| 3OH!3 are not your boyfriend, baby. |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | ||||||||
| Thursday, 07 January 2010 11:21 | ||||||||
 For an act that pens songs about girls, drugs, money, and girls... Medical school and English degrees, do not exactly come to mind. But NATHANIEL MOTTE and SEAN FOREMAN of 3OH!3, never were your average boys from Boulder, Colorado. Press Motte for a random medical fact and he'll readily supply that - "there's over six billion cells in the human body". Likewise, Foreman upon enquiry will happily proffer his favourite literary quote - "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." From Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man And The Sea' - while Motte chips in with; "Call me Ishmael." - Foreman agreeing, "Moby Dick". If the music scene hadn't come calling, summa cum laude graduate Motte, would still be studying it up. "I got accepted to medical school but I've been deferring. I've been putting it off. I think it's something that we would both like, to go back to school eventually - but for now, this [ 3OH!3 ] is something that is going pretty well and we're having a lot of fun." Whereas Foreman, is certified in Maths and English. "I've got a Bachelor's in English and then I did a minor in Math. It was really cool. I'm just a huge fan of literature and books anyway, so it was just a pleasure to actually get a degree while reading books." As if brains aren't enough to lure the ladies in, Motte also speaks fluent French; the proud son of a French Professor and natively-French Mother. "My Mother is from France originally. So I've been going back there every Summer since I was born. I've a dual-nationality. It's great. To be able to embrace another culture growing up, is wonderful." Not to be out-done, Foreman's family sports an athletic heritage. "I played Ultimate Frisbee growing up. My Dad played it, so I grew up playing it. And then I played in college and joined a Junior World's Team and went to Finland and played there. It was really cool." But what about 'I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby' - "Fast cars, fast women and cheap drinks. It feels right. All these asphyxiated, self-medicated. Take the white pill you'll feel alright." - you say! What about that song 'Chokechain' - "I got a chokechain for my pit bull Lane, I got a shock collar for my rottweiler..." - Foreman & Motte make no apologies for your own lack of humour, dear critics. - "It's pretty straight-forward I think. It's honestly just what it sounds like. It's a fun song, it's a hard song. It's a real aggressive song. It's pretty much what it says." - And... they don't care if you think white boys can't rap. Motte wryly deadpans his agreement of the stereotype - "I completely agree and I think it's a wonderful stereotype."
COUP DE MAIN: This is 3OH!3's first New Zealand tour! 3OH!3 - NATHANIEL MOTTE: Feels wonderful, it feels great. This is my first time in the Southern Hemisphere and anywhere near here, so it's rad! The shows are sold out down here, so it bodes well for us having a good time. We went to that NOFX show last night for a bit at the Town Hall, but we just flew in... CDM: How did this tour with Basshunter come about? NATHANIEL: Our songs did pretty well on the radio down here, Basshunter's stuff has done well on the radio too - so, it's kinda a tour that's sponsored by a radio station and based on that. It just became clear that we could come on down and tour here, and we got offered the tour spot - so we were excited about it. CDM: Katy Perry features on guest-vocals on the 'Starstrukk' remix! How did that come about? NATHANIEL: We've known her since we went on tour with her on the Warped Tour in 2008. Then we actually went to Europe with her as well. We'd always wanted to do stuff together and work together, [ but ] it became apparent that we both had records out so we couldn't really work on anything new. But we wanted to remix our single for radio, and it ended up that she agreed to come sing on it. We have always really admired what she does, and thought she was great. CDM: Was it fun shooting the music video with her? NATHANIEL: It was amazing. She got all pseudo-naked in a fountain, so it was great. Can't complain. CDM: Do you consider 'Want' your second album, or debut? Why did you decide upon 'Want' as the title? 3OH!3 - SEAN FOREMAN: I think it was our debut album - but it's also our second album, because that was the first one where we had wide distribution on it. We called it 'Want' because we were actually throwing around ideas for the name and Nat's brother actually, with Nat was like - "Do you WANT it?" - and it was a weird thing, back-and-forth. We just thought the word 'want' is just such a weird and interesting word. On top of that, it's kinda of like very over-advertisement. Just saying want on something, forces people to buy it.
