CHRISTROCK.com Interview
Kylie Mac - January 22, 2002
What does Relient K mean?
Matt T: It’s a car, Plymoth made them in the 1980’s and they stopped making them because they’re kinda junkie and Matt [Hoopes] used to drive one around and we made fun of him and it was kinda like an inside joke with all our friends and then we needed a band name and we used that [Relient K]. Nothing deep it is just a car.
Can you tell me what Relient K the band is?
Matt H: We’re a group of four guys that met in high school and we like to play music together and we like to play rock and roll. We’re a Christian band and we have all been forgiven of our sins and we want to tell other people that, that is possible for them too, no matter how many times they have messed up. So I think that is our main goal as a group of four guys together.
How did you get started?
Matt T: We, the three of us, Brian, Matt H and myself, went to youth group together and we learned how to play guitar and used to be in the worship band. We learned like three chords and we used those three chords to write all of our songs and kinda just started playing punk rock and roll and enjoying it. Setting up shows for ourselves and making all our friends go whether they wanted to or not. And through that, things really started to happen so that was really cool.
If Relient K had a mission statement what would it be?
Matt T: To kind of be the peers, the friends that the kids. We do try to serve as much as we can a lot of the time. There is this misinterpretation that rock bands should be served at all times and that you need to take care of them and give them the dressing rooms and all that stuff. I think that we are really a ministry and we need to be pointing the other way and we need to be serving our pastors cause they are doing this all year round as they see the kids every week, where we only see them once or twice a year. But we try to do that as much as possible. If that means taking less money for a show, just so it can happen. You know, sometimes if we really see the ministry happening there then that’s what you gotta do. So we try to do that as much as possible and try to keep it away from the business when it comes to ministry related stuff.
What’s the main message in your music?
Matt T: We’re pretty laid back guys, we came from the youth group and a lot of our fan base is about the same age as when we started. There is this definite relationship there, where we are equals, which a lot of the time is cool, as a lot of times kids will put guys in bands on pedestals and that doesn’t happen with us. We are pretty happy about that, so because we have got an eye-to-eye relationship we find that we relate to the problems that kids have. We relate to what they are doing in their lives, their struggles in their faith and other stuff and we have real conversations a lot of the times and we make real friends out of it. I think that there is definitely ministry in that, we are not preachers, but we do know that Christ has given us something pretty amazing and we are willing to share that with anybody who wants to listen to us.
What are the influences of the band?
Brian: The influences range from anywhere to the Beach Boys older stuff and then the new bands like Weezer and on the Christian side, Five Iron Frenzy, MxPx, so just anything pretty much that we can take from or just learn from.
What is the thing that distinguishes you from other Christian bands?
Dave: I think the big thing is the vocals actually. Bands that are really our style don’t have a lot of vocal harmonies. I think a lot of the harmonies are pretty distinctive and also just that pop, fun kinda stuff that’s just goofy, kind of sets it apart a little bit too. Of course it’s not all goofy stuff but we get a couple of those every cd and those are fun.
Can you pick up on the goofy fun humour thing and what that is important?
Matt T: The reason why we tend to get a little bit wacky is because, I don’t know, I guess we don’t feel we have necessarily grown up yet. A lot of the bands that we went to shows with, to see before we were signed, you know they’re all pretty much fun stuff and we like to do that too, so it’s kinda taken from our influences and try to be ourselves.
Do you guys perceive yourself as a Christian band or Christians in a band and how do we need to break out of that persona?
Matt T: We see ourselves as both. We are a Christian band we also are Christians in a band and I am glad that it works out that way. We feel that at times Christian music can be something that a lot of non-Christians look at and they don’t like it. It’s obvious the world doesn’t take to Christianity; it is the way it works. We feel that having pop bands, we relate to both non-Christian kids and Christian kids, we try to make it so that we are not offending any body. We don’t really try to shove anything down people’s throats too much and I think by doing that we are not necessarily taking a neutral position but we are taking a tactful position. I think that Christian music is important because if your mom want to go to the store and buy her son a cd and she doesn’t want it to be Kid Rock or have all this offensive stuff on it, she goes to the Christian store, she knows she is going to get something, but also I think it is important for that but also putting the label Christian on something is going to make people not buy it. There are definitely pros and cons; I think that it is a necessary thing.
How do you cope with life on the road?
Brian: We play Playstation 2 a lot (everyone laughs). We all have cell phones and just hang out together and just anything to keep it normal, keeping up your friendships with each other and our video games, keeping up our hand-eye co-ordination.
Matt T: We’ve had road pastors come on tour with us and keep us grounded. Touring with bands like Supertones, Switchfoot, Five Iron Frenzy, those guys are little older than us and have been doing it a lot longer. So their sense of maturity and knowing how to play rock and roll music in a Christian atmosphere and knowing how to keep yourself sain during that whole process has definitely been like a big brother thing going on. Definitely been thankful for that. You know we do all right; we enjoy being on the road. Last year we were on the road for about 220 days out of the year. So right now we are taking a break from that so we don’t burn ourselves out.
You mentioned Five Iron Frenzy as one of your influences and also have toured with them. How was that, touring with a band that you were influenced by?
Brian: Touring with Five Iron Frenzy was a lot of fun just because they’re just a little bit older than us and they are way more experienced so we got to learn a lot from them. How they do things and how they stay together as a group and also they are a lot of fun. Their music is really silly, so we got to see kinda what we grew up listening too. It was cool to actually be with them, like equal with them and playing alongside them and becoming friends with them and not fans, like waiting in lines for autographs and anything like that.
