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A few months ago (like, um, April), Florida quintet Anberlin blew through Ottawa on a tour with The Juliana Theory, Number One Fan and Bayside; after almost not making it to eastern Ontario for financial reasons and then having to switch venues about an hour before showtime, sweetdisaster ran into vocalist Stephen Christian at Record Runner downtown, where he was presumably enjoying some downtime before we ruined it. A lot's happened to the band since we talked with him in the early spring of 2003 before Anberlin charged out of the gate, so we dragged him off to Second Cup on Dalhousie St. to talk about his band and their hit debut album on Tooth & Nail Records, Blueprints For The Black Market (including the Cure cover of 'Love Song'), his old band Servants After God's Own Heart (SaGoh 24/7), other bands, Christian music and why he doesn't much like it, and lots more. Lots! It's funny stuff! Read it!
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sd: In the year or so since I last interviewed you, around the time the record came out, what's been the biggest change?
Stephen: For me personally? Wow. I would say that...that's a good question.
sd: You've been non-stop touring.
Stephen: We have been, so I'd say the biggest change is not being home. I last slept in my own bed three months ago.
sd: You miss it?
Stephen: I do. I love being out on the road, but we've been seriously out for three months straight, and it's hard; you just want some privacy. You just wanna be by yourself for just a couple minutes, and then you'll be fine. We've got eight guys in a fifteen-passenger van that [we] see twenty-four hours a day.
sd: Has it gotten old yet? Are you ready to drop off the tour circuit, go home and recharge?
Stephen: Yes! We're gonna be home for three weeks - and then pick it up, right back out on the road, and probably record a new album later this summer. It should be out next spring, maybe February sometime. Aaron Sprinkle will produce again - we loved him. He was amazing.
sd: What's been the biggest change for the band aside from the newfound exposure?
Stephen: The fact that we're able to stay out on the road [is big], but the biggest change is that we dropped a guitarist that we've been with for years now, Joey Bruce. It was just time to move on for him and for us, so we had to replace him. And Jimmy's the replacement.
sd: Do you remember the Montreal show with Further Seems Forever last year?
Stephen: Yeah, with Autopilot Off and the Movielife.
sd: I would've killed to go to that show; the tour didn't come here. Have you talked to the guys in Further since all that crap went down?
Stephen: Oh, yeah, yeah. The start of the Tooth & Nail tour was in south Florida , so we met up with all of them down there.
sd: They're handling things okay?
Stephen: They got a great new singer, from Sense Field-
sd: New album coming out?
Stephen: Oh, no, probably not til next year - they want it to be perfect. [Editor's note: the new album is called Hide Nothing, and it'll be out August 24th, 2004. Word.]
sd: It'll have to be really, really good to measure up to the last one they put out, because it was phenomenal.
Stephen: The last two they've made have been amazing.
sd: [Departed FSF vocalist] Jason Gleason makes Carrabba sound like crap.
Stephen: But you're talking about two different styles. I mean, Chris [Carrabba, original FSF singer] has a vocal range that blows Gleason away, and yet Gleason has the power and the passion. That's comparing apples and oranges, two different entities.
sd: Have Anberlin had a tour of their own?
Stephen: Besides this one? Just one. Further were supposed to headline the Tooth & Nail tour, but dropped off; we ended up headlining with mewithoutYou and Watashi Wa .
sd: How'd that go?
Stephen: Compared to how we thought it would be...we thought maybe a hundred kids a night, fifty to a hundred, because Further was gone, and we ended up selling out over half the shows. It was amazing. We had no idea. We were like, 'This is insane.'
sd: How many copies of Blueprints have sold so far? You have a number offhand?
Stephen: Um...I think around forty thousand, and our record hasn't even been out a year. It came out May 6th of last year.
sd: What's the crowd favourite turned out to be? What do they wanna hear?
Stephen: Usually it's 'Readyfuels' or 'Glass to the Arson', but this tour since Juliana has pulled out more poppy stuff, it's more like 'Foreign Language'. Everyone likes the pop.
sd: There's such an '80s influence on that song.
Stephen: Oh, I hope there's an '80s influence on the whole record. That's where we draw from, where we grew up. Out of all the movements...I mean, how can you listen to the '90s? It was horrible. A decade of decadence.
sd: That's what they called the '80s!
Stephen: At least the '80s were fun! You had everything from the Smiths to the Cure, you know, amazing bands. I even like the '70s. I just can't really get into the indie rock scene. I don't listen a lot of music from today.
sd: Do you listen to your contemporaries at all?
