Phil Keaggy, Brandon Ebel, Zao & Bill Power

PHIL KEAGGY - Phil is a wonderful, soft-spoken guy who genuinely has no idea how good he is. He constantly brushed off the accolades when asked and frequently talked of how lucky he was to get the chance to play with certain people or meet certain people. He was also very supportive of Christians in the mainstream and even busted out a CS Lewis reference. He said, "like CS Lewis said, we dont need more Christians writing about Christian things...we need more Christians writing about MANY things." Pretty great stuff IMHO.

BRANDON EBEL (Tooth & Nail Records) - Brandon was one of the first interviews we did and at first he was pretty sheepish. Apparently he has taken a lot of flack from people over the way he runs T&N. He is cutting edge, he is signing LOTS of bands, he cant give them all great deals but he does give them a chance and artistic freedom. Much of what T&N does with their contracts, etc. has found its way into the mainstream because T&N, last I checked, was THE most successful indie label in the world. Instead of giving 5 bands a great contract, he gives 20 bands a decent contract. Those other 15 bands should be kissing his @ss because he is giving them something nobody else will. But anyway... on to the interview... Brandon is funny and knows his stuff. He might be a business man but he got into this because he loves music with a fiery passion. You would be hard pressed to name a band that he hasnt seen live or has a story about. He talked excitedly and extensively about different scenes in Christian music, mostly underground rock stuff and about the beginnings of T&N. He started the "label" in his apartment where he ran it for a while. He really took the underground scene and gave it a place on the shelf in the marketplace, pretty amazing. He was the first of MANY people to mention, "The Crucified" as an inspirational band and Cornerstone as a pivotal event. He said in no uncertain terms that there would be no T&N without the inspiration he got from how "LU-JIT" "The Crucified" were. They showed him what Christians could do with music. He also pointed out that Cornerstone helped further inspire him.

BILL POWER - (former VP T&N, Blenderhead) Most the interviews in "controlled" environments I have done on a black background but Bill is a sweet looking dude, all tatted up and his office had an awesome feel so I put on a wide angle lens and kicked it old school. He had a lot of awesome things to say about trading tapes back in the day of bands that they would not dare sell in the Christian bookstores. He is another guy that really helped defined the "scene" with his stories about different bands. He talked openly and frankly. One of the best things I think he said was that he hated the idea of "Christian" rock. His take is that music is music... and bands are bands.

ZAO - OK...so, I was a youth group kid and had no idea who these guys were but they won me over. I thought MetalCore was a Japanese comic. These are some intelligent fellows, very articulate and full of deep knowledge. They talked about how the Christian side of the industry never really understood them but honestly, they didn't seem to care. When prodded for what they thought about the Christian music business they said something that nobody else has said, "I don't think there is such a thing, it doesn't exist." When asked to elaborate they articulately spoke of how, at the end of the day, the money raised all goes to the same place, the same corporate giants, not to charity or to help people, it goes to buy cars, houses, etc. They even pointed that inward. "When we play a show, at the end of the night, that money goes into my pocket, not into a church or a Christian cause." I never really thought of that but it is a great point. After the interview I got to chatting with Martin and as it turns out we both really love this indie artist named "BLEU" he is not a Christian but check him out. http://www.bleutopia.com/


more later...