So a song like “Dopamine,” I say, “I aspire to your rockabilly heart, girl, animal and engine,” meaning that you’re not the vulnerable, delicate flower. It’s a 2000-year temporal shift away from Judeo-Christian patriarchal thinking. I don’t even want to say equal because I think that there’s a whole new set of female that doesn’t even factor males into the equation of equality any more than males factor in anybody else. I think women are more on their own terms. It’s a post-patriarchal, post-feminist mindset that is taking root, so I think the exchange in heteronormative behavior is no longer about exchanging sex for intimacy, which was the standard way. There’s some kind of different consciousness brewing. It’s the really, really young group that has changed – young women and Millennials. Stephan: People don’t want to suffer by emotions. Songfacts: I think you were saying that interactions with people seem to be lacking emotion these days and that they’re just chemical compounds now.
It’s one of those things that sounds smart. Stephan: That sounds really smart and I have no idea what it means. Can you expand on that idea and why you relate to it so much? The title comes from the fourth song, and you said that it’s referring to interactions with people that are being reduced to just chemical compounds. Songfacts: Let’s talk about that new album, Dopamine. So now I’m actually going to try to get closer to that more often. That’s my best state of writing.īeing asked about it for this album, I’ve actually gotten the discipline to cultivate that answer. So it’s like I’m almost listening to it and transcribing it. When it goes well, I just hear things and then I sing them down. Stephan Jenkins: I get on a guitar in a room hopefully in a semi-lonely state. Laura Antonelli (Songfacts): You’ve said in numerous interviews that you don’t like using the word “process” in regards to writing a song. When we caught up with Stephan before a soundcheck at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, he gave us the dope on Dopamine (including the Bowie references), and explained how “Jumper” and other Third Eye Blind songs have changed meaning for him. With their fifth album, Dopamine, Third Eye Blind takes a look at this changing landscape with songs that venture into new musical territory for the band, incorporating EDM elements into those signature guitar riffs heard on their ’90s hits.
As Stephan explains, the song is a now a celebration of sorts.
The song about a gay youth who jumps to his death is now a case study on changing attitudes, as the younger generation innately grasps the concept of inclusion. “Jumper” means something very different now than when it was released in 1997. How big? How about a “2000-year temporal shift.” Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins, who gave voice to Generation X on songs like “How’s It Going to Be,” “Semi-Charmed Life” and “Graduate,” sees Millennials going through a much bigger shake-up.