Music Zone - The Marvelous 3

November 13, 2000
Molly Franken
@ N-Zone

Picture a tour bus. You walk onto that bus. At first it seems normal enough. However, upon closer inspection you realize this bus has personality, three strong personalities to be exact. Look to the right and you will see MTV2 playing on the television. It, ironically enough, is muted underneath the music of Macy Gray blaring from the stereo. A laptop sits idle on the table. The fridge is stocked with liquor; a liking of vodka and Red Bull is apparent. Make-up and throat sprays litter the dimly lit bathroom. In the back of the bus hangs a torn and tattered American flag tank top alongside a pair of purple tie-dyed pants. Welcome to the home of the previously mentioned strong personalities: Butch, Jayce, and Slug, also known as The Marvelous 3.

The Marvelous 3 come straight out of Atlanta, GA with Butch Walker on lead vocals, Jayce Fincher on bass, and Mitch "Slug" McLee on drums. These three guys have been together for as long as they can remember. They have been playing together since they were kids, but it was in 1997 that they released an independent record named "Math and Other Problems." Winning over the likes of their hometown, Atlanta named The Marvelous 3 the Hardest Working Band and Favorite Rock Band in 1998. With such a great following and a drive for success these three talented musicians released a second album, "Hey!," on Butch’s own record label. Shortly thereafter, the band was picked up by Elektra Records. In 1999, Elektra Records released Marvelous 3’s first major record label debut, a slightly different version of their original "Hey!" This album contained their hit, "Freak of the Week," a contagious rock anthem that was a Top 5 single. Most recently, the guys have dropped their biggest and most admirable album to date. ReadySexGo is true Rock and Roll. It boasts such names as Jerry Finn (Blink 182 and Green Day), Roger Manning (Jellyfish and Beck), Lit’s Jeremy Popov, and Buckcherry’s Yogi. In an industry that has been losing itself in commercialization, this CD and—more importantly, this band—are a breath of fresh air. It’s first single, "SugarBuzz," hit radio waves with a great response. They are true rock n’ rollers with the attitude to boot. Marvelous 3 is who they are, and that is okay with them. They live up to their own standards, bow down to noone, and play the music for exactly that…the music. To sum it all up, they bring life to rock and bring rock to life.

I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with lead vocalist Butch Walker and ask him some questions. I also was lucky enough to hang with the guys all that night, watch an amazing live rock show and, no pun intended, party like a rock star. Check out the interview and see what Butch has to say about Britney Spears, his first concert, the naming of the band, his Macy Gray record, and lots more.

Franken: How did you guys meet, form, everything? I know you are all from Atlanta.

Walker: Well, we started out as children playing together. We were in a small suburban town outside of Atlanta that was, like, a hick town. We were, like, 15-16 years old when we all met and we were the only ones that expressed interest in, you know, camping out for Motley Crue tickets and, you know, getting wasted and cutting class, driving muscle cars. Stuff like that. Everybody else was deer hunters or football players. I guess kind of by default we ended up together and for some strange reason we’re still together. We’ve been touring for, you know, over a decade together now in different bands and stuff.

Franken: So, did you all finish school?

Walker: Yeah, we all managed to finish somehow.

Franken: Where did your name, Marvelous 3, come from?

Walker: That is actually a pretty funny story. I didn’t know what to call the band. I was trying to find a name for it. The album was actually done and I didn’t know what I was going to call it [the band]. Originally, it was gonna be a solo project for me. The guys wanted to be involved because we didn’t want to end our playing relationship. Um, they ended up playing on the record and the record was done: the first independent record, "Math and Other Problems," but we had no band name. I was out at a bar one night with a friend of mine named Ian getting hammered. He’s British and he’s in a band in Atlanta as well. We were sitting there and I was to the point of exhaustion trying to think of a name. I was looking at everything. I would look around the bar and be like, um, television, um, curtains. What can I call the band? I don’t want to call it these boring…you know, everybody at the time was wanting to have their name to be one word, one syllable, deep, poetic meaning names and I was like that’s so tired. We are such an old school, flashy, cheesy rock band that the name had to be as well. He [Ian] was listening to the stuff and he said, (switching to British accent) "Why don’t you call it the Marvelous 3?" He said the word marvelous. He was describing what it sounded like when he heard the music. I just thought that is sounded so awesome the way he said it with his British accent that I was like, "That is brilliant!" I was sitting there just like hugging him and kissing all over him and like thanking him. I wrote it down on a napkin all messy with a magic marker so I wouldn’t forget and I woke up with the name, with it crumpled up, by my bed, in my clothes. I woke up passed out in my clothes with the name by my bed and I was like there it is, the Marvelous 3. I still have the napkin.

