Interviews

Anberlin

Interview with Stephen Christian on Feb 20, 2007 by Archive Bot

PunkBands.com Interview with Stephen Christian of Anberlin
By Mike Passaretti
 
I’ve been a big fan of Anberlin since Ready Fuels debuted all over the internet many years back.  It was a huge honor to interview Stephen Christian.  He is a very charitable, motivated, selfless individual and a huge inspiration to myself, others, and many more to come.  Read on…
 
Can you state your name and what you do for the band?
 
My name is Stephen Christian and I sing in the band Anberlin.
 
I know you had a program going on with your message board where your members would send you their phone numbers and you would call them for advice for the new album.  Did you receive any advice that you used for Cities?
 
There were a couple songs that I was yet to write as far as lyrics go, and I kind of wanted a direction, you know.  I wanted to make sure that the topics I dove into are not only relevant but actually pertain to people’s lives because I think that’s what separates pop and bubble-gum rock as opposed to songs that actually matter to someone’s life and that’s definitely what I was trying to aim at with Cities. It’s kind of a deeper self-understanding and I wanted to make sure that I was on the same page as everyone else.  The things that I was dealing with weren’t way out there.  When I started to talk to people, I realized that time and time again people were on this exponential search for truth.  It was amazing because every topic I would talk to them about we always seemed to be on the same page.  On our DVD I make a couple phone calls randomly and it was just crazy that all these people kept saying the same exact thing, “We want deeper songs with actual meanings…greater than guy-girl-we-all-broke-up.”  It was great.  I’m going to do it for every record from now on, for sure, just because I feel like it matters.  It was really cool.
 
Most artists don’t get the experience of having the same producer for three albums.  How has the process been with your long-time producer Aaron Sprinkle?
 
It’s been amazing, we love Aaron Sprinkle, but we were not going to go back with Aaron Sprinkle for this last record [Cities] just because we didn’t want to write a “part 3” you know?  We didn’t want to write the next Aaron Sprinkle-Anberlin record.  We wanted to mature and have a different sound; we didn’t want it to be a continuation of our last record.  So we started looking around for different producers, we finally got a hold of Aaron Sprinkle and told him our thoughts we were like “listen man, we love you very much, you did a wonderful job, but its time to explore and broaden our musical horizons.”  And he understood that like any producer would, but after looking around we realized that we loved what Aaron brings to the table as far as production, and the way he can manipulate songs and make sure that the best in the songs come out.  So he called us back and was like, “listen guys, what about using these ideas to make it completely different, we’ll use a different guy to mix the record, a different guy to master the record, we’ll get a new engineer, we’ll go into a new studio.”  So we went into London Bridge where Pearl Jam and Soundgarden did their records, all these big 90s bands went.  I think our experimentation and the diversity that Aaron brings to mix up the record totally made the difference.  We kept the best qualities of Aaron and worked with a whole new team surrounding it, and I think the record really shows that.  It’s amazing, I love working with Aaron and I think we’d be willing to explore the possibility to record a fourth album with him as well.
 
How do you feel about your album Cities leaking barely a week before the release?  Some bands would count this as a blessing, since some bands such as Underoath leak months before the release.
 
You know what, I understand that we live in the 21st century.  The fact is, albums are going to leak.  I don’t care if you’re the biggest band or the smallest band but your album is going to get out.  I feel blessed that we kept it under such tight raps.  We pretty much deleted it off our iPods.  We didn’t want to be convicted of leaking it ourselves.  Tooth and Nail took extra care in making sure that it didn’t leak out.  Instead of sending it to the majority of journalists in CD form, they put it in streaming form.  So people could still listen to the record, I’m sure they’re not going to hear the quality of the record but you can still listen to all the songs, how they’re structured, the choruses.  And then right at the last second we sent it out on CDs.  But it doesn’t matter, one week is amazing, simply amazing.
 
Who is your greatest influence vocally?
 
It’s a guy who died in the mid-90s, his name was Jeff Buckley.  He wrote some amazing albums, one of my favorites was called “Grace.”  I think that vocally he is probably the greatest singer to live during my life.  He is just absolutely incredible.  Lyrically and song writing format, I think it would have to be Morrissey.   I think that he has a way of manipulating and using his lyrics to make you fall in love with a song; even if you didn’t like the melody line or the guitar riff, he makes you fall in love with the music. 
 
How has your writing style evolved since the recording of your first album, Blueprints for the Black Market?
 
I think the biggest thing that’s changed is our confidence.  By now we feel like “hey, we can write a song, we’re okay at it, somebody out there likes it!”  I think that’s huge because you are scared to take chances and risks.  You know what works, you know the formula that’s developed within your own band, and now you’re willing to take risks.  I think the good thing is that because you get your brain into the process of writing, whether its lyrics or music, you can write more and more songs over and over.  It’s kind of like a snowball effect; the more you write, the better it gets.  Your brain kind of starts thinking “oh this would be a great line, I’ve got to write this down.”  Or Joey will be like “I can’t wait to get home, I’ve got five riffs in my head I want to get them down on the computer!”  I think that the more you write the better you get at it.
 
How have your religious influences shaped your musical writing?
 
