Get the new FREE JFH MP3 compilation -- Vol. 13!
Get the new FREE JFH MP3 compilation -- Vol. 13!

Everyday Sunday


Everyday Sunday debuts to the Christian rock scene this Fall with their first national release, Stand Up. These smart young lads could be seen on this Fall's Festival Con Dios Tour along with the likes of Audio Adrenaline, tobyMac, and Out of Eden. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with lead singer Trey Pearson regarding the band's experiences in working with dc Talk's Michael Tait and the misadventures of jumping from a moving van...
This interview took place on: 10/24/02.



  • Jesus freak Hideout: How did you guys come up with the name "Everyday Sunday"?
    Trey Pearson: The name comes from the idea of living for God all the time - 24/7. We came up with the name while we were in high school. You see, I grew up in this small church where there were 2 other kids my age. You would see them at church on Sunday morning, and then they'd be getting wasted at the parties on Friday night. That didn't make a lot of sense to me. So I guess the idea is living for God and being the same all the time whether you're at school, work, church, or hanging out with your friends on Friday night. But I think people see that and go through that whether they're in high school, college, junior high, or a grown up working class citizen.

  • JFH: How did Everyday Sunday get started?
    Trey: We started out of our youth group in Hilliard, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. We're all from the same church. The guitar player and I wanted to write a song for the youth group. And we needed a band to play it... kind of all went from there.

  • JFH: How old were you guys then?
    Trey: We were 15/16. People seemed to really like it, so we started writing more songs. Next thing you know, we're playing high school parties and clubs and youth groups. And then we started getting asked to open for different groups that came in like All Star United to Plumb to Earthsuit and Pax217 and a bunch of other bands (Skillet, LaRue, etc.)

  • JFH: And Sleeper was your first independent recording? How well was it received?
    Trey: Yea, it was the first real album we recorded. We just really wanted to make something, and get it out to people. We started out by just making 1,000 copies, and sold out of them extremely quickly. It was awesome to see what God did with it as far as Radio U hearing it and sending it to Kyle Fenton, a major radio promoter in the Christian industry. It was really crazy seeing our song, "Just A Story" making it to #11 on the National Christian Rock Charts as an independant single.

    stand up album cover

  • JFH: Awesome! Michael Tait of dc Talk fame co-produced your new debut national recording Stand Up. How did you guys hook up with Michael and what was it like working with a legendary artist?
    Trey: Ha. Actually we met him at a movie theater while we were down there meeting with record labels. He took a CD and gave us a call the next day. We hooked up and became very good friends. When the opportunity arose, we asked him to be a part of the album and we were surprised about his excitement. It definitely blew us away. God does things in the funniest way sometimes. Definitely shows us He's in control. But yea, it's amazing how you look up to someone so much growing up, and then being able to build a relationship with him is such a huge blessing. It's definitely been overwhelming though.

  • JFH: So, I'm sure everyone's probably wondering... what movie did you see that night? Hehe
    Trey: What Women Want... but we had just got to Nashville that day, and none of the meetings started until the next day. What's funny is we had like an hour until our movie started, so we were out in the lobby playing video games when all of the sudden Jody Davis, the guitarist for the Newsboys, walked in! We were like, "No way!" So we talked to him and his wife for awhile, when all of the sudden Adrian from All Star United walked in! And we had played a couple of shows with them before, so it was really cool seeing him. And we couldn't get over it all. A little bit later we were still playing video games waiting for our movie... ha... and I saw Michael Tait walk out of one of the movies! I was like, "Dudes! It's Michael Tait from dc Talk!" And neither Chris or Dan believed me because every time one of us said that when the other 2 walked in we thought we were messing with each other! So, I was like, "No, seriously!" Dan dropped the gun from the video game and looked and his mouth dropped. Chris picked up the gun and started playing the game. It was hilarious. Anyway, we started talking to him, and all these people around wanted his autograph (we did too!), but it was really neat.

