Colorado-based duo, 3OH!3 are back with their new album, ‘Omens’, released on 17th June. We cached up with band member, Nathaniel Motte to discuss the album in more detail.
What is the overall all theme of the album?
We kind of find the theme of our records as we make them, I guess. We don’t really have to sit down with everyone and say we’re going to make a whole record about this. We’re always interested in having a lot of variety in our records and experimenting with form and sound within a record. In some songs we’re darker and in some songs we’re happier. We entitled this record ‘Omens’ so I think there’s a dark and mysterious thing around that name and hopefully there’s an overall sense of that on the whole record.
What songs are you excited for people to hear?
I’m excited for people to hear a lot of songs. We have a song called ‘Back to Life’ right now which is a bit more musically involved then the rest of the stuff and a bit slower than what you might hear on the radio but we wanted to get away from the dance stuff on this record so I hope people dig it!
How is it different to past albums?
When we were making this album we wanted to take us back and make it in a way that was targeting back to some of the stuff on our first record. I think in terms of actual songs, some songs go back to our harder rap style so I think people who liked our old stuff will dig on that. And then I think in the same way there are songs that are a bit more of an extensive to our old stuff and maturity levels.
What musicians have influenced the sound of your album?
It’s funny; I think our music has been a cross of a bunch of different stuff. It’s hard to trace a specific influence for the album. We started with a lot of major rap stuff for the album and making rap fun again was a big thing. We like electronic stuff and old school, stuff like that. Sean and I spent a lot of time off the road and actually working on other products and producing and writing stuff. I think when it came down to sitting down and doing our own record we kind of just let loose and tried to experiment. The main thing we tried to do was to just have fun and hopefully people will have fun listening to our music
How did you come up with the album title, ‘Omens’?
As we were putting songs together, Sean mentioned that and it kind of just made sense to because each one of these songs can be taken as an omen, I think. And they’re all a bit different. The name suggests something interesting and dark.
What made you decide to release ‘Back To Life’ as your first single from the album?
I think it was the most inclusive song on the record. It’s a song that isn’t pure dance music. We wanted to do something a little different and hopefully open a few new doors for us.
What is the song ‘Back To Life’ about?
The song on the surface is about having fun but on another level it’s about capturing feelings and keeping that feeling and just having fun. It’s about keeping a good attitude.
As well as working on the album throughout the year, what else has the band been up to?
We’ve been working on a whole bunch of products which is one of the reasons why we took a bit longer bringing out this album because we took time off the road to do stuff. I’ve actually ended up having a song on the Maroon 5’s record, which is their current single called ‘Love Somebody’. We’ve been working hard and it was cool to work with them. We’ve all been interested in working on different products and different musical bands.
How has the band changed since the release of ‘Streets of Gold’?
We’ve grown a little bit more chest hair, a couple more grey hairs on the head, we’ve bought everyone new teeth so we have gleaming new white teeth (laughs) I think we’ve learnt a lot musically and working on these new songs and writing for other artists, I think if anything it’s really homed in on our job. And then on the road, we’re evolving our live shows as they’re really important to us and go hand in hand with our work. We’re always trying to make what we do more expansive and more fun and bigger.
Does the band have any plans to tour the UK soon?
We’re actually working on touring Britain right now. We’re just focusing on putting this record out in June. We were actually over there in the fall, in November and hopefully we’ll be back.
What are your future plans for the band?
We’re at the Warped Tour which is where we started touring in 2008, I guess. We have plans to go to South America in July which will be fantastic and I think right now we’re praying for a big world ‘Omen’ tour in the fall.
By Claire Lancaster
Tagged in 3OH!3