I was on vacation and flipping channels on the hotel TV when I thought I saw Ke$ha on screen, and two guys in front of a bright gold set. I paused to watch the video, and promptly had it stuck in my head. Like many others, the song My First Kiss was my first introduction to Colorado band 3OH!3.
“I think My First Kiss was kind of the natural choice for our first single off of Streets of Gold. It is a fun, inclusive song, that sticks to our style of music, and also includes a singer who is a good friend, and whom has had some big success recently,” singer Nat Motte told GayCalgary & Edmonton Magazine. “I think it was a good way to re-introduce our band to the public, after being in the studio writing an album for the better part of 4 months. The success has been great! It is a really fun song to play live, and people seem to really like it!”
Motte and Sean Foreman, who make up the band, teamed up with Tik-Tok hit maker Ke$ha on the song. Additionally they make an appearance on her song Blah Blah Blah.
“I think having her on My First Kiss was a big help in getting some radio stations to add our song to their rotations. It was pretty soon after her huge Tik Tok success, radio stations that might not have wanted to add a song with just us on it were more inclined to add it because of her appearance. We actually met Ke$ha when we were writing My First Kiss over two years ago. Sean had written the line ’My first kiss went a little like this...’ and we thought it would be cool to have a girl do a response to that line. The producer we were working with at the time knew Ke$ha, and told us she could be a cool fit for the song. She came in and sang the line, and we hung out and hit it off. When it came time to make her album Sean helped her write on Blah Blah Blah in New York City, with our friend Benny Blanco, and it has been really cool to watch her to do well!”
Another popular singer has also worked with the band. Katy Perry helped with the song Starstrukk and they opened for her on tour.
“We met Katy a bit before Warped Tour in 2008. She had been working with our buddy Benny Blanco on her record. She played on the same stage as us that whole summer, and we got to be really good friends with her and her whole band and crew. Her band would set their instruments up onstage with us, and play during our set too, which really helped form our live show into what it is today. We had always been looking for a time and place to collaborate, and it ended up working out when we were in LA doing a remix of our song Starstrukk. She is a really great singer - she has such a full and rich voice - it was a real treat tracking her in the studio.”
Streets of Gold, the band’s third album, was released in June. Filled with catchy, memorable tracks, the sexually charged album is certain to stick in your brain.
“I supposed that must mean we are a couple of sexually charged dudes?! I think that sexual energy and relationships and fleeting encounters are something that we like to write about. I guess a lot of people like to write about those things, judging by how many people treat those topics in their songs! For Streets of Gold we wanted to expand musically and lyrically, and hopefully still retain the things that are 3OH!3 from our previous records, and not alienate our fans that have been with us and supporting us for such a long time. I would hope that we managed to do that. We wanted to create music that is fun, inclusive, and hopefully different and pushes some sort of boundaries to achieve something new in the Pop realm.”
There is a lot of fun back and forth in many of their songs, such as in House Party as well as Double Vision. One of an artist’s favourite experiences is when the songs are performed live and the fans are singing the lyrics back.
“It means a lot! Honestly our live show and our studio time go hand-in-hand. When we create a song, we are always thinking about performing it live, and since we started, the live show has been very integral to everything that is 3OH!3. Our live shows are meant to be very inclusive, and hopefully anyone for any music background or scene can come and have a good time and forget about their troubles for a bit. Seeing and hearing fans singing with us, or simply smiling at a live show, validates everything that we do!”
Much like their music, Sean and Nat seem really fun. Video blogs from their tours, and goofy videos like Don’t Trust Me make the guys seem approachable, which in turn draws fans.
“We’ve always wanted to have fun with our music, and every aspect of our art. Even if we are writing a serious or sad song, we have fun making it and learning, and the same goes for videos. Additionally we have never really wanted to take ourselves too seriously, or play the cool card. I think it’s a combination of those things that influence our videos. We are both very accessible through things like Twitter, and we have never wanted to be shrouded in any sort of mysterious artist shroud. In a sense, we are just a couple of dudes who have fun making music!”
The band is experiencing a new level of success, with a sold out tour of the UK. Their current tour sold out the Edmonton Events Centre on November 11th, and had to be moved to MacEwan Hall from the smaller ballroom for their Calgary show November 10th. The opportunity to travel the world is pretty amazing for a couple of guys from Boulder, Colorado.
“It’s wonderful! This summer was really amazing - we went to Japan, Europe, Brazil, and Australia, and everywhere we went we were fortunate to play great shows, have a tremendous amount of fun, and meet really interesting and wonderful people. We want to keep building on that success, and keep touring and evolving our live show and recorded music. It’s such an amazing thing to be able to travel the world and have so much fun and learn so much - we’re eternally grateful to everyone who supports us in that!”
While a high ratio of their fan base is female, they have a diverse following from frat guys to gay men. Their acceptance is part of their appeal.
“Let’s see...3OH!3 live is loud, sweaty, a bit raunchy, and mostly (hopefully) really fun. We try to drop any and all pretences that other artists might have in terms of who should be able to enjoy their music. For us, 3OH!3 started as a reaction to an exclusive music scene. We were going to a lot of underground hip hop shows in Boulder, Colorado, and eventually realized that it was more about what wasn’t part of the scene, rather than what was, and that was very powerful for us. We wanted to make music and play shows that dropped all of that; shows that are fun and well-developed musically, and interesting. Hopefully we are achieving that!“
“Our music is meant to be accessible to anyone from any background. We love incorporating different musical styles into our music, and different theatrical styles into our live show, and I guess our whole deal as 3OH!3 is some sort of weird, cross-pollinated, genetic-jumbled, bastard step-child of other music and shows. If anyone from anywhere wants to come join that - then by all means they will be welcomed with open, although somewhat sweaty, arms!”. 