 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A few months ago, a whack of heavy bands on the Solid State label headed across North American on tour together, part of what was billed, with no small irony, the Solid State Tour. South Carolina natives Beloved are pushing their debut on Solid State, Failure On, while Atlanta metalheads Norma Jean(formerly known as Luti-Kriss, under which moniker they released 2000's Throwing Myself) are still ripping up stages with material from their masterful 2002 album Bless the Martyr, Kiss the Child. sweetdisaster's crew bumrushed Beloved frontman Josh Moore and Norma Jean guitarist Scottie Henry following the Ottawa tour stop to talk about faith, spittle and recreational hotel-room renovation.
* * * * * * * * * *
sd: This is the first edition of the Solid State Tour, correct? How did they decide who was gonna be on it?
Josh Moore: Originally it was Figure Four, Norma Jean, The Agony Scene and Beloved.
sd: And why isn't Agony here? That's my question.
Josh: Maybe they're on tour with another band. I think they're going on tour with Integrity and On Broken Wings.
sd: So this isn't some contractual thing?
Josh: No, no, no. It's just that we all know each other and we've all toured before. The Agony Scene was the only band that we all didn't know, and they're all awesome guys. We've been touring with these dudes[indicating Scottie] for like three years.
sd: [to Scottie] You guys are particularly interesting; I've followed the band since before the name change, and you guys grew up in one big hurry from one record to another. The production, obviously, was better on the latest record, but what happened between Luti-Kriss and Norma Jean? Between those two records?Scottie Henry: We just started playing more. When we wrote those Luti-Kriss songs we were still young, and then we went out and toured for two or three years, and I guess our style just matured.
sd: What happened to [original vocalist] Josh?
Scottie: He got married. Our other guitarist, Derr, just got married too.
sd: And you guys are going from here to Toronto and then to CMJ in New York?
Josh: We're not! They're flying to CMJ tonight, but we're staying in Canada. We have a show in Toronto.
sd: Ever played CMJ before?
Scottie: No. We were supposed to, but then September 11 happened.
Josh: We were touring together when all that stuff happened.
sd: [to Josh] What's up with you guys? I didn't hear the name Beloved until early '03, and then all the internet hype started and the record dropped. How long have you guys been around?
Josh: We've been a band almost four years, but Failure On is our first record on Solid State. We had a five-song EP that was put out by this label called Vindicated, then Solid State pressed it and sold it online, but it wasn't released.
sd: How's the full-length been doing saleswise?
Josh: It's doing good, for us.
Scottie: At least over thirty.
Josh: Yeah, maybe thirty or forty CDs, we've probably sold. *laughter*
Scottie: That's really good. *laughter continues*
Josh: For four months, thirty or forty CDs...
Scottie: Not that bad. *laughter reaches apex*
sd: And what are you guys selling, a whopping fifty or sixty?
Scottie: We're right around twenty-five or thirty, depending on where we're touring, Canada or America.
sd: This is the first show I've been to in this city where all the headlining bands have been on an openly Christian label, and still all the kids come out to see it. Have you guys been playing all secular venues on this tour?
Josh: Pretty much.
Scottie: All the shows have been amazing; this was actually the smallest show on the tour.
sd: Do you guys still try to make time as a band for devotions or anything on the road?
Scottie: Not devotions every day -
Josh: Individual ones.
Scottie: Yeah, more individual things.
Josh: Sometimes it's easier, because you have time by yourself. Like, if I was home I'd be hanging out with my girlfriend every day, and it's hard to find time for yourself when you're at home. So on tour it's almost easier.
sd: Do you have any stories about someone coming up to after a show and saying, I'm not a Christian, but tonight something was going on? Does that happen? I rarely hear anything like that.
Scottie: A lot of times, I think if anything a seed'll be planted at least. We don't wanna shove anything down anyone's throat and turn them away.
Josh: I think more it's just the personal relationships you make with people. Like, Norma Jean were on tour with Eighteen Visions, and these dudes were talking personally to their singer about God and stuff.
sd: And how was his response?
Scottie: It was awesome. We got to be really good friends. Both of us, all of us, we have tons of friends in bands, and everyone respects everyone else's beliefs. It's really cool to see what other people believe in.
Josh: I think, being in our band, like, both of us got started playing in churches and stuff, real up-front about where we came from, but I think now just by touring and stuff we've found that the most effective way to change peoples' hearts and change peoples' minds is to be real with them on a personal level. Jesus wanted to spend time with people; it wasn't like he was always preaching at them.
