For Los Angeles based up and coming industrial rockers 3TEETH, 2016 was supposed to be a time to recoup from being on the road, and more importantly write and record a follow up to the band’s acclaimed self titled debut released in 2014. The band, which features vocalist Alexis Mincolla, drummer Andrew Means, guitarist Chase Brawner, and keyboardist Xavier Swafford, planned to use the early part of the year to focus solely on new music. but things changed drastically when, according to Mincolla, they got an invitation they just couldn’t turn down. The gig: an opening slot on a 3 week nationwide tour featuring big name bands Tool and Primus, including two shows in San Diego this weekend, which are the only Southern California stops.
“This is so awesome, It’s such an honor,” Mincolla told the Weekly during a phone interview just outside of the first date in San Francisco.
“We toured a lot in the past year, playing smaller clubs all around the U.S., and some bigger festivals overseas,” Mincolla says. “But, our debut album was made for us, we went into it and wrote music we wanted to hear. So the fact that anyone else likes it is a bonus. At the time, we had no idea this would be the record we’d open for Tool with.”
A few years back, Mincolla met Tool’s Adam Jones at the wedding of a mutual friend. The two became friends and began playing online video games together, and eventually Jones saw 3TEETH live. “We haven’t played video games in a while though, things have been so busy,” he says.
Mincolla doesn’t mind people labeling 3TEETH as an industrial band, but said that he doesn’t try to pigenhole the band either. And he isn’t trying to come off as the all knowing expert of the industrial music scene. “When we started to make music with 3TEETH whether people consider it industrial or not, I want to resurrect some of the things I feel are sacred about the genre,” he says. “For instance, its transgressive art qualities, how it can be dark, the visual aspect and the intensity of the sound and something that has social commentary in it. Industrial music sucks the poison out of our mass production obsessed society.”
In regards to preparation for this huge opportunity to open for two huge bands, Mincolla is positive that 3TEETH are up to the challenge. “We’ve been rehearsing non-stop,” he says. “The biggest crowd we’ve played to is maybe a couple thousand, but on this tour we’re opening in arenas that hold minimum of 10,000 in some places.”
The biggest step up for the band is focusing on making our show more arena ready. Obviously as an opening band their limited in their time and what they can use for production, visuals. “We’re working well within those constraints, I think,” Mincolla says. “Our sound and live performances have always been built for bigger venues so we’re beyond super excited for this tour, and hope everyone gets there early to check us out!”
3Teeth perform with Tool and Primus at Viejas Arena Aztec Bowl at San Diego State University on Jan. 9 and 10th. For full details, click here.