  • JFH: So how did the deal with Audio Adrenaline's label Flicker Records come about?
    Trey: Well, we were already talking to several other different record labels, and we really felt like this is what God wanted us to do, so we didn't mind just walking in people's doors. :) We told them we happened to be down there, so we just dropped off the CD. To make a long story short, we asked God to open the doors that He wanted us to go through, and close the other ones. We had a lot of interest from several different labels, but it ended up one just signed another band (and we didn't really want to be on the back-burner) right before they had even heard the album. They still wanted to hook it up, but we just wanted someone that was going to put a lot of attention towards us. Two of the other ones lost the A&R guys at their labels we were talking to. One just bought another record label, so they lost a lot of people and were on hold for several months of anything during our whole signing process anyway. About 5 minutes after we left Flicker, they called my cell phone and asked us to lunch. Everything went really quickly from there.
  • JFH: That's really cool. So how did Tait and experienced producer Quinlan's help on the record influence the album's final product?
    Trey: Thanks. Tait was huge on the vocal side of things (as if I needed to say that). He had a lot of awesome ideas as far as background vocals as well. Quinlan is just an amazingly talented musician. I hope not to use the term musical genius lightly, but he truly is awesome. He had so many ideas as far as guitars and things as well. We just wanted somebody who could help us keep the catchy side as well as the artistic side. And I really feel like he brought that out in us. And then taking that sonically, with the help of mixing extraordinaire, Shane D. Wilson, just really gave the album so much more than we could've ever asked for...

  • JFH: Where do you pull the inspiration for your songwriting from?
    Trey: I really feel like the idea is to connect with people. I just try to be as honest as I can in my writing. I write about life. No matter where God takes us in life, we are all called to do the same thing, and that is glorify Him. Tell people about who He is, and rejoice in what He's done for us. So hopefully, if God is in the center of everything I do, that will be evident in the things I write about. Hopefully people can relate to those things and it can somehow make an impact in their life.

  • JFH: What is your favorite Everyday Sunday song?
    Trey: Well, they all mean a lot for different reasons, but I guess the one that means the most to me right now is the last track on the album called "Don't Leave." It's about one of my best friends from high school that I saw come into our youth group and see his life totally change. Eventually other things took his focus and he walked away from it all. It never really made much sense to me and it's just a prayer that God would never let that happen to me. It's really cool now though, he is really searching again and trying to figure out what he's missing in his life. So he's really trying to figure it out and find out what he really believes and what all of this really means to him. So it's awesome to see how amazing it is that God is always there, He'll never leave you, and He loves you that much even when we are so undeserving.

  • JFH: What is the song "Live For You Tonight" about?
    Trey: It's about how easy it is to get distracted by every day things in life. And how stupid it is that that stuff can become more important than your relationship with God. Not that it is or should be, but how we let it become that. So it is the struggle with self and how you have to make the decision of who you're going to live for. I could go on about the billion things running through my mind when I wrote it, but it just comes down to the day to day struggle of what this is all really about.

  • JFH: You guys just got off of the amazing second annual Festival Con Dios tour. What kind of experience did you guys have on the tour? Is there a favorite moment on the tour that sticks out in your mind especially when looking back?
    Trey: Yea, Festival Con Dios was an awesome experience. It was really amazing getting to know the artists and their hearts, the crew, and the people in all of the different cities. As far as any favorite moments, I think a lot of it would have come from the chapels we would have the days of shows where our touring pastor, Pastor Dave Sosebee (who was P.O.D.'s touring pastor on Ozzfest and the Youth Of The Nation tour) shared with us, and we shared with each other in fellowship. It was awesome.

