Originally Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Written by: Emily E.
Bands like Training for Utopia and Living Sacrifice were the beginning of Christian hardcore. Do you think they are being phased out nowadays? If so, do you think they have the potential to come back?
JS: I think it faded out a while, but I definitely think that it’s coming back, slash, it’s here. It might be slightly different but I think it’s the common practice of the Lord being first in everything that we do. I definitely think that it’s coming back into play, because I know exactly what you’re talking about, with bands like Training for Utopia, back in the day it was a plethora of great, solid bands. Now it’s kind of like this big gray mass of bands, but I do think that it’s coming back slash it’s here, and getting bigger and better.
It seems as though Christian music has become more “packaged” and is becoming its own genre. Do you consider yourself part of that?
JS: We’re definitely Christian in everything we do. I don’t know a clever way to term it, but there are bad things that get labeled with you when you also get labeled into the whole “You’re a Christian band,” thing. But we’re not ashamed of that, we do everything for the Lord. I don’t know why it gets differentiated, I mean, it’s not like there are Buddhist bands. We’re all just in music, but if that’s the classification that comes, that’s fine, that’s what we do, but sometimes I don’t even understand why it’s being labeled. I don’t mean that in an anti-Christian kind of way, but sometimes I don’t even understand where it started. Like, why aren’t the Beastie Boys labeled Buddhist rap? We’re not going to ever say we’re not a Christian band. We have to take the good with the bad. If bad things get labeled on us, hopefully, we can prove them wrong.
As for The Chariot, how did you form? What’s going to be different about The Chariot as opposed to Norma Jean?
JS: As far as how we formed, I don’t even know. Looking back on it, it’s a big puzzle that God put together and everything fell into place. I had the idea and the inspiration to start another band, and I was like, cool, and all about it, but I never went around telling or asking people about it, “Hey, you want to play guitar for us?” It would randomly come up. I’m riding the ride God set for us. But as for how things are different, there’s actually a whole lot more similarities.
For example, we can’t write music that we think the masses are going to take to, we just have to write music that we enjoy listening to ourselves and hopefully, kids jump on to that, and I feel like they have. But whether they do or not, you would die trying to please everybody. It’s impossible to write music that other people are going to like if you don’t even like it. The first goal is just trying to write music that we like, and that was the same goal in Norma Jean. And hopefully, people will get something from it and enjoy it in that sense.
Do you find that now there is a different line up it’s easier to write songs? What’s the process?
JS: It’s about the same, really. There are only few differences here and there in the way things happen. Writing music is writing music and I still write the same way. What happens is that I’ll write a song, or someone else will write a song or a riff, and bring it to the table and whatever happens from there happens. Each individual song is different. Sometimes we tear it completely apart and put it back together, and sometimes we just leave it as is. So it’s about the same. I feel like for most bands there’s only a couple ways to write songs, in a sense that only one person writes it all or you all bring something to the table and see what shakes loose. And that’s the same scenario with us.
This is kind of a critical question. Most of your song titles are very long, one on your latest album is very long, and I believe is longer than the lyrics in the song. How do you come up with those names?
JS: We don’t ever purposely try to have long song titles, but I do very, very purposely try to make sure there’s meaning to every single one. Sometimes it’s the same meaning as the song lyrics, and sometimes it’s a whole separate meaning. And the reason behind that is sometimes I feel like this can bless someone one way with the lyrics, and bless someone another way with the title. But in making sure there’s meaning for every single song title, they end up being long, but it’s never a goal of mine to make sure we have some long title. I mean, a lot of bands have long titles these days.
It seems like the popular thing to do.
JS: Yeah, it kinda bums me out, but I’m still determined to have meaning. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the next record and that’s something I’ve kind of dealt with. I really don’t want long titles, but they have to have meaning and that’s what we’re aiming to do, as vague or as to the point as the meaning is. I know the song you’re talking about, “Someday, In the Event that Mankind Actually Figures Out What it is That This World Revolves Around, Thousands of People are Going to be Shocked and Perplexed to Find Out That it Was Not Them. Sometimes This Includes Me.” That’s totally to the point I think. It’s a goal to make them have meaning. If it’s going to be a long title, then so be it.
Being so highly influenced by the Christian religion seems to be the way of The Chariot. Do you dabble into any other social issues, including politics?
