ecessity is the mother of invention. Think of how original this statement really is. What do we hear day after day? Cookie cutter bands with the same breakdowns, the same melodies and the same exhausted stories have become what we are spoon-fed and we are constantly asking for seconds. Maybe we believe that this is all there is for us, that we need to support and be grateful for what we do have even though it’s a copy of a copy of a copy. A Hope for Home fully realizes this issue in today’s music scene and has now released what, we will be the first to say, is the future of this genre. A new edition to Facedown Records, A Hope for Home is here to invade your headspace with something new, something original, something worth telling your friends about. Vocalist Nathan Winchell and guitarist/vocalist Matt Ellis further explained the depth and ideals behind their Facedown debut while out on the road on The Young and Wreckless Tour alongside future heavy hitters at their new label. Through trials of many kinds, AHFH still stand on the edge of constant questions but the future is looking bright and the boys from Portland couldn’t be more stoked for tomorrow. Realis isn’t all rainbows and puppies however, this is something real. This story is about doubt, questioning and finding your place in this world told through the eyes of a band you might not know today, but trust us, will be making waves for years to come.
So we last spoke with you guys in July. I know a lot has happened since then. Can you fill us in on the last eight months?
Matt Ellis: We spent most of the summer out on the road at various festivals and did a little stint with our good friends in Hands. At Cornerstone, Jason
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Dunn showed interest in moving us up to Facedown for our next release, which meant that we had to get to work on a new record. We rented a practice studio in September and took a couple months to write what would become Realis.
We know that you guys lost a key member in drummer Ian Vidovic earlier this year. What is happening with his position now?
ME: I went to high school with our new drummer, Lance, and he had been living in Japan for the past couple years. When we first started writing, the plan was to just have him write the record with us and then he would go back to Japan for school in the spring. Things clicked really well however, and he decided to drop out and join the band. We couldn’t be more excited, I think he’s an amazing drummer and his style fits our progression really well.
Nathan Winchell: Ian had been there from the beginning which is more than I, and almost half of the other guys, can say. As we all started to grow musically and personally it became more and more apparent that Ian was going one way and we were moving in a slightly different direction. We didn’t know what we were going to do; we just knew things wouldn’t work if we allowed them to stay the way they were. After jamming with a couple guys we got in contact with Lance, who played in local bands a few years back. He had been going to school in Japan, close to earning a degree, and was pretty apprehensive about uprooting his entire life to play music but things with him clicked a lot better than any of us could I hoped for. He agreed to write and record the album with us and after a little while it was pretty evident that we all wanted him to be a permanent figure in the band. Luckily he’s sticking around for a while, if he doesn’t get sick of us first.
You guys signed to Strike First nearing the end of 2008 then announced you had moved up to Facedown Records at the end of 2009. Talk to us a bit about your experience on Strike First and your transition to Facedown?
ME: Jason and the rest of the Facedown staff are amazing. We had a pretty rough week at Cornerstone last year and Jason told me he wanted to meet for lunch. I was horrified because of how things had been going, but he told me he was interested in moving us up. We were so excited, and their faith in us was so encouraging. Facedown has been nothing but extremely supportive and we couldn’t imagine working with anyone else.
NW: It was a little surreal for us at first, I think. I grew up listening to some Facedown bands but had no idea Jason was even interested in bands like us. When we heard he wanted to sign us to Strike-First it was a surprise. We ended up re-releasing The Everlasting Man with them and did a small tour and shows here and there with Facedown bands who kind of showed us the ropes. A Lot of Strike-First bands end up moving on to Facedown but we weren’t sure how we would be received since we didn’t sound like any of the bands on the label. We were at Cornerstone when Jason told us he was moving us up to Facedown. Something must have worked in our favor.
Your last album was a concept album entitled The Everlasting Man. How important is it to you all to have a message behind your music?
ME: I wouldn’t want to be doing this if it was all for some selfish personal gain. None of us are in this to get huge or be the next big thing, (our music would definitely sound a lot different if that was the case). My favorite bands are all bands that use their music as art, or to express themselves. I wouldn’t want it any other way for our band. There are so many other bands that are way tighter and more creative than we are, and my hope is that what we create would mean something to just one other person rather than us being the craziest and most flashy band around. That one other person can listen to how we express ourselves, and relate to what we are saying is all I can ever ask for.
NW: I would say it’s pretty important. Sometimes it feels like Matt and I spend the same amount of time collaborating on lyrics as we all do writing the music. A lot of our favorite music has been made by people who had something to say so I think it’s natural for us to want to do that as well. Everyone in the band is usually there giving input on the vocals so it’s never something we take lightly.
What is the message behind your new album Realis? What does Realis mean? What theme do you wish to carry through?
ME: Realis is somewhat of a reaction to everything we have gone through as a band and in our individual lives. We have all been raised in the church and spent our whole lives as firm and adamant believers. But after a year of touring with other extremely powerful evangelic bands on our label that all seemed to be ready to give their lives for God, I at least started to look at myself and wonder what I was doing with myself. Is the goal of what we are doing to save as many kids as possible? Heal people? Wouldn’t it just be okay if I wrote a song about how Jesus is great and how He makes me want to not be a jerk or something? I realized that if I only had one more record to write, one more thing to say, I would want it to be a lot more meaningful than a song about feeling bad or about how Jesus is great dude. Again, not that that isn’t an overarching truth, but how much am I truly giving him or anyone else if I resort to something so easy, so safe to say? I began to ask myself, conceptually mind you, what would this world be like if there were no God? If He isn’t real, what does that mean for my life and that of the rest of the world? That question is where Realis begins. The concept follows a man trying to reconstruct his understanding of reality without a God, without universal truth. Throughout the rest of the record, the man tries to reconcile his doubt with what he finds. So many bands are very eloquent speakers and very passionate, and we realized that that kind of ministry is not really what we are meant to do. My hope is that someone can relate to the questions raised and the doubts felt, with a firm understanding that there is a meaning and a purpose to everything in this world. The title sums it up: “Realis” is an early Latin word which has no direct English translation but roughly translates to “affirmed existence.”
NW: After thinking about what I wanted to say with this album I knew I wanted to address some grey areas. We’ve always been a really positive band and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but life isn’t always that way. Things aren’t always black and white. Even when it’s easy for you to stand steadfast in whatever you believe, there are going to be times in your life where it’s just not that easy. It’s alright to search, question and sometimes fear the unknown, it’s human. We wanted to address the human condition throughout the album and that’s where the title Realis, which is a Latin root for “reality”, came from.
Talk to us about the production of this album?
