R.O.O.T. Webzine

It’s hard to think of a way to begin to describe this band. First and foremost please do not judge them based off of the fact that they are loosely referred to as a Christian Alternative band. They don’t force religion upon their fans and I would like for you to to at least give their music a chance. Not to mention I will be talking about their singer Stephen’s organization Faceless International later in the article. I myself am very confused on the subject of religion but their music touches me in a way that not many other bands can. I feel connected to whatever is out there, I feel something in my heart when I hear their music.

They have released five albums (in order): Blue Prints For the Black Market, Never Take Friendship Personal, Cities, Lost Songs, and their most recent being New Surrender. Never Take Friendship Personal was the album that got me started on them (although I highly suggest checking out “Readyfuels” and “Glass to Arson” off of their Blue Prints to the Black Market album). Back to NTFP, it had the catchy single “A Day Late” and “Paperthin Hymn” which slows things down (only to pick up in the chorus) and was their breakthrough single which I was excited to hear on the local radio stations. Their album Cities didn’t get as much attention although I felt strongly about it. They had some amazing lyrics in some of the songs. One in particular that I believe is worth listening to is one of their slower songs, “The Unwinding Cable Car” which struck a chord with me when I first heard it.

The lyrics that got to me the most were “Backing away from the problem of pain, you never had a home. You’ve been misguided you’re hiding in shadows for so very long. Don’t you believe that you’ve been deceived that you’re no better than-? The hair in your eyes, it’ll never disguise what you’re really thinking of.” The chorus also got to me as well. “This is the correlation of salvation and love. Don’t drop your arms. Don’t drop your arms, I’ll guard your heart, with quiet words I lead you in.” Their singer Stephen has a unique voice, and my mother and grandmother actually like the song (it’s one of their slower and melodic songs). Stephen’s voice has an almost haunting feel in some of the songs, yet remains beautiful at the same time.

Lost Songs has unreleased demos and covers, they finally released it because they felt they had made themselves known enough to not be known as “that cover band”. New Surrender has allowed them to show the diversity as a band. I was extremely happy when they rerecorded “Feel Good Drag” and released it as a single. When I heard it on the Never Take Friendship album, it was a favorite. So I squealed with joy when I found out it would be the first single from New Surrender. It has done well on radio play, eventually making it to number 1 (in thanks to their posting phone numbers for all of the local radio stations in the US that has their single for fans to call it in for play) on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart after being on the list for 29 weeks.

I got the chance to see them on May 29, 2009. This was my fourth time seeing them. Each time they only seem to get better and better. They have an amazing stage presence and feed off of the crowd just as much as the crowd feeds off of them. They consider Seattle their hometown even though they originally from Florida. (When speaking with their guitarist Joseph Milligan while waiting to speak with either Nathan Young or Stephen Christian, they live in various states and were able to put most of the album together via e-mail.) Seattle is where their original record label Tooth & Nail Records is located (however New Surrender was recorded on the label Universal Republic), and is where they spend their time recording their albums. Their singer Stephen owns a home in a local neighborhood and their guitarist Christian McAlhaney was originally from a Seattle Christian band called Acceptance (even though they are broken up, I suggest you still check their music out).

After their set, I skipped Taking Back Sunday to try and catch one of the guys to talk to about Faceless International and thanks to Joey Milligan, I was able to speak with Nate their drummer. Here’s roughly what was said (I apologize, this was my first time doing an interview and I didn’t have any questions ready):

Brittany Bell: Could you tell us a little more about Faceless International?

Nate: Yeah definitely. It’s something our singer Stephen Christian started. He started it a couple years back. It’s something he’s always wanted to do. It’s basically an organization that is able to take anyone, you know kids, grown-ups, whatever, to be able to go to different areas. I think they went to India last year and I actually went on the first one to Haiti. It’s just so amazing to show people you can go and let them know that we’re there for them and I think what he wanted to do with it was to show people that you can make a difference, you don’t have to go on a trip with them, but you can make a difference in your own community with other organizations like Habitat For Humanity and he started it to make it easy to get involved. It’s really simple, you don’t have to raise thousands and thousands of dollars, it’s a cheaper way of going and showing that you can make a difference and be a part of something. So that’s how he started this amazing project and he’s just been expanding it.

BB: Could you explain about your trip to Haiti?

NY: Yeah we went in like 2005 to Haiti for about a week and we went to this small town called Meno for like a week and just hung out with them and farmed to show that we cared. A lot of people don’t know but they haven’t seen white people there and it was just a crazy experience. We were trying to show them that we cared and that we weren’t out to make money. That’s basically all it was. It was such a great trip.

BB: Are there any ways for people to find out more about these trips the organization does?

NY: You can go to Faceless international dot com and they have all the information there.