Aging and maturing as a band is no easy task. In the case of acts that first struck it big at a very young age, it can be difficult, especially when your music was always catered to a younger audience. For former Warped Tour mainstays 3OH!3, that meant that the duo of Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman had to look at how to make new music that was fun and accessible, while evolving beyond the youthful ignorance of hits like “Don’t Trust Me” and “Dirty Mind.” Now with a new single out, as well as a supporting role on Simple Plan’s “Bigger Than You Think” tour, the guys sat down with OnMilwaukee before their August 21 date at BMO Pavilion. Here’s where things stand for the duo: 

OMC: You’re about to hit the road for a tour with Simple Plan, Bowling For Soup, and LOLO. How are you feeling heading into the tour?

Motte: We're feeling great. We appreciate you taking the time to chat with us. We're super excited to go to Milwaukee. We played the Eagles Ballroom at The Rave countless times and had such great nights and great shows in Milwaukee. So we're stoked. I don't think we've ever really formally played the BMO Pavilion. We've been in and around there on Warped Tours in the past, which this tour is like very much a kind of a collection of Warped Tour veterans. So we're stoked to get out. It's been a long time since we've done a real tour, so we're planning some fun stuff for it.

OMC: When you guys got the call, or found out that this was happening, what was the initial reaction for you? Who are you most excited to be on tour with?

Foreman: Yeah, I mean, again, we've been on Warped Tours, we've crossed paths with Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, even LOLO a lot. They're just great. Great hangs, great people. Even the last Warped Tour in 2018, Simple Plan were our go-to homies to hang out with. 

Motte: I enjoy it, because I'm French too, and I get to speak French with my French Canadian boys.

Foreman: When they hit us up, we just wanted to make it happen at any length. We haven't toured really since 2018 or 2019. We have some new young kids and families that we've been focusing on. So we're super ready and raring to get out and play for some fans and people that haven’t seen us for a long time. Likewise, we haven’t been in front of them either. We’re just excited to have that interaction and throw a party, you know. 

Motte: Maybe catch a Brewers game. Who knows.

OMC: They’ve been playing well lately, so it’ll be exciting.

Foreman: We’re there. Yeah, last time on Warped Tour, we played early and then just hopped out and went to a Brewers game. 

Motte: We likely even had some sort of Miller product.

OMC: That sounds about right. You guys also have a new single that you just put out, “Slushie.” Tell me a little bit about making this song, and is this part of something bigger that’s on the way?

Motte: Yeah, man, I think it’s a return to form for us of just having fun. The genesis of all our stuff is through Sean and I originally started in a basement in Colorado. Now it’s in a refurbished garage in Los Angeles, and sometimes back in that same basement. But we just want to have fun, be creative, and make music that’s hopefully infectious, gets you moving, and gets people dancing.

This one is, I think, a kids' song for the summer. We may bring a slushie machine out on the road if we can. We maybe should be slanging overpriced, over-sugared drinks to folks. But it’s the first thing we’re releasing from what will end up being a collection of music. We’re excited to put new music out, to play it live, and to see what people think.

OMC: Do you have a rough timeline? I’m sure you can’t say dates, but when can people expect to hear more beyond “Slushie”?

Foreman: I'm not gonna give a solidified date.

Motte: We also don’t know yet.

Foreman: We’re teasing our fans, but we’re also teasing ourselves by not truly knowing. It’s a different era. I mean, we have music, right? But we have songs ready to go that we’re super excited about. They’ll be out sooner than later. We’re excited to have it out and to play them. 

Motte: Not all of them are based on convenience store/gas station culture. 

Foreman: We should have, though. Cool concept, right?

OMC: Could have been an amazing thing. The whole “corner store” could have been the theme of the album.

Foreman: BuzzBalls is next. BuzzBalls.

OMC: You’ll have to sign the brand deal with them to make sure that happens.

Motte: Yeah. We’ll go with Taquitos after that.

OMC: Being family men now, what does that mean for the sound of 3OH!3? Do you think about that when you’re making stuff, or do you kind of let loose when you’re in the studio?

Foreman: I mean, I think part of it for us is “first thought, best thought.” But at the same time, we are who we are in this moment. We are family men. 

I'm almost 40, but not quite yet. Actually, I’ll turn 40 on this tour. So obviously we are who we are walking into the studio, but we try to keep things just kind of like “first thought, best thought” and have a fun time doing it.

For example, “Slushie,” the concept and the chorus and the production was just a pretty quick outpouring. We were like, “This is fun. This is exactly the spirit of how we started.” It’s evolved, but I don’t think we’re over-curating too much. We put a lot of care into it. We put a lot of care into the production and post-production, but when we’re just coming out with what feels natural, it’s fun, inclusive music that we can all have a good time with. When we play it, we just want that to be conveyed in the crowd as well.

Motte: It’s interesting. When we started, we had no experience in the music business. Now, we’ve done a lot of writing and production for other artists, from Ariana Grande to BTS to Maroon 5 to Max and Lil Jon. So we’ve had amazing experiences, and you get to hone your craft because you’re writing constantly. When it comes back to our own stuff, you take all that craft that you’ve learned, and then forget it. But really, you apply only some of it to your music. We try to be pretty diligent about focusing on what’s important for 3OH!3, and that’s making fun, infectious music that’s inclusive for everyone.

OMC: If you guys didn’t put out “Slushie” on your own, is there any one artist that you’d be like, “This song should be for them”?

Motte: Yeah. Tom Waits.

OMC: Naturally. Yes. That would have been my first thought, too.

Foreman: I can imagine him singing it.

OMC: I don’t want to hear it, but I do want to hear it now, if we can manifest that.

Foreman: With AI we can probably make that happen now.

Motte: I would love to hear his cover of it.

OMC: That’s how you get those vocal cords.

Motte: Yeah. Lots of syrupy melted sugar drink. 

Foreman: I don’t know, though. That’s a good question. We’ve been fans of a lot of things. The Charli XCX album. We love that one. I think it’d be cool to hear a female vocal on it. That’d be cool.

OMC: Before we let you go, what is the essential thing you have to have with you on tour? It could be a pillow, something sentimental, whatever. What’s the one thing you have to bring?

Motte: For me, this is the essential thing on tour. Melted slushie.

OMC: Melted slushie?

Foreman: It’s been a while, man. I feel like I’ll have to really think as we get closer because it’s probably changed as I’ve gotten older. It’ll probably be like, I don’t know, hemorrhoid cream or something.

Motte: Man, I remember Warped Tour 2008, maybe 2009. We had a liquor distributor friend who, over the tour, dropped us over 100 bottles of booze. It was sick because we gave a bunch to our friends, but we also ended up going through a lot of it. That’s definitely not happening on this tour.

So it might be more like Pedialyte. 

Foreman: That would kill me, bro. Yeah, I think unfortunately, antacids. Yeah, Tums. Probably

Motte: Tums and Pepto, man.

OMC: There you go. That’s the next single: “Tums and Pepto.” 

Motte: Also convenience-store procurable.

OMC: There we go!

Motte: Thanks for your time. Shout out to all of Milwaukee. We're stoked to get back up there to Wisconsin and party with everybody.

You can catch 3OH!3 alongside Simple Plan, Bowling For Soup and LOLO on August 21st at BMO Pavilion. Tickets are available now via Ticketmaster.