Interview With 3 Doors Down | Alternative Addiction.com

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"Let Me Go"

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visit: www.3doorsdown.com

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"Seventeen Days"
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Alternative Addiction was lucky enough to sit down with Todd Harrell, the bassist of 3 Doors Down, and ask him about the new album, the band's quick rise to success, and what lies ahead for 3 Doors Down.

AA: Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview with us.

Todd: Thanks for having me man.

AA: First of all, let me congratulate you on a great new single and album.

Todd: Thank you man. It’s been a lot of fun doing that one.

AA: You guys always seem to get better and better with every album you put out. What has helped you guys progress and mature so quickly as a band?

Todd: I guess it’s being together for so long and, you know, touring together and just out being on the road playing music together you know. I think doing it as much as we’ve done it you know. Things kind of help at getting a little better at it, you know what I mean. We’re definitely more comfortable doing it and uh we’re just having fun doing what we love to do man.

AA: Seriously, it seems like it was just yesterday that we heard Kryptonite on the radio for the first time. What was the inspiration behind that song?

Todd: (laughs) The inspiration behind that song kind of came from, I think, by your friends putting you up on a pedestal and basically thinking you’re something that you’re not and just basically a song to your friends you know, wondering, asking the question if I fall down from something so great will you still be there for me.

AA: Did you guys ever expect that song and album to catch on as quickly and in the way that it did?

Todd: You know we never expected it to do what it did. We were just hoping for the best and you know it really opened doors for us on many new things and we just uh starting to play music and we never set out to try to do what were doing. It just kind of happened and become what it is ya know.

AA: Let's talk about this new album, did you guys take a different approach to writing and recording this album?

Todd: Well, this record was done a little different. Uh we uh wrote the record in seventeen days and finished up the away from the sun tour on um July 31 and we took two weeks off and we all got up into the studio and wrote the record in seventeen days. With the exception for two songs prior that we had had written in the past that had made it on the record, but I think the biggest thing that was done different was we had a scheduled to meet you know we were trying to get the record out by a certain date and it was the first time we ever really had a deadline to make. I don’t think it really put a lot of pressure on us. We just got in there and did what we had to do.

AA: Well, I guess that kind of answers my next question why's it titled "Seventeen Days."

Todd: Yup we wrote the record in seventeen days. We’ve had ideas floating around you know touring you know that whole year. It wasn’t like we got in there and just through a bunch of things together you know we had ideas floating around and uh we just got in there and worked it all out in seventeen days.

AA: You guys recorded this album very quickly after you wrapped up your last tour, were most of these songs written while you guys were on the road? or maybe left-overs that didn't make it onto "Away From the Sun"?

Todd: Well, prior to the record “If Not Me” and “Let Me Go”. “Let Me Go” was actually written for the Spiderman soundtrack and “If Not Me” was written prior to “Away From the Sun”. That was written down in New Orleans one time. I think everything kind of comes in from everything we’ve seen on tour. We try to keep it to things people can relate to. We don’t want to write about things people can’t relate to. We take our experiences from the road and put it on paper.

AA: What was it like recording "Landing In London" with the legendary Bob Seger?

Todd: It was really cool. We were in this one studio and he was like in studio B and we were in studio A. We share the same hospitality room and we’d be sitting there playing X Box or something and we’d be like holy shit there’s Bob Seger. He’d be there making coffee. Both of us were in there for a couple of months actually recording and um during that time Bob just kind of became a friend of ours. You know after seeing each other for months in the studio. We’d hang out. We had that song written. It just has the Seger vibe to it like “Turn the Page”. Brad approached him about singing it and he said he’d love to. It turned out awesome. He has only done that 4 times in his whole career where he sang with somebody else. He said he hated all four times. He said this time here was really something and was more of something he would write. He likes this one though.

AA: You guys seem to play at a lot of NASCAR and Racing Events, in fact I noticed that you will be playing in Daytona at the Budweiser Shootout in a few weeks, is there any reason you guys seem to play so many events like this, are you guys just really big NASCAR fans?

Todd: We do involve ourselves around NASCAR a little bit. We have friends in Dell and Tony and we just hang out together. It’s a cool sport.

AA: Have you guys shot a video yet for "Let Me Go", what's it like?

Todd: We have. We shot it out in LA. In I guess a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t seen it yet, but some of my friends have said they’ve seen it on VH1 now, but I haven’t seen it yet on VH1. I hear it’s being spun right now.

AA: So I've always wondered, where did the name 3 Doors Down come from?

Todd: It actually don’t mean nothing. It comes from, uh, we had a gig that night that we didn’t have a name for the band so we were trying to think of a name and we couldn’t think of nothing. We saw this boarded up building with the words doors down painted across it. There were three of us in the band at the time and we stuck a three. What about 3 Doors Down. It don’t mean crap. It’s a catchy little name.

AA: Do you know yet who you guys will be taking on tour with you this winter?

Todd: We’re going to go out for a little bit with Saliva and Breaking Benjamin is going to be out and Thursten Dates is going to be filled in with Shine Down. Right now I think that’s about it. That’s all that’s locked in and confirmed.

AA: You guys always put on such great shows live, any plans to release a live DVD?

Todd: You know we’ve been talking about doing a live DVD, but I think it’s going to come out probably after this record because I think we’re going to have a film crew come out during this tour and do a bunch of filming. So I think that’s kind of in the works right now.

Thanks so much for taking time out to answer our questions, and good luck with the new album! Take care!