A great deal of KILLER metal bands have come from our norther neighbor Canada. Razor, Anvil, Infernal Majesty, and Voivod were just a few great bands that come to mind. Add to the list 3 INCHES OF BLOOD. Straight out of Vancouver, 3IOB are hell bent on delivering to the masses pure traditional metal, with a twist of their own. They consist of TWO vocalists: one traditional with a great high range, and another with an aggressive, hard-core death metal range. Both Cam and Jamie, respectively, give this band a complimentary push in progressive musicianship. Rounded by a killer drum and bass section, compliments of Matt and Brian respectively, and blistering guitar work of Shane and Justin, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD are destined for great things. I spoke with Jamie, Shane, and Justin after their performance at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey on June 15. Here's what they all had to say. Check out the concert review as well, and look for the complete VIDEO of this concert in the near future.
Interview by Anthony
[U.F.] I’m out here with members of 3 Inches Of Blood…please introduce yourselves.
[Jamie] I’m Jamie
[Shane] I’m Dr. Kenneth Noisewater…….I’m Shane.
[Justin] I am Justin…..
[Shane]….Esquire.
[U.F.] Guys….welcome back to New Jersey.
[3 IOB] Thanks for having us….it’s good to see you again.
[U.F.] Is anyone here besides Jamie an original member of the band?
[Shane] No…actually myself and Justin are the newest members. We joined last year, and it’s been a solid thing. We’ve got about a hundred shows under our belts together, so we’re tight…..
[Jamie] Which is a lot for half a year.
[Shane] After six months, we’re all tight, and we’re having a god time on the road. We’re doing a lot of shows, so it’s good.
[U.F.] How was the band formed?
[Jamie] Actually, we’re supposed to be a reunion of a shitty Hard Core band, but it was much more fun to play traditional metal than it was to relearn crappy Hard Core songs. Basically, that’s what we did: scrapped all those, and wrote what we wanted to play.
[Justin] ….And skip a few years ahead, you’ve got metal kings Shane Clarke and Justin ****.
[Jamie] Exactly…….exactly.
[Justin] HOLY FUCK!!!!!!
[Jamie] ….And thus, we have…..
[Shane] So, basically, the band started…..when WE joined.
[U.F.] So, it went from An Inch Of Blood (points to Jamie), then progressed to Three Inches Of Blood (points to Shane and Justin).
[Jamie] An, we’ve got a few more inches here…..
[Shane] So, now it’s Three Inches Erect……
[Jamie] ….that’s fully engorged.
[Shane] There’s nothing flaccid going on here.
[Jamie] That’s one rock-hard three-inch boner.
[U.F.] How was Europe?
[Jamie] Amazing….amazing…..we had a really good time.
[U.F.] Who did you play out with?
[Jamie] We went with Trivium and Still Remains and some other bands. We were out for a month and a half in Europe. The best shows were in the United Kingdom….England, Scotland, and Whales….just a really good time.
[Shane] Fuck yeah, man.
[Jamie] …dangerously good times.
[Shane] The shows in the U.K, especially….kids jumping & fighting for their lives and getting on stage….just tons of support.
[Justin] The food was terrific…..the catering was spectacular.
[Jamie] People talk about English food….it’s all a lie.
[Justin] Land of the bong.
[Shane] Someone said there’s no good-looking girls in England. This is a complete…..
[Jamie] They also lied.
[Shane] It’s a complete 180 degree lie. There’s amazing women there.
[U.F.] The tour you just did in Europe…..was this financed by Road Runner Records, or did you put this together yourselves?
[Jamie] It was a Road Runner organized tour. It was basically a showcase tour for the new signings to their label.
[U.F.] How did you get signed to the label?
[Jamie] Basically just by touring our asses off. We initially sent a couple of demos out, and they initially told us to screw off. Then we toured our asses off for another six months, and they saw that we were serious with what we were doing…so then they were into it.
