band

The band Third Person has a long history. The history of the band,Third Person, is a story of hope and courage, so filled with emotion, and yet so void of feeling that words can scarcely capture it all.

Our story began early in the year 1996, at Brigham Young University when Nathan Call and Simon Hill met at May Hall.

Initially, the group began as an instrumental acoustic guitar duo--a far cry from the country band Simon had come to BYU hoping to join; Nathan, on the other hand, had come to Provo with aspirations of becoming the local electric guitar hero. Their first shows took place early that first semester.

After only 4 short months, it was clear that Nate and Simon were destined to become far more than just an acoustic guitar duo--they were destined to become the Band Formerly Known as Simon and Nate (as they were called at their Christmas/Winter concert). The pair set out to accomplish a couple of things: first, to record their debut album together, and second, to come up with a name that would reflect their musical attitude and direction.

Many names were discussed, but none were agreed upon until somehow, someway, the named ‘Third Person’ appeared, and surfaced as the clear choice. (Ok, truthfully, we can’t really remember how exactly we came up with the name, or who suggested it, only that it has several meanings…)

After 2 long semesters of grueling over material the band’s first release, Omniscient, was released. It featured songs from both the new band’s present as well as Nate and Simon’s past. Omniscient sold out.

The next 2 years found Nate and Simon in South America, serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Nathan to Neuquen, Argentina, and Simon to Trujillo, Peru. Little did they know, Paul Mickelsen, the future front man of Third Person, was also in South America, serving a mission in Bolivia.

After returning in 1998, the duo found themselves re-energized and ready to get to work. They set their sights on working more closely together, and as the album’s eventual title--Collaboration--attests, they achieved it. The release in 1999 was met by reviews in the local student paper. Collaboration also sold out.

Conquering all that they had set out to conquer with their first 2 releases, Nate and Simon sought bigger fish to fry, and took the year off from music.

Enter Paul.

Feeling the desire to focus more on songwriting and guitar playing for Simon and Nate, respectively, our heroes began looking for a singer to fill the void that their singing had left for so long. By incidents more miraculous than coincidental, both Simon and Nate found roads that lead to the voice that would find place on every future Third Person album.

While touring extensively around the Provo area, the new and improved group also began rehearsing and writing their historic third album, Eclection, which was released the fall of 2001 and sold out, probably.

Around this same time drummer Jason Jones joined the band. His playing can be heard on Eclection as well. However, his amazing drumming skills made him difficult to keep and he soon took a place in the Christian rock band--Iron Rod.

Unfortunately, the ‘falling out’ that every rock band has was not far from driving the entire band apart.

Nate, feeling that his talents were being sorely exploited, ran off, got married, and moved to Colorado. Simon was so furious that his true love, BYU Kicks Field Goal Kicking Club, had to leave, that he up and moved to Florida to dedicate his life to the pursuit of studying for actuarial exams. Paul, was so glad to have the 2 biggest egos out of the band, that he took all the spotlight to himself, and continued performing around Utah County with a pair of would-be guitarists.

But the miles, and the mountains of bitterness were no match for the never-ceasing megalomania of Nate, Simon, and Paul, who reunited in Jacksonville to mend the fences and to record Specialized, their most daring, and best sounding album to date, with boxes and boxes sitting in their bedrooms.

Now, only time will tell how far the little band that started off as a couple of poor college students playing guitars gone corporate egoists known as Third Person will go.