RANDY STONEHILL - this is the most recent interview we have done and, to date, the furthest back we have gone. Randy is genuinely funny and great to talk to. You really get a sense that there was a "scene" starting to happen thru him telling stories. He also talked about the resistance he got from the start and how much it hurt and frustrated him. At one point he said he was about to give up and just go get a general market deal and he said he felt the Lord telling him that while he would have success, he would never have peace.
MxPx - we caught up with them at Cornerstone and they were very open and honest about the business. They talked about getting more flack from Christians than from non-Christians and their hope that Christian music would be good enough to co-exist along side all music. They made no conscious attempt to "cross over" they just made music they liked. There was some pretty frank talk about the corruption in the Christian music industry, not anyone specific but just the general feeling of exploitation. They are not bitter about anything and they seems very positive about the future.
SONNY SANDOVAL (P.O.D.) - First off, for a guy who looks like he could probably beat up most professional wrestlers, Sonny is a soft-spoken, articulate, mesmerizing Teddy Bear. I think Sunny vs Jeremy Camp would be a pretty sweet battle but...that is another movie. Though it is not as pertinent to the overall story of this film, Sunny has a powerful and amazing testimony about his mother's death and conversion to Christianity.
Many people dont realize that POD toured in a van for 7 years before the release of their big record, which hit the stores on 9/11. Sunny talked of the resistance from both sides, especially before they had mainstream success. He even recanted stories of people flipping them off in the shape of a cross. POD is really a band that helped tear down the wall of perception about what Christian music is and what it can be. Sunny also talked quite a bit about the influence of a band called "The Crucified" which is a band that comes up REPEATEDLY in these interviews. Sunny said he went to their shows even before he was a Christian because they were so good. More about them later...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
DC Talk, Stryper, Sixpence None the Richer & Underoath
I am fresh off NAB where I got my nerd on and then chased it with a trip to GMA where I got my Jesus on. GMA was still buzzing over BIO so I guess that is pretty cool. Here is some more wrap ups from other interviews we have done.
KEVIN MAX (DC talk) - K-Max as he is now called (isnt that a Kevin Spacey movie?) is a great interview. He has a mesmerizing speaking voice and speaks poetically. You can tell he has been worn down a little by the "machine" that is CCM. He echoed the sentiments of many, that we get too caught up in Christianese and the Jesus language as he put it. Why must every song be about Jesus? What about our lives, our struggles, our walk? He also had some great stuff to say about Larry Norman, who he is friends with. DC Talk did a pretty famous cover of Larry's "Wish We'd All Been Ready." He also commented extensively on "Jesus Freak" which was the song that really introduced the youth group crowd to "rawk" I still remember hearing that song and looking around at the other kids in youth group thinking... "uh... this is like.. umm... cool... can we really get away with listening to this?"
LEIGH NASH (Sixpence None the Richer) - What a doll of a person. The ultimate sweetheart but not without an edge. She was very open about her experiences. Many people dont realize that Sixpence toured with POD and the like for years, the sound may not have been as rocky as some but they were in the scene. She talked of being frustrated that they were often seen as "not Christian enough" for many people. Her best story is about the time she basically witnessed to David Letterman on national TV. If you havent seen it, http://youtube.com/watch?v=qJDldjmb_04 check it out...
UNDEROATH - We interviewed Underoath the week after they shook up both the Christian and general markets with a STUNNING first week of almost 100,000 records. This was #2 on Billboard and less than 3% of all sales were thru Christian outlets...all this from a SCREAMO band. They are energetic and legitimately talented and their story should inspire any band. They built an audience on the streets. There is not many places to take this genre of music so they took it to the streets and played over 1000 shows over the course of a few years and their audience responded...BIG TIME. These guys were headlining the Warped Tour and, believe it or not, rarely catching much flack for their faith. They are just too real. They said they never really felt any tension, they just go out and do their thing. The only thing at all that one might find a little frustrating about the younger bands like Underoath, is that they have little to no knowledge of the bands that paved the way for them. Maybe they will watch this movie and figure it out. I cant say I blame them... I didnt know about many of the bands who paved the way either until I started this Project.