[Shane] These guys also said that in the future, we’re planning on getting Justin and Shane.
[Jamie] Yeah…..we said we’re getting Justin & Shane…..
[Shane] They said WOAH!!!!!...........
[Jamie] Let us reconsider….that was the real clincher right there. Then they asked “Do they have beards….”
[Shane] Then Jamie says “I’ll puke on stage…..”, and they said “Sign here”.
[Justin] Did you puke tonight?
[Jamie] …Right behind you.
[Justin] Is that when you ran over, and staggered in the corner?
[Jamie] I puked on the stairs…..
[Shane] You don’t puke while you’re doing a show….it’s not cool.
[Justin] IT’S CULT!!!!!
[Shane] Could I just say that Mastadon is the greatest band I’ve ever seen in my life?
[Jamie] Someone’s wearing a Mastadon shirt over there….
[Shane] We saw them at Download, and they fucking blew my mind apart. My brain came out of this ear…I had to pick it up and put it back into my head.
[U.F.] You toured with a band called The Darkness?
[Jamie] Yeah….
[U.F.] Hoiw did that go?
[Jamie] That was about a year and a half ago in the U.K., and it was good. They’re definitely a strange band. They’ve got a Def Leppard revival thing they’ve got going on. That was sort of a weird point for us, because before that, we had only played for a couple hundred people. Then, all of a sudden we toured with them and it went to three to five thousand people. We thought to ourselves, “Wow…we’re way out of our league”. When we first started the tour with them, I thought they’d be total rock-star assholes because of the whole concept of what they’re doing. But they were complete sweethearts, and we had a really good time & played a couple of really fantastic shows with them….we had a good time.
[U.F.] A lot of people think that “Advance and Vanquish” is your first album, but it’s really not. Could you tell me about the album that came out before “Advance…”?
[U.F.] Any plans to re-release it?
[Justin] …with bonus tracks and a digi-pack………
[Jamie] If we ever make any money with this metal thing, then we’ll repress it.
[Shane] ….So in about one hundred years, someone is going to put it out…..one day.
[Justin] I would like to say that I have the first pressing….so uncult.
[U.F.] …You know you’re not leaving this country alive…..or the state.
[all laugh]
[Jamie & Shane] He’s KVLT
[Justin] I have the first pressing. It’s super limited….it has a terrible mastering job. It’s on par with transyvania….
[Jamie] Oh yeah….we all look up to this guy.
[Justin] I just know what a great recording is when I hear one.
[Shane] You’re just better from it.
[U.F.] Since touring Europe, you’ve already done one leg of the American tour. Now you’re back. What differences do you see between the European audiences and the American audiences?
[Jamie] Yeah…it’s like there’s drugs in the water, or something.
[Shane] In Europe, there are a lot of supportive fans, and a lot of weirdo’s too.
[U.F.] What about back home in Canada….what is the scene like there?
[Shane] It’s awesome, dude!!
[Justin] I think everywhere we play, we have our share of die-hards and supportive metal fans.
[Shane] Yeah, but in Canada, dude….seriously. They’re wearing hockey pads and bringing hockey sticks to the shows & kicking the shit out of people.
[Justin] They’re all covered in cakes…
[Shane] They’re all saying “Oh…we love you”, and then they’re throwing pucks and shit at you. They’re eating pancakes with REAL maple syrup.
[Justin] Yeah….we played in an igloo one time. It was huge….it was a BIG igloo. Four hundred penguins were there.
[Jamie] Basically, wherever we go, they’re the same….it’s good.
[U.F.] Any fans showing up to the shows with horned helmets or….
[Jamie] Actually, yeah….at the shows in the U.K., people were showing up with plastic swords and battle-axes and the helmets.
[Shane] When we played Download, the festival in England, there were people with fake red Viking beards and helmets!
[Justin] That’s the first thing I saw when I came out to the show…this guy holding this plastic sword, and I’m thinking “Fuck yeah!!”.
