Push to Fire: Interview with 3OH!3

An interview with 3OH!3
American band 3OH!3 have recently completed a headline tour in the UK and it wasn't the first time they'd been over here having supported Katy Perry earlier this year. Graeme Brown caught up with Sean from 3OH!3 in Manchester in November 2009 to talk about the current tour, musical influences and plans for the future.
Last day of the tour, how have you liked it so far?
It’s been awesome man; we love to come back here! It’s kind of our third time back here. We opened for Katy Perry in the same venue and it’s really good to go full circle and to be able to play it. We got moved up from Manchester Club Academy to Academy 1, it's crazy.

How have you liked England so far?
It’s been good man, the fans are great! We have a lot of great fans and whether it is YouTube or something else, they all know how to act at the show. I don’t know if it’s us or them but each show is crazy, people dancing around and everything.
So with it being the last day of the tour, do you have anything special planned for us?
We’re going to do it completely sober..........nahh were not.
What’s the best/weirdest thing to happen on this tour so far?
There has been a lot of driving so there haven’t been a lot of crazy nights yet. We did party one night in our hotel room, we didn’t exactly trash it but they did kick us out of the hotel.
So what’s it like headlining your own tour compared to support slots, festivals and even Warped tour?
It’s cool because you know every night that the people who come to see you are there for you and you don’t have to fight for the fans. At the same time when opening for somebody you have to win over the fans and impress them. Here tonight everybody is out to have a good time and were here to put on a good show, everybody is helping each other out.
What style of music influences you? 3OH!3 doesn’t really fit into to a generic genre alongside other artists...
For us, honestly there was a moment where we tried to do a lot more production as we came from a hip-hop background and we work a lot on computers. We started listening to bands like The Faint, a lot more electronic rock music, so we adapted that to our hip-hop background and it came to a lot more of a live thing. We listen to a lot of different stuff, I listen to a lot of punk music too and it all fits in and helps out the music and all the live shows.
So describe the band’s music in two words.
Let’s see.. hhmm. Electro.... Pop.

3OH!3 by Clique Photography

So how do you create your music, do you work a lot from home or does a lot change in the studio?
Nat does a lot of the production so he nerds out on his computer 24/7. I work a lot with the lyrics and melodies so for me its very notepad based. We always work back and forth with ideas, sending beats and melodies to each other. I made the song ‘Still Around’ just on the piano, we always work back and forth.
So has touring affected your new material?
Yea actually, we have about 33 new songs, sounds huge. Since it is software based, when we tour we can find time to work a lot of the time so we have the ideas/base elements to 33 songs. We are going to the studio in the next couple of months to throw out a new CD that’s different, but not too different. We have a lot of great songs
As you said, you went on tour with Katy Perry and she even features on one of your tracks too. If there were any artists, dead or alive that you would love to work with, whom would it be?
For sheer ‘bad-ass-ness’ if I can make up that word, it would have to be Andrew WK. That guy is amazing, he is a power ball of energy and he can’t fucking deny it.
So whats the future for 3OH!3?
This is a surprise for us to play such a big venue so we are very humbled at the fact people are coming out for us. We like to play shows, we like to make music and it’s been fun for us, it’s a blast. We don’t really have expectations at all; we have goals that we want to meet. We definitely want to make our next album before the summer hits, tours around the spring time and hopefully back here for all the summer festivals. We can’t wait.
Either / Or
1. American football / English football? - American
2. Hayley Williams / Avril Lavigne - Hayley
3. English girls / American girls - American
4. Home town shows / New shows - New shows
5. On tour / Studio - Studio
6. Myspace / Facebook - Facebook
7. Tupac / Snoop dogg - Tupac
8. Lyrics / Melody - Melody
9. Dance music / Rock music - Rock music
10. Gangster rap / Hip hop - Hip Hop
11. Phone calls / Text messages - Text messages
12. Chinese food / Italian Food - Chinese
13. Festivals / Playing solos - Festivals
14. Old school / New school - Old School
15. Crowd surfing / Mosh pits - Mosh pits
16. Orange juice: With pulp / No pulp - With pulp
17. iphone / blackberry - iphone
18. Will Smith / Jim Carrey - Jim Carrey
19. Playing UK / Playing USA - Playing UK
20. MAC / PC - MAC

Thanks go to Sean for taking the time to answer Graeme's questions and Kate H for organising this for Push to Fire. The photos accompanying the interview were taken by Clique Photography at 3OH!3's Manchester gig on Saturday 7th November 2009.
Check out 3OH!3's music at www.myspace.com/3oh3

