It was late Friday night. It was the grand opening of the Student Union at Liberty University. My Epic had just finished playing their set and So Long Forgotten and All the Day had just finished an acoustic set outside. I managed to pull two of the guys from So Long Forgotten for an interview while the Glorious Unseen was setting up to play.
Cory: Who are you and what do you do in the band?
Micah: My name is Micah Boyce; I sing in So Long Forgotten.
Joe: I’m Joe Brown; I play bass in So Long Forgotten.
Cory: Alright so my first real question is what made you guys decide to be a band?
Micah: My older brother started playing guitar when he was like 13. I used to always just listen to him. He kinda got me into rock music and ever since then I just kinda wanted to play music.
Joe: Yeah, I think a lot of us just started playing in high school, church, and stuff like that.
Cory: My next question is So Long Forgotten is a pretty interesting name, what’s the story behind the name?
Joe: Depends on who you’re asking.
Micah: Yeah, depends on who you’re asking. We’ll say it’s from the Great Gatsby.
Cory: Great Gatsby, that’s sweet.
[Awkward silence, Micah and I are staring at Joe.]
Cory: You sticking with that one too?
[Laughter]
Joe: Yup.
Micah: It’s from that book, so there you go.
Cory: What was it like recording Beneath Our Noble Heads? Which is an amazing album by the way.
Micah: Thanks man, thank you. Um…
Joe: Rushed.
Cory: Rushed?
Joe: We did the whole thing in eight days. We were really prepared, but eight days is still not very long to record eleven songs.
Micah: The writing process was definitely awesome. Like the writing process came at a really, really crazy time…
Joe: It was therapy.
Micah: Yeah, for sure, it was definitely therapeutic. I had just, and you can probably notice this on the record after I tell you, we were writing the album while I was going through my dad being diagnosed with cancer and passing away. So he passed in the middle of the writing process of the album. PJ, our drummer, had been living with his grandfather for four years. His grandfather passed away like a couple of months before my dad and then I think PJ lost his grandma. All of that was a pretty heavy on all of us. We had all definitely been learning a lot. That album is very much about realization. And about realizing that maybe everything we are brought up to believe isn’t how it is. Just that Christianity or just spirituality altogether is definitely a journey and something you need to find on your own. You need to realize that is important to have your own faith. I think we are all at that point, just kinda going through a lot of realization about those things the things we were brought up to believe, things about the church just in general. So that is I guess is it.
Cory: Did you record Beneath Our Noble Heads at the same place you recorded Baptism?
Micah: No.
Joe: We recorded Beneath Our Noble Heads with…
Micah and Joe: Troy and Joel Otte.
Joe: In Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Micah: At the Studiotte.
Joe: They recorded Saints Never Surrender.
Cory: They are so good.
Joe: Dude, their new album is so good.
Micah: The new EP we did with Tyler Orr at First Street Studios and it was co-produced by Cody Bonnette from As Cities Burn.
Joe: They are going to do the next record too.
Cory: How did you get the name Baptism for the new EP?
Micah: Actually, like I said that Beneath Our Noble Heads is very much about realization. Baptism is very much about being afraid to do anything about that realization, do anything to change. Baptism comes from the act that you were here, and then you are baptized right, and then you come out new. So baptism is like that middle step of being renewed and that’s kinda where that name comes from. Also one of the songs is called “A Brilliance in Baptism” and that song is kinda about that same concept. And so it was kind of just taken from there.
Cory: Faith is a very important aspect at Indie Vision Music. We very much support ministry oriented bands. So we wanted to how you relate your faith to your music.
Micah: I guess I always say that Christian is a much better noun than an adjective. And I guess when people ask us if we are a Christian band I’m always kind of like that’s a loaded question. It depends on the person and how they see that. Automatically, it brings up certain judgments, I guess you could say. Because, if we were to say we were a Christian band, we’re definitely not Third Day you know, but at the same time our faith is the most important thing to our music. I think because we all do have a faith and strong spiritual lives, and it is the most important part of our lives that automatically it is going to overflow into our music.
Joe: To describe how our faith plays into our music, our faith is our music. I don’t know. Does that make any sense? I think if we were able to describe it, it wouldn’t be genuine.
Cory: Moving on to some easier questions. What has been your favorite tour so far?
Joe: For me, this one.
Micah: Yeah, this has really been an awesome tour with My Epic and All the Day Holiday. I think other than that probably my favorite tour maybe the tour we did with As Cities Burn. That was a really awesome tour. But I think this tour maybe man. We just got off one of the worst tours we’ve ever done which was sad because we were out with our best friends in this band called Greenwood. I want to put a plug in there for them because that band is incredible. And uh…
Joe: And no fault of theirs.
Micah: No Fault of theirs, it was just the shows weren’t any good. We were already going through a lot financial trouble and our brand new bus was just not working out well. Then we came out on this tour and it just like was a breath of fresh air pretty much. All the Day Holiday and My Epic are amazing dudes and have really been uplifting to us.
Cory: My second to last question is do you have any favorite albums out right now?
Joe: I was actually having a debate with My Epic the other night. We were doing our top ten favorite albums…
Cory: Yeah, they always do that.
Joe: They always do that. They did it to me at Cornerstone too. But, I don’t know about what’s currently out.
Cory: Even what’s come out in the past year or so, like in 2007?
Micah: I’m a huge Radiohead fan. In Rainbows, the new Radiohead album is pretty amazing.
Joe: New Coldplay is awesome. The new Thrice EP’s are sweet.
Micah: I’m pretty stoked about the new Manchester Orchestra EP coming out soon.
Joe: The new Colour Revolt album is sick.
Micah: Ah, the new Colour Revolt album is sick. Actually, I’ve been listening to a lot of the new My Epic album which is really awesome.
Joe: And All the Day Holiday, their album isn’t out yet, but I was listening to the rough mixes earlier today.
Cory: Yeah, I can’t wait for that to come out.
Micah: Actually, in October we start writing for our new full length album. And our new Baptism EP comes out November 15th.
Cory: My final question is how can the Indie Vision Music community help you guys out?
Joe: Keep us in prayer.
Micah: First and foremost. Then like whatever you do as an online zine. You guys help us out. You know what I mean, do it for us and that’s awesome.
[laugher]
Cory: Well, that’s all I got. Thanks.