[Shane] We saw amazing bands at Download. We were expecting everyone to be watching these huge bands, and we had a contingent of 3 Inches of Blood fans…..it was wild.
[Jamie] …Which was really surprising.
[Shane] That was actually one of the highlights of the whole trip….that last show that we did.
[Jamie] It was great!
[Justin] It was amazing!
[Shane] Well….let’s see here.
[Justin] Gee….who’s gonna answer THIS question???
[Jamie] I’m the nerd here…the alpha nerd. Let me see if I can answer this question properly…. (takes out dice, and rolls it on the ground) ….No, sorry, I cannot answer. No….basically, I grew up in the middle of nowhere in the woods. I didn’t have a TV, so my parents read me a lot of weird books when I was little.
[U.F.] This explains everything…
[Jamie] …And the first book I remember being read was Lord of the Rings. From that day on, my perception was completely askew. So, when all the other kids were out in the woods pretending that they’re in the army, I was out there with a sword pretending I was Strider.
[Shane] Also….can I interject here?? One of the books he read was “Lost in the Barrens”, by Pauly Mullet.
[Justin] Proper Canadian cult!!!
[Shane] We drank, sometimes to excess, where we feel like we are lost in the Barrens. Isn’t that right, Jamie?
[Jamie] (laughs) Sure…..Basically, it comes from us reading way too much, and spending a lot of time playing D & D. I’m also thinking Running Wild too.
[U.F.] What are your plans for the next album?
[Justin] A total Shane and Justine attack!!!
[Jamie] Yeah…it’s going to be a Shane and Justine attack….no doubt.
[Shane] These guys have been reading since the last album. There’s going to be a lot of mythology involved, but….
[Jamie] It’s basically going to be about the destruction of the human race.
[Justin] And there’s going to be some serious riffs going on.
[Shane] Have you ever gotten fucked by a riff…ever?
[U.F.] I don’t think so…no.
[Shane] It’s….it’s gonna kill ya.
[Jamie] It’s going to be much faster and more evil.
[U.F.] How would you compare your upcoming release to your previous releases? Do you see a progression in the band? Are there any changes?
[Jamie] It’s basically a progression of us as songwriters. It was about three years between the time we wrote the songs, so obviously we’ve evolved as songwriters & gotten better at writing things such as song structure & that sort of thing. Cam and I put a lot more time into just organizing our lyrical content and where each of us was going to sing. On the first album, we just winged it, and it sort of worked. On the second one we put a lot more planning into it.
[Justin] I think with upcoming compositions, Shane and I have been working well together & writing and coming up with cool ideas ourselves. Being in previous metal bands and working with different people has given us a lot of inspirations of our own. I think it’s going to be conquering, cult, and insane.
[Shane] Could I answer about our writing technique?
[U.F.] Sure….
[Shane] To me, it’s really interesting because the guys who had a big hand in writing the last record are not in the band anymore. So, all the influences of the rest of the guys….
[Jamie] ….are gone.
[Shane] Yeah….it’s going to be more of a collective recording. Instead of one guy writing all the riffs and everyone else arranging, there’s going to be about three or four guys writing riffs and new guys arranging. So, it’s going to be 3 Inches Of Blood, but it’s not going to be Advance And Vanquish Part II. It’s going to be Dr. Kenneth Noise-Water Part I.
[U.F.] Speaking of previous members, do you still keep in touch with former members of the band?
[Jamie] Sure…actually, ***** - our old guitar player….when we get back to Vancouver, I’m going to be sleeping on his couch for the next month. Until we leave again, so….when we’re at home, not the drummer and the bass player so much, but the two guitar players. When we’re at home, we see them every day. We’ve been best friends for many years. I see them every day and it’s a very good time.
[Justin] They’re great guys. I bought my amp off Sunny.
[Jamie] Yeah…Sunny actually sold his amp to Justin.