ME: We went up to Seattle in January to track drums with Chris Common, who used to play drums in These Arms Are Snakes. He runs a studio with Matt Bayles, who is one of my favorite producers ever, and both those guys have worked on a lot of my favorite records by bands like Botch, Isis, and Minus the Bear. We only did drums and mixing there, so that was kind of a bummer, but it was definitely a huge step up from doing everything ourselves as we had done in the past. Chris really got what we were going for and helped us translate that onto tape. We had a bit of a time crunch while we were recording it ourselves, because we moved the release date up a couple weeks to coincide with a tour we were heading out on. It was really intense, but I’m super proud of how everything turned out.
NW: Last fall we locked ourselves up in a tiny 12 by 12 practice space four or five days a week and just wrote as much as we could. In January we went up to The Red Room studio in Seattle and record the drums with Chris Common. It was a really great experience and Dan got a geek out on all of the awesome gear up there. We took the drums tracks back home and recorded everything else ourselves over the span of about two weeks. It was nice to be able to record in the comforts of home again like we had with the past records but doing the drums with Chris gave everything a crisp feel we never could have gotten on our own. We took the tracks back to him so he could mix it as well. We were pretty strapped for time towards the end of the month but everything ended up sounding really big and powerful. We’re pretty happy with it.
Awhile back, you had admitted that this album would be quite a departure from what AHFH fans were used to. Can you expand on this?
ME: Ian had a very unique style which led to a lot of what made The Everlasting Man what it was. He is a very good drummer. When we started writing Realis, however, we really wanted to focus on being a little more groove oriented and try to stray from a lot of the bands we had been compared to or lumped in with. One thing we really set out to do was to make a record that sounded a little different than a lot of what is going on in the scene right now, in the hopes of making something that would at least stand separate from a lot of the trends that are going on right now. Not that any of that stuff is bad, but I really feel that the scene is growing stagnant, and not a lot of bands are trying to do new things. Comfort is such a temporary thing in this industry, and we don’t want anything to do with it. So at the end of the day we decided to just write what we wanted to, highlight some of our influences such as Isis and This Will Destroy You, and simply play music that we wanted to play, regardless of how many records it will sell or what tours we will land on.
NW: Musically and lyrically it’s a departure for sure. With the past records we where still trying to figure out who we were as a band and I think that created a lot of inconsistency and maybe even made some parts seem awkward. We’re a little older now, our musical influences have changed. These songs are definitely darker. You’ll hear the heaviest stuff we’ve ever written as well. Some people might be a little surprised to hear hints of hopelessness, cynicism and questioning of beliefs within the lyrics. Although it’s all a part of a narrative concept, it is new territory for us.
Do you feel added pressure from this being your first release on a larger label? Do you feel pressure knowing that this is the most unique album you have put out to date?
NW: Not as much pressure as I feel like I should be feeling. Although since we aren’t really a dance band I think people started to connect with our lyrics, which is utterly amazing and fulfilling but as one of the main lyricists I did feel that slight pressure to live up to and surpass everything we did in the past.
ME: I have to be honest, when we were sitting on the couch mixing the record, I had a moment when I thought “Crap. How are we going to sell this?” Most of the pressure came after getting the record done, honestly. It is a scary thing to have your first release on an established label be the one that we decided to experiment the most on. But Facedown has been nothing but supportive, and it has been such an encouragement. At the end of the day, we can’t worry about stuff like that, and we just need to focus on playing and writing music that we want to play. If you’re not pleasing yourself with what you create, everything else will fall by the wayside.
What do you see as some of the main purposes for A Hope for Home making music?
ME: I guess I would have to say what I stated before, to express ourselves. I don’t want to think for a minute that I am more important than anyone else, or that I am any better than the kids at the show that come to watch us play. We are just another voice and for me anyway, this underground music scene has always been about sharing different views and creating a safe outlet where people can express themselves. For some reason or another, we have been blessed with the amazing opportunity to share our music and faith with other people, and my goal is to be able to create a piece of art that one other person can hear and say, “Hey, I feel that way too,” or to be able to better understand what they are going through by the shared experience of other people.
NW: Well, I would be lying if I didn’t say we’re all making music because we think its fun and we like the songs we write. The music we make comes from our hearts without any pretense or motives and hopefully people can sense that when they see us play. It’s not like we sat down and wrote out a mission statement for the band, but I think we have and always will aim to be some sort of positive light for anyone exposed to us or whoever is willing to listen. We’ve never seen our selves as a ministry per-say but if we can lift people up with our music then I think we did our job.
What do you see happening in the life of A Hope for Home over the next year?
ME: We are out on the road right now on the Facedown Records Young and Wreckless tour with Onward to Olympas, our good friends Hands, and In The Midst of Lions, who are going to literally be the biggest band in the world soon, and it has been so awesome. We have a few other awesome tours lined up as well as some festivals this summer such as Cornerstone and Sonshine. Hopefully we can just stay out on the road and hang out with everyone who would like to hang out with us.
NW: We’re already starting to think about the next record too.
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ome may experience The Chariot and just walk away with a blown mind at their chaotic on stage antics which have, in the past, included fire breathing, hanging from rafters, stacking amps on rock boxes in front of the crowd and just generally trashing the stage and equipment. What many may not know is that vocalist Josh Scogin and company don’t merely perform these acts to get a reaction out of the crowd or to garner a reputation as one of the craziest acts out there. They do this because they truly feel it. They truly feel moved by the spirit while displaying their unique brand of...whatever you want to call it. These guys aren’t confined to one genre or style, they simply do what they feel is important to them, on and off the stage. Sometimes life gives you things to scream about or break things over and we are eternally grateful to The Chariot for reminding us that’s okay.
What is it that compelled you to leave Norma Jean and start The Chariot?
Josh Scogin: When I left Norma Jean it was cool, I just told them I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be there anymore. I started doing some solo stuff then started The Chariot about a year later so it wasn’t a solid transfer from Norma Jean to The Chariot. I was just led back into heavy music about a year and a half later. I just felt like the Lord was leading me to other things so I just started doing something else. We’re all still good friends so that’s cool.
What are some of the influences behind your chaotic brand of metal?
JS: Brand of metal…there’s lot of influences but mainly its musicians who are passionate about what they do. One artist that really influences me is Jerry Lee Lewis just because of his passion for his music and the way he performed his music. We don’t really consider ourselves a metal band, we just do what we like, we start writing a song and it becomes what it is and it just happens to be heavy. Basically, just a lot of Johnny Cash, The Beatles, just the way they write and their passion for the music.
Can you talk to us a bit about where you were spiritually and mentally while creating this last record?
JS: There were a lot of different levels. For me personally, lyrically speaking, it was a pretty crazy season in my life. My father just passed away so a lot of the Wars and Rumors of Wars analogy of that has a lot to do with the wars going on inside so that was where a lot of the lyrics come from. Obviously, we’re continually striving to be loving servants and what not so that influences what we do a lot.
How can you afford to trash the stage every night?
JS: (Laughs) We learn to fix our stuff a lot. Guitars need to be re-glued and re-set up a lot of times. There’s definitely been nights where we break a guitar and fix it the next day and play it the next day. We don’t have any crazy endorsements or anything so we learn to fix our stuff. We just play each show like it’s the last time we get to play so that usually means a trashed stage so we kind of deal with it as it goes.
