How did you get together as a band?
Lance:  I was in a metal band for a long time.  When my wife and I had our daughter I quit playing pretty much for awhile.  It was cool, it was good - being a dad is much cooler than music - most of the time.

Heather:  I was in Atlanta, and my dad had a job change.  And we had about three different places we could go to - and he told me that God told him to move here - because of music for me.  I was like "Cool" so I was here about a half a year and then I met Lance.  And one day he was like "Let's start a band." and I was like "ok"

Lance:  This cool guy named Philip Blunk asked me to play drums in the youth group here, and that's how I met Heather.  For awhile there I wasn't really doing anything musically, but when I saw her playing and writing we started writing a few songs together.  We hooked up well in the writing part of it. 

Tacker:  I had stopped playing music all together - sold all of my gear except an acoustic guitar and a PA.  I stopped playing for about six months.  Then I went out and bought a bass, and I think it was that day I stopped by to see Lance because I've known him forever, stopped by his house to see what he was doing - hang out for awhile.  He asked me what I was doing, I said "I just bought a bass today - isn't that crazy?"  And he invited me to come out and play with him and Heather, so I just started practicing with them. 

Alan:  I had been in bands with Lance a couple of years ago, and we just kept in touch at music stores and passing by....and he called one day at work and said "Hey, I've got this project going and we need another guitar player, are you free?"  I said "I'll do anything for you dude" so we started playing and it's been cool ever since. 

How would you describe your music in one word?

Tacker: Rock
Lance:  Yea, rock

What's that been like for you Lance - knocking it down a notch or two?

Lance:  It's fun, it's totally different.  It's an avenue that I've not been down, been involved in - so it's got it's challenges too - to maybe hold back a bit, not be so "let's do drum solo through the song." 

 

 

Alan, you're from the heavy school too - what's it like for you playing a little more mellow sound?

Alan:  It's actually pretty cool.  You can still bring from that school over to this.  You can apply a lot of your metal and hard rock stuff into this. 

What do you find yourself writing about?

Heather:  Whatever God brings to me.  I've found the songs I try to write on my own, you can tell which ones you write on your own because they don't come.  It's kind of like a song that just fades away and you forget about.  A lot of songs are from parables I read - like maybe try to think how Jesus was feeling - or how the other dude was feeling, things people don't think about when they read something.  Because in some parables in the Gospel they're described differently so I try and find a parable and get the four different views on it - and find out what really happened, to get a clear picture.

Why don't you tell us about some of the specific topics you've written about.

Heather:  "No Tomorrow" that song is pretty much about how we're not promised the next day.  We are, if we live right, but if we have sin in our lives it opens the door to things that we can't see.  You know, I had someone pass away about half a year ago and I wrote that song because it inspired me because I knew he knew the Lord, I know he's in heaven now but I thought about the people that are on my heart right now that I need to minister to, and they're not saved yet - but they're going to be.  I thought about, wondered if it was one of them - how would I feel right now.  And I realized that it's not worth it you know, and that with people like that you can't hold anything back from them, you have to minister to them.  They're not promised another day.

Who are some of your musical influences?

Heather:  Blindside, Muze, POD

Tacker:  I don't know, I grew up with a really diverse musical background so I can take anything from to The Brothers Johnson to Chevelle....just kind of depends what kind of mood I'm in.  I listen to country, hip-hop - stuff like that.  I just take it all, move it together, and make a playlist. 

Alan:  Lance is going to hate me for this, but [Living] Sacrifice obviously.  If you're from Little Rock that was the band of the time, so big time Sacrifice.  And just metal bands. 

Lance:  I haven't been listening to too much.... Switchfoot, POD.

What significant event inspired you guys to play music that glorifies God?

Lance:  When God saved me.  I had already been in music forever and it just seemed natural to use what God gave me as far as talent and writing ability - just to use it to glorify Him and bring other people to Him.  At that point, it didn't take much.

Tacker:  Man, I didn't start thinking about music until I was 16-17 years old.  I didn't really think much of it.  Then I heard a song named "Wood" and it had the coolest bass line I had ever heard.  That just stuck with me and I was like "man, I want to learn how to play something." And I just started picking up instruments here and there, and started playing.  I was a Christian and was like - I'm definitely not going to use this for anything other than for God.  That just took me to that level of learning how to worship with an instrument.  Basically I had always listened to classical music - I liked the cellos and all the deep stuff and so I just kind of translated to like to play bass.