[Shane] I’m actually going to get those guys to do some Venomous Concept bootleg shirts.
[Jamie] They own a silk-screening business & print all the band shirts for Vancouver’s raddest band.
[Shane] Can I plug Venomous Concept?
[U.F.] Yeah…go ahead.
[Shane] Venomous Concept…check it out!
[Jamie] The best band.
[Justin] Interview back……let’s go.
[U.F.] I’m sure you guys have been asked this several times: where can someone get one of the 3 Inches Of Blood denim jean vests seen in the Deadly Sinners video?
[Jamie] I’ll tell you….there really was only supposed to be one in existence, and that was won by someone a few months ago. A little secret: Brian, our bass player….his roommate Jean painted that jacket. So, if you really desire such a thing, I’m sure for an elaborate price it probably can be obtained.
[Shane] Oh yeah…if you give Brian a little dough…..
[Jamie] Jean also happens to be the fine gentleman who painted our backdrop.
[Shane] He’s basically the seventh member of the band.
[U.F.] Did he also do the artwork for the album?
[Jamie] No…it was Ed Repka who did the artwork for the album and he is the genius behind the Vic Rattle-Head design for Megadeth, and the Megadeth covers, and the Dark Angel logo.
[Justin] Uncle Slam….[laughs]
[U.F.] Will you be working with him for the next album?
[Jamie] We’re not sure….I hope so. We’ll have to wait and see until that’s (the album) written, because the artwork can’t possibly be conceived until the album is completed.
[U.F.] I must have watched the Deadly Sinners video a million times…..what are each of your experiences from filming that video?
[Shane] I’ll give you the lowdown on the live part of it, which is all of it because there’s a lot of video. We played at Hell’s Kitchen, which is like a ripping, storming bar in Tacoma. It’s a small club that fits about three hundred people, so they crammed four hundred kids in there. It was hot, there was no oxygen, and the air-conditioner was blowing out steam. It was very loud…
[Justin] It was a sweat factory.
[Jamie] It was actually pretty sweet because the dudes who were filming it…….the edge of the stage had this weird little lip on it, and they duck-taped these fluorescent light bulbs along the edge of the lip on the inside to light shit up. They tried to keep people back for the first songs so they could film along the front of the stage with these lights. But, about ten seconds into the song, the drug-crazed Washington State Tacomans pushed the poor film guys out of the way. They ran up, and a couple of dudes grabbed the edge of the stage, except when they grabbed it, they grabbed the edge of the fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs shattered and three or four dudes cut the shit out of their hands. So, the dude who did the video had these guys holding up their bloody hands, and they stayed for three or four songs. One of them had to go to the hospital,
[Justin] They tore the thing down….they tore the place up. We’re just irresistible.
[Jamie] It was good….it was fun. It’s a bar that our bass player Brian bartends at, and all the people that own it are friends of ours. We play there a lot. Hell’s Kitchen in Tacoma, Washington: the best bar on Earth.
[Justin] Yes….go to Tacoma!!!!
[Jamie] Basically…you have to go there. Go get drunk there…..you’ll enjoy yourself.
[Shane] It’s the bane of our existence.
[Justin] Tacoma!!!!!!
[Shane] ….And then you’ll get Tacomatosed.
[U.F.] A lot of people disassociate metal nowadays with MTV. I noticed your Deadly Sinner video appeared on MTV2.
[Jamie]….but they edited it.
[U.F.] They edited it?
[all] Yeah…
[Justin] We had fire….
[Jamie] You can’t show anything cool or evil or anything even somewhat interesting on MTV, or they’ll cut it out. We had an insane amount of genius ideas for the video, we suggested them, and MTV said “No…you can’t show that”. You can’t show a sword; you can’t show fake blood; you can’t show implied violence of any sort.
[Shane] …And we had a lot of fire in the video.
