So half way into Cornerstone Music Festival 2006 I was completely exhausted, sick of screaming music, and ready to pass out from sun exposure. I was spending some bonding time with some random people I had met just outside of one of the two Encore stages when Why They Came started their set. I wasn’t paying complete attention but I kept asking around trying to figure out who these people were, and mostly why their crowd consisted of 5-10 people. Their sound reminded me of Pedro the Lion with that clean guitar smooth vocals and great rhythm. So I decided I could not let them go unnoticed so I walked over to find a member of the band simply to tell them I thought they were decent and deserved a bigger crowd. Somehow in my heat-induced madness I suddenly had my mp3 player out and I was conducting an interview. Now upon further examination it’s a shame I didn’t plan this out better because these guys really have talent! So here’s what came of that accidental encounter.
Joel IVM: State your name and what you do in the band.
Edwards: Andrew Edwards, I’m the drummer.
Barnett: Andrew Barnett, I play guitar and sing.
Joel IVM: Are you brothers, you both have the same first name?
Edwards (laughing): Yeah, we’re from some weird part of Kentucky where it’s the first name that makes you related.
Joel IVM: Rebels. Can you tell me a bit about the band, the history of you guys.
Edwards: The history of us in 2003 I just got back from touring with drum core actually. And he[Barnett] came with a bunch of dudes to pick me up in Florida. And we hung out there for a week and we decided to start a band. So the rest is kinda history from there. Then we started to getting serious decided to make a record. Not super serious or anything, kinda like a hobby I guess.
Joel IVM: So you guys signed to a record label or just doing it indie?
Edwards: Well we are putting our album out..
Barnett: Working with an indie record label.
Joel IVM: What label is that?
Edwards: Bad Apple Records, out of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Joel IVM: So is this your first time at Cornerstone Festival, as far as playing?
Barnett: This is my first time being here at all.
Edwards: I went one year previously, in 2001, just checking out bands. So this is my second year back.
Joel IVM: Who does the songwriting, is it sort of split between the whole band or is it one person comes in with a concept and you work off of that? How does that work for you guys?
Barnett: Andy really does a lot of the writing of the material and all that, and the concepts are both between us.
Edwards: I’ll bring an idea in and then we’ll both make it happen.
Joel IVM: So you guys are here at a Christian music festival so I’m assuming you are of some faith/belief system.
Barnett: We’re definitely Christian guys.
Joel IVM: So how do you integrate that? Are you a ministry or are you art guys? How do you express that [in your music]?
Edwards: Really through our lives I would say.
Barnett: It has a whole lot more to do for us with just how we conduct ourselves wherever we go.
Joel IVM: Where do you see you guys going in the future? Or what would you like to see happen?
Edwards: You know, sell a few records and maybe do a small tour.
Barnett: Record some more records maybe.
Edwards: We Just to keep making music.
Barnett: Yeah for that to be possible, we don’t have stars in our eyes or anything. It’s just something we do, like a hobby.
Joel IVM: Would you like to see it turn into a career?
Edwards: Well yeah, that’d be awesome.
Barnett: I would love to be able to put a roof over my head and eat food with it.
Joel IVM: An edible roof, okay.
Barnett: I don’t want to put a million dollar roof over my head and eat caviar.
Joel IVM: Have you guys done any major touring? Or have you just played locally?
Barnett: We’re about to do a tour next month, for a week and a half or two. So we’re just testing the waters right now as far is it all goes. We’re still in a very, even though we’ve been doing it for a couple years, 3 years now or so, we’re still green to a lot of the stuff that bands do.
Joel IVM: How did you get this stage performance here at Cornerstone?
Barnett: The record label hooked it up, Bad Apple.
Edwards: There was a showcase thing.
Barnett: They applied us and they applied the other band that’s on the label.
Edwards: We got accepted and it went from there.
Joel IVM: What are your influences musically when it comes to writing?
[long pause while random hardcore band plays in the background]
Joel IVM: I hope it’s not the band that’s in the background, or maybe it is and you’ve gone a real long way with it.
Edwards: We really like those guys in the background, they rule our world.
Barnett: You know I don’t really know what their name is, but they’re probably the biggest musical influence of my whole life.
Joel IVM(laughing): Awesome. Any last things you want to say? As far as anything you want to plug, any shout outs, prayer requests, anything like that?
Edwards: Well our album is coming out next month it’s going to be called…uhh.. What is it called?
Barnett: Led by the Unqualified to do the Unnecessary.. It’s a long title but that’s it.
Edwards: So that’s the title. Thank you.
Check em out!
Why They Came
MySpace
Purevolume
Bad Apple Records
Website