Franken: Have you always known you have wanted to do something with music?

Walker: Yeah. My parents made the great mistake of taking me to see Kiss back when I was 8 years old. It blew my mind. There was nothing like that, nothing could top that…the circus, nothing could top that like after seeing that. It was just, like, fire and blood and sweat and smoke. It was crazy. An 8 year-old to digest that as your very first concert is just unreal. I saw just twenty thousand stoners going nuts for them, blowing up guitars and everything else. I was like, okay, this is me. I think I was like scared to death but at the same time had this big smile on my face. I was like, oh my god, I have to do this.

Franken: What is your ultimate goal? When do you feel like you can honestly say, "I have been successful"?

Walker: I don’t think I’ll ever really be satisfied and that is just my Scorpio mentality. That is just the nature of me. As a workaholic I don’t ever want to be satisfied. I have accomplished more than I ever thought I would by having a top 5 hit last year and being, you know, put where we were on our little trip last year down success lane and getting to play on all these little, uh, little…I guess it’s little superficial things like being on Leno, Letterman, and Conan. You grow up watching this shit and then all of a sudden you get to play on it. It was just little things like that happened, all these series of events last year that just made up this one thing that would make most people think, "Oh success!" I am never going to be satisfied though. I always want to sell more records and have more fans and do more, play in bigger rooms and be on the radio and have more songs. I think that will never change. I’m really just too young to call it a day and say, "Success hit. Okay, I am done" but at least I can squeeze through that little rat hole that millions of bands try to squeeze through and artists alike so I feel pretty good about that. I think I’m succeeding on a daily basis.

Franken: What is the most satisfying thing doing what you are doing?

Walker: Not having anybody telling me how to do it and me telling everybody how to do it. Being able to say this is what I want to do and this is how I want to do it. Not really having a boss. It’s pretty awesome.

Franken: What is your reaction to the whole pop scene right now?

Walker: Pop is a nasty word. To me, pop was when it was cool and underground and hip to be part of this thing that the Beatles cultivated which was pop, which was cool, inventive, and had integrity. Now it has none. It’s all about tits and ass and good haircuts and…hey, I’m all about the three of those things every once and awhile but music needs to come first. Like pop was Elvis Costello and Cheap Trick and Beatles. Things like that. That’s why it is hard for me to digest that word when people call us pop. I don’t think we represent what is currently known as pop today. Pop is a big façade now of just four or five kids with two-by-fours behind them holding up this fake Hollywood emblem and, to me, it’s just more about being real and playing music that has melody and lyric and content and stories and emotions. So I guess we are more of a rock band. And hopefully rock will never change.

Franken: How is the tour going so far?

Walker: It’s great. It is awesome. The first band Tsar and SR71 and then us is the perfect antidote. It is the perfect antidote to come out and catch like a completely trend free rock show. There is no, you know, rap music, or rap metal or DJ’s spinning on stage or any of that shit that’s so trendy right now that five years from now we are going to be laughing at it just like we laugh at Bon Jovi and just how we are about to laugh at Pearl Jam; all these cyclical things. You are going to come out and see us and you are going to get nothing but rock. It’s melodies. It’s hooks. It’s entertainment. It’s smoke. It’s lights. It’s fun. It’s a good tour package. All three of those bands share that same mentality; great hooks, great songs you can sing along to, jump up and down, hit each other in the face, whatever you want to do to it. So, it feels good. We are not exactly doing what is trendy or hip at the moment but it feels good going against the grain. I’ve always liked going against the grain and that’s the little semi, you know, punker in me wanting to do what’s not trendy at the moment. If it can get on the radio or MTV, cool whatever, more power to it.

