I am surprised that when Bill and Ted went travelling that Three Thirteen didn’t supply the soundtrack to their excellent adventures. The band is definitely a throwback to the gods of rock who inspired them and helped to mold them into the artists that they are today. Although all four musicians in the band also play in other bands, it doesn’t take long to realize that Three Thirteen is nothing like their other bands, other than the fact that they all kick some serious ass. What’s that? Do you need some help getting caught up to speed with all things Three Thirteen? Well, pull up a speaker case and let me educate you.
The band’s first album was released in 2011, which was soon followed up by a covers EP and then Weitzel joined In This Moment full-time. That move left many fans, myself included, wondering if Three Thirteen would ever join forces again and make the gods of classic rock throw their devil horns high in approval. Well, it’s time to kick the tires and light the fires because they’re back and with a brand new kick-ass album entitled Overdrive Alive. I’ve got a little surprise for you tonight, I’m going to turn the microphone over to Randy Weitzel and he’s going to bring us up to speed on the band.
I can usually do my homework to find out how a band came together, but I can’t find much on Three Thirteen. Just like every great super hero or villain has an origin, so does a band. I know the band came into existence after you left Flatline. Can you give me a little history how Three Thirteen was created?
Randy: I’d been writing and touring with my old thrasher band for a number of years and I simply wanted to write something different other than super heavy. I wanted to get back to my roots and revisit all of the hard rock and metal bands from when I was growing up. KISS and AC/DC were my first true loves. I started writing and before you know it I had enough material for an album. Next I just did what comes naturally which is find some guys to jam with and make a record. The recording process was basically just me hanging out with my friends and laying tracks. It was a lot of fun.
THREE THIRTEEN – It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N’ Roll) [AC/DC Cover]
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Now, you and I were originally going to do an interview right before you joined In This Moment. You know, many of us didn’t think we would ever see another Three Thirteen album. What made you decide to put together Overdrive Alive?
Randy: After we finished the first album, Full Tilt, the drummer Jimmy Schultz (Soulbleed/Sunflower Dead) and I joined forces with our friends Steve Marshall (Soulbleed) on guitar and Elaina Bangma (Soulbleed) on bass and did a cover song album and called it ‘Devil Music’. That was done just to kind of break the ice and have some fun rocking out and recording. I had, and still have, tons of riffs and half songs that needed to be finished so I dove right into writing ‘Overdrive Alive’.
Your touring schedule with In This Moment keeps you busy, so how did you find time to record this new album?
Randy: Around the time I got the call to do In This Moment, I had every song written for Overdrive Alive. When Jimmy was ready, we went over to Steve and Elaina’s recording studio, Redneck Ranch Studios, and recorded all of the drum tracks. After that we just worked on my breaks from touring with In This Moment. The first album came together really fast but Overdrive Alive took about two years to finish. Now that it’s done, it’s really cool to just sit back, listen to it and appreciate all the work and time everyone put into it. It was a blast to make and I think it turned out great.
Fans that are new to the Three Thirteen family and only know you from In This Moment may be surprised that this album sounds quite a bit different than In This Moment. Who are some of the bands that helped to mold or influence the sound of Three Thirteen?
Randy: My main influence on guitar was definitely Space Ace (Frehley) from KISS. Smoking guitar? You know that’s awesome! So when I decided to visit my roots for inspiration I naturally started with KISS and the first song I wrote ended up being “Skool Daze” on the first album. When that song was done I submerged myself in AC/DC, the result was “City of Devils”, and so on. The first album vibe was more KISS meets AC/DC. On ‘Overdrive Alive’ the riffs seem to be just a little bit meaner, more KISS meets Black Sabbath meets Led Zeppelin! If “Detroit Rock City” from KISS and “Achilles Last Stand” from Led Zeppelin fucked and had a baby it would be “In Heavy We Trust”, the first song on Overdrive Alive. If you are familiar with classic rock you should discover neat little tributes everywhere in Three Thirteen.
I don’t want to give anything away, but as I listened to it, I thought that I was picking up on quite a few things throughout the album. So, are there any plans for any live dates for the band? Didn’t you play a few live dates a few years back?
Randy: We keep talking about playing and recording only one show at a bar here in LA and calling it ‘Live in Japan’ and having a tour shirt printed up with only one tour date on the back.(laughs) Actually, we did play a few shows before I was with In This Moment. Our first show was opening for Adler’s Appetite, which is Steven Adler’s band, the former drummer of Guns and Roses. That was pretty rad!
You do a lot, if not all, of the band’s artwork and each release really is a throw-back to when an album’s packaging was also a piece of the art being created. How did you get into graphic design?