As a band you did over 200 shows in 2001, that’s a lot of touring, what are your plans for this year?
Matt T: This year will probably be significantly less. We’re doing another record right now, we’re in Australia right now obviously, so we’re not actually doing a record as we speak (band laughs) but we’re planning on doing a lot of the summer festivals in the US. We are probably going to be some general market touring this Spring. It looks like there might be something….but I won’t say anything just in case it doesn’t happen. There are some cool shows coming up for us. Then in the Fall, well I don’t know who we are going to tour with, but it will probably be another Christian sort of thing and then probably do another record next Winter cause it’s fun to do records when it’s snowing so you don’t have to drive around and whatever.
Will Relient K be headlining a tour?
Matt T: Ahh, I hope not. I don’t like headlining shows, I like opening up. But who knows maybe.
Is there one song that has become a real crowd favourite?
Matt T: Not so much, we have got two records now, so with the two combined there are more options, the kids like more. Before it used to be centred on this one song called ‘My Girlfriend’ and we don’t actually care for the song and so we are really glad that it has kinda moved on, a lot of kids like the song ‘Pressing On’, lot of kids like ‘Sadie Hawkins Last Dance’. We kinda just have fun with it.
Can you talk about My Girlfriend and why it was so significant?
Matt H: The song ‘My Girlfriend’ otherwise known as ‘Marilyn Manson Ate My Girlfriend’ is a song about a girl that Matt [T] knew along time ago. They were friends and talked on the phone a lot and talked about God and talked about their lives and music. I guess one day she was watching the MTV movie awards or something like that and Marilyn Manson was on and he was ripping up a bible and saying that Christianity controlled your mind and that it was a bad thing to get involved in. She was talking to him [Matt T] and said that she kind of agreed with him [Marilyn Manson] and she kind of changed her beliefs and starting that day. So the song is kinda just about letting your influences control you and not really thinking out for yourself, like what you think and why you believe and what you believe. Therefore causing you to be susceptible to whatever you hear.
‘Down’ In The Flames’ is the other side I guess of what you are about?
Dave: The song ‘Down In Flames’ is a pretty serious one, it is basically about how as Christians, within the body of Christ picking on other Christians who do little things, instead of looking at the big picture. People sometimes pick, a lot of the times it is between various denominations or anything like that. There’s always going to be differences but it comes to a point where we need to say what we agree on all the main points and we’ve got these little differences and we need to put these aside and get together as Christians. And realise were all on the same side, stop beating each other down and start beating the devil down.
The songs from both your Gotee releases give a lot of pop culture references such as Marty McFly, Back To The Future, Marilyn Manson, 17 Magazine, Sadie Hawkins Dances, Maybeline Make Up. Why is it important to include Pop references in your songs?
Matt T: I don’t think it is important, but it is a thing we do. I always kinda like it when other bands do it as it kind of helps me relate to what they are saying a little bit more. I always think it’s funny to mention things that everybody knows about. It is more for humour, but it also helps you relate more.
On the latest cd, do you have a favourite song?
Matt T: I like a couple of them, a favourite right now is probably ‘The Rest Is Up To You’ for no apparent reason just cause I am not sick of it.
You had a couple of worship songs, ‘For The Moments I Feel Faint’ and ‘Less Is More’ on ‘The Anatomy of the Tongue and Cheek’ as opposed to your first album, is that a direction you will also be pursuing possibly with the next album?
Matt T: It is something that I have noticed. On our first record those were songs we had written from like the age of 15 to 17 a lot younger than we are now. And spiritually we really thought it was cool to put messages in songs that were a lot of fun and stuff and now we have kinda taken all the fun stuff and put that in more a secular box. Cause when we are talking about a spiritual things, as we are maturing as Christians we take it more seriously, so we don’t want to write it off, we don’t want to write our faith off and just turn it into a song you know that’s just all fun happy and all that stuff when you know there is real stuff going on there. So in that same thought process we’ve noticed that we like writing in a more vertical relationship with God kind of addressing him in a second person sort of format. That is something more we’ll probably explore more in the future.
You mentioned your more secular style songs, are you considering releasing in the mainstream market?
Matt T: I don’t know, it gets scary when you talk about things like that because a lot of Christian bands sometimes, and I don’t know any examples, so I am not riding on anybody. They use the Christian market I think as a stepping-stone to get to their ultimate goal of being this rock band on TV or whatever. It’s not our goal, it’ not our mission, but God does bless you and I think you know if you do end up crossing over into that market it’s obviously increasing the size of your band and that’s God’s blessing. You know there’s talk of that maybe happening, we don’t know. But whatever path God leads us down is where we’ll go. So um we definitely won’t ever stop writing what we wanna write and what we believe in for any reason whatsoever but um who knows what’s going to happen.
What can we expect from the next album?
Band: Errrrrrr
Matt T: It should be alright, I don’t know it’s probably going to be more in the direction of the last record was heading, I would imagine. Umm and we are going to do some weirder stuff on it, but we’re definitely going to try and keep it you know pretty poppy and pretty happening too as well as something strange. We’ll like it, so that’s not hard, I think the band will like it.
When it is all said and done, CD’s aren’t being sold anymore, crowds aren’t cheering your name anymore, what does Relient K want to be remembered for?
Matt T: I just want God to remember us for maybe impacting a kid somewhere. That’s all that really matters. We don’t care if a million people remember us, it matters when we get to heaven. Through these years in our lives where were young and able to go out on the road and not get hounded by wives or anything like that (everyone laughs). We get to impact somebody and do this because we can . If God pats me on the back when I get to heaven, then it will definitely be worth anything here on earth.