Franken: Who decided on your tour name, Too Much Rock for One Band Tour?

Walker: Oh I came up with it. I call it the Too Much Rock for One Band Tour because if you have ever been to a Marvelous 3 concert…I have this thing with our fans where I do the Too Much Rock for One Hand sign at the crowd all the time and that has kind of become my little thing that our fans…it is like a cult thing that when you come to our show you will see the audience doing this at us all the time (makes two fists and puts them together with both pinky fingers in the air)…or they will do it like that. I figured since there was more than one band to spread the gospel of rock on this tour we had to call it the Too Much Rock for One Band Tour. It’s just funny; at least to us it is anyway.

Franken: You guys have a new album out and I am sure you are all excited about it. How was it collaborating with so many talented artists? I know you worked with so many talented artists on it.

Walker: It was awesome. You know, every record has always been like work and on a shoestring budget. And, "Oh I have two weeks to do a record." It’s always been a frantic rush and there is something great about the way those records come out when they are like that but there is also something great about having the luxury of having fun when making a record. And I don’t think there was much…there wasn’t as much a sense of humor or sense of party on [the] "Hey!" as there is ReadySexGo and I wanted that because our show has always been one big party. Every band that has ever met us on the road, that has played with us last year fell in love with the band because, not only because they like the band’s song, but they also liked our attitudes. We don’t take life seriously and we wanted to take that to the record. So for once we had the ability to loosen up and bring in all kinds of people and make it one big communal vibe and it was fun.

Franken: Is there anyone you still want to collaborate with? I am sure there are so many people out there right now.

Walker: Oh god the list is so long.

Franken: Okay, give me your top three.

Walker: Well, I always thought it would be a trip to write with Prince because I just admire him so much and I love him. Um, it would be great…it’s cheesy to say but I would love to write a song with Billy Joel. And then after that it would probably have to be somebody just completely weird like maybe Britney Spears because then at least I would know that it would sell millions of records regardless of how shitty the song. And maybe it would be the best thing she ever did.

Franken: Give me three words that describe your album. And I don’t want the title!

Walker: ReadySexGo! (Half French accent-half growl) Um, cigarette lighter rock.

Franken: Okay, now explain why.

Walker: Because when we were growing up and going to concerts, the magic that we wanted to bring back on this record, that we missed about seeing concerts back in the day. Concerts just don’t have that same magic anymore was when the lights would go out and every cigarette lighter in the house would go up and it was lit up all over the place. The bands would just be tearing it up and the crowd would be one with the band. It was just so magic[al] back in the day going to see all these bands at concerts like that in these big arenas. Now it is so different. It is like there is a different form of that. You can go see Limp Bizkit in an arena but you’re gonna see five thousand kids sitting there beating the shit out of each other. That is not connecting with the band. That’s there to…that’s like going to a playground with the band as the background music. [They’re] Not connecting to that.

Franken: What are you favorite songs on the new album?

Walker: Radio Tokyo, Grant Park, Cigarette Lighter Love Song, and…I like ‘em all.

Franken: What makes you so incredibly proud of this album?

Walker: I guess because it doesn’t sound like everything else out right now and I feel good about the fact that we can stand out in the crowd a little bit, even if it pisses people off, even if the critics hate it. I didn’t make this record for critics. I made it for people that wanted an escape from what is redundant and played out on the radio right now. If radio wants to get behind it and embrace it that just means they’re looking for the future. They’re looking six months ahead instead of six months behind. We didn’t re-invent the wheel we’re just bringing back good time rock and roll that we feel is missing. And I think I am most proud of that because I stuck to my guns on this record. I didn’t conform at all to make the boss at Elektra happy or anybody else. I did a record that I wanted to do instead of them saying, "Well, you need to make sure you got some DJ’s in there and some loops and some rappin’ and stuff because that’s what selling right now." [I want to] Be like, "Fuck you!"