How are you received by venue owners and fans that have never seen your live performance before?
JS: Venue owners are actually pretty interesting. Sound guys are usually the ones we rub the wrong way. Despite the ways we present ourselves which may look careless but we’ve done this a lot. When David pushes his drums over usually the mics have already been taken off. We’re not trying to break anybody’s stuff or screw anybody over. A lot of the venue owners who get it are excited to see us play but others are saying “don’t touch that, don’t climb on that”. Kids that come out who have never seen us before are pretty interesting to see watch us for the first time, they look pretty confused or surprised depending on who they are which I’m a big fan of both of those things, showing people new things. I think that’s what kind of sucks about the music industry lately is that there’s so many carbon copies of bands that kids already expect what they’re going to see. They say “Oh this band looks like this so they’re going to sound like that”. We really feel like one of our purposes is to be true to what we know and what we want to do in our art whether people seem to get it or not and the people who do get it really enjoy it.
Do you feel like your performance just comes naturally? You said that you don’t want to show kids the same thing night after night so that does that play into your mind when you go on stage?
JS: Do we go crazy to go crazy? Do we break things to break things? We definitely don’t. Every show for us is truly different. We’ve played together long enough to where even the free jam things throughout the set are all different so that makes it fun for us. From a spiritual perspective it’s a type of worshipful experience for us so that it doesn’t become monotonous or a ritualistic thing we do every night. Just trashing something to break it is pretty pointless in my opinion. The overflow of passion to throw something on the ground and to lift your hands in the air and jump in the crowd that’s worth doing because there’s purpose behind it. Just breaking something to be cool is no different than writing a breakdown for kids to dance to. We’re not trying to please anybody we just want to worship in the purest form. I think heavy music has a big opportunity to do that because it is simplistic but there are a lot of variables that go into it. It’s a basic form of communication like a child screaming out or swinging its arms, there’s so much passion that can be packed into that action that a lot of heavy bands miss out on by faking it.
Yeah I remember talking to your bassist Jonathan about this and he said that if he didn’t feel the spirit each night, he would stand still.
JS: I think that’s just as moving. I think the kids that get it aren’t there just to see some dudes flail about. There’s definitely something else going on that doesn’t have to do with us. That’s what’s beautiful about it in my opinion, its not about us getting up there to look cool, that’s just a waste of time. There’s plenty of other bands that can do that.
And I think kids can tell the difference.
JS: That’s what we hope. We don’t care how big the show is. It’s more than that to us.
Your sound has evolved since Everything is Alive to something slightly more melodic, do you think that you have arrived at your sound or do you feel like it will be constantly changing?
JS: I think it will be constantly changing. We definitely have a Chariot sound but obviously they’ve evolved and will keep evolving because we keep evolving as people. When we put together a song we don’t have a formula it’s more of us coming together and watching something be born and grow into something. As most artists would say about a painting or anything, if you step back and look at your art from that perspective its really cool to see what it becomes other than saying “Okay, this time we want to write a heavier record or a punk rock record”. You can tell those records are very forced and not from a special place. I think it will keep changing, we’ve been writing and we have some cool stuff. It’s cool to see how we can make things that people expect us to sound like and while moving in different directions.
What is on the horizon for The Chariot?
JS: We’re planning on writing and recording a record when we have some time off of tours.
Anything you can tell us on some new material?
JS: We haven’t really gotten together and really hammered out a whole song together as a whole band but we have some that individuals have written. I’m really excited about what’s to come for this next record.
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henever it is time for the legendary Showbread to call it quits, vocalist and creator Josh Dies will have more than his fishnet stockings, eye makeup and amazingly weird songs to be remembered for. For the past few years, Mr. Dies has been allowing us inside a different part of his creative mind. Nevada is Dies’ second, and some would argue most intriguing and twisted novel to be self published and released. To be completely honest, this book scared the sleep out of me. We caught Dies at his home in Georgia in between practices with his boys in Showbread. This writer can’t possibly encapsulate the experience it is to read one of Dies’ novels so I will let the author himself give you his take.
For those that didn’t read the piece we did on your first novel back in September, give us a brief explanation as to what got you into writing?
Joshua Porter: I like to read novels a lot. I had read so many at the time and really enjoyed it so much so that I thought that if some of these other people can do this than I can too. I was probably wrong about that but I did it anyway. At the time I was writing and thinking maybe nothing will come of this or maybe it will. I was just going to write it for fun anyway. The more I got further along in The Spinal Cord Perception the more I enjoyed reading it and I thought maybe someone else will enjoy reading it too. I decided to publish it myself and there were people out there who enjoyed it. It became fun enough for me to keep doing it and so I did another one and I’m doing another one now. It’s a lot of fun writing. I don’t know if I’m any good at it but I enjoy it and there’s a small handful that enjoy reading them.
This is your second novel. I have to admit, The Spinal Cord Perception is one of the most impressive and frightening books I’ve ever read. When you began writing Nevada, was there a feeling or pressure that you had to top the last book as far as the horror aspect goes?
JP: A little bit. Enough time had gone by and enough people had read it. It was a small amount of people who read it but relatively big to me, to someone who had never published anything. So much time had gone by where I had talked to enough people about it, had long conversations with people while on tour about it, I was pretty aware of what everyone thought of it, good and bad. I met some people who liked it and some who just thought it was dumb. I went back and read it again before I re-published it last year and I still liked it a lot but I saw a lot of things that I would have done differently. I knew that I didn’t want to write the same kind of thing again, I didn’t want to repeat myself. I knew it would be the same kind of tone and voice but definitely not the same spirit of that book. The Spinal Cord Perception is localized within one guy’s head, so much so that you’re kind of subject to whatever he is thinking or seeing, and often you don’t even know how accurate it is. I didn’t want to do that again but I did want to have some aspects of the unreliable narrator so Nevada is basically made up of journal entries from a whole bunch of different sources. A lot of them are just unreliable enough like they have some sort of mental handicap to where its not completely obvious to what’s going on all the time. The story is bigger, it takes place over a larger scope and isn’t localized to one guy’s head. I wanted to involve a lot of the same elements. I think that already within two books there’s a lot of reoccurring themes and reoccurring symbolism. I wanted it to be as fun and as crazy as the first. My favorite novels always have some crazy over the top element to them, not necessarily offensive stuff, the type of crazy stuff that is provocative in some way. I wanted it to be fun and interesting in that way but also have something to say rather than violence for the sake of violence or shocking for the sake of shocking someone but to have those elements in there to kind of wake you up as you go along.
Some would say that this stuff is really disturbing and might not expect it from a Christian writer. How do you respond to that?