Check out this article about Underoath, their new DVD and tour: CMJ Article
MICHAEL SWEET (STRYPER) - Many people like to remember only the cheesy side of Stryper and forget the massive cultural impact they made. Remember, they did this in an era where there was no crossing over, they started in the general market and never, at any point, were endorsed by the church. This did not stop them from being wildly successful. According to Michael, at first MTV didnt want to play their music video but they decided to give it a try and the response was huge. In fact, Stryper's first video was the first video to be "retired" from the request show at the time and they went on to have several videos be number one for so long that they had to be retired. Michael is pretty soft spoken but he provided some great history of the genre.
MORE TO COME!
KEVIN MAX (DC talk) - K-Max as he is now called (isnt that a Kevin Spacey movie?) is a great interview. He has a mesmerizing speaking voice and speaks poetically. You can tell he has been worn down a little by the "machine" that is CCM. He echoed the sentiments of many, that we get too caught up in Christianese and the Jesus language as he put it. Why must every song be about Jesus? What about our lives, our struggles, our walk? He also had some great stuff to say about Larry Norman, who he is friends with. DC Talk did a pretty famous cover of Larry's "Wish We'd All Been Ready." He also commented extensively on "Jesus Freak" which was the song that really introduced the youth group crowd to "rawk" I still remember hearing that song and looking around at the other kids in youth group thinking... "uh... this is like.. umm... cool... can we really get away with listening to this?"
LEIGH NASH (Sixpence None the Richer) - What a doll of a person. The ultimate sweetheart but not without an edge. She was very open about her experiences. Many people dont realize that Sixpence toured with POD and the like for years, the sound may not have been as rocky as some but they were in the scene. She talked of being frustrated that they were often seen as "not Christian enough" for many people. Her best story is about the time she basically witnessed to David Letterman on national TV. If you havent seen it, http://youtube.com/watch?v=qJDldjmb_04 check it out...
UNDEROATH - We interviewed Underoath the week after they shook up both the Christian and general markets with a STUNNING first week of almost 100,000 records. This was #2 on Billboard and less than 3% of all sales were thru Christian outlets...all this from a SCREAMO band. They are energetic and legitimately talented and their story should inspire any band. They built an audience on the streets. There is not many places to take this genre of music so they took it to the streets and played over 1000 shows over the course of a few years and their audience responded...BIG TIME. These guys were headlining the Warped Tour and, believe it or not, rarely catching much flack for their faith. They are just too real. They said they never really felt any tension, they just go out and do their thing. The only thing at all that one might find a little frustrating about the younger bands like Underoath, is that they have little to no knowledge of the bands that paved the way for them. Maybe they will watch this movie and figure it out. I cant say I blame them... I didnt know about many of the bands who paved the way either until I started this Project.
Check out this article about Underoath, their new DVD and tour: CMJ Article
MICHAEL SWEET (STRYPER) - Many people like to remember only the cheesy side of Stryper and forget the massive cultural impact they made. Remember, they did this in an era where there was no crossing over, they started in the general market and never, at any point, were endorsed by the church. This did not stop them from being wildly successful. According to Michael, at first MTV didnt want to play their music video but they decided to give it a try and the response was huge. In fact, Stryper's first video was the first video to be "retired" from the request show at the time and they went on to have several videos be number one for so long that they had to be retired. Michael is pretty soft spoken but he provided some great history of the genre.
MORE TO COME!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Chris Daughtry, Delirious?, Audio Adrenaline, Mercy Me, Jeremy Camp & Sanctus Real
Every time we do an interview, I will post a blurb here, something that "sticks out" in my mind from the interview. I will start with the more recent stuff as it is more fresh in my mind.
"DELIRIOUS?" - Ok, so, believe it or not, I basically knew nothing about them going into the interview but wow, what great people. They had a lot of great things to say. One thing that really stuck out was their reaction to the term "Christian rock" they said they think "Christian" is a wonderful noun...but terrible adjective. I could not agree more. They talked about how they have walked the line between the Christian and general market and gone thru whatever doors came open at the time. They also talked about a great review of their last album where the reviewer said, "Without God, this band would be huge." They loved the irony of that statement.
