This is LONG over due! The interview was conducted after the Scream the Prayer tour in San Bernardino, California on June 15th.
So you guys just came back from Jerusalem…That is EPIC! Dish! I want to know everything!
[Laughs] Uh, lets see: long plane rides, very hot, very hot. One thing we noticed was that the culture really doesn’t…they’re kind of…they’re sort of all about themselves in a way. They don’t really acknowledge you and it makes you feel kind of weird. Like they’re sort of jerks to you in a way. It really took us a while to kind of figure out why they may be that way. It says that God asked us to pray for Israel specifically because we believe that it’s a broken city and you have to be broken in a way to sort of understand how they work. Once we figured it out, it was all good though.
We ended up playing on the Mount of Olives, which was….unbelievable you know. There’s not really any words. We went to the old city and saw The Garden. We went to the Wailing Wall, we saw where Jesus was kept in jail…uh we played a show in front of a bunch of Palestinian kids and that went really well.
[Me talking out of shock] It did?
Yeah! I know right!
[Laughs] Yeah, I was just thinking that may have been a bit of an experience!
Oh man, there’s just so much! How do I even sum it up? We believe that we were just called there to release a new sound. Whether that was a bunch of kids or that was 20 kids, they got a lot out of it. Hopefully we can go back and do that again and just grow from there, maybe take some more bands with us too. So if you’re a believer you need to go to Jerusalem at least once!
Right on. It could totally change your life.
Yup, exactly!
So me being a teen in a day and age where it’s sort of ballsy to have beliefs just gets really tough. What would you say to a kid pertaining to their walk with Christ?
To not be afraid. Just to be bold because that’s what we stand for. Most of the fans come to shows knowing what we do. They know how Thom talks and that he talks for a long time. He talks a lot about boldness and standing up for what you believe in. Yeah it’s hard, it’s really hard being a Christian but God didn’t say it was going to be easy. It’s about time everyone just wakes up and does what they’re called to do. It’s a constant battle but patience and endurance are the key things. You can’t give up, you just can’t. That why you have to surround yourself with people that bring you up. Us (SG), we’re always in fellowship together and we’re always lifting eachother up and we all know everything about eachothers lives. So yeah, that’s a big plus.
It being Father’s Day and all, tell me about the relationship you have with your father and how that’s made you the man you are today.
Umm, first off, my dad is not a Christian, neither is my sister. But my dad has always been someone who has supported me 100% whether he’d believe it or not. He’s a college professor and me dropping out of college to do something I love…I didn’t think that would go over to well with him. He did the same thing though. He did what he wanted to do and went back to college and that’s something I’ve always admired about my dad.
He backed me up on this. I look at people that I went to highschool with who graduated from college and all that, but how many of them get to fulfill their dreams. This is our dream and this is what we were made to do. My dad told me that, I didn’t even come up with that! That was just a lot of encouragement, which is a total blessing.
Right on, man. I’m seeing this recurring pattern today. I really thought a lot of guys would have negative things to say about their dads, but it’s been pretty positive all day so I dig it! Well, the last time I saw you guys was at The Nitty Gritty. I specifically remember that night because a couple hours before the show I got kicked out of my house and I was really bummed on life, and my friend told me you guys were playing, so that really brightened up my day! Well that show I left drenched in tears and my friends and I still talk about that night to this day. I had friends who have never had their heartstrings tugged in any way like that, coming to me for prayer and we just got the opportunity to love on eachother and really open up spiritually. I know you guys probably hear a lot of testimonies so what is your initial reaction to a kid coming to you saying you’ve helped change their life?
[ponders…] I guess we did our thing then. [Laughs] I mean, if that even makes sense. We’re just deliverers and if you leave that way, then we did what we we’re called to do. It’s a blessing and it feels good. It lets us know we’re moving on the right track.
Absolutely, and we definitely look up to you guys for that. Alright, so one of the reasons I love photojournalism so much is because it gives me a chance to just be goofy with people and ask questions my friends and I would really love to know the answers to! So on a scale of 1-10, how gangster would you say you are.
[Laughs] I am the least gangster person!
Really!? I think you’re pretty gangter!
No, I’m really not. I wear an LA hat, but that’s about it. I wear cut off metal shirts, jeans, and Vans. You would have to interview my other guitarist.
Is he gangster?
He’s an 11 on a 1-10!
Nice! So, say you were a tagger, what would your tagger name be?
People call me “Ghoff.” My name is Geoff and I spell it “G-E-O-F-F”, but everyone calls me Ghoff, G-H-O-F-F.
That’s just funny!
Yeah, they just came up with it and if someone did something where they’d say dangit, instead they’d just say “GHOFF!”
[Laughs] That’s pretty clever actually. So what’s one question an interviewer has never asked you that you’d love to share the answer to?
Hhmmm, that’s a really good question actually. We always get the regular ones. (ponders for a bit) I guess one would just be where do we see ourselves in this ministry in a couple of years.
No one has asked you that!?
No, well we kinda get the questions that are really specific instead of where our ministry as a whole would be in maybe four or five years. The answer would be to hopefully still be doing this but worldwide.
Right on! So tell me, what would be the core message you’d like to leave behind through your music?
Umm, that God and Jesus love us a lot and just to be bold. And just stop messing around to do what you’re called to do. I was actually talking to Thommy about that the other day. It’s just frusturating, you know; first, with ourselves and then with others. We know what we’re called to do but we just keep jumping around. God’s just sitting there saying like, “Come on, I’ll meet you half way”, you know. So basically for everyone to stop messing around. We all know what we’re supposed to do just…
Do it! Don’t beat around the bush.
Exactly!
Righteous! Any last comments?
Jesus loves you!