JS: I don’t know too much about what’s going on. We try to stay wise of every situation, but I don’t even have a TV at my house. We don’t listen to the radio and things like that keep us in the shadow of what’s happening sometimes which isn’t very wise, but since it is that way I never really dip in to political things too much. I would rather someone tell me “I don’t know” than someone just start fighting for something without having information. A lot of the time, and again, it’s not that it’s a wise thing to do, I don’t recommend this, I don’t know a lot about what’s going on on either side.
It’s easier for me to just not touch the subject as far as that goes then to just all of a sudden jump on to something, fighting. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s right. I’m not going to write a song about this without a clue as to what actually happened. Our band does steer clear from that, not because we don’t want to offend anyone, but because we’re sheltered from that, and we don’t get to watch the news.
Does that come from being on tour all the time?
JS: Yeah, from that, and like I said, I don’t have a TV at home, and if I did, I don’t think I’d watch the news too much.
It’s more depressing than anything else.
JS: Yeah, I mean, I do like to know what’s going on about everything, like, every area of my life. But for some reason, it’s just so hard to keep up with news, and there’s a part of me that thinks it’s so slanted in one direction, it’s like you’re not getting the whole truth, so it’s hard for me to keep abreast of the situation.
The Chariot is touring all over the United States. Do you find that some areas of the country take better to your music than others?
JS: I think so. I don’t know if they “take better” to certain things, or if it’s just the amount of people in certain areas, or if it’s just up here in northeast America. This show is probably going to be by far the biggest show we’ll play up here. It’s a hard time to bring kids out to these shows for some reason. Obviously, down south, you can get a lot of kids, but that’s our home territory, but even out west, we bring a lot of kids out and they seem to enjoy it. But up here, which we’ve been to two or three times more than out west, it seems to be harder because it’s so congested up here, there’s always shows happening,
We just had Metal & Hardcore Fest and every metal and hardcore band you can think of was there. There are always shows going on. Like you said before, that gray area. One day there’s a band, and the next they’re gone and you don’t hear about them anymore.
JS: Yeah, so I don’t know if they take to the music differently, or if it’s just the place in which they live, but I know that up here we always have a tough time trying to get people to come out. Then again, we’ve only toured a handful of times, so we’re still new at this as far as the band is concerned. But it seems that out west that there’s bigger excitement, and of course, down south, it doesn’t really count because that’s our home.
What do you want people to walk away with after a show by The Chariot?
JS: Hopefully just a blessed time, hopefully, they walk away with more than just a show. We put our hearts into these shows. Our set is very nonchalant and very easy going, and even though we’re on a stage, we try to make it feel like we’re all just hanging out. I mean, there’s nothing special about us, we just love to write music and hopefully people enjoy it, but a lot of times people get this false sense of whatever about bands, but we’re just five kids from Douglasville [Georgia]. It might be heavy music and we do take it seriously to an extent, but as far as our music, as far as on stage, we have a good time. We’re not tough dudes. Hopefully, they’ll all walk away feeling like they just hung out with us and had a good time with us.
And here’s the famous question. Who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and why?
JS: Dude, I’m soooo in to the Ninja Turtles. Actually, I don’t know if “in to them” is the right term, but I’m more inspired slash can relate with Raphael. It seems like he takes care of business but he’s always struggling with something, you know? Michelangelo is the party guy, can’t really relate with him, then Donatello is the whiz, and Leonardo’s the leader. Raphael takes care of business, he knows when the job needs to get done, but at the same time I feel like he’s not appreciated. Not that I feel like that! But when I used to watch him as a kid, on a whole other level, I thought that his itty-bitty weapons, his tsais, that could really do nothing, but he still kicked butt with them and I thought that was pretty awesome as opposed to Leonardo having those swords and Donatello having a huge stick. That’s pretty deep for this type of question.
Those are probably the best reasons I’ve heard thus far.
JS: You don’t understand dude, I thought that show was awesome. I could relate … Dude. Yeah. I remember my dad took us the day the movie opened and as soon as it was over, we went straight to a little league baseball game. Dude, I don’t even know if I played baseball that night, I was so in the Ninja Turtle ruling, just hanging out, I thought it was so awesome. And then part two I liked.
Secret of the Ooze!
JS: So awesome. So yeah, you asked me a good question.