"CHRIS DAUGHTRY" - Obviously I knew Chris from American Idol and had heard from his manager that he was a Christian with a unique perspective. I met with him in Tulsa and showed him the promo video and he said he was into doing an interview. We caught up with him in Joplin after a HARD couple days and he was beat and canceled all press but was kind enough to give me 30 minutes. He was terrific, lots of good things to say. He does not feel called to preach, wear a badge, etc. but he does speak of God and faith in his lyrics. He, like me, was raised in the church so we had less access to the "cool" Christian music from places like Tooth & Nail. He said he and his wife got convicted a few years back to throw away all their secular CDs and replace them with "Christian" music. His reaction "...this stuff sucks, I want my old CDs back." He made a point that I thought was very astute, poetic lyrics are up to interpretation, it is the LISTENER, not the writer that ultimately decides what they mean. Great take. He said he has found spiritual connections thru the music of bands like Live, etc. He did say he liked 3rd Day and Day of Fire, who might actually go out on tour with him. Also, just remembered that Delirious? said that when they wanted to enter a spirit of worship, they put on a Pink Floyd record...that would connect to what Daughtry was saying.
"MARK STEWART - Audio Adrenaline" - there was a big teen worship-palooza fest or something coming thru town so we caught up with Mark as well as Bart from Mercy Me, Jeremy Camp and the band Sanctus Real, more on them later. Mark was VERY open about many things. He talked about how there were times when some Christians would attack them for being too worldy. For those of you who dont know, Audio Adrenaline, is a very "safe" youth group type band. I actually love them and still jam to the oldies but to think people protested THEM??! Crazy... I mean, POD, another band I love, I can get some church people not understanding them but Audio Adrenaline? Mark also talked about how, when they first started, they were all but forced to write what he called "songs full of trite lyrics" and about the pressure from the CCM machine to actually meet a quota of "JPM's" or "Jesus Per Minute's" to make the radio happy and to get youth leaders to endorse the band. He said that "JPM" was an actual industry term. He said the band countered with an album (that I own) called, "Dont Censor Me" If you look closely at the lyrics from the title track, you can see where they reference the situation. After a verse talking about the general market not wanting to play songs about faith while having no problem playing songs about sex, the second verse seems to take on the Christian music biz:
We scream we shout
we just wanna let it out
No fuss and no cuss
you still try to censor us
Mark was great and will have some good moments in the doc.
"BART MILLARD - Mercy Me" - How does Mercy Me fit into Christian rock? Easy...they dont. However, Bart is a great guy who is a lifelong Christian and is very aware of the scene and culture. He had SO many things to add, from him going to CD burnings as a kid, being shocked by Cornerstone, etc. But his best stuff was in defense of POD and Switchfoot and their role and path for their careers. He loves both those bands and is a bit put-off about how they sometimes are treated by the Christian industry. They were not embraced when they were IN it and now that they have had success OUTSIDE the Christian scene, too many people are in the "we are sure proud of our boys" camp and wondering why those bands have not endorsed the scene more. It was great to have someone like Bart make these points.
"JEREMY CAMP" - How does Jeremy Camp fit in? Easy...the dude is a friggin hardcore music nut at heart. This interview went so much better than expected as he literally has an encyclopedic knowledge of Christian hard rock. He was so passionate and so well versed at any name you threw at him. The Crucified, "oh dude, when I was 10 I was in a mosh pit at Cornerstone watching The Crucified, they were totally legit man." Crazy! He has a great personal story and the dude is swole, we are talking shellfish allergy I just ate 10 shrimp cocktails swole. As buff as he was, he was a really great guy, lots of passion but uber-nice. I would not want to make him mad though, those guns could do some serious damage.
"SANCTUS REAL" - I didnt know much about them, other than my friend Logan had them on his talk show and that he really likes them. I did check out some of their tunes and dug what I heard. I showed them the promo video and they were pumped to talk. They had a lot to say but the best thing was a Cornerstone story about a band called "Lust Control" who sang a song called "The Big M" which was about masturbation. The Sanctus guys said the "M" stood for mortified in the eyes of the youth leaders who had brought them to the show. I actually loved these guys and they have made it into my daily vocab. I used to say, "hey man, I'm just trying to keep it real." Now I say, "hey man, I'm just trying to keep it real...sanctus real."