Heather:  Having met Lance since I've been here has been inspiring - I know I can do this with my life and to be humble while you're at it. 

Alan:  I grew up as an MTV child and started to get into music and then it wasn't until very recently that I actually 100% threw myself onto the Christian music scene.  I played in bars and clubs and didn't really feel like that was my place so I got out and found a church that I liked.  I talked to the minister and told him that I was feeling some unrest and then he told me what I needed to do and every since then it's been gold.

 

What do you see as a connection between the church, musicians like yourselves, and then the lost youth culture - how do you see those elements coming together?

Tacker:  I was listening to a lot of heavy stuff that was not Christian at all - it was actually the opposite.  Then a friend hit me with a Sacrifice CD "Inhabit"  and their "Circle of Dust" album and that's what got my life turned around.  So my history and perspective, it's such a powerful tool - it could be used so much more to reach out.  You know Christian bands like POD, I've got the utmost respect for those guys, people like Blindside that are out there - they're doing - they're not afraid to state how they feel.  And then again, they know the balance of it - that you're not just going to go out and force your beliefs on anybody, but they're out there to tell you Jesus loves you and this is what he wants for you, this is what he's done for me in my life, and this is my testimony.  And I think churches could do a lot more to touch kids in that way because, like Alan said, we're the MTV generation - music is what we do.  I've never met anybody that wasn't touched by it - so by taking that and putting the Spirit into it and letting that flow from us from within - it's going to do nothing but good and touch people.

Lance, tell me about some of the people you've seen reached through your own music.

Lance:  Well, I was.  My favorite bands were like Slayer, Black Sabbath and all of them.  That's what I grew up with.  Music is a powerful thing.  It determined the friends that I hung out with, the drugs that I did, the tattoos eventually....all that stuff.  It's a powerful thing.  I'd say to the church, we're like your thumb when it comes to reaching kids - because they're not coming to your church....they are not coming through your church door.  That's why I like my church here because they'll go out - they're mission minded - they'll go out to where they are and go get them.  And that's bands like POD, bands like us - we're going to out to bars, clubs, wherever and play because that's what it's about.  I wouldn't have come to church - no way.  I believed in God, yeah sure.  Church didn't have anything for me - but music did.  And that's what happened.  There was a Christian band - got their CD, loved them.  They passed out a track at one of the shows and there was a prayer of salvation and the Holy Spirit ministered to me through that - that's what God used to save me.  In Living Sacrifice, we played everywhere, opened for a million bands - and yeah there were kids that sometimes would come up and say "What do I need to do to be saved, I've tried everything else."  You know, God just makes it easy sometimes.  It's not us, God will use anything  - especially music.  A bunch of noise is all it is without God, but it's awesome that he loves these kids so much that he'll use music, or whatever it takes, to bring them in.  It's a powerful thing. 

Heather:  I grew up a Christian, so it kind of would of been weird for me not to listen to Christian music because I didn't want to dishonor your parent in their home.  But it was when I first got my guitar when I was 12 that I started finding cool Christian music like POD.  They were very inspiring because here they are reaching all these kids.  I would read on their website letters people would send them about how lyrics and stuff just set them free.  This one girl was going to commit suicide and she didn't - because she typed in a random word on a lyric search and she clicked on POD's site - and she's saved now.  Music is so powerful because there's a spirit on it - either good or bad.  It will influence you for good or bad just like Lance said - it'll choose your friends for you too because you want friends that listen to the same kind of music. 

Alan:  I had bad experience with the church, I wouldn't go.  But POD was playing - I had no clue who they were, never heard them, but I had nothing to do on a Saturday night and they said "Hey we're going to this club to see this band and I said ok.  So we got in the car and went down there.  They played, they were great.  And at the very end they said one thing "We're doing this for one reason only - that's to glorify God."  And that's all it took - there wasn't a sermon, no preaching, nothing - just "hey, this is why we're doing it."  and just that one thing planted a little bit of seed and I went, picked up the CD, picked up another CD and started reading lyrics and it just stays with you, it starts cultivating and sends you on to where you need to go.