Franken: Do you have to constantly fight that?...Battle against everyone.

Walker: Sure you do. Yeah. It’s like, "That is not me." If you want me to sell out, I am not going to do that, you know.

Franken: Have you decided if you are going to shoot a video for SugarBuzz?

Walker: I don’t know if we want to. The idea of wasting half a million dollars on a video and MTV looking at it and saying, "We might play it, we might not," ‘cause that is their attitude. I would rather wait and see if it is going to be a sure fire top five single, so we will wait and see if it goes up.

Franken: Along those same lines, I know you guys just taped an episode of Charmed. How was that?

Walker: Yeah we did. That was pretty fun, pretty interesting. You know, a very non-rock and roll environment for such a rock band, but it was fun.

Franken: Did you get to meet all the girls?

Walker: Yeah, they’re sweet.

Franken: Okay, so…Alyssa? Shannon? Or Holly?

Walker: I know everybody would say Alyssa but she really is a sweetheart. She’s great. She was so nice. Plus, she was married to a rock star at one time so, you know, I have to give her props for understanding our fucked up breed. 

Franken: You co-wrote SR71’s hit, Right Now. How does that make you feel, knowing that it is so huge right now and you had a large part in that?

Walker: It’s great! Who would have known, you know? You just do something and pull something out of your ass and it sticks. That sounds gross. You know, we got together and it was like let’s write an up tempo tune and something made, designed for modern rock radio and we did. Sure enough everybody went nuts over it and they bought it. We were like, "Cool!" It’s cool that we can go in to do something, with our minds set on doing something and it worked. He’s a very talented guy who’s worked just as many years as I have to get to where he is so he deserves it. I think it was a karmic thing. I think the two of us together, since we are so similar in a lot of ways and our history is so similar and we have been beatin’ down the dusty road for a long time, that he was deserving of something as well. I think us working together might have been just a way to seal that karmic fate.

Franken: What is in your CD player right now?

Walker: I’m listening to the new Incubus record, the new Foo Fighters record. I love my Macy Gray record. I still listen to it all the time. Um, a lot of old Van Halen records just for fun. The new Sloan, you know, for my indie cred. Well, that’s a good start.

Franken: Promote your live show. I hear you guys are amazing in concert. Promote your live show and your tour for everyone that hasn’t checked it out yet.

Walker: Oh that’s cool. Okay, well, we are just a lot of fun. If you want to come out to a show that’s gonna be sweaty and you are going to be hoarse from screaming and singing, because I am gonna make you sing regardless if you want to or not. You are going to leave feeling like you left your cool at the door, that is for sure, but that’s cool. And we have fun doing that. I think we are one of the few bands that don’t take it very seriously. We get up on stage, cut up and tell jokes and raise hell and go off on a tangent and play, you know, a cover of whatever we feel like playing at the moment until we train wreck it and then go into one of our songs. There’s just no rules but at the same time you are going to get a big rock show. And, obviously, until we can afford Limp Bizkit’s budget, you know, we’ll outdo them one day with the confetti cannons and the pyro but until then, you know, it definitely has every emotion you can think of.

Franken: How important do you think it is to relate to your fans? I mean, when you go out on stage are you doing it for you or do you feel like you really need to connect with them?

Walker: You do have to connect with them. If you’re there to play for an audience then you better connect with them. Otherwise, don’t complain if you want to play coffee houses in front of two people the rest of your life just to hear your voice.

Franken: How does your family feel about you guys being on the road and just everything? Your success?

Walker: Oh, they love it. I mean you gotta figure they’ve been seeing us do this since we were kids. We’ve been touring for the last 7-8 years, anyway, straight…. before anybody knew us. We would play under different band names but we were the same guys. We’ve been playing around on the road for years so our parents are very supportive. My dad sells merch[andise] at the shows sometimes.

Franken: Most amazing place you have been to so far.

Walker: Australia.

Franken: Where in Australia?

Walker: Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Just great people. Great people. Beautiful, beautiful place, but great people.