3's Company

May, 1999
Christine Reslmaier & Paul Biel
RockNews.com

3's Company

Marvelous 3 frontman  Butch Walker doesn't cater to the audiences who made grunge thrive in the early '90s or who support Marilyn Manson now. "I didn't grow up with all that teen angst, depression and outcast mentality. Millions of kids out there can relate to me when I say that," he tells RockNews.com. "There are people that live normal f**king lives." The power-pop trio's "Freak of the Week" ironically has been featured on the melodramatic Dawson's Creek, and is about people who don't exactly live normal lives. Walker says the tune is about celebrities obsessed with their images because they're "under a huge microscope." M3's own star is rising into critical and commercial view, but they've gradually adjusted to success. Walker, bassist Jayce Fincher and drummer Slug earned four Atlanta Local Music Awards in 1997 for their debut indie release Math & Other Problems. They released Hey! Album in 1998 on their own Marvelous Records before signing with Elektra and rerecording the songs for the major-label release.

Drafted into the Kiss Army

Butch Walker: "The writing influence is totally based on what I grew up on. I'm a radio kid -- Top 40 singles. We all have two older sisters, so we listened to their music a lot. We were totally sitting in our sisters' bedrooms while they were at cheerleading practice, listening to their records . . . My sisters had the Bee Gees, and then they had Kiss, Queen and Parliament.

My parents took me to see a rock concert when I was 8 years old. . . for a little band called Kiss. That changed my life forever . . . I had no idea of what I was singing [about] when I was singing about sex, but I loved it. All I know is that it made me jump and move around and sing along . . . It was ridiculous. It was over-the-top everything -- sex, blood, fire, loud music. It scared me so good, for like a week I didn't sleep. I started playing guitar the next day, learning as much as I could on my own."

Spotlight Sensitive

"I put on facial makeup, and I'm vain as hell. I want to look good on stage. I want people to look at me like I'm not down in the f**king crowd. I'm up there, you know. It doesn't mean I'm like that offstage. I'm a pretty normal guy, but I can't help but be influenced by the bands I grew up with. I don't have an ass-less pair of pants. There's a fine line there.

['Freak of the Week' is about] Madonna and Courtney Love and all these people [who] are probably very concerned about what the public thinks of them because they're under a huge microscope. Vanity has got to get to you, things like worrying about what your fans are going to say about your next record."

Shiny Happy People

It would do me good to lie, like, 'Yeah, I was on the streets.' I can't be Vanilla Ice -- that's not me. Unfortunately, I can't top any of the stories. They've all been done. I might as well tell the truth: I grew up. I had a B average. I graduated high school. My family was decent people.

I think critics will kill this record because it's commercially acceptable. It's got crossover appeal. It's not talking about my pain, 'cause I don't have any. I'm happy. I love my parents. I'm going to be sad if one of them passes away. I'm not going to be like, 'F**k them, they never did anything for me.' I'm happy, and so critics will hate that. . . because most of them are jaded and p**sed off at the world anyway.

Beautiful Freak Show

I really respect a lot of bands, but I don't endorse them. Like Marilyn Manson -- I could never relate to that message that is being delivered there. Eight-year-olds and 12-year-olds alike are reacting to him the way I reacted to Kiss when I was young. At least he's entertaining; he knows that's what he's doing. He's not writing  [Queen's] 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' He's not writing [Elvis Costello's] 'Alison.' He's up there f**king putting on a show, because that's what  he can do best. There's a reason why it sells out everywhere it goes.

The Marvelous Truth

We played in bands together since high school. It's never been just 'The 3." The name is pretty cocky, but it's meant to be totally playful.