Interview Shane Clark, Jamie Hooper  & Justin Hagberg 3 Inches of Blood

Lineup: Cam Pipes - Clean Vocals Jamie Hooper - Screams Shane Clark - Guitar Justin Hagberg - Guitar Brian Redman - Bass Alexei Rodriguez - Drums

World AbomiNation Tour Exodus Crisis 3 Inches of Blood Watch Them Die El Corazon (Seattle, WA) 10/31/05 Interviewer & Photos: Alexi Front

"In our case, with each new member we add, we only get stronger as a musical force." 

What more can be said about the band 3 Inches of Blood? They have released one full-length album, Advance and Vanquish, and have already gained a dedicated following not only in the United States, but in Europe. Six times around the United States and the band has become a heavy metal machine. Things have not always been easy for the band though. The band has gone through two drummers, two guitarists, and one bassist. Rarely in interviews do you hear from new members of bands discussing their perceptions of the band they recently entered, especially in a case as unique as 3 Inches of Blood.

Alexi Front:  How has your run been with 3 Inches of Blood so far?

Shane Clark: It has been great so far.  Speaking for myself and maybe even for Justin [Hagberg, guitars], my goal has always been to be in a working band.  I had no idea that 3 Inches of Blood would be a permanent gig.  I have been in three-piece bands where nobody gets along, but I have found a band where six guys get along.  The music is awesome, and everyone’s playing has never been better and with the addition of Alexei [Rodriguez, drums] we have never been tighter.

Live have you been able to throw your own spices into the songs?

Shane:  Absolutely!  My rhythm and style of playing is pretty different from Sunny [Dahk, former guitarist] and Bob [Frosse, former guitarist] and so is Justin’s.  I don’t play the same leads in the songs, I do my own leads.  I have taken that role in the band, so I think adding my own personal thing is good because I am not taking away from the old pieces, I am just adding my own style.  No one has come up to me and said that my leads sucked.

Justin Hagberg:  I would say the same thing for myself and I have learned a lot from Shane also.  We just work well together, we jam out these songs, and when we practice, I end up learning a lot, especially in the rhythm department.  I am putting my stuff in there also, but we are keeping true to the original recording and the 3 Inches of Blood sound. 

How as an outside would you identify the 3 Inches of Blood sound?

Justin:  Before I was in the band I was a huge fan actually.  I went to many of their shows and played with other bands that would open for 3 Inches of Blood.  As a fan, I knew they were a bunch of cool guys playing music that they really appreciate.  They are inspired by traditional heavy metal and they bring it into what they play.  I respected them a lot and liked them before I joined the band.  Now that I am in the band and I had to give away all my 3 Inches of Blood shirts [laughter]! 

Shane:  I am coming from a different angle than Justin because prior to joining the band I had heard the band a lot and obviously I had a lot of the same influences, but I had only seen them play live once with the original drummer,  I thought they where good, but I didn’t think the drummer was that good.  When my buddy Matt [Wood, former drummer] joined the band, I thought it was a serious improvement, because your band is usually as good as your drummer.  Not to knock the original drummer, I don’t even remember his name, but I had a jam spot right next to 3 Inches of Blood and I heard it and thought it was awesome.  Matt gave me the heads up for the guitarist spot and it ended up working well.  As far as music goes, I grew up on that stuff.  My first concert was Iron Maiden, and traditional heavy metal has been a  big part of my existence.

So you have felt no pressure to step into Sunny or Bob’s shoes?

Shane:  I had no pressure because I didn’t ever really see them live.  I didn’t know what role I was taking over so I stepped in and did my own thing.  The guys thought it was okay.  It is up to the original members if things are going to work out.  After the first tour we did, we all decided to keep it going.  Justin and I started drinking heavily after that [laughter]!

What backgrounds do you feel you are coming from and what influences are you bringing in that are different from the former guitarists?

Justin:  I actually was a bit inspired to play traditional heavy metal and thrash music after joining this band because we listen to this music and play it every day.  I am not saying I am going to rip off anything from Advance and Vanquish for the next record, but I am inspired, but I have been in other metal bands, and I am sure I will be bringing in some of my ideas from those projects as well.  We are all really well rounded musicians.  We have played in metal bands and rock bands and we are just going to continue what we like doing.  I am quite content with what I have done and a lot of what Shane has done has been great also.  We are looking forward to sitting down and writing some stuff.

