Creativity Quote by Stephan Jenkins

Stephan Jenkins is quietly rewriting the band’s origin story in real time: not as a shiny late-90s radio product, but as a self-determined operation that survived inside a machine built to smooth edges. Third Eye Blind sits in a specific cultural slot - mainstream enough to be instantly recognizable, nostalgic enough to be constantly re-consumed - and that’s exactly why “DIY” feels like a provocation here. People associate the band with major-label gloss, big choruses, and MTV-era saturation. Jenkins is insisting that visibility and independence aren’t opposites; they can be simultaneous, even if the audience only notices the former.

The intent is defensive and corrective, but also aspirational. “I don’t think DIY... comes to mind” acknowledges the public’s assumption without conceding it. Then he flips the frame: “completely how we’ve been” isn’t a partial claim about a scrappy early phase; it’s a full identity statement. The subtext is about credit and control - who gets to be seen as authentic, who gets dismissed as “corporate,” and how a band protects its creative authorship when it’s been filed away as a 90s artifact.

Context matters: as legacy acts tour and streaming compresses eras into playlists, artists fight to own their narrative beyond their biggest singles. Jenkins is pushing back against the idea that DIY only belongs to underground scenes. He’s also reminding listeners that self-direction can be a long game - a posture of making choices, not just a budget line.