Scottie: You realize that you only have forty minutes out of the day that you're on stage, and it just seems kinda pointless to say one line about Jesus and make everybody turn away.
sd: The last time we heard someone say anything like that was when Slick Shoes were here in April and this local kid's band reformed and he preached on that stage, in that club, and he was kinda shouted down.
Josh: I think the Montreal club that we played yesterday, I didn't see it, but before we got there I heard somebody had put up some posters saying 'Go home God-lovers'. I think maybe people up there didn't understand that just because you're Christian doesn't mean you're homophobic or racist. [Figure Four guitarist] Jeremy was telling us about another time in Montreal he'd seen something like that too.
sd: If I said that the line between faith-based bands and other bands was almost gone, though, would you agree?
Josh: I think so, yeah. I think it's more, like, the way hardcore started was people who had a really important idea or belief, and that's what they sang about, whether it was straightedge or politics, and I think people are more understanding of the fact that we're just normal people who have something to say that we think is important.
sd: Do you ever think about your place in this movement? Like in fifteen or twenty years from now, if hardcore's still around, if it goes according to the current trend it won't matter at all if you're Christians, because of bands like you guys and labels like Solid State who said, "We're gonna do this anyway."
Josh: It's more the newer Solid State bands, I think. Like if you look at the old ones, it was like all spirit-filled hardcore...Strongarm's Advent of a Miracle is my favourite hardcore record of all time.
sd: Living Sacrifice's Reborn is still my favourite. Did you guys have a chance to tour with them? Is that Living Sac video from the new Solid State DVD the only one they could find?
Scottie: I think it's the only one they ever shot. We toured with those guys.
Josh: Bruce [Fitzhugh, former LS vocalist] is doing this webstore now, zambooie.com. They do all our online merch.
sd: What do you guys like to do? I notice over there that your bandmates [indicates Scottie] are playing Smackdown in the van.
Josh: Yeah! We're taking our band and their band and Figure Four and we're having a Royal Rumble. *laughter*
sd: Those guys would kill you! Look how tough they are!
Josh: We made our dads and had them fight our old bass player's dad. *more laughter*
sd: Someone told me to ask about 'the hotel the other night'. Do tell!
Scottie: I wonder which one...I don't know. Since we've gotten to Canada we've been kicked out of every hotel we've been in. Just 'cause there's like seven of us on the road, and I guess you're not allowed to have more than four. We were in some tower downtown in Montreal, and that got really weird...oh! He's probably talking about how we rearranged our room last night, put our dresser in the shower, heater in the bed. We were asleep this morning, and this dude was in our room; we woke up to him just standing in the doorway, the owner of this ghetto hotel. He kicked us out, so we rearranged the room better before we left.
sd: You coming back to Canada?
Scottie: Yeah, we'll be back for sure. This is our last tour this year, then we're gonna write a new record.
sd: This just in: I'm told to ask where Brad got his dance moves from.
Scottie: I have no idea. I generally don't notice what's going on when we're on stage.
sd: I notice that...Josh, you're a vocalist, so you have to be in a certain place at certain times, but both of your bands are just everywhere, all over on stage.
Josh: I think we kinda learned from Norma Jean, 'cause we looked up to them for a long time. I'm nineteen and the rest of the guys are twenty-one, so...
sd: I thought you guys were younger than you are.
Scottie: I'm the oldest one in our band. Everyone else is between twenty and twenty-four.
sd: You guys seem to spit on each other a lot onstage.
Scottie: We don't try to.
sd: It was flying everywhere!
Scottie: All this spit onstage, I dont know what happens.
Josh: I spit a lot too.
sd: I didn't see you spit once!
Scottie: He spits a lot.
sd: We have pictures of you, Scottie, before your set, wearing a cardboard box. What was up with that? All of you guys wandering around in boxes? Do you do that every show?
Scottie: Nah, we were just bored, so it was like, 'Hey, let's cut holes in this box.'
sd: I hear that pretty much every band in this scene makes its money touring and not by record sales.
Josh: I don't think any band on Solid State can make money except by touring.
sd: You guys are touring full-time, so you are able to make a living at this?
Scottie: Yeah, barely. Just lately. We've actually slowed down this year; usually we go anywhere from six to eight months a year.
Josh: This is the first year we've actually toured full-time; we've toured before but we all had jobs. Three of us worked at a grocery store together, and our drummer worked at the Gap. Someone else worked at Staples.
sd: What's up with that scarf?
Josh: You like that? I got it at this girls' store. *laughter*
sd: You heard it right: Josh Beloved shops at a girls' store.
Josh: I like it. It keeps me warm.
* * * * * * * * * * *
[Norma Jean] [Beloved]