Trevor McNevan: Good, man. Doing good, working hard, keeping busy. My wife and I just moved to Brentwood actually, about five months ago, so it was kind of a new move, a big move for us. Definitely feels like where we’re supposed to be for a season, you know?

Trevor: No, we had a condo, owned a condo out home, and we bought a house here.

Trevor: Yeah, we’re a Canadian band. *laughs*

Trevor: Yeah, the other guys still live in Canada. And we’ll see what happens, we’ll probably be here a couple years, and then we’ll see what happens. It feels more like home all the time though. Kind of settling in. I haven’t been here very much because we just finished a new record not too long ago. And we’re on tour with Toby, just finishing that up too.

Trevor: Yeah, right now it’s September 11. [NOTE: was later changed to September 18] Yeah, we’re going there. But no, it feels really appropriate for this record. I mean, it’s one of those things that could possibly change, but we’re excited about that. Coincidentally, there’s a song on the record that starts with someone waking up on the morning of 9/11, it’s a song called “What Do We Know?”, on the new record, and it’s kind of talking about a lot of stuff that has happened in the past five years, with Katrina, and 9/11, and even recently, it definitely applies to Virginia Tech. The experience is just crazy. Things as a nation that have just made us stand back, or worldwide, just be like, wow, we’re not in control. You know what I mean, no matter what you believe. People on this planet, I think it’s made everyone stand back and be like, "sheesh." It just makes you remember what’s really important. So that’s kind of what that song is about. That was coincidental with the whole September 11 thing, yeah, but it works out.

Trevor: It’s about a couple things. One thing, on a spiritual level, I try to get across the point that sometimes - other Christians will have a problem with this but - I really believe 100% that all of us that are doing this, that are making music, just Christian people writing about life the way we see it, that whether you’re Chris Tomlin, or Hillsong United, or someone who’s doing what they’re doing in that platform, which is incredible. Or someone like us who might be a more hard rock platform, we do things very differently but we both love the same God. We both have the same purpose, and we both have the same hearts. We’re doing what we do for the same reasons. So, The Flame In All Of Us is in a way symbolizing. I really feel like when we do what we do, we are worshiping, in the way that we do that. We are worshiping, every bit as much as someone would in a traditional church sense. So I think that’s something important to us to kind of get across. That’s on a spiritual note. I think the title also stemmed from; I just recently read that book that Donald Miller wrote, Blue Like Jazz, I know it’s probably like way after the fact, I know everybody probably read it years ago, but I finally read it because people were recommending it. Just the way he looks at stuff. He had some really good points, just in general, how our nature - the human nature - is imperfect and we’re born with a void to fill. Who are we? What are we here for? All that stuff. He puts it in a really cool way, it’s pretty stinkin’ cool. That’s the other element, to The Flame In All of Us. There’s a lot of things, no matter what race you are, no matter what you believe or what you listen to, that we have more in common than we think.

Trevor: I honestly think, take this for what it is, I’m not trying to pump up the record, as much as I hope everyone digs it, I think it’s our biggest, freshest version of just who we are as a band, and who we want to be. It’s got the biggest, heaviest sounding moments we’ve ever been to, and it’s also got - for the first time I got to work with an orchestra, on about three songs, and I’m really stoked about that. So it’s got even the gentlest, most quiet moments that you’d probably never have thought we’d go there. It’s really cool though, I’m really excited about it. I think it flows, it’s completely honest, and we weren’t like “let’s do a slow song!” (John: It just came out, felt natural.) Completely, and there’s about four slower songs on this record, which is really different for us, man. But there’s also a lot of everything in between. I think it’s got something for people who have grown up with the band a little bit, and then people who maybe have just heard the band, it’s something new, and then it kind of gives you an idea of where we’re headed to.

Trevor: Yeah. Just one right now, I mean, everyone’s got a fairly shorter set on the Toby tour, so we only really have a chance to play one new one. But we’ve been playing the title track, "The Flame In All Of Us." It’s been really cool, to see the response we’ve been getting. It’s been encouraging too, you know, when you play a new song. If I go see a band that I dig, you kind of just take it in, right? You just listen to it. I’m probably not freaking out during that song if I’m going to see a band I love, cause I just want to hear it. But we get responses from it like songs we’ve been playing for years, so it’s been awesome.

Trevor: We worked with a cat named Ken Andrews. He’s an LA guy, and he did some stuff we really dug for Beck and Tenacious D, which is kind of funny, and some Chris Cornell stuff, and I love him. He’s mixed in a lot of stuff. He’s worked with a lot of bands like Perfect Circle, and we really dug what he did, so we initially were supposed to work with another guy, but the timing wasn’t right. So we’re glad that things ended up the way they did. It was cool. It’s the quickest record we made too. It was refreshing to go in, cause for us, this was a new thing. Usually you go in, and it’s pretty standard. You do drums, then bass, then vocals, or guitars, and all that stuff in a certain progression. This time, we went in and we had drums, rhythm guitar and bass all playing at the same time, and recording stuff in the other room, so we played everything live off the floor. (John: That's awesome.) Just rocked it, and recorded like six takes, and added it to the best stuff that we got. It turned out really wicked in my opinion, for what we were going for. I’m really excited.

Trevor: It does, but it’s still probably the biggest sounding record we’ve had. We still managed to get that because that was important, but it has more energy I think. For us, for a band like us, you get more energy that way. It just feels like it, it’s not so 'cut and paste,' yknow?