That's it for now, I have like 50 more to catch up on!
"DELIRIOUS?" - Ok, so, believe it or not, I basically knew nothing about them going into the interview but wow, what great people. They had a lot of great things to say. One thing that really stuck out was their reaction to the term "Christian rock" they said they think "Christian" is a wonderful noun...but terrible adjective. I could not agree more. They talked about how they have walked the line between the Christian and general market and gone thru whatever doors came open at the time. They also talked about a great review of their last album where the reviewer said, "Without God, this band would be huge." They loved the irony of that statement.
"CHRIS DAUGHTRY" - Obviously I knew Chris from American Idol and had heard from his manager that he was a Christian with a unique perspective. I met with him in Tulsa and showed him the promo video and he said he was into doing an interview. We caught up with him in Joplin after a HARD couple days and he was beat and canceled all press but was kind enough to give me 30 minutes. He was terrific, lots of good things to say. He does not feel called to preach, wear a badge, etc. but he does speak of God and faith in his lyrics. He, like me, was raised in the church so we had less access to the "cool" Christian music from places like Tooth & Nail. He said he and his wife got convicted a few years back to throw away all their secular CDs and replace them with "Christian" music. His reaction "...this stuff sucks, I want my old CDs back." He made a point that I thought was very astute, poetic lyrics are up to interpretation, it is the LISTENER, not the writer that ultimately decides what they mean. Great take. He said he has found spiritual connections thru the music of bands like Live, etc. He did say he liked 3rd Day and Day of Fire, who might actually go out on tour with him. Also, just remembered that Delirious? said that when they wanted to enter a spirit of worship, they put on a Pink Floyd record...that would connect to what Daughtry was saying.
"MARK STEWART - Audio Adrenaline" - there was a big teen worship-palooza fest or something coming thru town so we caught up with Mark as well as Bart from Mercy Me, Jeremy Camp and the band Sanctus Real, more on them later. Mark was VERY open about many things. He talked about how there were times when some Christians would attack them for being too worldy. For those of you who dont know, Audio Adrenaline, is a very "safe" youth group type band. I actually love them and still jam to the oldies but to think people protested THEM??! Crazy... I mean, POD, another band I love, I can get some church people not understanding them but Audio Adrenaline? Mark also talked about how, when they first started, they were all but forced to write what he called "songs full of trite lyrics" and about the pressure from the CCM machine to actually meet a quota of "JPM's" or "Jesus Per Minute's" to make the radio happy and to get youth leaders to endorse the band. He said that "JPM" was an actual industry term. He said the band countered with an album (that I own) called, "Dont Censor Me" If you look closely at the lyrics from the title track, you can see where they reference the situation. After a verse talking about the general market not wanting to play songs about faith while having no problem playing songs about sex, the second verse seems to take on the Christian music biz:
We scream we shout
we just wanna let it out
No fuss and no cuss
you still try to censor us
Mark was great and will have some good moments in the doc.
"BART MILLARD - Mercy Me" - How does Mercy Me fit into Christian rock? Easy...they dont. However, Bart is a great guy who is a lifelong Christian and is very aware of the scene and culture. He had SO many things to add, from him going to CD burnings as a kid, being shocked by Cornerstone, etc. But his best stuff was in defense of POD and Switchfoot and their role and path for their careers. He loves both those bands and is a bit put-off about how they sometimes are treated by the Christian industry. They were not embraced when they were IN it and now that they have had success OUTSIDE the Christian scene, too many people are in the "we are sure proud of our boys" camp and wondering why those bands have not endorsed the scene more. It was great to have someone like Bart make these points.