Shane:  A lot of the influences are there from the original songwriters, but as far as differences, a lot of the rhythms are going to be more different.  We are coming from a different spot so the rhythms will be tighter.  As Justin said, we are not going to make Advance and Vanquish II, but it is going to be a 3 Inches of Blood album.  We have been on tour playing these songs for a year, so subconsciously we are going to be writing in the vain of what makes this band special before we were in the band.  With Jamie [Hopper] and Cam [Pipes] on vocals, it is gonna be a straight up 3 Inches of Blood record.  We are going to keep the ball rolling and continue progressing as a band, because it’s a new lineup and we will keep 3 Inches of Blood alive that way.

Have you been bouncing ideas for new songs off each other at all?

Shane:  Justin and I do that a lot.  We will sit down for two minutes and have a song.  But because we are on the road, the last thing we want to do is set up, start writing and then bouncing ideas.  For the most part we are looking for a shower and food while on the road.  When we get home it will be Justin and I predominantly getting some skeletons for songs together, working those out with Alexei, working out arrangements, demoing stuff for the singers, who will probably want to change stuff around.  Brian [Redman, bass] will obviously be there from start to finish also.  Six heads creating music is going to be a new experience.  With writings songs, maybe Justin and Alexei will be sitting there and they will come up with a song, or Brian and I will come up with something.

Justin:  We will all put our input in, but we have all been in bands where we have written songs.  Whether Shane comes up with a song or not, the whole band as a group will be working on the material, it will be a full team effort. 

Shane:  It all boils down to rock n’ roll.  There are no rules for writing a song or a strict regiment saying who must do what.

Justin:  We will write the stuff we want and the stuff we will want to play for years to come.

How have you two meshed as song writers?

Justin:  It worked out well from the beginning when we were learning the songs.  I met Shane for the first time in the jam space.  We played the few songs that we learned by ourselves and when it was getting down to business we put our heads together and focused on learning the songs.  Sure enough we are all great friends and we have a lot in common in the writing department.  Shane is a great writer and I wrote in metal bands in the past so I think we have the same frame of mine.

Shane:  We have both had the primary writing role in our previous bands.  Justin has written four or five albums on his own and I have done the same, so when you have two guys used to doing it, you can say the same old cliché that two heads are better than one.  It will be that much better, a lot of quality control, we will shape the sound together.

As an outsider and seeing so many different faces come in and out of the band…

Shane:  That’s a really good question because he was in the band since the very beginning.  It is basically a new band since the inception of the idea of getting together and doing a reunion show right?

Jamie Hopper [JH] Yeah, that’s right.

Shane:  So now that I have taken over the question [laughter], what has your interpretation of how the band has been going right now?

JH:  I am just so sorry it has turned into such a group of sons of bitches [laughter].  Just kidding.  I think it is working great, obviously the actual song writing process has yet to have taken shape, and that is where it is going to get really fun.  We have a sound as is, but we are going to have these new influences that are going to bring some nice new freshness to what we have going on already.  As long as Cam’s voice is in there, it is hard for it to not sound like 3 Inches of Blood.  As people leave a band and as fresh faces come in, with each time that happens, the band evolves for the better.

Shane:  If I look at some of my favorite bands, Napalm Death has no original members, Deep Purple…look at all the bands that have been around for a long time.  If you are around for that long, you have to make changes to ensure your survival as far as keeping tours going and keeping people in the band that are healthy.

Justin:  Another great example is actually Exodus. 

JH:  In our case, with each new member we add, we only get stronger as a musical force.  Every member is coming to the band fits the band.  It isn’t like we are sending out a classified add and we are getting a moron with too many zippers on his pants to come in and bust out some Deftones riffs.  These are people who are sort of in the band coming in to join the behemoth as it is.  With each change, it has only helped the band to get stronger, and will make what we do next and what we are starting to work on now that much better.

How do Shane and Justin mesh not just with personalities, but as players?

JH:  They have the skills to pay the bills so to speak [laughter].  It is hard to say because we have not spent a lot of time working on new material.  I know what their styles are like and I am stoked.