As far as lyrics go, I think that every part of my life is woven into who I am, whether it’s the classes I took at college, or my parents, or my friends around me, or life experiences.  I think that my faith is interwoven with all that.  To say that it doesn’t come out in my lyrics or in my extracurricular activities would be a lie.  It plays a part but I’m not going to say it plays the part.  I’m not going to sell my soul or sell my religion out.  I don’t think that my faith should be a marketing point.  I don’t want to sell more records because I’m a Christian, you know?  I think it’s an important part of my life but I’m not going to sell out my faith.
 
What are your touring plans for the spring and summer? Are we going to be seeing you on Warped Tour this year?
 
It looks like it, I mean I can’t say 100%.  I would love to play Warped Tour, we’ve been in talks with them and stuff like that.  Whether it happens or not I’m a big supporter of Warped, I’ve been the last three years in a row and would love to play this year.  Right now, we’re about to head out on our first headlining tour ever.  It’s just crazy we’ve been a band for three and a half years and still never headlined.  So for our first headlining tour it’s Bayside, Jonezetta, and Meg & Dia.  And right after that we go straight to Canada with Jonezetta again, and I believe Daphne Loves Derby, and a Canadian band up there called The Reason that’s really big up there at the moment.  And then right after that we come home, take two weeks off, then we head out with our friends Copeland to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.  So we’re elated because this is the first time we’re going to Japan.  Hopefully, when we get back, we’ll have great news that we’re going on the Warped Tour.  Japan and Germany were the only two places I wanted to travel outside of the United States and so the fact that we’re going to get to conquer one of those is amazing.
 
If you could put together a tour with Anberlin with four other artists, dead or alive, who would they be?
 
The Smiths, because they’re my favorite band, they broke up unfortunately.  I would love to tour with them, it would be a dream come true.  Like I said earlier, I get so much influence from Morrissey, he’s such an icon in my life.  The Beatles, obviously, because they had so much influence on every musician around the world. John and Paul were arguably the best writing duo in the history of music.  They had 29 number one hits all around the world.  The list goes on and on.  The impact that they made socially and politically is just amazing.  The Rolling Stones, because McJagger invented rock and roll!  I mean whether people want to say Chuck Berry or Elvis but I think he just took it to the next level.  He inspired so many front men, from myself to Adam of Taking Back Sunday to everyone.  I mean you name it.  The way that McJagger controlled the audience was amazing.  If he told the whole audience to get on their knees and act like a chicken, they would!  He just had that much power and control over the audience.  And they wrote great songs!  They took blues and rock and roll and fused the two and made it accessible.  They were definitely mind-changing in my life.  Finally, Jimmy Eat World because they were the first people to introduce me to indie rock.  They still influence me today.  I think they’re a great band.  Clarity is one of my top 5 favorite records of all time.  That would definitely be the four bands I would be honored to open up with because there’s no way Anberlin would go after any of those guys!
 
You never know, you might be in that top four for someone else!
 
Wow that would be…wow.  I mean because that’s such a big thing.  I look at everybody that influenced my life and weren’t even in a band.  Like sitting here at Starbucks talking to you in New York, you know it’s a huge honor.  The fact is there’s somebody that got me here.  Like I was at local shows when I was kid looking at these no-name bands that you’ll never hear of but these are the people that got me here.  If I could influence someone in the same way, that would be such an honor.
 
If you were not in Anberlin, what would you be doing right now?
 
Right this second?  If Anberlin ended right now, I think I would go back to school.  I’ve got my degree but I would like to go get my master’s degree and work with an organization like UNICEF, or Habitat for Humanity, or World Vision.  I’d love to dedicate the rest of my life, well I will as soon as I’m done with this [Anberlin], dedicate the rest of my life to making a difference in the world.  I just got back from Haiti this past year, Haiti and India. We just got back from India about three weeks ago and got to work against human trafficking.  It was such a mind-blowing experience.  It made me realize how superficial our business is, how superficial entertainment really is.  But, it’s amazing how much political control, and I don’t mean just Republican and Democrat, but how much influence we have on our world around us.  Bob Dylan, what he did in the 60s and 70s, John Lennon coming out about politics, and Bono fighting AIDS, and Chris Martin with free trade, you know all these artists are starting to pop up all around us.  I understand that we come from a very superficial entertainment business but we can make a difference.  The fact is three times as many people watched American Idol than the President’s inaugural address.  That’s saying something about our culture, that entertainment has power.  It’s not power in the real sense of the world, but it’s amazing, we have such great influence.  So yeah, I’m going to get a masters degree and this December I’m taking a whole bunch of bands over to Kenya, Africa, and we’re going to work on teaching people how to farm and educating people about the AIDS crisis and what AIDS really is.  I think I would continue to do that, take as many people as I could overseas and exposing them to the world around us.
 
Well thank you very much Stephen!
 
Thank you Mike and punkbands.com.
 
For more information about UNICEF, Habitat for Humanity, or World Vision and how to get yourself involved, please visit the following websites:
http://www.unicef.org/
http://www.habitat.org/
http://www.wvi.org/
 
Thanks to Stephen for his time and thank to Libby at MSO PR for setting everything up.
www.anberlin.com
www.myspace.com/anberlin
www.toothandnail.com