CDM: Where do you get your one-liner inspiration from? E.g. "Talkin' to a rich skank filled up like a sperm bank." - 'Richman'. SEAN: *laughs* A lot of it's rap-based. We both grew up listening to rap and hearing punch-lines after punch-lines - and honestly, a lot of it is a play on words. Like something like that, is a mainstream taboo - and it's just kinda a play on that. That song in general, is saying that you, we, don't need to go to clubs and get bottle-service. We still have fun. We still have fun doing what we do and playing the music that we play. It uses that aggressive tone of hip-hop - but in using it, it's saying that we don't need all that stuff. CDM: Is 'Don't Trust Me' based on fact, or fiction? NATHANIEL: It's based on a little bit of both, I guess. We were writing obviously in a situational-thing... It's mostly fiction, it's mostly having fun - and trying to make a song that was a different sounding pop-song. CDM: Critics have labelled 'Don't Trust Me' as either misogynistic, or stupid... Penny for your own thoughts? SEAN: It's stupid. NATHANIEL: I think it's really stupid. SEAN: It's a horrible song. NATHANIEL: No! Most people, understand and are okay with the fact that it's a little bit tongue-and-cheek. Obviously we're being playful with thoughts about relationships and stuff like that. Most people can understand that, and are pretty receptive to it. CDM: What inspired the line - "Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips"? NATHANIEL: You'd have to ask that guy over there... SEAN: *laughs* Basically, we were in the studio, I was writing, and I had that line... It's just a fun line, it's funny. At the same time, it's obviously a controversial line, but it's all in fun. It's all basically just dance, like - use your body, for body language. I think people are reading into a lot more than what it is. Honestly, it's just a fun line. CDM: I guess, all publicity is good publicity... NATHANIEL: I think Madonna said, that there is no such thing as bad publicity.  CDM: Do you harbour a secret flame for love songs? Despite these wild lyrics of yours... SEAN: I think there's always a place for love songs, [ but ] I think there's so many love songs - it's very saturated with love songs. It's hard to pick which ones are actually the really good ones. But I think that if you can go about it being either genuine, or very clever, and write something new with a love song - I'd really like it. I'm kind of a sucker for pop love songs. CDM: Listening to 'I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby' though, you'd think that romance and chivalry were dead... NATHANIEL: I don't think so. I think that's another tongue-and-cheek song. It's true in the fact that it's based on experience and being bitter at girls, but I don't think that romance and chivalry are dead by any means. CDM: Okay, what's the nicest thing you've ever done for a girl? NATHANIEL: Let's see... I've done a lot of nice things. Simple things, like cook dinner. To flying - we've both flown girlfriends out to be with us. Wrote a song. Writing songs is pretty sweet. A bunch. A lot of stuff that wasn't necessarily on our CD. CDM: Colorado homeboys right! The band has a lot of Colorado pride... NATHANIEL: Yeah we started out, and we still have a lot of local pride. We come from a great place and obviously we love where we're from. We love touring and playing other places too, but I think it's really important for us to retain a sense of where we're from. CDM: Where did the 3OH!3 hand-sign come from? SEAN: I would see it, like my brother and his friends and people around in Colorado. Everyone would just do it for fun. And then we, didn't necessarily steal it, but we used it 'cuz it's part of our name and it's part of our area code too. CDM: How do you feel about radio stations now playlisting 3OH!3 songs, having risen up from an underground scene? NATHANIEL: We still love the music that we bonded over initially. We're both huge fans of that underground hip-hop scene. We're where we started - we've gained a lot of appreciation for a lot of other musics as we grow older. I think that's just part of being a person, an artist - but we love the things that we started loving initially. CDM: Do you think radio stations are destined to eventually die, or be phased out? NATHANIEL: I think that everything is adaptable. Maybe the idea of what's a traditional radio station nowadays changes. But honestly, there will always be a source for people to find new music and to listen to it, and tastemakers and stuff like that. So I don't think that'll ever change.
CDM: What are your thoughts on Warped Tour programming non-traditional Warped-style/sound bands to play? SEAN: I think it's really cool to fly in new stuff under the radar, and not necessarily break things on a pop-level. Warped Tour is really cool because it's totally fan and band based. Basically meaning, that it's super interactive between the bands and the people that go to it. I think it's a different style of breaking a band; not necessarily playing them on the radio - they just go and play these festivals, and that's a cool built-in audience that really appreciates music. CDM: Pretty cool that a member of NOFX joined you on-stage at Warped! SEAN: The guitar player from NOFX played bass on one of our songs [ 'I Can't Do It Alone' ], El Hefe - they actually played here last night and we went and hung out with them. They're just awesome dudes. I grew up listening to NOFX, so it's very flattering to have that. CDM: How did 3OH!3's great association with Matt Galle [ Photo Finish Records owner and booking agent for the likes of My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday ] initiate? NATHANIEL: Matt Galle was actually a friend of our manager, and a friend of the producer of our record, Matt Squire. He actually manages Matt Squire. So it's kinda an inter-related family. He's amazing. He's the best label representative that we could ever ask for. CDM: What was the record label finding process like for 3OH!3? NATHANIEL: It's kinda something that developed out of a hobby. We definitely went and tried... and then we got hooked up with management, and took a lot of meetings with bigger labels, with major labels... you know. It ended up that Photo Finish Records was just the right place. It's an indie label. It has all the benefits of an indie label, like great attention... and hard working people who are working for not so many bands. And then it also has the resources of Atlantic Records. So it's the best of both worlds. Photo Finish is an imprint of Atlantic Records, so some of the things that the label utilises to promote music are run through them. CDM: Is your 'Photofinnish' song written for your label? NATHANIEL: Yeah, the song. We actually made that as an in honour of being signed, when we were in the studio. CDM: Lastly, what are your thoughts on how important the Internet has become to musicians nowadays? NATHANIEL: These days, it's pretty vital for an artist to stay in touch with their audience because things move so fast. And album cycles don't necessarily move any faster. But to stay in touch with your fans and to interact with your fans, is really important. Whether it's through Twitter, or blogging, or any sort of medium - it's a vital component of music now-a-days. It's slowly seeping in to how bands work. Like how Myspace revolutionised music, Twitter and all that stuff is too [ now ]. 3OH!3's 'Want' is in-stores now. Features the singles 'Don't Trust Me' and 'Starstrukk'.
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