[Jamie] We had this thing where I blew fire off a double-bladed battle-axe, and then Cam summoned fires from hell, and this tree goes up in flames while he beacons it. They completely cut that out.
[Shane] …Because Beavis and Butthead have some fire in their show, and some kid burns some shit down, then MTV got sued.
[Justin] Fucking idiot!
[Jamie] So, they can’t show fire, although….hold on. It’s okay for J-Lo to have a burning Porsche in her video, but we can’t have a burning tree.
[Shane] Hey…it’s good that rappers talk about cappin’ people, but you can’t light a tree on fire. You can’t summon the flames of hell…..NO!! …..Fuck, someone might go and summon the flames of hell!!!!
[Justin] Some kid is going to go to a cemetery and summon the flames of hell…..
[U.F.] Here’s a silly question: Who would win in a fight…a Viking or an Ork?
[Justin] A Viking….Orks have weak skin…….right, Jamie?
[Jamie] It all depends on who’s taking PCP. …..No, I’m just joking…I don’t know. There is the myth that the Vikings had the berserker tendency, and when they tasted blood, they would go absolutely fucking insane & destroy anything that moves in their path. So, I’m going to say Viking.
[Shane] Didn’t berserkers get all high on mushrooms too, and went fucking….berserk???
[Shannon] I have a better question: who would win in a fight…Vic or Eddie?
[Justin] Eddie
[Shane] Eddie
[Jamie] Eddie….any second.
[Shannon] No one is with me on this one…..
[Shane] Vic’s mouth is all chained closed….he’s got lock-jaw.
[Jamie] I’ll tell you who’s with you…..Cory. Cory, the guitar player from Tribuim, would agree that it’s Vic Rattle-Head rather than Eddie.
[Shane]….SO……it’s obviously Eddie.
[Jamie] I’m going with Eddie.
[Shannon] We don’t like him [Shane] anymore.
[Shane] Me??? Awe……
[Jamie] Enslaved
[Shane] I’m going to say The Melvens.
[Justin] I’m going to go on a leap here…The BeeGees.
[all laugh]
[Shane] Did you say “Go out on a limb” or “Go out on a leap”?
[Justin] ….A leap.
[Shane] Oh…..
[Justin] I’m making my own phrases now.
[Shane] Cool….I can dig that.
[Justin] It is cool.
[Jamie] Anyway….
[Justin] I’d like to say that I’d like to go on tour with Absue.
[U.F.] What do you guys like playing better: small venues like this one or larger, open-air venues?
[Jamie] The smaller, the better.
[Justin] I like the small ones because when they’re full they’re packed and chaotic. But, with large venues, sometimes when they’re not full it looks like a…….
[Jamie] A desolate waste land….
[Justin] Yeah. I like it when it’s more up close and personal as opposed to being in a big place where there’s five feet of empty space for photographers and…..
[Jamie] Basements with kegs…..enough said.
[Shane] I’m going to agree with these guys, but playing the big shows is wild. There’s so many people just going nuts.
[Justin] If they’re all having a good time, that’s the main thing…right??
[Jamie] Basements……with…..kegs……
[U.F.] Is there any opportunity for you to play the Wacken Open Air in Germany, or the Gods of Metal in Italy?……
[Shane] Oh, the Wacken Open Air….that would be my dream show.
[Jamie] That would be amazing.
[Shane] I wouldn’t want to play….I’d just want to go check out the bands.
[Jamie] Exactly….we just got back from a trip over in that neck of the woods. We played a few festivals, and like you said: it’s hard because you’re playing but at the same time, awesome bands are playing too. You’re like FUCK….do we have time to fit this all in? ….We’ll just have to go watch. …..Like Mastadon…..we saw Mastadon at the Download Festival in England the day before yesterday. It was the most insane thing we’ve ever seen. It was pure genius.
[Justin] I’d love to tour with Mastadon…..THAT would be the band I’d like to tour with.
[Shane] They ripped that place up!
[Jamie] It was the ultimate show.
