Ben Crist: Yeah, man. We're in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ben: Yeah, we have a show around Scottsdale. It should be cool. Right now we're just working on updating and trying to get our rep stuff updated and trying to get new promo videos out and stuff.

Ben: Yeah man, it's been really cool. It's really caught on in that scene, which is great. And, well, I kinda had friendships with all those guys as well, and that kinda helps.

Ben: A little bit of both. Well, first of all, I've listened to a lot of those bands for a long time. So it's not as if I had never listened to any of them or never hung out or went to their shows or anything like that. It was kinda like I was always around when they were around just being in Nashville with a lot of those bands just coming through town playing shows and stuff. It's just being around and in-the-know, especially in Nashville getting to know a lot of people involved in the music scene in general. You know, one of our friends used to manage As Cities Burn and Life In Your Way and Jonezetta, so we had relationships there, and mutual friends. And I had started doing worship at our church - well, actually I helped start our church in Nashville - and it was just a small Sunday evening church, and it was at Rocketown, downtown Nashville, so a lot of hardcore kids or alternative kids would come to that church. So it just kinda got around after a while that we were doing a little bit of a different style of worship music, and those kind of kids were into it, you know? So they started circulating it around - the songs that I had written. And it circulated around and eventually it got to Tooth & Nail, to Chad Johnson, one of the A&R guys there, and he got really excited about it and wanted to sign me and work on making it something bigger. That's kind of where it happened. But yeah, the relationships with the hardcore guys - you know, I didn't set out to say "Well, I wanna be a ministry to the hardcore scene." I mean, it IS a ministry to the hardcore scene, but not specifically. It's kinda got a wide range, where it can minister to general church people and really anyone. But I love being a part of the hardcore scene. I love that music. A lot of those guys are my buddies. And so I love being a part of that, for sure.

Ben: Well, first of all, we're kinda also on BEC, their other affiliate label which does more of the Christian market stuff like Jeremy Camp, and there are some other worship acts on BEC. So we're kinda on that, but we are the only one of those acts that kind of has a following - and I would say even more so amongst - Tooth & Nail and Solid State audiences, more than a BEC, CCM or Christian hit radio type of audience. I think we're the only one that has an audience of those kids. A lot of kids that listen to our music don't really care about Christian hit radio. They're also mainstream music listeners, they're not kids who listen to Christian music exclusively. But anyways, we're not exactly on Tooth & Nail, it's BEC, but I mean, it's all the same thing... But I definitely like being on a label with a bunch of bands that I grew up listening to and that are my friends, and just to be able to have the Tooth & Nail marketing, you know Tooth & Nail is a pretty big name. So it's great.

Ben: A little bit. Now, when you say "praise & worship," that's really not what I listen to. The term "praise & worship," I hate that term. I don't know, I just call it worship now, not praise & worship. I don't know what all that means. But, the worship bands that I listen to are a lot of more independent worship bands that I've become friends with over the last couple years, because they find about what we're doing and then that's what they wanna do too, and so we get these relationships with all these other worship groups that aren't really as well-known. Like there's a band called Ascend The Hill from Florida, a band called The Ember Days from New Zealand, and Lovelite from California. Those guys are all killer, and they've done great worship records. As far as more mainstream stuff, I like Leeland. I've always liked some of the stuff Leeland put out, so I listen to that, and some Matt Redman stuff. But as far as a general Crowder/Tomlin... I don't really listen to that. Some of it I listen to here and there, but not really intentionally. But it's just not really what I'm into. I mean, I was into Delirious?, and I still am to some extent, but I don't really keep up with what they're doing currently. But they were one of the big influences that originally got me into worship stuff.

Ben: Oh yeah, it's a great album, man. It's Andrew Polfer and his wife that lead worship down there in California, and it's beautiful.

Ben: Well, I'm assuming we're talking about the whole Passion thing, and Hillsong and Chris Tomlin and all that, I guess. I mean, it's cool. I'm 29 years old, so I haven't been around forever, but I have grown up in the church since I was born, so I've seen how worship has progressed over the years, or at least in the last 29 years. I grew up in the Vineyard Church, and in like, I would say, the early '90s, maybe even late '80s, Vineyard Church had Vineyard Music Group, and they put out national records that got national distribution to Christian bookstores. And that was like a new thing at the time. Before that, it was like Keith Green, you know? First there were hymns, and then there was Keith Green and stuff like that, and then when I was growing up in the church and first really started playing in the worship band, it was all this Vineyard music stuff. Worship leaders like Brian Doerkson, David Bruce, and Kevin Cross, and they did some really really cool stuff man, and that was really groundbreaking at the time. And then, as I remember it, around '96 is when I first heard Delirious?, and when I did I was like "Whoa! This is such a step beyond anything I've ever heard before." And so, when I heard Delirious?, it was like a new wave of stuff. And honestly, in my mind, everything that happened after Delirious?, like Passion and all that, it's all been kinda this one big deal. And, I'm not trying to talk about The Glorious Unseen as if it's groundbreaking or anything, but I do feel like what we are doing is a new expression of worship. And now going forward from here, there's gonna be a lot of other bands coming up that will kinda carry this new sound. Cause worship always has to progress and be given a new sound. Now, what's happened with the whole Delirious? and Passion and Hillsong thing is that that's become extremely, extremely popular. And it's even had a lot of radio and marketing success, and a lot of money. A lotta lotta lotta lotta money. *laughter* And, naturally, that's why it is continually being regurgitated, because there's so much money. And of course there's some great songs, like "Here I Am To Worship" and "Everlasting God" and all those current hits. [They're] great songs. But you know, there's always a new marketing swing on it, there's always a new voice. And you put a new voice to an old song, and it's gonna come alive again and you keep making money on it again. So, it's no fault of anybody, it's just a natural business move. So I guess that's my take on the whole thing. But you know, we play those songs too. We'll go out and play youth camps, and we'll play "Here I Am To Worship," and we did a version of "O Praise Him," and on this new record we did "How He Loves," a song by John Mark McMillan from North Carolina. And so we're doing it too, to some extent. But it's kinda nice to hear, cause you'll have a Tomlin song, but some crowds don't like Tomlin's style. But I know how it gets controversial, cause people will say "Well you shouldn't mix this with worship," or "You shouldn't mix ministry with money," and it gets all mixed up in there. But it's natural and that's kinda how the music business is run. That's just kinda how it goes.