"JEREMY CAMP" - How does Jeremy Camp fit in? Easy...the dude is a friggin hardcore music nut at heart. This interview went so much better than expected as he literally has an encyclopedic knowledge of Christian hard rock. He was so passionate and so well versed at any name you threw at him. The Crucified, "oh dude, when I was 10 I was in a mosh pit at Cornerstone watching The Crucified, they were totally legit man." Crazy! He has a great personal story and the dude is swole, we are talking shellfish allergy I just ate 10 shrimp cocktails swole. As buff as he was, he was a really great guy, lots of passion but uber-nice. I would not want to make him mad though, those guns could do some serious damage.
"SANCTUS REAL" - I didnt know much about them, other than my friend Logan had them on his talk show and that he really likes them. I did check out some of their tunes and dug what I heard. I showed them the promo video and they were pumped to talk. They had a lot to say but the best thing was a Cornerstone story about a band called "Lust Control" who sang a song called "The Big M" which was about masturbation. The Sanctus guys said the "M" stood for mortified in the eyes of the youth leaders who had brought them to the show. I actually loved these guys and they have made it into my daily vocab. I used to say, "hey man, I'm just trying to keep it real." Now I say, "hey man, I'm just trying to keep it real...sanctus real."
That's it for now, I have like 50 more to catch up on!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Bleed Into One - the story of Christian rock
So, this is my latest project. It is a feature length doc, a follow up to my first feature doc, "Strong Enough to Break" which is finishing it's festival/college run after being received much better than ever anticipated. I was approached by Tim Hudson in Bartlesville, OK about the idea. It sounded solid but surely it had been done before... the history of Christian rock. Turns out, nobody has ever tackled it, there have been some shorts and a couple docs about a certain event but nobody has ever gone back to the beginning to see how it all started and how we are now in a time where POD, The Fray, Switchfoot, Chris Daughtry, etc. are not judged by their lyrics but by their art.
The story has morphed from being the true history and including much more of the harder stuff, to being the story of the genre as told by those who created, shaped and lived it. I am not making the anthology here and I am not making a feel good, all Christian music is great thing either. This is a story of controversy, corruption, faith, art, business, hope, diligence, etc. I am not setting out to prove anything, or make anyone look bad, I am just telling the TRUTH, as told to me thru interviews. To get people to respect anything, you have to acknowledge the warts, the dark places, and the frailty. I have a 5 minute promo video that I cannot make public just yet but it has been received overwhelmingly well. The title represents my own personal position that we, as Christians, are too focused on creating our own "safe" sub-culture instead of BEING IN THE WORLD, being relevant and AFFECTING culture. We are called to be IN THE WORLD, not of the world and too many people are so focused on the second half of that verse that the forget the first part which is the most important.
Currently, we have interest from at least 2 major studios but since the film is still shooting, we are considering all options. I will keep everyone updated thru this blog and I will be posting updates after every interview we do. To get started, I will post some personal highlights of the interviews we have done to date.
The story has morphed from being the true history and including much more of the harder stuff, to being the story of the genre as told by those who created, shaped and lived it. I am not making the anthology here and I am not making a feel good, all Christian music is great thing either. This is a story of controversy, corruption, faith, art, business, hope, diligence, etc. I am not setting out to prove anything, or make anyone look bad, I am just telling the TRUTH, as told to me thru interviews. To get people to respect anything, you have to acknowledge the warts, the dark places, and the frailty. I have a 5 minute promo video that I cannot make public just yet but it has been received overwhelmingly well. The title represents my own personal position that we, as Christians, are too focused on creating our own "safe" sub-culture instead of BEING IN THE WORLD, being relevant and AFFECTING culture. We are called to be IN THE WORLD, not of the world and too many people are so focused on the second half of that verse that the forget the first part which is the most important.
Currently, we have interest from at least 2 major studios but since the film is still shooting, we are considering all options. I will keep everyone updated thru this blog and I will be posting updates after every interview we do. To get started, I will post some personal highlights of the interviews we have done to date.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Time to get my blog on...
Since I have pretty much abandoned watching news on TV and reading the newspaper... and my main source of info and entertainment is reading blogs... I figured, why not jump aboard the bandwagon? Surely I have something interesting to say, and if I don't, I can always just make something up. I will copy my band names blog over here and also start blowing your mind with my useless knowledge and deep thoughts...
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