Stephen: No, because I have no clue! I don't think they would really listen to me either, just because you're in that genre, you know? We take all our influences from the past. If you take it from the present, that's pretty much copying.
sd: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So they say.
Stephen: Yeah, but it's cheap. And I'm not gonna go steal some melody line because it sold a number of records. I'm gonna go do what I enjoy and the melodies that I do and write the songs I enjoy and listen to.
sd: A lot of the vocals on the album were multi-tracked - how are you gonna do that live?
Stephen: We have three parts - three microphones were available to set up on that small stage. It's like a foot high. But you know what? We've only been signed for a year; we come from very humble beginnings, like six years' [worth], and with that every show is less than twenty kids, and a good show is a hundred kids. We'll be right at home; we used to play on the floor and play our hearts out. Crowds have their ups and downs and you feel like you're part of it, hanging out with them.
sd: Do you get kids in crowds yelling for old SaGoh songs? I've heard reports that it used to happen.
Stephen: No...well, probably in Florida , but not anywhere else, because nobody knew. SaGoh put out two records, but we never really toured nationally, because we didn't have the resources. It wasn't anything special.
sd: What happened to Rescue Records [SaGoh's label]? I've always wondered.
Stephen: They died. *laughter* There were some faulty business practices there. It was owned by a family relative of P.O.D., and they didn't know how to run their business.
sd: Is there anywhere to get those two SaGoh records?
Stephen: I have no idea. Bargain bins. One of my friends in Tampa actually called Diamante, who distributed them, and bought a box.
sd: For what purpose?
Stephen: Well, 'cause you can sell 'em online for like twenty or twenty-five dollars, because people wanna hear what old Anberlin was.
sd: You miss those days? The SaGoh days?
Stephen: I do, because there was a lot of passion, and a lot less pressure because we were on a smaller scale. But we've gotten to tour so much more with Anberlin, we've had so much more exposure, been offered better tours that it makes SaGoh look like what it was, a local band. We were fourteen, fifteen years old, and that fact that we got signed on this crap... *laughter* We were all like, 'Whooo!'
sd: That says more about Rescue Records than we ever could have. But I never even heard SaGoh.
Stephen: You know Hot Water Music? We attempted to be Hot Water Music.
sd: And it worked enough for you to get out a couple records. You have them on your wall or anything?
Stephen: No, I'd rather break them. They weren't that great. Cheesy.
sd: I notice you and [guitarist] Jimmy are wearing matching blazers today.
Stephen: I don't know why. That wasn't on purpose. *points to Jimmy* That's mine. And this is the drummer's. So we kind of all swap.
sd: Can't keep track of your own clothes?
Stephen: We don't have any warm clothes! There's like, five, sweaters among the eight of us.
sd: In your defense, it should be a lot warmer here than it is.
Stephen: Yeah, it snowed yesterday in London ! [That's London, Ontario, kids, not England -ed] We couldn't believe it. *laughter* We're like, 'What's going on??'
sd: I get this a lot from the southern bands who come up and are like, 'How do you people take it?' Just because it doesn't snow in Florida doesn't mean it doesn't everywhere else.
Stephen: I think it shouldn't. I think it should just never snow again. *laughter*
sd: It'd be hard to decipher to the average listener, but how does your faith relate to your music nowadays?
Stephen: The thing about it is...I think there's a plurality. I think my personal relationship with God is definitely that - personal. But then again, I can't deny that everything in my life is gonna shine through my music, whether that's ex-girlfriends or problems within my family or even my faith. It's gonna come through. But I don't sit down and go, 'Okay, right now I'm gonna see how many times I can put 'God' into a song.' I don't try to make 'Jesus' songs. I try to be sincere, and I think people want truth and they want reality, and this is truth and reality. I mean, there's more songs about sex on the record than about God. There's songs about the different trials or temptations that me or my family or my friends were going through at the time, so instead of sitting down and writing praise songs about Jesus, I'm gonna write, 'Okay, I know you're dealing with this or this, so here we go.' We don't mask our faith, but we don't sit there and preach it. I think people are smart enough that if they really like the band, they're gonna see through our music or our lifestyle that there's something different with us.
sd: Is it a big deal to you that you're a 'Christian' band?
Stephen: No, it goes both ways.
sd: Do you wish you had more opportunities to make it known?
Stephen: I wish in my own personal life I had more ways to make it known. I'd love to go on more missions trips and things like that, but I wish, honestly, that our music would have no association with Christianity, simply because-
sd: *stage whisper* A lot of it's crap?