JP: I respect that and understand it. I know it’s not for everyone. Just because someone picks up a book and it has over the top violence and they’re a Christian like I am and that book turns their stomach, I would never be one to tell them they’re a wuss or you’re dumb, you need to read that and enjoy it. I try to be forthcoming with the fact that it does have some stuff in there that might upset some people. It was a little easier going into it with this one because I think that most people, who have bought this book, read the first one and they know its coming from a dark place. To me, this book gets a little crazier than this one. In the first novel, the message I was trying to convey from a biblical perspective, its more tucked under symbolism. It takes getting all the way to the end of the story to uncover it and even then it’s not really obvious. I knew with this one it was going to be more direct and involve literally talking about the Bible and Christianity in the story. It is more violent than the first book and it has crazier things in it. The amount of people who have come up to me and said something like “You make me sick”, is really small (laughs). With that first book, I thought I’d be answering e-mails about it for the rest of my life but I prayed about it and I had a peace about it and thought maybe it’ll do some good and I can clean up any mess that it makes. I’m sure there were people who didn’t love that aspect of it but I wasn’t getting e-mails or asked in interviews what I was thinking. I mean, I get that about Showbread records. In contrast there were a whole bunch of people that did uncover the meaning in the book and it was meaningful to them and they caught onto the spiritual insight. I was less afraid this time that there would be people who wouldn’t understand.
What inspires you while you write these types of stories?
JP: The simplest aspect of the idea came a real long time ago when I was final drafting the first novel. I had this weird idea of dinosaurs coming out of a hole in the desert and then being intelligent and having some place in society. The imagery of that seemed really striking to me. Even while final drafting the first novel I’d write down ideas about Nevada. I really liked the idea and concept but I didn’t know where it’d go. I don’t think it was until the band and me personally looking into more socio-political things going on in the world, which came through on the last Showbread record, ideas about society and Christianity and the American Christian stereotype, the American Christian way of thinking and what people think of the American Christian and all these things that are upsetting to me, all these things that disgust me and just misconceptions that people have about Christians because of the American church. That’s the thing that kind of sparked the writing process, the idea that these creatures have some sort of political and religious agenda and how that might affect the world.
Something that I pulled from the story is that we as people are so starved for something new, something innovative and original that we might jump on the first passionate original idea that comes along, perhaps without really thinking about it. Would you agree with this as far as your story goes?
JP: Absolutely. Its true and I think that everyone is guilty of it at some degree at some point. Whenever there is some kind of charismatic thing that comes along people are really prepared to give it a chance regardless of what it is. It’s the Oprah tendency. If Oprah goes on TV and has some bizarre book about worshipping trees or something and saying don’t worry its still biblical and its good, read this book and mediate…if it’s presented in the right package its good. The story does paint humanity in a pretty bleak light. Some people said that it seemed hard to believe that these people would buy into these ideas. That was the idea for me that any of this could happen and so fast. I wanted the reader to think it was ridiculous. Not to be critical of people but people do gravitate toward things without reading too far into it.
If so, what do you think the world is craving so badly?
JP: To me, as just a simple person who has found something to believe in and has poured a great deal of dedication and research into what I believe in, if any person tells me they don’t crave some sort of purpose beyond the big hopes and dreams within the world type of thing, if they don’t think that at least they have some meaning or there’s some bigger picture here, it’d be hard for me to believe that. That’s the thing that brought me into Christianity. If there’s no point then what am I supposed to do? Should I just die or do whatever I want? Holding that mentality up against religion and faith and different faiths and coming back to Christianity, this is the only thing I’ve found and it offers something worth while and on top of all that it has more historical and philosophical foundation than anything I’ve come across. I think everyone is craving something like that even if they don’t know what it is. That’s probably why we’re so quick to pick up on things even if they’re superficial, at least they’ll distract us.
Tell us a bit about where you pulled the various names of the Ziz from?
JP: (Laughs) Those were fun and those were hard. I did an audio book version of it and I didn’t know how to pronounce half of those names. All the names are either biblical names for demons or the devil or they are actual demon names that come from the history of demonology. I don’t know where these people get this stuff. I would do this research and read about these actual demons that people believe actually exist. It was interesting; I had to look up a lot of Satanists’ blogs for the names and pronunciations. It’s surprising how many are out there, not just the “I am my own god” type of thing but the kind that worship demons. They’re all real names, they all come from somewhere, I didn’t make them up.
What can we expect from the new novel you are writing? Any secrets you can divulge at this point?
JP: I’m writing a non fiction book actually. It’s sort of a memoir. It tells the entire in depth story of Showbread. I don’t usually like memoirs as a general rule especially doing one myself, it feels a little self indulgent. It’s more of storytelling, remembering all this stuff that happened. It seems unbelievable to me and I lived through it. It has some spiritual essays throughout as well talking about the different stages that I’ve been in personally and the band has been in. it kind of reads like Bruce Campbell wrote a memoir about being a B-movie actor. It has an overall spiritual element as well as being the Showbread story. That’ll be out in November of this year. I’m also outlining a sequel to Nevada which will be out in 2011.
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ou want to see a hard working band? Chadwick Johnson of Hundredth can tell you about how they have only been home for one out of the last eighty days (touring without an album to sell), and how it has by no means been a walk in the park, after a run in with a drunk driver, a flipped trailer and many deaths back home, all the while staying positive about whatever comes next. There is only one reason why these guys continue to torture themselves, and it is not their love for Taco Bell, it is a strong conviction for the message that they are promoting through their music and their lifestyles on the road. My hat is off to the dudes in Hundredth for their hard work and dedication to being a positive testimony in this scene. It may not look like you pictured it, but this is the path to success.
For me it seemed like I had never heard of you and then over night I was seeing you everywhere. How long have you guys been at it before Mediaskare came along? Did the transition feel this quick for you?
Chadwick Johnson: Everything has happened really fast actually. Some of us had played together in bands before Hundredth, and once we got together again, things just seemed to pick up really quickly. We played our first show in August of 2008, recorded an EP in October of that year, which we sent to Mediaskare. We began touring full-time immediately after we got done recording the EP and we signed to Mediaskare in December of 2008. So the first couple months as a band were really eventful. All of that happened really fast. We knew we wanted to be out on the road full-time because we knew that was going to be the only way we could make things happen, so we had already financed a van and purchased a trailer and began booking tours on our own, before we even touched a contract. We’re still really early on as a band, but for how fast we got going and how busy we have been over the past year and a half, we have already been through a lot of things and are maturing as a band very quickly. We’ve been touring full-time for just over a year now on no record whatsoever, just trying to get our name out there and develop and mature as a band before our first release, which comes out March 30th, 2010.
After reading through your tour blogs it seems like you guys don’t take anything too seriously, no matter how bad your trailer gets smashed up or how much Taco Bell must continuously consume in order to survive. What keeps you guys on the road and always so positive?