Trevor: Right, and that’s what we do. That’s why live is so important to us. It worked really well. I’d recommend it.

Trevor: I don’t know man. It probably sometimes comes down to producers wanting to do it the way they feel comfortable. Other times, there’s quite a few bands that wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that either. You have to come in prepared to play your songs front to back, and have the songs. It’s not coming in with a chorus and saying “hey let’s try and write a song!” It’s like “here’s what we’re gonna do. Here it is. 1, 2, 3, 4, bang.” It suits us man, and we dig it.

Trevor: Oh yeah. Hopefully. That’s the goal.

Trevor: That’s a tough question, because as a songwriter, they all have such a meaning to me. But in different ways, there probably is, yeah. There’s a song called “Wish You Well,” and it’s a slower song, and we actually used a quartet, and it just really hits home, on a personal level in a lot of ways. It’s kind of about having a loved one, someone who you’re really close to and you’re really on the same page - just who you are, what you believe, what you’re living for. And then whenever someone that close to you, for whatever reason, decides to take a 180 and make a lot of life choices that go in the completely opposite direction. It’s just one of those things that hurts. It hurts to have to sit there and watch that, but in the same sense you really, as a person, all you can really do is be there for that person, you can listen, and you can pray for them. At that point it’s completely God. When they’re ready to accept that, God will be there to meet them where they’re at. But it can’t be you or I trying to make it better. That’s not gonna work. The song’s called “Wish You Well” and the chorus is just like “I wish you well, I wish I could help, I wish you well, but I can’t help you find yourself.” So it’s just one of those things.

Trevor: Yeah man, it’s a rough thing. In the end you can just hope that someone can get through to the other side of what they’re walking through.

Trevor: That’s probably the most personal, in a sense.

Trevor: It is, it’s about a couple of things. It’s generally about a certain person, and then other people that were close to me that went through the same thing, in sort of the same way.

Trevor: Yeah, I guess. It’s a sort of an uplift thing. Yeah. We’re just totally stoked to be a small part of what God’s doing with the generation. Just to be able to do music still, and still communicate that way. Couldn’t ask for anything else, that’s for sure.

Trevor: It’s funny when you look at it. We had our indie record, That’s What People Do, and then Set It Off, and then we signed with Tooth and Nail, but that stuff was so fun to do, and it was who we were, and you just try to be who you are.

Trevor: Yeah I’m always trying to encourage younger bands too, y'know? Do what makes you excited. Don’t try to be these guys because it’s cool right now, because by the time your record comes out that’s not even gonna be cool.

Trevor: Yeah, that whole thing with us, for what it’s worth, I feel I need to say it sometimes, we were just looking at music in general. We’re just huge music fans, still. I feel the same way about music since I was ten. I’m still excited about it. I mean, we were kind of doing that when there was Rage Against The Machine, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, and whatever. It was before that whole Limp Bizkit rush. It was all honest and it was exciting to do. And it got to the point where music took some serious turns, and kind of became, at least to me, almost stagnate. At the time, we wanted to do something fresh and not just be another “let’s fuse hip-hop with rock!” type. I still think it’s a great thing, and bands are doing it great still. Sometimes I look back and I think it would have been fun to carry that out as well. But I think we did what we needed to do. As you grow older, your musical tastes change. You gotta stay true to that. I’m not going to say the same things that I write today in a song that I would when I was like 15.

Trevor: It is funny though, and you appreciate those people just for supporting you, but in the same sense there’s a lot of people that won’t let it go. There’s a lot of people that won’t move on with you. It’s funny though, they’ll still support you, they’ll support us now, but even with us, it seems most people have stuck with us and we’ve been able to open the door to some other people and kind of keep moving. There are still those people that will come to a show and be like, “dude we love that first record! I don’t know about the other stuff, but we love that first record!” They’re still there because of that first record.

Trevor: I think he’s always teaching me patience man. It’s an on-going thing, and I feel like I’ve been saying that for a while, but it’s still so in the forefront. You know? It’s still the main thing. No matter how patient you are, I mean, I’m a pretty patient person, but we’re still tried, a lot of the time, a lot of things. You know. as a band too, we went through a lot of stuff in the past few years where we were really outreach hard as a band. Just like everyone, I’m sure everyone says, but we make music for everyone. You don’t write songs for just Christians or people like that. That’s kind of silly, y'know? We make music for everyone, and I think you just want people to take it as music and accept it, and be able to spend time with it, and God is so much bigger than that, than us making a song. So I think we’re constantly learning new things in that. We’ve been faced with a lot of new things over the past few years of where you almost come to this crossroad... The whole general market/Christian thing, where are we going as a band, and I think our heart has stayed 100% the same where it’s always been - where it’s like exactly that: we've made music for everyone from the beginning. We really enjoy doing outreach stuff and just being out there, and being with people that we’re just talking to. But also, at the same time, we’re not for a second ashamed to play a church, or play anything like that. We’ve tried to make, just out of respect for everyone, try and play at neutral venues. That’s what we try to do. On our own tours, we try to play at a place, whatever the big rock station is in town, where they’re screaming “F-This” and “You Rock!” We’ll still feel comfortable coming to the show and doing what they do, and be a part of that, but so will Way-FM and whoever’s out there. We want to focus on the people, to be honest. We don’t want to have Christian kids have to come to a bar all the time that parents won’t let them come to if they’re young. We also don’t want people who woul never go to church to have to go to a church. That gets weird too.

Thousand Foot Krutch's latest album The Flame In All Of Us hits streets September 18th!