[PREMIERE] Third Eye Blind – “Mine” (Beyonce cover)

Look & Listen! // Visual Artist: Leslie Ann O'Dell [via]

One of the most beautiful things about music, in all its shapes and forms, is its ability to dig deep into your soul and strum something real and raw. To elicit the kind of emotional response usually reserved for the first day of spring of a new crush. I’ll never forget my own first fall into love “love” and having the whole whirlwind of naive longing soundtracked by Third Eye Blind’s debut album. The wounds of that youthful relationship have long since faded and been replaced by the wisdom and additional wounds of growing older. But hearing Stephen Jenkins’ voice always sets my mind in a special state.

Being older and wiser is luckily no reason to not be deeply affected by music. As Jenkins states below, he had his own chemical reaction to hearing Beyonce’s “Mine” and I’m just honored to share this stripped back rendition of a song that struck a man’s heart, just so much as that mans songs stuck mine. Third Eye Blind have a new album called Dopamine coming out June 16 but I doubt that any feeling will me much muted. It’s not 3EB’s style, and who would want it to be?

In music, as in all things cultural, I’m looking to get freaked. This desire gets heightened while making records and it often leaves me despairing when all the hipster radio and music discovery playlists sound like audition tapes for an elevator. That was my state on the day Beyoncé dropped her self-titled album like a refreshing smack in the bum. I had a sense of wonder in songs like “Crazy in Love”  and marveled at the perfection of Halo–same as Lena Dunham did when she played it on Girls. However, I never embraced Beyoncé beyond that. Too perfect. Definitely turn it up in a car, a welcome addition to the party mix. But I couldn’t find the point of entry, the raw point where the real connection happens. Right up until hearing Drunk in Love, her track, and Diplo’s remix hurled me into that emotional landscape, the way only a great song can. That this innovation and authenticity was coming from pop, made it all the more mind-blowing.

I listened to Mine and somehow it reminded me of Radiohead. Underneath the complexity and camouflage of the production was this simple, brilliant offering. I strummed it out on guitar and the longing in the lyrics seemed to just take over. It set a bar for me in writing songs for our latest album Dopamine. This rendering is a thank you note.

– Stephen Jenkins (Third Eye Blind)