Shane:  If I can interject, I don’t like to compare musicians because it is an individualistic thing.  It is like comparing your regional dialect with that of an English person.  We are all communicating in our own way.  The previous guys in the band were great players, some things didn’t work out and here we are.  We are all brothers in metal.

When this tour ends what is going to happen?

Shane:  After this tour ends we are going to Europe for three weeks and then after that, touring for this record is done.  It will be a year and month touring on this record.  It is a matter of getting to the writing process and getting started again.

Shane:  I think that me and Liz Phair would be a great marriage.  She and I would really mesh on a personal level.  She and I have not met, but as soon as she met me, she will be instantly impregnated by my mojo [laughter].  We have thrown ideas around, Neil Kernon who did Advance and Vanquish would be nice because Jamie and Cam have worked with him before.  There are so many great producers and engineers where we would have to wait till the songs are written to talk about it.  We don’t know what direction it will take, so we can’t decide now.

JH:  One thing that is important for the next record, and we got this a lot after the first album, a lot of people complained that it sounded good, but did nothing to represent the live performance of the band.  People complained that it was too clean and too crisp.  We need to get the grittiness and energy that people complained was not on the first album onto this next one. A lot of people who heard the album first then saw us live were not expecting what they got live.  People who saw us live first thought it didn’t translate either.  I think that is something we need to take into account also.

A lot of people are talking about guys like Andy Sneap and of course Neil Kernon.  But there are also bands who can get a good recording from someone who is close to the band, like Black Dahlia Murder’s Miasma. 

Shane:  That is the thing with technology now.  You can get some kid that is sixteen, but a genius on his Protools rig at home and has a room where you can record; you will get a totally different vibe as opposed to multi-tracking with the best gear in town.  It is a vibe.  Who understands what you are doing and who is willing to do the record with you is who you want.  Lots of people can make it sound great, they may not understand what you are doing, and it may end up sounding stale as a result because they are going for something that is sonically good.  As far as understanding the band and the vibes of the band, you need a seventh member of the band to do the recording.

He needs to be family to an extent because family knows you best.

JH:  Also when you are playing the same songs over and over again you get desensitized by what is going on and it takes another person to listen to it and say something is too long or a part is way out of left field.  It is good to have a fresh set of ears to get rid of the junk.     

Are you going to re-release Battlecry Under The Winter Sun?

JH:  Definitely!  We have tried a few times and it seems to get sabotaged somehow.  We are working on getting out to Canada and the US.  It almost happened a few months ago but it didn’t happen.  It will happen sometime though.  We are also trying to get both albums out on vinyl.

Has there been a thought to re-record the Battlecries Under The Winter Sun songs?

Shane:  I think that would be a step in the totally wrong direction.  That was then, we are very much living now and working towards the future.  That is for bands like Anthrax who have fans that want to hear the new singer do the old songs.  We are gonna live in the now and look into the future.

JH:  At one point we did re-record some of the old demo songs.  We did a 5 song EP thing as Cam was starting to come into the band.  Those came out as B-sides on 7’s.  It was nice to put a better quality sound and just spice up old songs.  But not for a whole album and not just that one.

Shane:  Some of those songs are great, but logistically it would the wrong thing.

JH:  We are also itching to write new songs.

Is there any pressure from Roadrunner for the new record?  

JH:  It is the right time, it is just a matter of having the time.  We never have more than a week off.  By the time we have taken a few days off, it is time to leave for another tour.  I am sure that Roadrunner is itching to hear some new stuff.

Justin:  Shane and I have been talking about it since we joined the band.  It really is time for this to happen.

JH:  To be fair to the new members, we don’t want to have them learn a whole album worth of material, especially since they didn’t write any of it.  It is time for some fresh stuff.

Shane:  We have toured the US six times.  We have added some new songs to the set, but for all the people who have seen us in Denver, they have essentially seen the same set each time.  When all is said and done, the fans, us and the label want to hear some new stuff.    

Alexi Front (alexi@pivotalrage.com)

We'd like to thank Alexi for submitting this interview, to 3 Inches of Blood for adding to their legacy with FourteenG, and to Roadrunner Records.

Click here for another interview with the band