Tony Fredianelli

After years of lineup changes in the early and mid-1990s, the songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan signed the band's first major-label recording contract with Elektra Records in 1996.

The band found commercial success in the late 1990s, with Third Eye Blind and Blue certified platinum six times and single platinum in the United States, respectively.

Several songs were commercial successes as well, with "Semi-Charmed Life", "Jumper", and "How's It Going to Be", all reaching the Top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100, and "Never Let You Go" reaching the Top 20.

Third Eye Blind has sold around 12 million records worldwide.

The band's origins trace back to the early 1990s, with frontman Stephan Jenkins writing music, but struggling to hold together a consistent musical lineup.

Originally, Jenkins started his music career as one half of an interracial rap duo "Puck and Natty" with musician Herman Anthony Chunn, who went by the stage name "Zen".

The two managed to attract some attention from record labels - enough to get one of their few recorded songs "Just Wanna Be Your Friend" on a soundtrack for the television drama Beverly Hills, 90210.

The two were in talks of being signed with Capitol Records, but Jenkins did not see eye to eye on the label's views on the musical direction or what music producer they would work with, and negotiations fell through.

The group broke up shortly afterwards, and while short-lived, it was in the group that Jenkins first developed connections in the industry, and wrote the first iteration of what would become Third Eye Blind's biggest hit, "Semi-Charmed Life".

After the "Puck and Zen" experience, Jenkins moved into the direction of starting a rock band instead.

Jenkins recounted that over the span of a few years, he would recruit members, only to have them drop out because of drug addiction or join other bands.

Third Eye Blind is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1993.

Jenkins would write and workshop early material with musician Jason Slater for years before the band started up formally, and the two recorded the band's first demo together in 1993.

Jenkins reconnected with music producer and sound engineer David Gleeson, a contact from his Puck and Natty days, to be able to record demos at professional studios like Skywalker Ranch.

Gleeson assisted in the sessions, but eventually had a falling-out with Jenkins and stopped working with the band.

George Earth also played guitar on some demos.

Much of the contents of the first demo, such as the track "Hold Me Down", were scrapped and shelved entirely, but Jenkins continued to work on some material like "Semi-Charmed Life" or "Alright Caroline" that were eventually released.

Around this time, guitarist Tony Fredianelli auditioned for the band, though according to Slater, Jenkins believed him to be "too [heavy] metal" for the band.

Around the time frame of 1993 and 1994, Slater departed the band, while guitarist Kevin Cadogan and bassist Arion Salazar joined.

The band cycled through a number of drummers including Adrian Burley, Steve Bowman (Counting Crows), and Michael Urbano (Smash Mouth).

Salazar noted that the band struggled to make much progress prior to the arrival of Cadogan, and felt that the songs really started to develop when Cadogan's big guitar sound was added to Jenkin's more stripped-down demos.

The two became songwriting partners, with Jenkins writing lyrics and Cadogan helping him brainstorm musical ideas; together, they worked on a second set of demos.

The band toured locally during 1994 and early 1995, building up a following.

However, in July 1995, the band hit a significant setback with a disastrous "Battle of the Bands" performance that would see the winner be offered a record deal.

Urbano (the drummer at the time) quit shortly before the show, Jenkins was sick and unable to perform well, and Cadogan blew out his guitar amp two songs into the show.

They lost the contest, and with it, the potential record deal and the confidence of their management and studio team, who left the band right afterwards.

On the verge of breaking up, the band instead regrouped and recruited two new key people: Drummer Brad Hargreaves and manager Eric Gotland, a long-time personal friend and confidant of Jenkins.

Jenkins, Cadogan, Salazar, and Hargreaves would go on to be the core lineup for the band during the recording of its first two studio albums.

Through past connections of Slater and Gotland, Third Eye Blind started recording a third demo with producer and sound engineer Eric Valentine, with some additional funding from a partially interested RCA Records, from late 1995 to February 1996.

Valentine noted that he had heard the demos the band had recorded prior to his arrival, but felt they were "not ready" and needed to be reworked or discarded.

He later expressed more satisfaction with material he had worked on.

RCA passed on the band after hearing the material, but the demos instead attracted the attention of Arista Records.

Label founder Clive Davis invited the band to perform at a band showcase in New York City in March 1996.

The band released their self-titled debut album in 1997, with the band largely consisting of Jenkins (vocals, rhythm guitar), Cadogan (lead guitar), Arion Salazar (bass guitar), and Brad Hargreaves (drums).

Shortly after the release of the band's second album in 1999, Blue, with the same line-up, Cadogan was released from the band under controversial circumstances.

The band continued, but with many line-up changes and long gaps between album releases for the next 15 years.

The band released Out of the Vein in 2003 and Ursa Major in 2009 with guitarist Tony Fredianelli, but parted ways with him shortly afterwards, leaving only Jenkins and Hargreaves as the remaining core members.

The band's lineup stabilized again in the mid-2010s, adding Kryz Reid (lead guitar), Alex Kopp (keyboards), and Alex LeCavalier (bass guitar).

The new lineup led to increased output with less time between releases - Dopamine (2015), and a string of EPs, We Are Drugs (2016) and Thanks for Everything (2018).

After Kopp was replaced by Colin Creev, sixth and seventh studio albums Screamer (2019) and Our Bande Apart (2021) were released.