|
‘Revisions’ will be out late October, but isn’t an album with new material.
Instead you’ve decided to re-record some older songs (from 1996-2001). Why have
you decided to this now, and what kind of expectations do you have for it?
Joey Eppard of Three – As a songwriter, my
songs are like my children and I was begining to feel like I had alot of kids
locked in my basement. At first we thought it would be easier to make an album
like this but it turned out to be more difficult. I don’t think we have any
expections for this record. In the past our records have never lived up to the
expectations that we and others have had for them in terms of sales and general
popularity. I can only speak for myself here, but at this point I have let go of
”expectations.” I can only pour my heart and soul into the music and production
and let fate do the rest. At the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if this
turned out to be our most successful record.
Your first albums were released on a very small label (Planet
Noise Records), and are hard to come by these days. Any chance that they
will be re-released at some stage?
Joey Eppard of Three - Maybe at some
point we will consider re-releasing them, but for true fans they can still be
purchased through Planet Noise Records.
Your last regular studio album was released back in summer of 2007, when can we
expect something new from Three?
Joey Eppard of Three – It would be a
mistake to consider Revisions not a new album. Though the songs maybe older we
worked very hard developing them into their new versions. This is something we
also did on The End is Begun with songs like “Live Entertainment,” “Been to the
Future,” and “Diamond in the Crush.” We are currently writing and recording
brand new material but its hard to say when and where it will all come to
fruition. In a perfect world we’d like to be done by the Spring for a release
this summer.
Looking forward - what can we expect from you – do you think the next album will
be a natural layer on top of ‘Wake Pig” and “The End has begun”, or will you
totally surprise us?
Joey Eppard of Three – I would say expect
the unexpected but that’s a bit of a paradox I suppose. The material we’re
working on now is unique. Its melodic but less traditional compositionally.
We’ll see where we end up.
You had the chance to tour extensive with Porcupine Tree in 2007, and were a
part of the Progressive Nation Tour in the US in 2008 with Dream Theater and
Opeth. What kind of lesions and experiences have you taken with you from those
tours?
Joey Eppard of Three -
If
you pay attention each tour teaches you something. With Porcupine Tree we
learned that there really is a large multi-generational audience for melodic
progressive rock. As the opener on Progressive Nation 2008 we were often thrown
out there with very little room onstage and no sound check, so we learned to
embrace the challenge and make it work to our advantage. When you go out there
with two strikes against you, it some how takes the pressure off and your free
to get by on pure rock passion. Our tour with Scorpions taught us a lot about
how to enhance the music with visual cues and performance… I could go on
forever…
People have described you as intelligent progressive rock covering every nuance
between Porcupine Tree and Coheed and Cambria, but how would you describe your
sound and music if an alien aircraft dropped by one day?
Joey Eppard of Three - I think of us as
musical explorers. We love what we do and we love watching it evolve as we
cultivate new ideas and follow our inspiration. We do our own thing, each member
has his own personality and style.
Three – any special story behind your name?
Joey Eppard of Three – 3 is a sacred
number and I was obsessed with it as far back as I can remember. We live in a 3
dimensional physical space experiencing time as past, present and future. We
have a body, mind and soul and we live on the 3rd planet from the
sun. As humans we find ourselves as the balancing point between Luciferic and
Ahrimanic energies. We have toured in Rock, Funk and Folk genres and combine
these 3 elements into the music we make. I could go on…
Thank you very much for answering my questions. Do you have any last rants for
our readers?
Joey Eppard of Three - Yeah we just did an
interactive video shoot streaming live over the internet. There was a chat room
so the fans could watch and make suggestions in real time. We tried lots of
their ideas and the whole thing kind of took on a life of its own. We’re
currently editing now but if people want to see some of what went down as well
as random live broadcasts… go to: www.livestream.com/3live.
Interviwed by Kenn Jensen | 