Stephen: Well, not that...yeah, just that. I don't wanna be in the same genre as a lot of these other artists. I don't wanna put a wall between me and the listener. I would want anyone from any genre, any race, any sex, to be able to listen to my music. That's the point - it's just music. And when people ask me, 'How does it feel to make Christian music?', I just quote C.S. Lewis. When somebody walked up to him and was like, 'How does it feel to be one of the best Christian-literature writers?' he would say, 'Listen. Are you saying my books have a soul? As if they could choose heaven or hell?' I don't like Christian music. I write music, and I'm a Christian. But to say that my album is gonna go to heaven or hell? That's, like, asinine. *laughter* It makes no sense. If a Christian is encouraged, that's awesome. If you can stand stronger another day because of our music, great. If there's someone else out there that's not a Christian, and they're also encouraged to find faith or find God, or abstain from sex or not commit suicide, or not get drunk, that's great too. But if there's someone else who just thinks it's a great song, it all works. I don't wanna label myself. I don't feel that I write Christian music, because I don't.
sd: Are you always this impassioned in interviews, or just this time?
Stephen: No, it's not that I'm worked up, it's just that being a philosophy major, I have to sit here and ponder, because I wanna be a missionary. I want to. But where do I draw the line between going around and preaching to people and just playing music? For me, in my life, I had to separate the two. I've chosen this music as my profession.
sd: What price would you put on your own records if you could?
Stephen: Two point three million. *laughter* Probably a dollar so everybody could afford it. That'd be nice, but I don't think the record label would go for that.
sd: No, I don't think so either. But keeping in mind the exchange rate and all...
Stephen: I think original price would be like $10.99.
sd: Not gonna happen here.
Stephen: Seven or eight dollars is a reasonable price.
sd: I see ads on websites from the States all the time: 'Go get the new Most Precious Blood for twelve bucks!' I'm like, twelve bucks? Must be nice.
Stephen: I remember when Starsailor's record came out in the States, it was $7.99. It was niiice.
sd: That's unheard of. No way we get that deal. What are you listening to now? What's in the van?
Stephen: Actually, Nate was listening to the Cure's greatest hits, but we all have really different tastes. I'm big into anything Britpop.
sd: When I heard the keyboard parts in 'Foreign Language' I was like, 'Wow, these guys are listening to a lot of stuff from Old Blighty.'
Stephen: The Beatles and the Smiths are my two favourite bands.
sd: What about back in the SaGoh days? You've refined yourself?
Stephen: I knew who those people were, but back in the day it was Op Ivy and stuff.
sd: So it's not like you're trying to outgrow your roots.
Stephen: No, no. I still definitely consider them my influences, but now, for the rest of my life it'll be the Beatles...Jeff Buckley...
sd: What's the next Anberlin record gonna sound like? Have you got some songs written?
Stephen: Yeah, we'll play two tonight. I think we're a lot more mature, to the next level. I hate when bands alienate their last record; they change every record, and you're like, 'What? I don't get it.' And they lose all their fanbase. [In our case] I think it's just the evolution. You can still hear the Anberlin 'sound', as far as, like, the dual guitars, but we're more mature, and the thing is that me and Joey wrote the entire last record. But now, everybody's gonna put in their two cents.
sd: This is a solid lineup?
Stephen: Yes. This'll be it for the duration.
sd: How long you think that'll be?
Stephen: I can't put a date on it, but I see us at least fulfilling the next two records.
sd: Well, yeah. That's your contract. You signed on the dotted line. Is the next record gonna have the same pop gloss on it? Because the first one had too much of a shine to it. And that was done by Aaron Sprinkle.
Stephen: It wasn't really his fault. It was two things - actually, three things. The first is that Aaron had never seen us live, and live we're a little more in-your-face and powerful, a little more gutsy. Definitely more rock-driven, and a couple more screams here and there, but nothing like the Used or something like that. So he had never seen us and we just walked in and he said, 'Okay, we'll figure it out as we go along.' [Second], you gotta remember this is a band's first record, so they're gonna make it as polished as they possibly can. And third is that Tooth & Nail is definitely on the side of pushing this to radio, so it was more like every song had to sound like it belonged on the radio.
sd: And they do.
Stephen: So now that Aaron has seen us live numerous times, this record will definitely be a lot more thick. No more 54-part harmony vocals. *laughter*
sd: Oh, c'mon, they're fun.
Stephen: They are fun - for a first record.
sd: I'd love to see you guys try to pull some of that stuff off live.
