After a ending 2014 on a successful high which featured 35 dates in support of In This Moment’s Black Widow Tour, 3 Pill Morning has been focusing on their forthcoming record which is due to hit shelves in early to mid 2016. The band took time away from the studio to play in several summer festivals, most notably the Loudwire Music Festival in Grand Junction, Colorado. 3 Pill Morning, once again, had the itch to tour recently and put together a little October Midwestern run to support their newly released single “Bottom of the Barrel”. Friday night’s stop brought 3 Pill Morning to The Music Factory in Battle Creek, Michigan where the Minneapolis based four piece, consisting of Jeff Stebbins (vocals), Ryan “Riplee” Lee (bass), Jon Stephenson (guitar) and Trent Laugerman (drums), invited me onto their tour bus to discuss their new record, new single and their Pledge Music campaign.
Side Stage Magazine: Your new single, “Bottom of the Barrel” is now out. It seems heavier than previous 3 Pill Morning songs. Was that by design?
Jeff Stebbins: I would say absolutely. When we started writing this album we were definitely in a more gritty place than in the past. We were definitely more angry when we wrote a lot of the stuff that’s on this new album.
Jon Stephenson: To add to that, aside from the writing aspect, the lyrical meaning…just writing a song that’s bouncy and live and energetic. It’s always fun for us to play live too and that’s an added plus to the newer and heavier songs.
Ryan Lee: It’s heavier by design but we really don’t give a fuck how heavy or light these songs come out. We just want the emotion and the general story behind the song to dictate the end result.
Trent Laugerman: The drums are more challenging and I love it.
You launched a Pledge Music campaign to support the making of the upcoming album. How is that campaign going and talk a little bit about the specifics behind the campaign.
Jeff: It’s going good with a really good early response. We want people to get a chance to really get behind the scenes of what it’s like to make an album. We always host these awesome after show parties when we are on tour and that’s fun but we felt like we were missing out on a big opportunity to share the creation process with people. We have more time on the campaign and we are looking forward to doing more crazy stuff with it.
Ryan: Right now I think it’s going slow and steady. I’m excited to see where it goes in the next month.
When does the campaign end?
Jeff: Right now it’s set to end at the end of November.
I understand that the target date for the release of the new record is sometime in mid-2016. Are you still on track?
Jeff: Yes. Right now we are. We don’t have a specific date yet.
Ryan: Early 2016. If I had my way it would be earlier.
How many songs do you have completely finished and ready to go?
Jeff: We probably have eleven songs done with 15-20 written. We are in the “this sucks / this is cool” phase right now. You start hating things that you loved a little bit ago. You start beating each other up and all the stuff that goes along with writing a song.
Jon: A few donkey punches have been thrown. Black eyes and all.
Shifting gears to the band itself. You added Jon just about a year ago as a fill-in for your tour supporting In This Moment. How difficult or challenging is it for creativity having 3/4 of the band living in Minnesota while Jon lives in Arizona?
Jeff: It’s actually gone surprisingly well and Jon can add to this too. I think the good part is that, unlike other albums where maybe we jammed some things out, we have had the opportunity to create stuff in different areas and when we do get together it’s very focused. There’s enough creative energy that when we sit down and work on a song shit starts to happen in a really cool way that we don’t even expect. It happens super fast so it’s been really an exciting writing process from that perspective.
Ryan: It’s not ideal but we’ve made it work. Thanks to the Internet it’s very easy for us to exchange ideas on songs and stay in constant contact.
Jon: As far as technology goes now there is really no obstacle stopping a band from putting a song together. You can record a song on an iPhone and send it away. Our producer, Ian (Combs), is great at laying down a simple demo guitar track that I send him so Jeff can add vocals and program drums and what not. As far as creativity goes, we have a permanent title on a song called “Vultures” that Jeff and I wrote in 30 minutes tops. Obviously, he sat and re-worked some lyrics but as far as the skeleton it was 30 minutes tops. There have been a few songs where the ideas just came out of the woodwork and one thing will spark another. I don’t think distance has anything to do with it.
If you could record any cover song as part of the new record, what song would it be and why?
Jeff: I’ve got two. Right now, The Weeknd’s “The Hills” – that song just has a really cool, eerie heaviness to it. But a song that I’ve always wanted to cover is Our Lady Peace’s “Superman’s Dead” because I fucking love that song.
Jon: That song rules.
Jeff: I’ve always wanted to cover that. That one’s always on my list.
Trent: Aw man. I don’t know. Songs that I would like to cover, personally, would be heavier than what 3 Pill would probably do because I’m a metal head. I don’t know, like Blessthefall but that’s not really in our wheelhouse. It would probably be like Memphis May Fire or Blessthefall. Anything off of their new albums. I like it all.
Jon: Blackstreet. “No Diggity”. For sure. I started working on an acoustic version and it sounded cool.
Ryan: I would love to cover “Playing With the Boys” by Kenny Loggins. As cheesy as that sounds. I have loved that song since I was eight or nine years old while listening to it in my Dad’s car every morning on the way to school. It was also featured in the movie Top Gun. Ha Ha Ha!
If you could add a member of any band to 3 Pill Morning who would you add and why?
Jeff: Wow. You wanna start this one Jon?
Jon: Anyone? I think Mr. Hahn would be pretty tight.
Jeff: I was going to say Mike Shinoda so we could basically be Linkin Park.
Jon: Probably, and this is way random, but the keyboard player for Lost Prophets (Jamie Oliver). He was good and his harmonies were killer. So that would be tight.
Jeff: That guy was entertaining too. I’m still going with Mike Shinoda. The dude is just cool. He’s an awesome producer and does all kinds of cool stuff even beyond music. All of the artsy things he does. He’s a talented cat.
Trent is thinking hard. Probably wants another guitar player.
Trent: As much as I’d love another guitar player, I’m thinking any member of Hollywood Undead. So like the front four: Funny Man, Charlie Scene, 3 Tears, you know. It would be awesome to collaborate with those guys.
Ryan: I would add Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit. The dude is crazy, weird, and one hell of a creator. It would be a blast working with him.
Inquiring minds want to know how you came up with the stage wear you wear during you shows.
Jon: It’s not that complicated.
Jeff: The title of our last album is “Black Tie Love Affair” and we just dressed up like that for the video and we’ve done it ever since. There has been some debate as to what we will do for the next album but we’ve gotten notoriety for dressing up. It’s kinda cool because people don’t expect us to rock as hard as we do wearing that get up so we’ll have to see what direction we go or how we might spice it up some more.
Ryan: You may see a wardrobe change with the next album.
Anything you want to put out there for the fans?
Jeff: The Pledge Music campaign. This is the biggest thing. We aren’t fund raising. We are trying to create. It is nice to have some extra support coming in for the album we are really trying to give people an opportunity to do stuff that they’ve always dreamed about doing. Like being in the vocal booth while I’m singing and doing vocals with us. Track some guitar parts. Whatever. Get in the studio and have that experience because a lot of people don’t get to do that.
Trent: Give people a chance to be a part of the album. A lot of people want to support the artist. That’s where it’s more than just buying the CD. There are so many different packages available. It’s huge.
For more information on 3 Pill Morning please go to www.3pillmorning.com
