Mattie Montgomery: My name is Mattie Montgomery, and I’m the vocalist of For Today.

Mattie: The documentary was recorded from February – August of 2012, covering the Fight the Silence Tour and Warped Tour.

Mattie: I think my favorite part was getting to hang out with James all the time. James Baney (the former keyboardist of The Devil Wears Prada) recorded and edited the entire documentary, and he’s a great friend of ours, so it was an absolute blast to have him out on tour with us for six months.

Mattie: The documentary was pretty much exclusively our idea. The EP, however, was the label’s idea. It turns out [that] people don’t really care about documentaries much, so they suggested we write some music to go with it (a suggestion we were very happy to run with).

Mattie: They were specifically for this release. There is actually a pretty cool theme to this album. In theology classes, they will teach you that the reason God inspired four different Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) was to give four different perspectives of Jesus. Those four different perspectives, according to theologians, are Jesus as the prophecied Messiah, the “Jewish Jesus” (in Matthew’s Gospel), Jesus as the “suffering servant” (in Mark’s Gospel), Jesus as a flesh and blood, mortal man (in Luke’s Gospel), and Jesus as the divine Son of God (in John’s Gospel). We wrote the four new songs to correspond with those four perspectives of Jesus, and we put them in that same order. So, you have “From Zion” (the Jewish Jesus, or Matthew’s Gospel), “Crown of Thorns” (the suffering servant, or Mark’s Gospel), “Flesh and Blood” (the mortal man, or Luke’s Gospel), and “Open Heaven” (the Son of God, or John’s Gospel).

Mattie: It’s hard to tell at this point, because we’ve only played "Crown of Thorns" live. But, it seems like a lot of people really like "Open Heaven."

Mattie: We’re always writing music. There’s no telling when a new album will come out, but we’re always working on ideas for new songs.

Mattie: Constantly. Honestly, we almost prefer playing in a secular setting. Many people at Christian festivals have a “yeah, I’ve heard about all this stuff before” sort of mentality, so they don’t really press in to what God is offering them. But, at secular events and festivals, we have the honor of preaching the good news to the lost - people that admit their sin and their brokenness — that they can be free because of the shed blood of Christ on the cross! It’s incredible to see people respond to that message.

Mattie: I think my favorite thing about that tour was that, every day, The Chariot would come to our Bible study. For Today has done a Bible study every single day of tour for the last 6 years, and we’ve never had another band join us before! It was a blast to have The Chariot come out every day and offer their perspectives on things. Those guys are good friends of ours, and it was great to get to encourage them, and be encouraged by them!

Mattie: It was definitely a crazy experience! Haha. The other bands on the tour (Memphis May Fire, The Word Alive, Upon a Burning Body, and Gideon) were kind enough to all pitch in and let us borrow their gear. We had to borrow drum sticks and guitar picks! They literally stole EVERYTHING from us! Haha. But, we made it!

Mattie: Yeah! In 1 Samuel 17, we read the story of David fighting and killing Goliath. That’s a story that every Sunday school student in the world is familiar with, but I’ve been seeing something recently that I’ve never noticed about that story: in verses 37-40 of that chapter, David’s faith in God to be his help in that battle so powerfully inspired Saul, that Saul allowed a KID (an untrained shepherd boy) to represent their entire nation in battle! Saul must have had RADICAL faith to make such an “irresponsible” decision. But David’s radical faith inspired Saul to have faith that was just as radical! And THAT’S what I’ve been learning. Men and women of radical faith can inspire the same in others. Our courageous “yes” to God can be the thing that gives courage to those around us!

Mattie: God bless!

For Today's EP/DVD Prevailer is available now wherever music is sold!