3 Doors Down
A few hours before their first UK show in three years, Female First chatted to 3 Doors Down guitarist Chris Henderson. He chatted about the state of the music industry, the new album and life on the road.
-Are you excited to be back for these shows?
Yeah, it's been a while. We haven't been here in three years, since '08.
-What was the reason for such a long gap?
Well, we didn't have a record! It kinda works out that way that if the record does well, no matter how many copies it sells, there will be a successful tour behind it.
We had to do the States twice, Canada three times I think. It takes that long to get back around. Then, the recording process takes a f****** long time.
Then there's 6, 7 weeks of that, then 3 months of press, then you've got to release the singles for a few months. It takes a f****** long time!
-Do you prefer touring to being locked up away in the studio?
Yeah. As far as being an artist in the studio, I prefer touring. Recording is hard work, man! The way that the world's changing, people are abandoning each other and you never know what's going to happen.
Everybody's scared to death. People are losing their jobs. You've got to work so hard, and once you do all that...you put your heart and soul into the music and the product comes out, who knows what's going to happen?
Kids are downloading and stealing, it's just tough out there. I prefer the road because we know what's happening when we get out there. We've made that connection, and then hope for the best for the rest of it.
-You just mentioned illegal downloading. Is that a big problem for this band?
Yeah, absolutely. It's an issue for not only this band, but also every person in the music industry. Not only that, but the record label used to finance the promotion industry, which used to finance radio and all these things.
Now, the labels don't have that money, so promotions don't have any money. Record stores are going out of business, studios are going out of business and bands are going out of business.
I think the big bands like ourselves with survive it, but little bands that are travelling in their vans won't survive it. There's going to be a lot of good bands that we're going to miss.
That really sucks, and it's no-one's fault, but that's the way it is. It's a shame.
-Does it put a greater emphasis on touring?
That's all you can do. Touring is where it's at, we love it and that's why we keep coming back here. This is our sixth trip to England, and that's a lot from a band that doesn't have the kind of success we have in the States.
The UK fans, the ones that do come and see us play, are the best crowds in the world.
They have been in the past, so I won't say too much more because I don't want to jinx tonight. I want tonight to be great, but the last time we played this building it was f****** off the chain!
-The album's coming out next month, but you've been sat on it for a while. Are you glad it's managed to stay hidden and avoid being leaked? Are you excited for it getting out?
Yeah, I'm excited, this is a good record, man. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen but I do know that we did put our heart and soul into this in the studio. We tried as hard as we could possibly could, we wrote great songs.
-How was it working with Howard Benson on this album?
Howard's approach to making a record is different to any other producer we've ever worked with. Other producers will come in and sit down and say "Here's your song, here's this and that. Let's do this".
Then we go into the studio and record it, and they do all the guitars, all the editing and they're there for the whole process. Howard kinda comes in, arranges it, then goes away.
-And just lets you do it?
Well, no. He has another guy, who's a producer in his own right who records everything else. Then Howard starts working on the behind-the-scenes approach.
There's a lot to being a producer that people don't really get. At first I was like, where's this guy at? Then I realised how much he's actually doing for the band by not being in the room.
It was an amazing experience, but I had never seen it done like that.
-How do you think Time of My Life compares to your earlier material, stylistically?
Stylistically, it's the same. We always try to throw something out there, just to see if we can get away with it. If there's a concept record in this band's future, people will have seen it coming because there's always a song on a record that doesn't quite fit.
The one that's on this record is called 'Believer'. It's a really cool song. I wrote the guitar riff just sitting in my studio at home. I put the riffs down on a CD and sent it to Brad just to see what he'd think about it.
He's either gonna like it or he's not. I sent it to him the first time, and he said "What do you want me to do with this?" So, I took the CD, because I believed in it, and took the song back to his house and let the CD sit on his desk.
He didn't listen to it, so I put it in his iTunes. After about 6 months, we played it and it got into his head. He wrote lyrics to it and it became a song on the record. That probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't push for it.
-Do you write much on tour, or is it more of a cycle?
Yeah. If you write on the road, it all tends to be about being on the road, so we really just needed to not do that this time. We typically take some time off, clear our heads, then get together and write.
-Are you planning to come back to the UK once the album's released?
February, it'll be a proper tour. This tour here, the record was supposed to be out by now.
-Yeah, I read that it was meant to be out in February?
Foo Fighters album was out. Can't hang with them! That wasn't the only reason, but we pushed the record back to July 17th. You've got to give those guys respect!
-Absolutely. Are they an influence on you as a band, or just someone you admire?
I admire the fact that Dave Grohl is able to go from Nirvana, because that was something.
To recover from that devastation, to come back and do another band, to become probably as popular, in some places in the world, as Nirvana was, as a front-man and guitar player, singing rock 'n roll songs.
That's f****** impressive! I'd like to shake his hand.
-Do you have any festival dates planned either here or in the States over summer?
We just did the festival run in Europe. We've never done a festival in the UK. I don't know why, but we never have. We'd like to finally do one.
-How have you found fan-reaction to the recent singles?