CJ: We laugh at any situation we are put in, sometimes situations that totally shouldn’t be laughed at, but that’s what keeps us sane. At the moment, we haven’t been home but for one day out of the past 80. We’re at the threshold of losing our minds and we’re laughing at pretty much everything that happens. I feel like we have already been through a lot not only as a band but also as individuals in the past year. We’ve had a member change. We’ve dealt with the death of 8 friends at home over 4 months last year. We’ve flipped a trailer. We’ve been rear ended by a drunk driver. We’ve toured relentlessly and did what we had to do to make shows and still play with everything we have.
After facing so many things last year, we slowly learned that dragging our heads does nothing for us and it does nothing for those around us. Our chins stay up regardless of the situation and we refuse to let anything drag us down. We walked through Hell last year, but we kept walking and it taught us a lot. Tragedy brings out strength in all of us. It’s a time where we can crumble and put our faces in the dirt in defeat, or we can choose to rise above anything that stands in our way and move steadfast towards our dreams. Luckily, we chose the latter-half and we had each other and friends at home along the way.
You guys were working with Andy of A Plea For Purging for a stint, how did that relationship form?
CJ: Andy and all of A Plea For Purging are some of our best buds. We played a random show with them in Georgia on our first tour and we got to know each other and kept in touch. We played Nashville quite a bit and then ended up touring with them and Venia last fall. It was a super fun time. We always hit Andy up for random advice or just to check up on the Doo-Doo boys. (A Plea For Purging)
Talk to us a bit about coming up in the South Carolina scene?
CJ: We all pretty much grew up in South Carolina, going to shows all over the state. As far as Hundredth coming up South Carolina, I feel like we are really lucky. We have tons of support from South Carolina, and we are really appreciative of it. Our hometown shows are really personal, and our Charleston and Greenville shows feel like and are considered hometown shows to us also. It’s a really welcoming feeling when we come home from a long tour and have a solid show where we can just hang out with our friends. We are really stoked for the CD Release weekend we are about to do in South Carolina. We want to give South Carolina the first chance to pick up the record and we are going to play it live from front to back.
What would you say sets Hundredth apart from other hardcore acts?
CJ: Our band, both the lyrics and music are really personal to all of us. I feel like that translates live. Every lyric is personal, every riff and lead is felt and played with passion and emotion. We’re up-front and honest about the struggles we go through and we’re not afraid to get angry about the things we see wrong with the world. Every single show we give everything we have. If we aren’t drenched with sweat and flushed red from screaming the lyrics by the end of the set, we didn’t do our job. Our music is raw and so is our emotion. Our band is an emotional vent and outlet for us, so we always hope that translates live. This band means everything to us.
As a signed touring band you have been given an amazing platform from which you can promote absolutely anything that you want. What is it that you want to get across to fans?
CJ: Above all of our personal beliefs about how we believe the world can be “fixed”, we want in instill hope and positivity to everyone. We want to encourage dreams to be followed, and promote rising above fear and circumstance. We want to relate to those struggling, and walk beside them. We want to be the catalyst to help end negative mindsets and the idea that someone isn’t good enough or doesn’t belong at shows. We’re all outcasts and we’re all in this together. Above all, we want to put out records and a live show that helps people get through dark and tough times in their lives, because that’s what our songs have done for us. When someone at one of our shows tells us they felt something special, or they felt the emotion and it made them think about their life in-depth, that is when we get the confirmation that we are doing what we’ve been mandated to do.
What are some of your favorite cities to play in thus far? Tell us the story...
CJ: This is a tough question. Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Greenville in our home-state are always awesome. We love playing in Nashville always. On these past couple tours we have played some new favorite places. Salt Lake City and Southern California were both really awesome. Those are some notable places, just based off crowd participation and the overall vibe of the people that come out to our shows there. Our material is still pretty unknown, so I’m sure in a year, there will be loads of cities that will be our favorites. For now, kids have to go to our MySpace to listen to our music so it’s a bit limited, but pretty soon we hope our shows to be sing-a-long central.
What does the next few months hold for Hundredth?
CJ: Like I said earlier, we haven’t been home but for a couple hours in the past 80 days, so we are looking forward to relaxing month at home before our next tour, the Fist Pumps and Posi Jumps Tour with The World We Knew, Continuance and A Textbook Tragedy. While we are home for the month we are playing a South Carolina CD Release Weekend run with our friends in Blacklines. Our record comes out while we are at home. We are really stoked to do our first tour with the record out. After the tour in April, we have some more time off, and just confirmed an awesome tour for the summer. We will be on tour all of 2010, so stay posted for announcements! Make sure you pick up our debut-record “WHEN WILL WE SURRENDER” out MARCH 30th! If you are walking through darkness, keep your chin up. We’ll see you soon hopefully.
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We Came As Romans | Display Of Raw Power
e Came as Romans is not a Christian band. This may come to as a surprise to some of you and some of you are currently silently calling me an idiot. Either way, you cannot deny the raw power and amazing performance that these guys display night after night. Currently on The Emptiness Tour alongside Alesana, A Skylit Drive, The Word Alive and Of Mice and Men, we caught up with guitarist Joshua Moore in a small dressing room at The Knitting Factory in Boise, Idaho to discuss the current tour, misconceptions about the band and the meanings behind labels and genres. The guitarist, plucking away at his guitar and sporting an oversized pair of sweatpants, couldn’t have been more gracious in our chat. What started out as a simple set of questions quickly turned into a whole other discussion altogether.
How did We Came as Romans get its start? And what is behind the band name?
Joshua Moore: Dave, our current vocalist played guitar and sang in a Christian pop punk band back home and he wanted to make some heavier music with friends so him and two other guys in his class wanted to start a band. Our first bassist ever played two shows with us then left. All the original members went to the same high school so we all knew each other through that. As time went on, we lost members and gained members through friends and what not. Way back when we had started our original drummer had left to go to college and he had done all the writing at the time. So when we quit we went through a major style shift and we wanted a new name really bad. We just wanted something really cool and anything was better than the name we had then.
What was the name then?
JM: Our original name was This Emergency. Never name your band This Emergency. It was awful. So as a bunch of kids back then we just thought we’d keep it. So the new name doesn’t really have any meaning to us, it was just something to go along with the style we were going for.
So there’s no Biblical reference in the name?
JM: No. We are not a Christian band at all. There are Christian members of the band but as a whole we are not a Christian band.
Will the orchestra aspects of your album be incorporated into your live show at all? Or is that something you’d like to do down the road.
JM: All the orchestra parts on our CD we have the exact actual part on a backtrack so it does play live. It’d be hard to tote around an orchestra on tour especially with the status we’re at (laughs). Everything we play live we try to have it close to CD perfect as possible.
Talk to us about the idea behind the title To Plant a Seed?
