Onward to Olympas vocalist Kramer Lowe took some time to answer some questions about their upcoming album The War Within Us and other things.
I’ve listened to the new album and I found that The War Within Us is darker and angrier than This World Is Not My Home. What was your motivation/inspiration for the new album?
Basically, The War Within Us is about going out on tour and seeing kids and people all over the country, both Christian and non-believers, either struggling with different problems such as jealousy, anger, depression, aggression, etc. and all the struggles every person faces. Before this band, I wasn’t really a Christian. I mean, I always believed but never followed through and ignored my calling. So This World Is Not My Home was about overcoming your past and testing your strength of faith. The War Within Us continues on after you start to believe, you then realize it only gets harder and seeing other Christians fighting with other Christians just kind of started the concept of our lives and struggle all around. It goes from single mothers, to personal problems, to suicides and depression, keeping your faith, etc.
What are some of the best moments over the past year for Onward to Olympas?
Releasing our album, touring a majority of 2010, playing summer festivals for the first time, and having people buy our CD and supporting us anytime is really awesome.
With all of the realities of life on tour (van trouble, trailer troubles, theft, wrecks, not making a lot of money, etc..) what is your motivating factor to continue playing and making albums?
No matter how broke we could be, no matter how much traffic on the way to the show, lack of hygiene, and how annoyed we can get with each other at times it is amazing to be able to live and get by playing music with your best friends for people and no matter what we know God will always provide for us.
What is your favorite and worst memories of Onward to Olympas?
There are tons of favorite memories that we have gone through. Some of my personal favorites would be getting stuck in the snow on our first tour in Minnesota in February 2010 after the show, Playing the big summer festivals and being there for the first time in 2010, Recording this new album and growing as a band and overcoming all the problems and making it through. Which leads to some worst memories, such as the band almost being a point where we were ready to call it quits and parting ways with old members, but God always has ways and comes through and brings us back up. It’s been a crazy run so far and I’m looking forward to many more upcoming years with this band.
I’ve always wanted to ask this but I always forget but now you will be the first band I have ever asked this question. How do you guys handle the ladies at shows/festivals? I imagine any musician has their fair share of female fans.
Haha! There are many female fans out there but none really come on to us in an obvious way. With a majority of the dudes having girlfriend’s, we just never really flirt back and I guess it lets the girls down who try. However, we are always down to hangout have fun and be close with the people who enjoy our music and let them know we really appreciate support. Never really wanted to take on that “Rockstar Lifestyle.” Just spread love and positivity throughout the world!
Building on the last question, what is the craziest/funniest story you have about ladies coming on to you guys?
Well to be honest, there haven’t been a lot of times that I know of where the ladies have came on to us. But if I had to make one up then I would say a girl started screaming and crying as if I was Justin Bieber.
If I was to look on your iPod/mp3 player, would you be ashamed of any album you have on there? (I admit that I have Milli Vanilli and LFO on mine)
My dad and I share an iPod so there is a lot of classic rock such as Elton John. It does have a lot of super old stuff that I used to listen to so that might be embarrassing. I do love Taylor Swift and listen to her a lot. I will admit that to anyone, any day. I even own one of her shirts, and yeah, I paid 25 bucks for it.
What is your take on the Punk Goes… series of albums? (Good idea? Overplayed? You call these bands punk? I hate covers? They suck in general?)
I think it’s an awesome idea. The more ways to get your band out there, the better. Some people might think it’s lame and selling out, but this is what we do for a living and the more people know about you, the longer we can do this and live out our dream.
If you had to fight in a steel cage match with another Facedown/Strike First band, which band do you know you could take? Which one would you not want to face off against?
I could probably take Matt Janssen of In The Midst Of Lions. But he would probably back out in fear. Haha he knows I’m kidding! But someone I don’t want to get in the cage with is Your Memorial considering Blake’s (Vocalist) arms are the size of my head.
What are your thoughts on music piracy?
I mean hey, as long as our stuff is out there. But I’m not saying everyone should go download our stuff, haha. It would be awesome if everyone still bought CD’s and supported but knowing the economy is the way it is and buying albums isn’t like how it used to be, then whatever. Just come out to shows and buy some shirts and lets have a good time!
Onward to Olympas is:
Kramer Lowe –Vocals
Andy Simmons – Guitar/Vocals
Andrew Higginbotham – Guitar
Justin Allman – Bass
Nick Helvey – Drums