Randy: I got into graphic design because my bands always needed album covers, show posters, shirts and I loved to be the guy in the band that did it. I did it by hand in my high school bands and I still do as much as possible.
Even though modern technology is being used, there’s definitely an old school approach to that art that is very cool. Who or what influenced you to pick up your first guitar and when did you start playing? Do you still have that guitar? Also, you have an Ace Frehley V guitar in one of your band pictures. Did you design that?
Randy: My Dad played and got me a few guitars, but my very first guitar was a KISS guitar from Santa! I don’t have that one, but man I wish I did. I painted Ace on one of my old Flying V’s about 13 years ago and had all my friends from home scratch their names in the back of it before I moved to LA to make it big! That’s the one you see in the pictures.
While we’re talking about influences, how about the three albums that changed your life.
Randy: When I was a kid I borrowed my Uncle’s KISS Destroyer 8-track tape. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After the first three songs: “Detroit Rock City”,”King of the Night Time World” and “God of Thunder” my mind was totally blown. It was the most powerful, heaviest thing I’d ever heard. When I was about 13, I remember handing Shout at the Devil by Motley Crue to my dad and asking him to buy it for me. The record has a giant pentagram on the cover and he starts reading the song titles off, “Shout at the Devil’, “Looks That Kill”, “Bastard”, “God Bless the Children of the Beast”, “Helter Skelter”… Hey that’s a Beatles song, you really want this?” My dad loves the Beatles and I think that’s why he was cool and bought it for me. That shit was so heavy and marked the beginning of my journey into the era of the guitar hero! The third has to be Ride the Lightning by Metallica. I heard the song “Fight Fire with Fire” on a weekly radio show called The Metal Shop. Again, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was the heaviest fucking thing I had ever heard in my life! It instantly changed everything again right then and there. Metallica taught me how to play hard and fast as fuck and I entered the mighty world of thrash metal. Who knows, maybe the third Three Thirteen album should thrash!
How about you Steve? What influences do you draw on when playing Three Thirteen material and what are three albums that changed your life?
Steve Marshall: Creatively I think about my earliest fun times with playing guitar. Stuff like Randy Rhoads’ playing, Sabbath, Led Zeppelin. That kind of thing. Three Thirteen offers some very creative liberties in lead playing that make me think of those players and allows me to channel that facet of my playing. Three Thirteen tunes have heavy riffing at times but it’s not necessarily as aggressive on the guitar as some other things I do. It opens up my mind and gets me thinking in more of a rock mindset, which is a style that I’m familiar with and love to play. As far as three albums goes, mine would be Black Sabbath Paranoid, Metallica Master of Puppets and Ozzy Osbourne Randy Rhoads Tribute. I grew up listening to my dad’s “Paranoid” record (vinyl) and when I first heard Master of Puppets, it had me wondering how guitars could be that heavy sounding. The Randy Rhoads Tribute album was the most awesome display of licks and shredding that I had ever heard. Randy was the heavy metal version of Eddie Van Halen and I loved that!
What about you Jimmy?
Jimmy Schultz: Three Thirteen takes me & the rest of the band back in time to when Rock was fun. It reminds us of the days when we were growing up & listening to bands like KISS, AC/DC & Van Halen, etc. There are no rules with Three Thirteen and anything goes. We can make a cheesy goofy music video and it would still work and be awesome, where as with my other bands, it’s more serious and focused in a certain direction. As for albums, only three? (laughs) Well as far as the 70s and 80s go, I’d have to say anything KISS, especially Alive! and Alive II, plus Mötley Crüe Shout at the Devil and Queensryche The Warning. There are many more, but those would be the top three.
Elaina, who or what inspired you to pick up the bass? Was it your first instrument? Who are some of your inspirations?
Elaina Bangma: My first instrument was actually piano. I started playing piano around the age of six. My family had guitars in the house and saw that I was interested in it and decided to give me lessons around the age of eight. I was brought up classically trained on the guitar. One day my brother told me about Van Halen and after that I wanted to play distorted guitars and then I got my first electric guitar. My school would have music festivals where I would perform and my music teacher at school saw that I knew how to play. He wanted to let me borrow the school’s bass for the summer. I think he mostly just needed someone to play bass for the school jazz band, but after taking it home and playing to my favorite Van Halen songs, I was hooked. Van Halen was a huge inspiration to me. I remember when I was a kid I would always lay in bed at night with headphones on so I wouldn’t wake anyone up and listen to my Van Halen tapes and dream of being in a band like that. I can say Rex Brown, Cliff Burton, and Billy Sheehan all have inspired me too.
Last question: Is there a story behind the band’s name?
Randy: I’ve always seen 313 everywhere and plus it just sounds cool (laughs).
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