With all the member changes was there any thought of calling it quits?
No. I’m either too stubborn or too stupid…probably a little of both. For me quitting would’ve been like hiking to base camp on Mt. Everest only to turn around and go home without even trying to climb any higher. It just seemed like quitting would be squandering an opportunity I worked a long time for. And besides, its not the first time I’ve had to deal with people quitting.
Who are some of your musical influences?
Personally my main influences are At The Gates, In Flames, ZAO, Mercenary, and Black Dahlia Murder.
Where does the southern rock influence come from?
I’m going to assume you’re referring to the track, “Little Miss Letyouknow”.
If that’s the case, then I would say it comes from where we’ve grown up. We’re all from about as far south in Ohio as you can get without being Kentucky. I can’t say that it comes from any band’s style. What I can say is that we throw a southern song in here and there because they groove, they’re catchy, and they’re A LOT of fun. Few things say “party in the backyard and barbeque” like a good southern guitar riff.
Having said that:
There’s only one song, out of the 11, on the new record that has a southern feel. Since we’re talking about the new record, this question implies that A Feast For Crows is a southern style record. To make the implication that this is “southern rock influenced” record, seems to be a bit of an injustice to the work as a whole.
What can we expect different/new from your debut album?
More diversity. We just wrote what felt natural. Nothing was forced this time around. Each song sounds a different from the next. There are 4 songs that make up the core of the record and the rest orbit around those… which we felt makes this record a more entertaining listen than our first. This album has a darker tone and darker riffs. Its heavier, there’s more shredding, and, we feel, better song writing all around.
Can we expect this to be more aggressive?
Absolutely.
Do you guys have any tours lined up to promote the new album that you can share any details?
Ichthus will be our first outing in support of A Feast For Crows. We’ll be playing two days again this year. Then we’re doing a really small run in July with Divide The Sea. And after that we’re heading out for August and September with A Hero A Fake. There’s a few things brewing for the fall but nothing has been confirmed yet.
How do you get fed spiritually while on the road?
A lot depends on the tour. When we were on the road last year and surrounded by so many spiritual guys, being fed was really easy. When you’re hanging out with bands like Sleeping Giant and For Today, spiritually refueling is easy. When you’re the only Christian band we have to rely a lot more on each other. With this group of guys, its been my experience that praying together and listening to and challenging each other’s views of God and faith and worship are some of the most uplifting times I’ve had.
What has been your favorite show and what made it your favorite?
There were 2 shows that I can’t choose between. Both were on Scream The Prayer last year. Those were the Nashville and Sacramento shows. The energy of those two shows was unlike any that I’d experienced before or since. When we finished the first song in Sacramento, the crowd was cheering louder than the ring out of our backline. It was the same in Nashville. Not because they cheered for us, but because there were so many people all equally stoked to be there.
In the band video blogs for the recording of Feast for Crows, where’s the bass player, he’s AWOL from all 35+ minutes of footage.
Caleb was the latest addition to the lineup and as such came in at the end of the writing process. As such he didn’t have time to learn the songs well enough for the studio. Plus we had a really tight budget and a super strict schedule so the fewer members there kept things streamlined and efficient. I was the only one who stayed start to finish. But you’ll see Caleb soon enough on our behind the scenes video update of our recent video shoot.
Who’s the main songwriter (musically and lyrically)?
Musically this was the most collaborative bit of work I’ve ever done. Coincidently it was the most fun writing I’ve ever done as well. I still ended up writing the majority of the music but not by a large margin. Derek and I hit a really good writing stride early on and we’ve already started hashing out new riffs since recording AFFC, so the writing will only get better.
Lyrically, I’m the sole writer. Or at least was on this record. Of the 3 lyric writers on the last record I wrote lyrics for 5 of the songs. Not really by choice, I’m just the faster writer under time constraints.