JM: It’s about our message as a band as loving one another, being compassionate and respecting people. It’s kind of funny because sometimes fans will say “Oh basically everything your parents tell you to do” and I answer “Yes, there’s a reason your parents tell you to do it”. As you grow up as a person, you realize life is way easier when you’re enjoying it and loving on people and being loved back so that’s our whole message as a band. If the kids read the lyrics or hear the music or come to a show hopefully that though or seed will be planted in their minds and hopefully it will grow and eventually if it does grow, which I believe it can grow in anyone, they can start planting that seed or thought in other people. You can see in the album artwork, the seed grows in the boy on and branches come from his hands to help plant that seed or message.
As with other religions, obviously treating people well is a common ideal. Do you think that’s why the question comes up to you repeatedly?
JM: We do get the Christian thing a lot. It’s kind of tough. Me personally, I’m a Christian but not everyone in our band is Christian at all. We try not to force any religion on anybody. There’s always an argument for any religion, you can debate it forever but no one is going to debate about the message we have now. No one is going to argue like “Oh I think loving people is a bad idea”, that isn’t an argument. Its human nature to love or be loved. It doesn’t matter what you believe in. If I personally choose to believe in Christianity and someone else in my band doesn’t want to believe in it but they believe in a certain set of morals like loving on people or whatever, whatever your beliefs are that’s how you should be living and us as people all agree on this. If you have a bunch of Christians in a band you should be living a Christian life. I don’t agree with the Christian label of labeling a band that. If that’s what you believe that’s how you should be doing everything not just the music you’re making.
I feel like you’re in a unique position then.
JM: I really don’t think that Christian is a genre of music. There are people who are Christian and make hip hop music or metal music. If you looked up Christian as a genre you’re going to get everything, rock, metal etc. That’s not what a genre is. A genre tells you how the music is going to sound. I completely disagree with the use of the word Christian as a genre. Yeah, it could be used to describe the people in the band or some of the lyrics but music as a whole should not be judged as a religion. I guarantee you that you could take a band to some people and say “This is a Christian band” and they won’t want anything to do with it but you could take a band to someone and say “This is a metal band” and they’ll say “Let me listen to it”. There’s no need to bring religion into describing how something sounds. I’ll tell every kid that asks me that I’m a Christian but even if I was in a band with all Christians I still wouldn’t label my band a Christian band. I hope this can get out to kids because it happens a lot with my band with me writing the lyrics of course they are going to have a Christian influence in them because that’s who I am but at the same time it’s not specific at all. A lot of people who are Christians and have the same view as me and it will have the same influence on them and they’ll say “Oh this band is Christian” but that’s the wrong call to make. There are people who will read the lyrics and who aren’t Christians who will be down too. I try my best to write my lyrics as non religious as possible but its tough when I see things a certain way and there are other Christians that see things another way. I just don’t agree with Christian as a genre. That’s my personal opinion, I don’t want this to be like my judgment call, that’s just my opinion.
Your guys’ music is very uplifting. How important is it to you guys to promote positive ideals through your music?
JM: It was something that we had discussed as a band and decided that if we were going to make it as a band or have any sort of drive to do anything we were going to need a message or a reason. We all have different religious beliefs and we all agreed this is pretty much how we want to live our lives, how the lyrics denote. Yeah, we get the whole Christian band thing a lot but its not exclusive to that religion at all. I think we get it a lot because there aren’t a lot of secular bands that have that message. Not a lot of bands are about what we are about but without having the religious message. That’s cool if you want to be about partying or drinking, I don’t want to say you can’t make music about that but at the same time there aren’t a lot of bands that have a message like we do. If you don’t want to have a message you don’t want to but we decided as a band that we needed to have a message and this is what we all agreed on.
How has The Emptiness Tour been so far, highlights?
JM: This tour has been ridiculous, I think every single show has sold out, maybe one or two haven’t. It’s been so awesome. We’ve toured with Of Mice and Men and The Word Alive before and being on the road all the time as our bands are its hard to really enjoy and cherish your friendships when you never see each other ever. The last time I saw the dudes in The Word Alive was July. It’s great to tour with people you’ve toured with before because all the friendship and all the jokes are still there so this tour has been awesome coming into it and A Skylit Drive are some of the nicest dudes. It’s been great and definitely the best tour we’ve been on to date. It’s been bigger than any other tour we’ve been on.
Describe your live show?
JM: Energetic. I think we put a lot of energy and passion into what we do on stage.
Every kid grows up wanting to be in your position. Is this life of music and constant touring all its cracked up to be? What are some of the pros and cons you have seen thus far?
JM: It’s weird because kids look up to us because we play on a stage and people think we’re cool. We’re on stage and we’re out for a specific reason, we get a lot of credit for it and sometimes I think its more than we should get. I know people who live with a lot more conviction than I do, it just happens be our job to play music and share it with other people. I try my best to explain it to kids that you can have that passion in other things, not just playing music. I love playing shows and being on the road but its not cut out for everyone to be completely honest but that doesn’t mean you can’t live the same way, or live with less pride or passion in what you do.
So this is your first full length album. Do you feel like To Plant a Seed fully encapsulates your sound or do you feel like you’ll be comfortable moving in different directions creatively as time goes on?
JM: In the way that our album is about planting a seed or thought in people’s minds, in terms of our album Its just the beginning for us, we’re just starting to grow so I think it fully encases what we’re capable of as a band. I hope we don’t get worse (laughs) so I think it’s all just the beginning of things for us as far as our sound.
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onehundredthousand.org | Passion For Missions
n an attempt to “turn Africa blue,” Ben Steiner has taken something he has a passion for and is using it to help others. Since he began printing shirts in 2003, Ben has been struggling with a way to give back and find some meaning, so Steiner created campaign tees. The basic idea behind campaign tees is to 1) Find a charitable organization, 2) Create a t-shirt for people to buy, and 3) Donate the proceeds to help those in need. Each campaign will produce a maximum of 100,000 t-shirts. In this first campaign, Campaign H2010, a minimum of $5 will be donated to the Blood Water Mission. Through this effort, Steiner hopes to provide enough clean drinking water to make Africa the sixth ocean.
Here is the catch, Steiner has set up his company as for profit. While the proceeds from the Campaign H2010 shirt go to the BWM, he will keep the proceeds from the other shirts and various products in hopes to create a powerful brand and use his income and platform from this brand for the good of others. Steiner wants to use this Capitalist system to the favor of those that do not have.
When, why, and how did you come up with the idea of creating campaign t-shirts?
Ben Steiner: In August of 2009 I was talking to a friend from Seattle named Jessie Gracic and all of the sudden the entire idea for One Hundred Thousand came to me, all at once. I didn’t spend very much time at all thinking about the concept or the idea behind 100k. It just sort of happened. I firmly believe God inspires and I believe he spoke that day.
Why did you choose to do your work with t-shirts?
BS: I chose to work with t-shirts because it was a medium I am comfortable with. Some people work with photos, others with oil and canvas, some with pianos or guitars. I work with shirts. I print shirts for a living from my print shop in Boise, Idaho so t-shirts were an easy, natural choice for me.
