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In the wake of their smashingly successful multi-platinum debut album and a list of some of the year's most cathartic songs such as "Semi-Charmed Life," "How's It Going to Be," and "Losing a Whole Year," Third Eye Blind became the band to see live in thesummer of 1998. Far exceeding early predictions about the band's record and ticket sales, Third Eye Blind has created an entire culture made up of fans that value originality, spontaneity, and quality grooves. Pegged early on as a group who refused to conform, the members of Third Eye Blind have remained true to their roots through 52 weeks of touring and a summer and fall of recording their new album entitled "Blue

Lead singer and songwriter, Stephan Jenkins says, "I founded the band partly because the music scene was so conservative. We didn't do this to fit into the music scene around us. We did his because we didn't fit in." It took Jenkins a year and a half to fit all of the parts of the band together. When final member Brad Hargreaves joined up with Third Eye Blind Jenkins recalls, "Everything clicked. We've never looked for anyone else to come and change what we've got."

As for the name Third Eye Blind, Stephan laughs, "It's not a mission statement or anything like that. I have always liked names with wit and irony. The name also reflects a certain sense of magic and dreams- we thought that was very lacking in music when we started- music for a blind time, if you will. It also takes the piss out of that phony spiritual thing. Third Eye Blind has always been about real things."

Third Eye Blind's second album "Blue" will be released in November. Intense and even painful at times, it also feels good. After two years on tour playing together almost every night, Third Eye Blind is closer musically. They are wilder and quicker, and have not strayed from their commitment to independence, individuality, and the quest for creative growth and new sound. The new album is a full-on, headlong rush from start to finish, not repeating itself, not relying on what's been done before. When other bands have made an industry copying their own sound, Third Eye Blind is once again off to something else. "Blue" exists as a muscular rock record, strong, energetic, vibrant, but it also challenges itself and vulnerably strips itself down to bare bones in places, exposing the intricate inner core from where these sounds come.

Many of the songs on "Blue" come from some highly energized jam sessions. The band experimented with making this record in the style of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, using the studio as a place to be creative. "Everyone just picked up an instrument and started playing. One of us would have an idea and someone else would start to embellish it which would inspire something else," explains Stephan. "There was no plan in making this record, except to make something that excites us."

"Blue" is a purely band-driven record, and in different ways each member of the band individually surpassed their previous accomplishments to shine on the new album. Says Jenkins, "In some ways, I would call this record 'The Dawn of Arion' because he got so involved in the making of it. He co-wrote two songs and got involved in the arrangements and played keyboards. Brad Hargreaves played drums with a power and abandon that inspired the rest of the band. He was into playing jungle rhythms on this record, rejecting the current trend in rock of using drum loops. Every drum hit, Brad played. "Confounding people is our natural state," says Jenkins. "It's not about finding other people's stuff, it's about finding something of our own. You can't listen to what Kevin Cadogan plays on the guitar and say something new isn't going on."

Third Eye Blind has found something all their own. Crowds at concerts far exceeding expectations, cars driving across the country, tattoos, and hundreds of websites point to a passionate culture largely independent of media influence. "We have a direct conduit to the people who listen to our music that is not filtered through what other people say about it. When fans see us live, they see a dedication to reinvention and spontaneity. They are part of a physically demanding event," explains Jenkins. "It's that human element that comes from the spark between the band and the people. The music ignites it. It's all about us live." Third Eye Blind continues to embrace and expand its own space with the new album "Blue" just as it has from the very beginning.