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A Journey Toward Coming to Life Between changes in the band and changes in the scenery, The Normals have come a long way in two years. Michigan writer Jen Abbas gets an update on the band members and their latest release.  Following
their ForeFront debut in 1998, the road from Nashville to New Orleans took The
Normals nearly two years to cover. Their first release, Better Than This,
is noted for the song "Everything (Apron Full of Stains)" which stayed
at No. 1 on the charts for several weeks. Then came two years of touring. Two
years of learning the business side of the industry. Two years of sorting out
relationships - one member lost, three members gained. Two years for a collection
of long-time friends to ponder what they had to say and how they wanted to say
it.Fast-forward to the present and their second release, Coming to Life. Jen Abbas sat down with band members Andrew Osenga (vocals/guitar), B.J. Aberle (bass/vocals), Mark Lockett (guitars/vocals) and Cason Cooley (piano/vocals) to talk about their new album and where they hope it will go. FamilyChristian.com: Your new album is quite a departure from your debut, Better Than This. I hear a lot of U2 influence. How else is Coming to Life different? Andrew: A lot of ways. First of all, we've actually toured. We've spent time on the road. We've spent time together as a band and have played the songs before. On the first record, it was Mark and I and our acoustic guitars, trying to piece together a band around it, as opposed to going in as a band and making a record. Also, instead of going into a studio, we recorded it in a house, and instead of Nashville, we were in New Orleans. We told ourselves going in, we need to approach this like this is the first time this band is ever going to make a record. We went in with five guys, and only two of them were on the first record: Mark and me. This is really the birth of the band. FamilyChristian.com: What song are you most excited about? B.J.: It goes back and forth. When we started recording, "Every Moment," the first song on the record, was my favorite because it had the most drastic change from when we presented it to the way it ended up on the album. There's a song called "We Are the Beggars at the Foot of God's Door," which I absolutely disliked completely, but now the more I listen to it the more powerful it becomes to me. I don't know why that is, but "We Are the Beggars" is probably my favorite song on the album now. Mark: My favorite song is one that B.J. wrote called "Don't Hold Back." You're going to see people in their cars screaming the chorus to this, because it's like, "Yeah, I don't have to hold anything in!" It's a great tune. I'm really proud of the way it came out.  Cason:
My favorite song is probably "The Survivor." It's mellow. You can just
turn out the lights and listen to it. It's completely relaxing and has reassuring
lyrics. There's a lot of hope in the song. It's very comforting.Andrew: My favorites on the album would probably be a tie between "The Survivor" and "No Alibis," just because I'm a more mellow guy. Those are the songs that are harder for me to share with the guys when I write, but they're the ones that I'm usually most pleased with, because when I'm sitting at home, it's what I'd want to play. I want to sing songs like that—stuff that can be beautiful and doesn't have to be anything else. FamilyChristian.com: The lyrics on this album convey a lot of depth and a lot of territory. What inspired these songs? Andrew: With the first record, we tried for depth, and that's what I've always appreciated in songwriting. If it's not going to challenge me or say anything that's different or exciting, I question the need for its existence. I'd hate to release a record that didn't say anything. That would be a waste of an opportunity. If I sit down to write, whatever is on my mind is going to come out. In Christian music, we all feel a definite lack of depth. We tend to focus on the Resurrection - and that's a great thing. But there's the rest of the story, and as stewards of Christ, we are being irresponsible if we don't look at the other aspects. If all we wanted to focus on was the Resurrection, [the Bible] could have been a pamphlet. We've got this huge story, and there's so much in it—so much good and bad, and through it all men fail and God makes good on their mistakes, their disasters. FamilyChristian.com: The song "Black Dress" is an attempt to get into the mind of King David during his temptation with Bathsheba. What do you hope listeners will take from this song? Mark: An elder in the church came up to me and said he heard the record. He had just gone to a men's retreat. All these old churchmen who I've looked up to all these years—he said the number one thing these 70 men struggled with was pornography. I didn't want to hear this, because this was a guy I grew up respecting. I still respect him. The fact is, they heard this song, and it had broken them.
FamilyChristian.com: What do you hope listeners would come away with from this record? B.J.: What I want people to take away is that they've been taken somewhere; that they've been challenged spiritually and even mentally. They listen to the music, and not only are the songs engaging and have entertainment value, but by the time they're done listening to it they've been taken somewhere, like on a journey. Cason: When we made this record, we wanted to make something that was going to be musically and lyrically relevant. It transcended boundaries of age, denomination and faith. We wanted to make a record that is still relevant in 10 years. We didn't try to follow any style or trend; we just made music that we would want to listen to, and we made music that we believe God would be proud of us for making. Andrew: The goal is to create in a way that is unique enough that we can define who we are with our own sound, but that takes time. You can listen to this record, and it sounds more like us than any other band. That's one of the things that we're proud of—our record is identifiable in and of itself. FamilyChristian.com: What is God teaching you now? B.J.: I've had a struggle with doing my own thing and asking God to bless it. I've been asking God, "What are You doing, and how can I join You?" FamilyChristian.com: Sounds like you've been reading Experiencing God. B.J.: Exactly. I finished that about six months ago. [I have to learn] to be humble enough to not act on my impulses and ask how God is using this situation right now and how I can act accordingly. To me, it's been a discipline thing, learning to be more disciplined. Mark: I'm getting married [in June]. So I'm in the process of learning how to do this right and make right decisions, taking time out to think before you talk. Cason: Patience and frustration probably. Trying to figure out what the Bible means and how it pertains to my life and how God wants me to read the Bible. That's what I'm trying to work through right now. Trying to have good theology, but not trying to make theology the most important thing in my life. Andrew: Cason and I have been going through the same thing. We started going to a new church about a year ago. We've been getting involved the last couple of months. While we've been home to do the record and haven't been touring, we've been able to go to church consistently. FamilyChristian.com: What's next?  Andrew:
We'll be doing a college tour this fall with Nickel and Dime, an independent band
from Little Rock, Ark.—great guys. They are a phenomenal band. They've sold
almost as many records as we have, independently. They don't want to do the whole
record deal thing. They're just content. We love them, and we'll be playing with
them.Cason: We started kicking around the idea of taking [on tour] people we believed in that no one else has had a chance to hear yet on a "grander scale." Nickel and Dime is an incredible band that we wish more people could hear. Right now we have a guy with us who's been opening for us, Matthew Perryman Jones. He's one of the best voices I've ever heard and such an incredible songwriter. His lyrics are unblinkingly honest; they really challenge you. I like listening to music that doesn't make me doubt what I believe but challenge what I believe and back it up. Living in New Orleans [while making the record], we were around non-Christian people [who asked]: "Why do you believe what you believe? Do you believe it because you were raised to believe it—that's what your parents believed? Or do you believe it? Can you actually support your faith with Scripture?" Scripture is the only truth we have. We have to live by that. Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog. s' All Access music catalog. Back To Top |
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