[U.F.] I’m going to wrap this up with a few more questions. Back home in Canada,….
[a fan walks by] I LOVE 3 INCHES OF BLOOD!!!!!!!!
[U.F.] Back home in Canada, are there any local bands you play out with?
[Jamie] There are some amazing bands in Vancouver. Streets….not The Streets, but Streets is one. It’s an acronym…it stands for Space Trucking Rangers Expelling Extra Terrestrial Sounds. It’s a fantastic prog-rock…sort of skate, stoner, metal…everything else band. There’s also a great band called A Javelin Reign, which is good. It’s like crushing, technical death metal. Justin’s other band, called Alt-Alter******, which is crushing, black war metal…for a lack of a better term. This band [points to the shirt he is wearing], Goat’s Blood, is Matt’s other band. It’s a seven piece crushing, doom, sludge, grind band….it’s on Relative Records.
[Shane] There’s a Noise project called Hospital…..there’s also….
[Jamie] Blasphemy, which is a black metal band for almost twenty years. They’re black metal legends. Fatal Majesty is another black metal legend.
[Justin] Ten Miles Wide is fucking crushing…..they’re unbelievable. Check out their albums.
[Jamie] In Vancouver, there’s also a lot of technical death metal like Zukus
[Shane] Just Cause, Punch Drunks….
[Shane] There’s a band called Savannah that’s just pummeling.
[Justin] ….Mitochondrion……Melock Seven….Mexils Eye**** was the greatest band that ever came from Vancouver.
[Justin] Hot Hot Heat…..CULT METAL!!!!!
[Jamie] Actually, the singer for Hot Hot Heat is very best friends with Cam Pipes.
[Shane] Strapping Young Lad is from Vancouver….
[U.F.] The last time you were over here in The States, you played CBGBs. I was speaking with everyone outside, and there was mention of 3 Inches Of Blood having a possibility of playing with Manowar and Rhapsody in New York at BB Kings. Is this still a possibility?
[Shane] Here’s how it went down…..Those guys found out that we were playing and they were like “We don’t want to be closing the show for these guys….and…….”
[the camcorder dies]
[Shane] That was the last thing on the interview??!?
[Jamie] Apparently, what had happened was the show got canceled. There weren’t enough presale tickets, so they canceled the show….which sucks. I love Manowar and Rhapsody.
[U.F.] So, this show isn’t even happening now??
[Jamie] Apparently not….that’s what we heard anyway. Weather or not it true has yet to be seen.
[U.F.] That ‘s it….good luck in Chicago, and everywhere else you go.
[Justin] It was awesome seeing you at all the different shows we did around here……even that small show we did.
[Shane] Yeah…that one was for you guys.
[U.F.] Any closing comments, or something you’d like to say?
[Justin] Extol the Necro-Wizard!!!
[U.F.] Thank you, 3 Inches of Blood!!!!
DISCOGRAPHY
BATTLECRY UNDER A WINTER SUN (2001)
ADVANCE AND VANQUISH (2004)
LINKS
Additional research by Ray Morse
[Jamie] It came out in 2001…..it only came out in Canada and the U.K. It was called “Battle Cry Under a Winter Sun”. In Canada, it came out on a really small Punk Label; just like a record store label, that a friend of ours owned. It wasn’t really working so well, so we ended up putting it out ourselves. In the U.K. it came out on the label that was a sub-label of what The Darkness were on, which is why we went on tour with them. It’s out of print now, unfortunately, so it’s a little hard to find.
[Shane] The European audiences…well, the U.K., was completely insane.
[U.F.] As far as your lyrics and your music are concerned, a lot of people would ask where you draw your influences. Most fans already know 3IOB are big Iron Maiden fans, along with all classic metal. What about outside of music…what are your other influences? I know a few of you like Dungeons & Dragons….can you elaborate on that?
[U.F.] If you guys could tour with any band, who would it be?