Is there any sort of business model that you are basing your production off of? You are actually a for profit business, correct? Tell us how you hope to see this business play-out.
BS: I was inspired along time ago by Toms Shoes. They are a for profit business that uses their selling power to meet a need, that being children without shoes. I am not afraid to make a profit, but I really want to remember those who cannot. If those of us who can make a profit, make one. We can in turn share that with those who have nothing, that’s the true beauty of business.
What did it take to be able to put a project like this one into action?
BS: Basically you need three things. An idea, motivation, and a lot of patience. Most people focus on the financial part of a project or business, I think that’s wrong. Money is a means to an end, it’s not an end. Focus on what you can’t buy and that which you can buy will follow! It helped that I already owned all the printing equipment but acquiring all of that took a lot of money and time. It didn’t happen over night but over the course of many years. A well directed passion can do far more than a large bank account.
Why did you choose Blood Water Mission for your first campaign? Any ideas on who will be featured in the next campaign?
BS: Blood Water Mission was chosen for two reasons, they believe in Jesus and they give water. Aside from oxygen water is the one thing we need the most. It breaks my heart to think that each morning when I wake up I can shower for as long as I want with drinking water, while millions of people around the globe have none. For $1 Blood Water Mission can provide an African with clean drinking water for an entire year. Because of this cost to help ratio I could offer a t-shirt for $12 that will provide five years of clean drinking water for one person. It’s very possible that Blood Water Mission could end thirst on the continent of Africa!
What are a few ways in which we as readers could become involved?
BS: I love this question because it has two answers! First and foremost please pray for me and 100k. Without that nothing will succeed. Prayer is so powerful!! If you’d like to support and help 100k the best way to do that is to purchase a t-shirt, more specifically the 2010 campaign shirt. This purchase alone will make an impact in the life of an African for the next five years! Telling your family and friends will also help.
If you’d like to help the world start your own 100k like project. Whatever your skills or passions are, use them. Make a profit, but don’t forget those who can’t! If we all work together and we share the fruits of our labor, we can bring abundance to a world that lacks!
What is Blood Water Mission (BWM)? BWM is an organization created to fight AIDS and provide clean drinking water for the people of Africa. What began as a way to personalize the AIDS crisis in Africa has, overtime, developed into a company that works alongside the people of Africa to provide treatment for those suffering with AIDS and create clean water alternatives for local villages. These alternatives include well installation, water purification method and building clinics for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, but the mission does not stop there. Wherever BWM works to supply clean drinking water, they also supply educational materials about sanitation and hygiene. Through this effort, the hope is to generate knowledge, change behavior and develop growth within these communities. BWM is working to make a difference in the lives of individuals and people groups as a whole.
What can you do to help? There are many ways in which to become involved. Head over to either www.onehundredthousand.org or www.bloodwatermission.com. On the 100k website click the link for the H2010 campaign to find out more, or click on “The Sixth Ocean” t-shirt and buy one. It may just be the best $12 you have spent in awhile. For the BWM website, search around, learn a little about their mission and follow the DONATE or TAKE ACTION buttons. $1 can provide a person with a year’s worth of clean drinking water. Most importantly, become involved in some way. Together we can bridge the gap between those who have, and those who have-not.
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The question becomes, “Do we really want to follow what God tells us to do, and be truly obedient, or would we rather attempt to please other people, in an effort to become more financially stable, or to get those booking opportunities at the more conservative venues for our own success and glory?"
omeone once told me that our message and our image were too advanced for Christians. That if we would only tone it down some, maybe write a few songs that would reach the masses, change how we look and what we say; then we might be more marketable, would likely sell more records, and even reach those soccer moms that might never hear about us, missing the opportunity to know who we are. I’ll be honest, because of the way we look, it has made booking our performance a little more difficult than I ever expected. Because of our brutal honesty, our message has challenged the way minds think at many different levels and ages, even my own! The question becomes, “Do we really want to follow what God tells us to do, and be truly obedient, or would we rather attempt to please other people, in an effort to become more financially stable, or to get those booking opportunities at the more conservative venues for our own success and glory?”
Let’s look at things this way, Jesus calls us to sell everything we own, pick up our cross and follow him. Back when my wife managed a very successful company, I was teaching drums, we had everything you could possibly want according to the “American Dream:” big house, the hot tub, huge back yard, 3 cars (including a 1966 Austin Healey Sprite, in excellent condition). We were financially stable and quite possibly ready to live out the rest of our years in materialistic bliss. We were Christians struggling with where God was in our lives, even though we were volunteering and giving our time at church, but we felt empty and reached a point in our minds where we were asking, is this all? Is this it? Is this what we are going to live for until we’re 80 years old?
As many of you reading this may or may not know, White Collar Sideshow is based on a series of dreams, visions and nightmares due to the fact that I had struggled with drug addiction, insanity, porn addiction and the everyday situations that we deal with as humans. When putting the “sideshow” together, I didn’t think for a minute that the image was going to scare someone or the message, being so blunt, was going to offend someone. I was simply writing down and putting together what God was telling me to do. When my wife and I realized that this was (and is) our calling in life, that’s when we decided we were going to give God the 150% he deserves and then some, with no looking back. We started to sell everything we owned, and what we didn’t sell off, we gave away. We wanted to be absolutely prepared for our journey in obedience and that included paying off any debt or bills we had, and anything that would keep us grounded or hinder us from our true focus on Christ. We purchased a small RV, a trailer was generously donated to pull our equipment, and very soon we found ourselves as homeless musicianaries ready and willing to go wherever God wanted us to. Because of this obedience, God has truly blessed us with true life (Proverbs 21:21). We don’t have much by way of earthly possessions, but what we do have is plenty! Financially we don’t have an excess or surplus of money, but God has met and provided our every need in order to keep us going. We are still working towards, and trying always, to honor God; hoping that the day will come when He points His finger down on us and says those blessed words, “Well done, My good and faithful servants!”
Now, what makes this message of honesty so bold that it offends, what makes the demons that have haunted my life so scary that people say we should tone it down, you might ask? We as a unit, as one body of Christ, still look at people from the outside and not at the heart. We tend to run when someone, or something, takes us out of our comfort zone. There is no reason to sprint and hide when something different is brought to the table just because it might challenge our thinking a little bit! I admit, the masks in our performance are disturbing and creepy at times, but how else do you portray thoughts of addiction and struggle? Sometimes life is not rainbows and butterflies, and you have to be able to reach people where they are at-so they can see how God has changed your life, in order for them to genuinely experience how real God is in this world. We are all part of the body of Christ, even if we are the green stuff in between the toes-we are still part of the body. Our message for the more conservative segment of the body is that we did sell everything in order to spread the Gospel of Christ. This is what he asked us to do, not to be so caught up with bills, payments, kids, jobs, cell phones, video games, TV’s, cars, DVD’s, CD’s, social security, retirement, health care, computers, internet, and everything else that can take the focus off Christ in our busy lives. He requires us to become a living example/sacrifice, by focusing on Him first and foremost, then building/pouring into your neighbor, friend, enemy, brother, sister, mother, father, stranger, and every other human being on this planet, as you would want them to pour into you. Build into them with love, encouragement, prayer, forgiveness, inspiration and sometimes challenging their thoughts. The great commandment should be first on our minds and hearts, everything else should come second under that.
