep. She said ‘make you wake-up voice’, I went ‘AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!’
Athena: I met you at the Grammys like 5 years ago when I worked at a radio station in New York. [Were 3eb around 5 years ago? I don’t remember them ever going to the Grammys then…]
Stephan: um… and how have you been?
Athena: and and you had more energy, I think it was like…
Stephan: I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bore you guys.
Athena: No that’s all right.
Stephan: I did the best I could.
Athena: No you were fine, you were cool. Are you um… are you taking pictures at all?
Stephan: um not right now, love.
Athena: you’re not?
Stephan: yeah
Athena: anyway
Stephan: Thank you, though.
Athena: all right, I just wanted to say hi, sorry to interrupt you guys.
Stephan: Ok, it was really nice to meet you.
Jen: All right, I guess… um… why did you change the spelling of your name…?
Stephan: I didn’t.
Jen: …from e-n to a-n.
Stephan: I didn’t change it.
Jen: a-n is on your birth certificate?
Stephan: yes.
Jen: ok. That answers that. How is The Boo?
Stephan: she’s EXcellent!
Jen: is she living with you?
Stephan: yesterday… yeah… I got this new place, it’s like… it’s so funny it’s like I’ve lived SO LONG at this level of just, totally punk rock. You know? And at a certain point, what are you—why? So…
Jen: I think it was The Chronicle that said you were living in Upper Fillmore?
Stephan: I live in Pacific Heights, I have this phat pad with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and I’ve been collecting design and furniture and stuff. Yesterday—this is all related—yesterday the Mighty Boo Pup had a gigantic breakthrough because I decided to let her get on the couch, which is where she wants to be. She wants to be comfortable. It’s very important for her to be comfortable. So now she gets to go on the couch and she’s extremely pleased.
Ruby: You know how there’s all that stuff on the news, like, with like Sean Jones and that other woman who were mauled by the pit bulls?
Stephan: yeah
Ruby: Is that—how do you feel walking down the street with Boo and people kind of, you know, step back and go ‘woah that’s a pit bull’.
Stephan: I mean, so is the dog in Our Gang, ya know? She’s uh… she will not attack you unless I say to. She won’t do it.
Ruby: So do you think pit bulls have a bad rap?
Stephan: Am-Staff terriers are my favorite breed of dog, period. They are just the best dogs.
Jen: Does Boo have any friends?
Stephan: oh yeah she loves dogs.
Jen: I mean, do you have any little brothers or sisters for her?
Stephan: uh no, but um Jason Carmer who is my production partner in the studio, he’s got a pound dog pit bull and they love each other, they just run around the studio all day. We’re building this studio, it’s like so
Jen: It’s in SoMa?
Stephan: yeah yeah
Jen: Isn’t that kind of expensive?
Stephan: Not anymore!! Not anymore!! We cleaned up after those dot.commers.
Jen: yeah, my office used to be right next to the Utah
Stephan: yeah it’s been a fire sale so we got the place pretty cheap and it’s just it’s like a dream come true.
Jen: When is it gonna be done?
Stephan: uhh it should have been done [checks watch] 2 days ago, but it’ll probably be done by the end of the month. It’s bad-ass.
Jen: And you’ll be able to do everything up to the final finish?
Stephan: yeah
Jen: and so are you going to record everything in there?
Stephan: Well we might go back to Skywalker Ranch because I think that the… really the best drum sounds… my favorite drums sound, period is the drums on God of Wine and that was recorded at Skywalker Ranch and I just don’t see how that can be improved on. I just, just… I love that sound, it’s really natural and real and has lots of air. So we might go back there to do some drums, but other than that we’ll do it all there. That’s the plan.
Ruby: Have you named the studio yet?
Stephan: No. That would be a good contest, we need a name.
Jen: Tell him.
Ruby: You told him already right? I was thinking of like the Chocolate Factory or the Fudge Factory.
Stephan: yeah
Ruby: You know that quote from Willy Wonka?
Stephan: I know em all.
Ruby: "We are the… we are the music makers…"
Stephan: Yeah I’ve been getting into the Princess Bride lately.
Ruby: yeah?
Stephan: yeah
Ruby: "My name is Inigo Montoya… you killed my father…"
Stephan: "prepare to die"
Ruby: "prepare to die"
Stephan: I am really like feelin’ the Princess Bride. "If it is, we’d all be dead"
Jen: So you don’t know what you’re gonna name it yet?
Stephan: "Anybody want a peanut?" "No more rhymes! And I mean it!"
Um… no I don’t know what we’re gonna call it. We came up with all these names for studios and we just constantly shoot em down. But it’s not really—
Jen: Well one person is going to have to do it because you’re never going to get everybody to agree on it.
Stephan: I know, I know. But it’s like, you know… why ram something down everybody’s throat. We gotta… we just—
Bobby: He’s gotta get you eared up.
Stephan: okay, um… gotta go! um, if you guys wanna , if you wanna stand on the side of the stage you can tonight. [to Ruby] What are you gonna do?
Jen: That would be great.
Ruby: huh?
Stephan: What are you gonna do? Are you gonna start writing your thing again?
Ruby: yes
Jen: she is!
Stephan: I love that thing. It’s so fucking funny. Do you get a lot of questions?
Ruby: mm-hm
Jen: oh my god
Ruby: yeah, I’ve like half-written it and then I just haven’t touched it, I have severe writer’s block.
Stephan: really?
Ruby: I don’t know how to deal with it. So, I mean, I go back to it every, like, week or so and then I just say "ffff.. to hell with it" and then I go back to it a week later and I try to get—nothing’s coming… eventually…
Stephan: Can I give you some suggestions?
Ruby: Please!
Stephan: That first thing that comes into your mind no matter how bad it is, just do it, vent. "You bastard!" You know just like immediately, like… I think people get the joke.
Jen: oh absolutely
Stephan: you know? But it’s like they line up for some abuse from you. Like, you know… I think what you should do is like—
Jen: he’s giving you the green light Wooby!
Stephan: --take Wooby and like re-dress her and dress her up as a dominatrix. And just say like "Wooby’s back! And now I’m not fucking around!" It’s like, no more Mr. Nice Guy, ya know? It’s just like "step up and get your punishment".
Ruby: I’ll have to get a whip.
Jen: we’ll redo your picture
Stephan: Where did you see me at the Rock Star premiere?
Jen: photos online
Stephan: just online photos?
Jen: yeah they were taken by Yahoo.
Ruby: you were with Fred Durst.
Jen: yeah you were with Fred.
Stephan: he’s my pal. Such a sweet guy. Really smart, really nice guy, very sincere.
Jen: Very short.
Stephan: Well I’m very tall.
Jen: [laughs] I’m sorry that’s the first thing that came to my mind.
Stephan: Were there a lot of photos?
Jen: No, there were 3. They’re good, they’re on the site, right on the front page.
Stephan: saw my blue suit?
Jen: yeah, is that velour?
Stephan: it’s velvet. Blue velvet suit.
[Bobby approaches again]
Jen: I don’t want to get in trouble.
Stephan: With what?
Jen: He was so nice to let us do this. So I don’t want to get in trouble.
Stephan: Nice to see you guys.
Jen: Nice to see you too.
Stephan: Yeah The Year 1000, you gotta read that book so fucking funny. Have you read Black Hawk Down?
Jen: No.
Stephan: That’s a trippy book. That’s a really weird book.
Jen: I’ve been buying all the books you recommend. I think a lot of people have.
Stephan: I read a lot of books.
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