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FamilyChristian.com
Exclusive Interview Michael: Stop it right now. Chad: We opened up with our lip sync band for these guys. But never met them at all. FamilyChristian.com: Were they prima donnas? Chad: Oh my gosh, they were jerks. [Pete laughs] Chad & Lonnie: Jerks! [everyone laughs] Micheal: That's why we became famous. The prima donna thing always works. Lonnie: That was gross right there, dude. [Everyone laughs] The first time Chad and I ever signed autographs was that show. Because people thought, "Wow, man, you guys did a very good version of that Mylon LeFevre and Brokenheart tune." FamilyChristian.com: Now that you're launching a new band—lots of familiar faces and names, but still a new band—how has the musical landscape, especially Christian music landscape, changed since dc talk's debut? Chad: I think it's a lot harder now just because the market's so overflooded with bands. Everybody is in a band. Everybody wants to be a musician. Michael: Everyone wants to be a rock star, not really a musician. Chad: Right, rock star. Michael: Yeah, I definitely agree with Chad. It's definitely inundated with so many people and radio doesn't work bands for more than anything but a single. FamilyChristian.com: Or even record companies and records for that matter. Chad: It's almost like a band just has to have one gigantic song. In the old days, sorry to use John Denver for an example, but I love John Denver. You can print that. Like with John Denver, he signed a four-record deal. His first record was a complete failure. Second record was a complete failure. Third record was a complete failure and his last record, right before they were going to drop him, he had one song and it just started catching on and from that point on he sold over 100 million records. Today, that's unheard of, to do three records and then the label even letting you do a fourth record. Nobody even does that. I don't care who you are. Even if you're Michael Jackson, if his next record sold like a million records and his next one sold gold, he'd be dropped so quick. FamilyChristian.com: Image is so much more important now with the marketing and the promotion and the positioning and all of that kind of stuff… Michael: Almost too important. Pete: I'm not sure what's going to happen with Christian music down the road because we're seeing the first generation that's grown up with Christian music. I notice a lot more people who have stars in their eyes, like, "Wow, I want to be a Christian rock star because I've gone to all these Christian concerts and seen these people I idolize on stage." Whereas I would imagine when Larry Norman and Keith Green were doing it for the first time, that wasn't an issue. But now you have people like us. We all grew up seeing Christian rock concerts and stuff and especially living in Nashville, you see a lot of this gross Christian subculture version of Hollywood. I don't know what God's going to allow to happen with all that. FamilyChristian.com: Let's talk about your new record. [Everyone cheers and whistles] FamilyChristian.com: The title track, "Empty," compares to "What If I Stumble" lyrically, because it's full of questions and doubts. Michael, there's an implicit accountability to God because you've been given much. How do you keep that all in perspective? Michael: That's a power-packed question. I'll make it real simple. Just putting priorities where we know to put them. The God map to my life is the Bible. I don't always follow it. I make a lot of stupid mistakes and I do stumble and fall. My walk does become a crawl sometimes. But at the same time, I know that true fulfillment will not come until I fill that God-shaped hole with the truth, which is in the Bible. And "Empty"…Empty, the whole idea of the record was kind of spawned off that song. A lot of the songs went their way directionally because of that song. So many people try to find their fulfillment in the scream of a crowd or someone going, "Hey, great job," "You're the best," "I like your hair." All this praise comes to you and all of the sudden you start thinking you need to hear that, so you'll do anything to hear it again. "Empty" is the staple of the record. I wrote [it] over two years ago while I was at my mom's at Christmas time. I was feeling pretty good about myself that night and started thinking that I have probably done more in my short years than most people have done in their lifetime. I was having all of these selfish, conceited thoughts, and out of the blue it hit me "What is the profit if I gain the whole world and lose my own soul?" (Mark 8:36) Often emptiness is a thing that comes when you have completely exhausted your time and resources chasing after vain, temporal things. But every day you have a choice to bring a cup before the Lord and have it filled. FamilyChristian.com: Relationships can leave us empty as well. You address that on a couple tracks. First, let's talk about "Tell Me Why, " which does a great job showing the fears and doubts a child of divorce has about love. Who wrote it? Chad: My dad, myself and Michael. FamilyChristian.com: That's really cool, considering what the song's about. But, your parents weren't divorced… Michael: Right. FamilyChristian.com: …And your parents weren't divorced [referring