God can, and will do, strange and unusual things in our lives, if we allow him to. After all, Jesus dying on a cross and being raised from the dead is very strange and unusual in itself. We cannot continue to put this in some kind of “Christian box,” rather, seeing how God is very much out of the box and doing crazy things like challenging people to give up everything, pick up their cross, and follow him on a wild and spectacular journey! Don’t worry about what other people think. If God is calling you to do something for him, be honest, use integrity, be passionate about what he’s telling you. Give everything you have for His purpose so He gets the glory and success for it! Truly and honestly don’t we owe Him everything for giving His life for ours?
*TD Benton is the top hat sporting leader of White Collar Sideshow. WCS isn’t something that is easily explained. Its an experience, a message, a call to arms against addiction and living a stale “normal” life. Its about truly listening to God’s call for your life and following Him without question. Please visit www.myspace.com/whitecollarsideshow for more information.
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Before Their Eyes | For The Love Of Music
t is very apparent that the guys in Before Their Eyes are playing music solely because they love it. They show little interest in sticking to a formula or adhering to a genre, even thought it would most likely broaden their market, let alone talk about why they play the music they do. However Front-man Nick Moore and Guitarist Landon Tewers were gracious enough to give us a few minutes of their time while trying to juggle a new release, steady tour schedule and families back home. So sit back and soak in this brief conversation we got to have with Before Their Eyes.
Your music is very eclectic, one song is very poppy then the next will be heavy and the third is a mix of the two, or something new (Classic Rock). What are a few of your many apparent musical influences?
Nick Moore: Landon listens to a lot of heavier music and I don’t really listen to any heavy music. I listen to a lot of pop or pop rock so I guess when we come together we butt heads because Landon writes a majority of the music and I write a lot of the vocals and melodies so that’s kind of what comes out.
Landon Tewers: I listen to a lot of heavier stuff and a lot of radio rock. I listen to anything from Jimmy Eat World, Yellowcard, and Forever The Sickest Kids to For the Fallen Dreams, Impending Doom, and Slipknot. My taste in music is all over the place, I’m always listening to something different.
What keeps you from taking one sound and sticking with it?
LT: Good or bad, it’s a part of our sound now. I’m sure some guys in hardcore bands wish they could just bust out a rock song in the middle of their set, and vice versa. So it’s cool to be able to do both in the same band. We get our fill of both every night.
NM: We don’t really think about a certain genre or style. We don’t want to be boxed in, like we’re not only going to play songs with breakdowns the whole time or we’re not only going to play poppy songs. We play what we’re in the mood for, we’re not going to be restricted by genres because we all listen to different ones.
The album title Untouchable is about this unpredictability right?
NM: That’s pretty much what it’s all about. The music we want to write is untouchable. I think on this album more than any other ones we really stuck to that and stayed true to what we want to do even though every album has had a lot of different styles on it.
LT: Yes, we write what we want to write. Because it’s our band, not our label’s band, not our friends’ band, not even our fans’ band. We’ll write whatever we want to write. We’re happy with what we’re doing and we won’t change for anyone. It’s a good mindset to have in my opinion. You just gotta be yourself, do what makes you happy. That’s the general theme of the album.
What has the feedback been as far as always having different styles?
LT: Good and bad, just like anything else we’ve ever done. We have the kids that think we’re selling out because “we went poppier”. Then we have the kids who are stoked that we brought back some actual breakdowns. It’s definitely our poppiest and heaviest album yet. So you can’t really say we went one way or the other. I’m totally fine with a kid only liking half of the album, whether it’s the pop songs or the heavy songs, at least they liked something. Honestly I think even the hardcore kids will find themselves getting into the poppier stuff as well, you just have to be a little more open minded. In my opinion, you’re not selling out until you write music you don’t like just to sell records. We haven’t done that, and we never will.
NM: You always have the people that just want to hear the breakdowns and that’s it. So if they hear one of the poppy songs they’re probably going to think the whole album is going to sound like that and that’s not the case. A lot of people think we went lighter but I think some of the songs on this album are some of the heaviest songs we’ve ever written. If you look at our first CD, “Why is 6 so Afraid of 7”, that’s a straight up pop song, there’s nothing heavy about it and its our most sold song on iTunes to date. I think this CD is the heaviest and the lightest we’ve ever done.
Talk to us a bit about the meaning behind the track “Hell Or High Water”...
NM: They lyrics are about a soldier who went overseas to war; I have a buddy who’s in the military over there. I just put myself in the shoes of someone being close to somebody going over there and how tough it must be.
The track “Start With Today” features the beautiful vocals of Kristen Williams. Out of all the voices, what made you decide to go with hers?
NM: I have a little label that I run which she is on. We always wanted to do a song with some female vocals on it. We were thinking of some people who we wanted and we just thought of her and she wanted to do it. We’re old friends so that was good.
Last year you and your wife had a son, how has life on tour been since his birth? It must be hard to be away from them for so long...
NM: It’s a lot harder to leave now than it used to be. We work it out; we do the video chat thing. He can’t talk yet but the video chat thing is awesome.
What would you say it is about music that drives so many to the roads every year in pursuit of their dreams? What is it for you?
NM: I don’t know what else I would be doing without music, its just a dream. If you don’t go after your dreams you’re going to regret it someday. I think a lot of people go for it because they don’t want to have regrets down the road. Music isn’t about how many records you sell or how much money you make. To me, its something I love and something I’m passionate about no matter how well it does.
LT: Music is just an amazing way to share your thoughts, emotions, opinions and hope. There’s really nothing like it. For me it’s just such a release. I can channel different emotions into a song that other kids across the country can relate to. Just seeing a kid walk out of a show holding my bands CD or wearing our shirt still blows my mind. There’s absolutely nothing like it.
You guys are heading out on tour with Blessthefall the month of April right? What is the plan for Before Their Eyes after that?
NM: Yes soon. We don’t have anything solid right now but we are heading to Japan in July which should be pretty fun. It will be our first time over there.
How do you guys gauge how well you will do overseas? Is it just iTunes sales or what?
NM: I don’t really know. I know our album came out on Twilight Records over there. They’re actually the ones that are bringing us over to do the dates.
Right on! We wish you luck, and thanks again for taking a minute to talk with us! Be sure to check out their new release Untouchable which is available in stores and online now!