They dig it. 'When You're Young' sounds a lot like "Here Without You', the opening riff. We kinda did it on purpose. That song was written with us by another guy, by a songwriter.
He was asked to come to the table with some ideas. He came to the table with a song based off all our other songs. So, it does sound like another 3 Doors Down song, but f*** it.
Once you get passed that it's a different song. I think when people first hear it live, they think it's 'Here Without You'. Then they realise it's another song, and they don't know that song yet. We're dealing with that, but we'll keep playing it.
-Was that the first time you've had someone from outside coming in? How was it working with someone else?
It was cool, man. We were looking for fresh ideas, instead of the same things we were doing.
You get to see how other songwriters work, and we got some good songs out of it. We've written 60, 70 songs as a band, and we're tired!
-Was that something the band decided, or was it a push from the label?
No, it more of a push from the manager. At first we were like, no way, f*** that, we're doing it ourselves!
Then he said...well, what's it going to hurt to try? Then we wrote that first song 'When You're Young', and it's such a good song.
-Some bands don't get a lot of control from the label in terms of singles. Do you get forced into any decisions?
No. I'm not going to say that hasn't happened, in the past, but our label has been really good about being democratic.
They let everyone have the say, and make the decisions based on every opinion. They might say 'Well, we don't agree', but they'll never tell us no.
-Moving to the live show, which obviously includes songs like 'Here Without You' and 'Kryptonite'. Does playing the hits ever get tiring?
No, man, because the crowd makes it new every time. You'll see people crying, people enjoying it.
There's always something different for us to see when we're playing them. I never get tired of them.
-What are the band's plans for the rest of the year?
The record comes out July 19th, we start touring in September. We're trying to go with Seether, in the States and over here too.
-What final message would you leave to fans reading this?
Number one, thank you for continuing to come back and see us, because they don't have to. They could go somewhere else, there are plenty of other bands to go and see.
Thank you for that, and thanks for listening to our music. I hope you enjoy the new record
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
A few hours before their first UK show in three years, Female First chatted to 3 Doors Down guitarist Chris Henderson. He chatted about the state of the music industry, the new album and life on the road.
-Are you excited to be back for these shows?
Yeah, it's been a while. We haven't been here in three years, since '08.
-What was the reason for such a long gap?
Well, we didn't have a record! It kinda works out that way that if the record does well, no matter how many copies it sells, there will be a successful tour behind it.
We had to do the States twice, Canada three times I think. It takes that long to get back around. Then, the recording process takes a f****** long time.
Then there's 6, 7 weeks of that, then 3 months of press, then you've got to release the singles for a few months. It takes a f****** long time!
-Do you prefer touring to being locked up away in the studio?
Yeah. As far as being an artist in the studio, I prefer touring. Recording is hard work, man! The way that the world's changing, people are abandoning each other and you never know what's going to happen.
Everybody's scared to death. People are losing their jobs. You've got to work so hard, and once you do all that...you put your heart and soul into the music and the product comes out, who knows what's going to happen?
Kids are downloading and stealing, it's just tough out there. I prefer the road because we know what's happening when we get out there. We've made that connection, and then hope for the best for the rest of it.
-You just mentioned illegal downloading. Is that a big problem for this band?
Yeah, absolutely. It's an issue for not only this band, but also every person in the music industry. Not only that, but the record label used to finance the promotion industry, which used to finance radio and all these things.
Now, the labels don't have that money, so promotions don't have any money. Record stores are going out of business, studios are going out of business and bands are going out of business.
I think the big bands like ourselves with survive it, but little bands that are travelling in their vans won't survive it. There's going to be a lot of good bands that we're going to miss.
That really sucks, and it's no-one's fault, but that's the way it is. It's a shame.
-Does it put a greater emphasis on touring?
That's all you can do. Touring is where it's at, we love it and that's why we keep coming back here. This is our sixth trip to England, and that's a lot from a band that doesn't have the kind of success we have in the States.
The UK fans, the ones that do come and see us play, are the best crowds in the world.
They have been in the past, so I won't say too much more because I don't want to jinx tonight. I want tonight to be great, but the last time we played this building it was f****** off the chain!
-The album's coming out next month, but you've been sat on it for a while. Are you glad it's managed to stay hidden and avoid being leaked? Are you excited for it getting out?
Yeah, I'm excited, this is a good record, man. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen but I do know that we did put our heart and soul into this in the studio. We tried as hard as we could possibly could, we wrote great songs.
-How was it working with Howard Benson on this album?
Howard's approach to making a record is different to any other producer we've ever worked with. Other producers will come in and sit down and say "Here's your song, here's this and that. Let's do this".
Then we go into the studio and record it, and they do all the guitars, all the editing and they're there for the whole process. Howard kinda comes in, arranges it, then goes away.
-And just lets you do it?
Well, no. He has another guy, who's a producer in his own right who records everything else. Then Howard starts working on the behind-the-scenes approach.
There's a lot to being a producer that people don't really get. At first I was like, where's this guy at? Then I realised how much he's actually doing for the band by not being in the room.
It was an amazing experience, but I had never seen it done like that.
-How do you think Time of My Life compares to your earlier material, stylistically?