An interview with 3OH!3 American band 3OH!3 have recently completed a headline tour in the UK and it wasn't the first time they'd been over here having supported Katy Perry earlier this year. Graeme Brown caught up with Sean from 3OH!3 in Manchester in November 2009 to talk about the current tour, musical influences and plans for the future. Last day of the tour, how have you liked it so far? It’s been awesome man; we love to come back here! It’s kind of our third time back here. We opened for Katy Perry in the same venue and it’s really good to go full circle and to be able to play it. We got moved up from Manchester Club Academy to Academy 1, it's crazy.
How have you liked England so far? It’s been good man, the fans are great! We have a lot of great fans and whether it is YouTube or something else, they all know how to act at the show. I don’t know if it’s us or them but each show is crazy, people dancing around and everything. So with it being the last day of the tour, do you have anything special planned for us? We’re going to do it completely sober..........nahh were not. What’s the best/weirdest thing to happen on this tour so far? There has been a lot of driving so there haven’t been a lot of crazy nights yet. We did party one night in our hotel room, we didn’t exactly trash it but they did kick us out of the hotel. So what’s it like headlining your own tour compared to support slots, festivals and even Warped tour? It’s cool because you know every night that the people who come to see you are there for you and you don’t have to fight for the fans. At the same time when opening for somebody you have to win over the fans and impress them. Here tonight everybody is out to have a good time and were here to put on a good show, everybody is helping each other out. What style of music influences you? 3OH!3 doesn’t really fit into to a generic genre alongside other artists... For us, honestly there was a moment where we tried to do a lot more production as we came from a hip-hop background and we work a lot on computers. We started listening to bands like The Faint, a lot more electronic rock music, so we adapted that to our hip-hop background and it came to a lot more of a live thing. We listen to a lot of different stuff, I listen to a lot of punk music too and it all fits in and helps out the music and all the live shows. So describe the band’s music in two words. Let’s see.. hhmm. Electro.... Pop.
So how do you create your music, do you work a lot from home or does a lot change in the studio? Nat does a lot of the production so he nerds out on his computer 24/7. I work a lot with the lyrics and melodies so for me its very notepad based. We always work back and forth with ideas, sending beats and melodies to each other. I made the song ‘Still Around’ just on the piano, we always work back and forth. So has touring affected your new material? Yea actually, we have about 33 new songs, sounds huge. Since it is software based, when we tour we can find time to work a lot of the time so we have the ideas/base elements to 33 songs. We are going to the studio in the next couple of months to throw out a new CD that’s different, but not too different. We have a lot of great songs As you said, you went on tour with Katy Perry and she even features on one of your tracks too. If there were any artists, dead or alive that you would love to work with, whom would it be? For sheer ‘bad-ass-ness’ if I can make up that word, it would have to be Andrew WK. That guy is amazing, he is a power ball of energy and he can’t fucking deny it. So whats the future for 3OH!3? This is a surprise for us to play such a big venue so we are very humbled at the fact people are coming out for us. We like to play shows, we like to make music and it’s been fun for us, it’s a blast. We don’t really have expectations at all; we have goals that we want to meet. We definitely want to make our next album before the summer hits, tours around the spring time and hopefully back here for all the summer festivals. We can’t wait. Either / Or 1. American football / English football? - American 2. Hayley Williams / Avril Lavigne - Hayley 3. English girls / American girls - American 4. Home town shows / New shows - New shows 5. On tour / Studio - Studio 6. Myspace / Facebook - Facebook 7. Tupac / Snoop dogg - Tupac 8. Lyrics / Melody - Melody 9. Dance music / Rock music - Rock music 10. Gangster rap / Hip hop - Hip Hop 11. Phone calls / Text messages - Text messages 12. Chinese food / Italian Food - Chinese 13. Festivals / Playing solos - Festivals 14. Old school / New school - Old School 15. Crowd surfing / Mosh pits - Mosh pits 16. Orange juice: With pulp / No pulp - With pulp 17. iphone / blackberry - iphone 18. Will Smith / Jim Carrey - Jim Carrey 19. Playing UK / Playing USA - Playing UK 20. MAC / PC - MAC
Thanks go to Sean for taking the time to answer Graeme's questions and Kate H for organising this for Push to Fire. The photos accompanying the interview were taken by Clique Photography at 3OH!3's Manchester gig on Saturday 7th November 2009. Check out 3OH!3's music at www.myspace.com/3oh3