Stephen: Yeah, we're gonna have some people up, five backup singers. A choir and stuff like that. *laughter*
sd: How many singles came off Blueprints?
Stephen: In the general market, there were only two, but in the Christian market there were four. We got to number seventeen on college radio in the States overall, and all four Christian singles went to the top ten.
sd: So Tooth & Nail did an admirable job of pushing your record.
Stephen: They did. I think they've learned since how to do it even better, so I know our next record's gonna be handled [that way].
sd: Is it part of your contract that they have to put your stuff in the Christian market?
Stephen: They can choose not to, but they will. That's a good sixty percent of their sales...probably more, probably seventy percent of their grand-total sales come from that market, which is unfortunate, because, like, in my hometown our record was available in the Christian record stores and it was available at Wal-mart, within a hundred feet, and Wal-mart had it for $12.99, and the Christian store had it for $18.99 - who would buy it from the Christian record store? I don't get that. I don't see why people do that. Oh well.
sd: Do you see yourself being on the business side of this?
Stephen: It's sad, but I even wrote a song about this that'll be on our next record called 'Never Take Friendship Personal', and it's really about, like, just smiles and handshakes...I could never be fake with people; I would be honest and be like, 'Your band sucks - BUT you're selling us records, so we'll keep you and I'll push you.' *laughter* I'm gonna tell 'em how it is, and not dance around how bad they suck, so I couldn't do it.
sd: You're aware that you look like Conan O'Brien? Have you been told that?
Stephen: Wow. No, I haven't.
sd: Yeah. You do. Like, a lot.
Stephen: Great, great.
sd: It's a compliment!
Stephen: No...
sd: As soon as I saw you I was like, 'Wow, he looks different from his picture.' Is the next album gonna have those cute 'pop' pictures?
Stephen: No! That was the most god-awful thing I've ever seen in my life.
sd: That's what Brett [Detar, Juliana Theory ringleader] said last year; he said their posters looked like a Gap ad. When I saw yours I said, 'I bet they didn't really want those.'
Stephen: We didn't. It was unfortunate. Oh well. It came down to like two days before and they were like, 'Well, what do you wanna do? Either no pictures and no lyrics, or pictures and no lyrics.'
sd: You can do both! They got money! C'mon!
Stephen: No, no, it was my choice about the lyrics, but it was just like, 'I don't know what to do. Whatever. Take it.'
sd: What else is going on with you? That's informing the songs that you write? Even some of the songs on Blueprints?
Stephen: Oh, name a song and I'll explain it.
sd: Um, 'Readyfuels' first. It was the first song I heard.
Stephen: 'Readyfuels' is...someone very close to me got pregnant, and it hit me so hard, and the song is mainly about sex, and the guilt and the feeling of regret in the heat of the moment-
sd: How does that stuff sell to the Christian contemporary music market though? No one's comfortable with that, no one wants to hear-
Stephen: Well, listen to this: we're charting at number four with a love song that we covered, and they have no clue that we did not write that. 'Love Song' is about drugs and sex, and it goes 'I feel clean when I'm around you', and I'm like, 'What'd you think, like I'm taking a shower?' *laughter*
sd: I can't believe that the Nashville hitmaking machine even puts that stuff on the radio.
Stephen: Well, at the end of the song, it says 'can you wait for me a little longer', talking about, like, let's hold off on sex.
sd: It just makes me laugh because they're getting better, but for the longest time the CCM market had this 'squeaky clean' thing.
Stephen: We're the black sheep of CCM, but, I mean, Jeremy Camp is gonna be Tooth & Nail's first Dove winner, and I told Jeremy, 'Don't even show up. Have [label president] Brandon Ebel show up and win it for you.'
sd: I would pay money to see that. I've never even heard Jeremy Camp. Worship, isn't he? Would that be Tooth & Nail's only venture into that?
Stephen: He's on BEC with Kutless and all that.
sd: You guys are labelmates with the Supertones, who I've been listening to for ten years-
Stephen: Yeeeah...that's unfortunate. *laughter* They're a good band. They deserve BEC.
sd: They can play for the Pope, but they couldn't play a bar.
Stephen: They actually don't play bars. They don't play anywhere alcohol is served.
sd: Serious?
Stephen: And that's unfortunate.
sd: I guess that's just where they're called - and I was thinking about this on the way down here: bands like you are called to play bars and wherever it is you play, but people like John Reuben or even Jeremy Camp are almost required to stay on the Christian circuit, and I don't know if I agree with that per se. What do you think?
Stephen: Well...I don't know what your definition of 'required' is. Who's requiring it? Their label? Their bank account?
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