  • JFH: Any favorite live performance moments?
    Trey: Yea, definitely. Probably one that stuck out was in Chicago, which ended up inside. Everyone was sooooo packed in there, and there wasn't room for anyone's lawn chairs just chilling out at the front. The place went so crazy, and it totally blew us away. It taught us a lot of how audiences work, especially with a brand new band being on our first major national tour. Everything seemed to just go so amazing for us from there on out. Some cities with amazingly overwhelming responses were Gaylord, MI, Chicago, Seattle, all the California shows, Phoenix, and Indianapolis.

  • JFH: That reminds me, at the Williamsport, PA FCD show I saw you guys at, you had a cast on your arm. What was that from?
    Trey: I jumped out of a van. : ) Broke my wrist. We were going from one of my friends' in Plain City... (yea, that's it's real name) to pick up a pizza. We were on our way back, and one of my friends, Josh, and I were riding in the back of a van with the doors open eating pizza. We were coming to a stop, and another one of my friend's, Ryan, was coming up behind us by total coincidence. We were all excited and going to jump out to say hey. We were coming to a stop sign, and Dan (our bass player) decided to roll the stop sign. I don't know if he just hit the gas when I jumped or if it seemed like we were going slower than we really were or what, but I rolled a couple times on the road. So anyway, it wasn't too bad I didn't think. I was hoping to just shake it off, but as the night went on it got a lot more tense. A couple weeks later I finally went to the hospital and found out it was broken. Craziness.

  • JFH: What has been your most embarrassing stage moment?
    Trey: Usually just technical difficulties, like singing when the vocals aren't coming out of the speakers, or the guitars happen to go out... thats stinks so bad. ha

  • JFH: What is your favorite thing to do while not on the road?
    Trey: I love just hanging out w/ family, friends, and kids from our youth group. Whether it's throwing a party, going to a movie or bowling, or just hanging out, I love chillin at home. I really feel like God has given us a responsibility in our church and relationships back at home as well as the ones we make on the road. So it's cool being able to spend time with the people you love when we get back around to Columbus every once in awhile.

    Trey Pearson

  • JFH: How about while touring? Favorite thing to keep you busy during your transit from date to date?
    Trey: Uh, we really like finding out what the different places are like wherever we go. It can get really boring if you just sit around waiting for every show to start, so we like to venture off a lot and get ourselves into trouble. We like to hang out with the people wherever we are, and hopefully take time to get to know some of them too. We've been extremely blessed by a lot of the people God's put to encourage us and teach us in our path being out the road.

  • JFH: Musical influences?
    Trey: Gosh, growing up everything from Seven Day Jesus, Switchfoot, Jars Of Clay, MxPx, All Star United, Audio A, Newsboys, dc Talk, to Blindside, Matthew, P.O.D., Chevelle, Lifehouse, Relient K... I love so many different kinds of music. We really are against the whole idea of putting a limit on who we are as a band. I guess that's what we feel makes us so different. We just like to write music we like (ha). so hopefully we're never bound by saying "We can't write that cause that's not who we are."

  • JFH: Favorite movie?
    Trey: Favorite movie... tough questions. I don't think about these things. ha. Some of them I guess would be The Lord Of The Rings, The Patriot, Braveheart, Gladiator, Far and Away, Last of the Mohicans, Romeo and Juliet (the newer one)... I guess I like a lot of historical or historical/fantasy kind of movies... Ninja Turtles 1 and 2

  • JFH: Since you're and 80's baby like me -- favorite show from your childhood?
    Trey: ha. uh... Home Improvement!!!!!!!!!!!! Boy Meets World in a close 2nd.

  • JFH: Favorite childhood cartoon?
    Trey: Cartoon... was into Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, Thundercats, Masters Of the Universe, Silverhawks, Transformers, Gummy Bears, DuckTales, Snorks, Dexter's Laboratory... I can keep going... My head's starting to blank at 4 am. ha JUSTICE LEAGUE! (w/ like superman, wonderwoman, green lantern, aqua man, batman, robin) Looney Tunes was cool, those were classic. Tom and Jerry and Road Runner and all that was great cause you didn't even need sound. Gosh, lots of memories. And they weren't cartoons, but you gotta give Saved By The Bell some props for Saturday morning.