to the Chapins]? Lonnie & Chad: Nope Michael: And Pete's parents aren't divorced. FamilyChristian.com: Wow…you guys are an anomaly… Pete: We're very grateful. We've very blessed. Chad: We see divorce all around us though. Michael: Especially Chad and I. A lot of our friends have divorced, and divorce in the church [sighs]…I just thought it would be good to tackle a subject about something that's not talked about that much. Pete: One of the last times I went home for Christmas, I spent the whole time basically helping my best friend who got married the year before me and Donna did, moving his stuff out. Michael: Many people don't realize it is a song about divorce. There is regret, pain and anguish in the song. But it is also an encouraging song. We don't have to run away. We can stay together and make this thing work. The second verse says "A beating heart, a tender kiss/ Love is so much more than this/ Always givin' in and never giving up." To me, that is probably the meatiest part of the whole song. It is letting you know that you have to completely serve your mate. You have to dig in when it gets tough. It is all about sticking it out and saying that we are going to make it through. Running is not the answer. FamilyChristian.com: You joked earlier that all the women like "Looking For You"—another relationship song—but it's fitting because so many look for romance to fulfill or complete them. Michael: This is probably the most passionate song on the record. It could be to Christ or my spouse someday. The chorus says "I am looking for you/ cause' you are all that's true to me/ You make me smile." The feeling of deliverance you get when you recklessly abandon yourself to Christ is immeasurable. And the same is true with loving others. FamilyChristian.com: The song, "Unglued" was written out of grief for the loss of your dad… Michael: I was at the studio with Pete last week, mixing a song, and I walked outside. It was seven o'clock at night and the weather was perfect. The trees smelled just great. I could smell the honeysuckles. It was an amazing night. And I got in my truck and I started crying. I missed my dad so much. I thought about all the trips to Alabama. The vacations to the beach. All that stuff. And to most people it was like, "Oh, that's too bad" but you know what? They don't know what it feels like. But those people to hear "Unglued" and they can connect with some serious loss in their life, that's when it's going to slay them. And that's why I wrote it. It definitely drew me closer to the Lord, the whole thing, closer to the reality of Scripture. FamilyChristian.com: How has his death affected your other close relationships? Michael: I've always been a real relationship-driven person. I'm always like, "Let me care for you. Don't care for me"…until you meet the people I have in my life now that I want to go deep with. FamilyChristian.com: What do you want people to take away from that song? Michael: I hope the song helps people grieve. My sister died in '97. My dad died in '98. My brother died in '99. I also lost two uncles during that same time. But the reason the song is called "Unglued"-and actually Chad came up with that title-is because that's how I felt. I felt in pieces. Most people feel that way but you hear all the time, when you're going through crisis, "Don't worry. They're in heaven, in a better place. You'll be fine." It's like, "No, but I'm still stuck here. I have to deal with the pain. I've got to clean up. I've got to pay the bills. I've got to go through every day." You need to cry and to lose it. You need to fall apart. When I cry "God holds this heart of mine/ He feels the pain inside/ and feels the pain I hide."
FamilyChristian.com: Let me ask you about a more uptempo song. To whom are you talking in "Spy?" Michael: This song is to the people who treat us differently because we're Christians. The chorus is "You treat me like a spy/ when I come around/ Just like a private eye/ roaming through your town/ You treat like me like a spy/ and I can't see why." We are not spies. Spies hide and have a secret agenda. Our agenda is obvious—to reach people and share the good news of God. FamilyChristian.com: "American Tragedy" addresses another issue close to your heart… < Previous
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Chad:
We opened for dc talk. That was another band called Verdict. It was a lip sync
band. We were just little kids. There was like four other guys. But Lonnie and
I were the only ones who knew how to play actual instruments so we couldn't
do an actual band. It was right before their Nu Thang album came out…right
after the Heavenbound…[everyone sings "Heavenbound, heavenbound, huh, huh, heavenbound"
and laughs]
That's
the most dangerous thing to young artists. You don't hear that, "Oh, you were
great" and you feel really bad. I still fight it. I've done it for over a decade
and you still want to hear that, so there needs to be a balance for everything.
You need the encouragement. You say, "Hey, good job Johnny" but at the end of
the day my wherewithal and my solitude has to come from my relationship with
God. Everything else will leave you empty. You can only hear "You're great"
so many times. You lay in your bunk at night and realize, "You know what? I'm
pretty pathetic." That's the truth.
