3TEETH

Out of Los Angeles comes the great quartet 3TEETH and with their self titled debut album they set a new standard in the industrial scene. I was lucky enough to get a few moments with frontman and lead singer Alexis V. Mincolla's time to talk about the album and upcoming live shows.

First of all, thanks so much for taking the time to do this little chat. Could you start off by telling us what 3TEETH is all about and how you guys came together?

Alexis - "3TEETH is a guerrilla ontology focused multimedia art project centered around a really fucking loud band otherwise known and for lack of a better term, Industrial music. No but seriously, we're a band of four guys in Los Angeles who all came together via another project called LIL DEATH that was sort of underground party night in downtown LA that we had also had a hand in creating."

Is there a story behind the name 3TEETH?

Alexis - "The name is based on a ancient form of divination called Odontomancy where the seer would read prophecies in the teeth like rune stones. The teeth were said to carry intrinsic truths about the self and its relation to the material world. Jung and Freud had some pretty interesting things to say about dreams involving teeth as well but with the risk of boring your audience we'll let everyone do their own research and connect their own dots."

Your self titled debut album is out, collecting great reviews all over the place, including here on the site. When did you guys start working on the album and what was the recording process like?

Alexis - "We started working on the album about a year ago and it was sort of a rolling start as we were really using this album to develop a writing process and creative rapport between the four of us. The first four months were really about us just learning a metaphorical language and vocabulary that would allow everyone to be on the same page as a cohesive and intuitive collaboration. After that every song got just better than the previous and the collective learning curve just got exponentially proficient. So needless to say, we're really looking forward to writing our sophomore album."

Let's talk a little bit more about the album, it's a pretty dark piece of work. What is your inspiration for this type of music?

Alexis - "We tend to draw a lot of inspiration from the human frailty that often defines current events. We live in peculiar times and our art is simply us attempting to reflect the portions of it that people tend to negate."

There's a a lot of bands in the industrial genre in LA, how do you think 3TEETH differentiates themselves from the rest?

Alexis - "I'm not really sure how to answer that as we're less concerned with the idea of auditing a scene but rather just staying focused on our own creative output."

You had your first live show just the other day, how did that go?

Alexis - "We could not have asked for a better night. The room was packed and charged with great energy. We had a ton of fun and we're very grateful for having such supportive fans out the gates."

What, in your mind, should a perfect 3TEETH live show be like?

Alexis - "Something like the Ludovico technique aversion therapy in Clockwork Orange processed through the sensibilities of an industrial metal concert."

Your also scheduled to play the Terminus festival in Calgary, Canada. Your probably excited about that?

Alexis - "Yeah Terminus looks like a great festival and we're definitely flattered to be booked up there. We're going to give them a great show they won't soon forget."

Do you have other live dates booked? Any plans coming to Europe?

Alexis - "Right now we have Boston & New York confirmed and few others in the works like Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto. Everything is happening so fast for us right now, it's a little bit hard to keep up with the booking requests but were definitely going to do our best to get out there and pound the pavement with this project. As for Europe, we'd absolutely love to. We just need some promoter across the pond who can make sense of the economics."

Any of you involved in past or present projects besides 3TEETH?

Alexis - "We're all 100% devoted to 3TEETH and energy diversions need not apply right now."

If you had to listen to one album for the rest of your life, as scary as that may seem, what album would that be?

Alexis - "Phillip Glass' soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi"

Thanks again for your time. Any other stuff you feel like your fans should know about?

Alexis - "Just that we want to thank them all for the support."