  • JFH: Favorite breakfast cereal?
    Trey: Lucky Charms

  • JFH: Any last comments?
    Trey: Just find out what you believe. If you really believe in this God and who Jesus Christ is, be passionate about it. He gave us the breath we have, and He loved us so much that He died for us. The least we can do is give Him the little we have to offer.

    downhere

     

    go to main Interview page

     

  •                  
    Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

    Search JFH




    This Tuesday, November 19, 2024
    SINGLES
    Mat Kearney Certainty - Single (independent)

    This Wednesday, November 20, 2024
    ALBUMS
    1K Phew Let Go Let God: The EP [Reach]

    SINGLES
    Drew & Ellie Holcomb High Seas - Single [Magnolia]
    Sleeping At Last Let It Snow - Single (independent)

    This Thursday, November 21, 2024
    ALBUMS
    The Choir Translucent (independent)

    SINGLES
    Wilder Woods Curioso [Dualtone]

    This Friday, November 22, 2024
    ALBUMS
    Coqui I'll Still Have Christmas Day - EP [DREAM]
    for KING & COUNTRY A Drummer Boy Christmas (LIVE) [Curb]
    The Kingsmen Decades: Vol. 3 & 4 [Horizon]
    Jonathan McReynolds Red & Green - EP [Capitol CMG/Motown]
    NEEDTOBREATHE Acoustic Live Vol. 1 (CD Reissue) [Omnivore]
    NEEDTOBREATHE Live From The Woods (CD Reissue) [Omnivore]
    R.kitect Vicious Circles - EP (independent)
    Run51 Let's Celebrate - EP [DREAM]
    Van Zant Always Look Up [Frontiers Music]

    SINGLES
    7eventh Time Down I Speak Jesus - Single [BEC]
    99 APEX Find A Way Freestyle - Single [Syntax]
    Cory Asbury You're Still The One - Single [BEC]
    Ashes Remain Lost Light - Single [BEC]
    Paul Baloche Angels We Have Heard On High/Glorious (feat. Sarah Kroger) - Single [Integrity]
    Elan Brio Sun Rays - Single (independent)
    Amy Jay And So It Goes - Single (independent)
    Jericko Holy Ground - Single [Syntax]
    Reece Lache' Energy - Single (independent)
    Vic Lucas Presha - Single [Syntax]
    Cliff & Antoinette Murray O Emanuel - Single [DREAM]
    Procyse, Dave A. You’re Not Free - Single [Polished Arrow]
    River Valley Worship This is Our Jesus (feat. Moriah Christian) - Single [BEC]
    Vineyard Worship Royal Son - Single [Integrity]

    VINYL
    NEEDTOBREATHE Acoustic Live Vol. 1 (Vinyl Reissue) [Omnivore]
    NEEDTOBREATHE Live From The Woods (Vinyl Reissue) [Omnivore]

    Next Thursday, November 28, 2024
    VINYL
    Van Zant Always Look Up Vinyl [Girder]

    Next Friday, November 29, 2024
    ALBUMS
    Sixpence None the Richer Dawn of Grace (Deluxe) [Flatiron]
    Thrive Worship Christmas, Vol. 2 - EP [Integrity]

    SINGLES
    ICF Worship Light of the World - Single [Integrity]
    Selah Glory Hallelujah (feat. Mike Weaver) - Single [Integrity]
    Slow Salvation The Ghost of Christmas Past - Single [Velvet Blue]
    Uche Agu, Revival Today Worship Medley of Hymns - Single [DREAM]

    VINYL
    Sixpence None the Richer Dawn of Grace (Deluxe) Vinyl (Record Store Day Exclusive!) [Flatiron]



    For all release dates, click here!
     



    Check out the new album from Taylor Holland Armstrong!



    Listen to the new Single from Second Adam and the New Creations!

    Check out depositphotos for royalty free images