Ben: Well, you see, the thing with that record is that it's just stripped down versions of songs from Tonight The Stars Speak. There aren't really any new songs - there are a couple b-sides that we recorded for Tonight The Stars Speak that didn't make it onto the record, and we put those out with Cries of the Broken. But the thing about that acoustic record is that we essentially made it for free. There was no budget to make the record. We did it in an in-house studio in Nashville. I just used my acoustic guitar, I did some piano on it, we had some backup vocals, brought in some cellos and harps, and that was really cool. So we essentially made it for free, and we put it up on NoiseTrade, cause it was just kind of an in-between album before the newer album, so we wanted to use it to increase the promotion in whatever way we could. And since we didn't have a lot of money invested in it, the label didn't have a problem with just giving it away on NoiseTrade and in return getting people to know about the email database so that we could promote the new album. So that's kinda what they used that for.

Ben: I would have to check to see what it was exactly. I don't know, but I think around 3,000. That was a few months ago. I don't even know if it's still up anymore.

Ben: For free? No, I strongly doubt they're gonna put that on NoiseTrade because that record cost us money to make. And actually to put "How He Loves" on there - it's not even our song, so we'd have to pay publishing, so they probably would not do that. If they did something like that, it would be way later. It would be after the record was out for a while. You know, sometimes they'll want that later on in the game. Obviously it's a business, but the label's first intentions is to make back the money they spent on the record and later after that and once the record is probably done, then they might do like a free download thing just to keep promo going in some way. But I don't think that will happen anytime soon with NoiseTrade.

Ben: Yeah, people are digging it, man. I haven't had time to get online and read all the reviews and stuff. But everyone I've showed it to and everyone that I know that has heard some of it is really into it. I mean, I guess people who don't like it probably wouldn't tell me. *laughter* But yeah, we've been doing some of the songs live and it's been really great. We're so excited to be doing the new songs. It's great.

Ben: Well, I love all of them. There's a song on there called "We Can Be Renewed," it's an intense one. That song's out of my marriage, and that is my prayer for our marriage when my wife and I are going through a tough time, and to be able to sing that song every night - it's essentially just a prayer, and I'm excited. I think that'll impact a lot of people. In this current culture, there's a whole lot of broken relationships and relationship struggles. And for people to be able to hear that and hear that we can be renewed, and that God's heart is for restoration is gonna be really encouraging. So I'm excited to play that. And a song called "Sustain" that just talks about being on a spiritual battlefield and what it means to be in spiritual warfare and I'm really excited about that one. It's powerful. And we got a song called "Awakening" that we just sing "Hallelujah, hallelujah" at the end. And I'm excited for all these new ones. The live experience of the new songs is gonna be really cool. It's gonna be a really good flowing time of worship. It's not gonna be a big concert, you know. It's gonna be a time of worship and for people to really touch the heart of God.

Scott: Right now we're kinda just doing our own thing. We're going around to some churches, mainly going across the country playing at churches, and we did a youth camp a couple weeks ago, we're playing a couple festivals, and it's all stuff that we've booked ourselves. This isn't a big national tour with any other bands, but I'm hoping we will get to that place soon where we get on with another band that really has a heart for ministry, and we can go out and do it together.

Ben: Well I'll just ask people to keep praying for us, cause when you're out here doing ministry like this - you know, we are out here doing what God has called us to do. This isn't a money-making scheme, this is because this is our hearts. And when you do something like this, you get out here and travel around and do this so much, you're on the frontlines of a spiritual battle. We are impacting people in ways that would turn their hearts toward God and we are impacting a scene of people who previously may have not been so passionate about God. And when we do that, the enemy would basically wanna take us out cause we're doing something that he does not want to happen. It's a battlefield out here. And we need prayer covering from anyone and everyone who could lift us up in prayer. That would be my last request. Thanks so much!