Relient K says "mmhmm"
Mark Daniell for JAM! Music - November 9, 2005
Barely in his mid-twenties, and only on his third job, Relient K drummer, Dave Douglas still remembers how he got his first paycheque.
"I worked for a company that cleaned entrance mats to buildings," he says dryly while in Toronto for a show at the Guvernment. "You know the mats that you wipe your feet on when you walk through the door? All day I'd have to use this big power washer, and wash them and hang them on these big racks. But it just felt like I was never getting anything done, I was just getting dirty."
So he joined a rock band, or a pop-punk band, or a Christian band, depending on how you see it.
"We don't really care what people call us," guitarist-vocalist Matt Hoopes allows. "We're not really concerned with music labels."
With the release of their fourth album, the Gold-selling "mmhmm," Relient K's Blink 182-type arena-friendly mix of guitar, bass and drums is hitting on all cylinders with fans south of the border, whatever you want to call them.
Currently topping MTV's TRL Countdown with the catchy, "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been," and having recently wrapped a stint on last summer's Vans Warped Tour (with Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, among others), which was preceded by their appearance on the Noise to the World tour, costarring Good Charlotte and Simple Plan, the guys in Relient K are just happy making music that lets them indulge singer-songwriter Matthew Thiessen's quirky hooks and puns.
"He's always got funny little clever things to say and, when he's writing songs, he manages to squeeze a few of those in," Douglas says. "It makes things pretty catchy."
Songs like the Foo Fighters' "New Way Home"-sounding "Maintain Consciousness" (with the lines, "Because it's 17, 18, 19 routine/ And here at 23 it's the same old me") manage to wrap Thiessen's pun-like lyrics around a sizzling tried-and-true scenario whereby hooky guitars meet crashing cymbals. The thundering "I So Hate Consequences," which adds some grit to the band's pop, is a sonically amped-up cousin to Sum 41's "Still Waiting," while the piano based "Which To Bury, Us Or The Hatchet" taps into the emo-flavoured water that houses the likes of Dashboard Confessional.
But nestled between the snap-crackle-pop blasts of their twentysomething contemporaries, what sets Relient K apart is the positive spin the boys put on regular, growing up things.
"With most artists, there's something to be said with any song," Douglas says. "Our listeners can take what they want from our music. There's meaning there, but we're not ticked off if you don't hear it."
"One of the major themes on the new record is messing up and coming to terms with that," Hoopes clarifies. Making mistakes and realizing that you were a jerk seems like heady stuff for guys that play the kind of music that was founded on trial and error, but Thiessen is earnest when he belts out lines like "I'm sorry for the person I became/ I'm sorry that it took so long for me to change/ I'm ready to be sure that I never become that way again" (from the "All The Small Things"-ish "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been").
"It's cool that in this day and age people can write and sing about whatever they're feeling," he continues.
"It's a great time to be the type of band that almost anyone, no matter what their belief system is, is willing to listen to," Douglas adds. "A lot of things we sing about are pretty universal. Whether it's messing up or going through some rough patches with a friend, pretty often the things we're singing about are emotions that anyone can relate to. And I think people appreciate that."
"But," he says with a sly grin, "we try and be a rock band and not really be in your face. There are plenty of kids that come to our shows who don't even know we're Christian. To not be exclusive to one market is exciting."
And if the prospect of following in the footsteps of other Christian-turned-mainstream bands like metal heads P.O.D. (who were part of Ozzfest in 2002 and are currently touring with Staind) and Switchfoot (whose chart-topping "Meant To Live" landed on the "Spiderman 2" last year) makes you think that success might change Relient K's good-time attitude, Douglas says the band will stay the course.
"Why would there be any pressure to change?" he asks. "We've always been a positive band, and now that we've had some success, it makes it easier to continue being that way."
"Mmhmm" is in stores now.