Photo Courtesy of Solid State Records
Last night, over 15 Christian-oriented, metal-core bands overflowed the Club Sonar parking lots with trailers and vans then sauntered onto the venue's various stages to present the Scream The Prayer tour. I was able to catch a few minutes with vocalist Micah Kinard of Texas quintet Oh, Sleeper, right after the band finished their set. Their newest album, Son Of The Morning will hit stores on August 25 via Solid State Records.
Laila Hanson: Do you have any singles planned for your new album yet?
Micah Kinard: Right after this [show], we have to go to Georgia [to be there] at 9 A.M, we have to shoot two videos for the new album. We played both of them today; it's the first song of the record, "Son Of The Morning," and the last song on the record, "The Finisher."
LH: Did you do that on purpose, make the singles the first and last songs?
MK: Yeah. Basically, the whole album is a concept album, it's a story from start to finish. Whereas our last album was very much in with mythological metaphors, this one's more spiritual metaphors. Like the first song, "Son Of The Morning," is voiced completely through Satan, pretty much, and the entire time he's making all these claims and challenging God and basically calling Him out, calling him weak, saying now is the time more than ever to make his rise, and he's going to do it through all of God's fallen children. It's really dark [Laughs]. The rest of the album is God speaking into different people at different points in their lives, and basically raising an army. The song, "The Finisher" is God's direct reply to the first song, "Son Of The Morning," so the videos are going to be sequel videos. We'll see if it works! Someone pitched us the idea, and we loved it, and that's why we're shooting them both tomorrow. We have to start so early.
LH: Cody Bonnette from As Cities Burn is singing on the song "In All Honesty" on the new album. Was that an intentional pick to go with the theme of the album; did you want him for any specific reason?
MK: We've been friends with him for awhile. It's weird, Cody is one of my friends, but I also look up to him a lot. I think he's an incredible songwriter and he's very talented. We had always kicked around the idea...we all love it when bands do guest vocals, so we were like 'We should do guest vocals on our new album!' So it was just unanimous. We kicked around the idea of a few different people, and my vote was Cody, because that would have been really cool to write with someone that I look up to, and then a friend as well. So we contacted him, and he was totally stoked about it, and we just started kicking lyrical ideas back and forth and stuff. He's only on the intro of the song. We had already had the entire rest of the song written, but we had a part that we really wanted him to do, so I sent him lyrics and he was like, 'Hey, can I tweak these around to a different melody?' So he kind of like, threw his own twist on it.
LH: I was wondering about your symbol for your new album; I read somewhere that it represents a pentagram with the horns ripped off. What led you to create that?
MK: Actually, I'd love to take credit for it, but it was Ryan Clark [who drew it]. He's the guy from [the graphic company] Invisible Creature; he's kind of the mastermind behind our artwork. Basically, we all fell in love with the idea, and we wanted something iconic. Our last album, the artwork was very busy and epic and stuff, so we decided that [with] this one we wanted it to be bold, basic and iconic. And the whole [idea] is, the pentagram was taken by pagans from Christian culture to show, right side up, that it was God over the four points of creation. Then Pagans took it and turned it upside down to show creation over God. Then Satanic culture took it and matched it with a severed goat head to be to goat ears, the goatee and then the horns. And the last line of [our] song "The Finisher," which is God's direct message back to Satan, is "I will sing to a world reborn as I cut off your horns, I'll cut off your horns, I'll cut off your horns." So it's all encompassing the idea of the whole album to show God's victory over evil.
LH: That's a cool concept, do you think your fans are going to pick up on that?
MK: I don't know [Laughs]. We want people to look into things, to take a more personal approach. I want them to read the lyrics and apply it to themselves and figure out what it means to them first, and still be like, 'But I wonder what he means by it?' And then if they come and talk to me, that's an awesome opportunity for us to talk, and I can share my heart on those things, and they can share their heart on those things, and we can just hang out. It seems to work out pretty good.
LH: I wanted to ask you about this tour you're currently on, the Scream The Prayer Tour [with Gwen Stacy and Haste The Day, among others]. How'd it all get set up? Were you approached, or did you all decide to do this together, or how'd it happen?
MK: The tour was put together by an agency called TKO, and they kind of put the tour together as a run, and it just turns out that we're friends with all the bands on it. But we don't typically do full out Christian tours or anything like that; we don't want to be set aside as, 'Oh, well they're just a Christian band' or something, because we're a band, we still play music. We want people to hear our music, and if they like our music but don't like our message, we still want them to listen to and maybe come to a show and hang out, and get a chance to meet them as well. But it was cool, it was either being at home, sitting around, hanging out, or going on tour. So we opted for that [Laughs].
LH: You've got another tour coming up with Bring Me The Horizon and Every Time I Die. Are you psyched for that?
MK: Oh, yeah. Every Time I Die's one of my top five favorite bands of all time. And I remember when we first got on with our management, I gave him like five bands, and was like, 'OK. If we can get on tour with any of these bands, ever, I'll be stoked out of my mind.' And Every Time I Die was one of them, and he called me up personally and said 'Hey I thought I'd tell you about this first, before I tell anyone else, but you got the Every Time I Die tour.' And I was just like 'Ahhh!!' So I'm very excited about that.
LH: Do you ever think back to when you went to shows as a fan? Do you have any memorable experiences from that and do you ever try to twist it around and re-live them as a performer?
MK: Yeah, It's very nostalgic. I still go to shows, actually on this tour, I got to see two bands I really enjoy. I got to see Cursive and Dredg. I saw Cursive in Indiana, I saw Dredg and Rx Bandits in New York. And they were both like, fluke things. Someone was like 'Hey! Dredg is right up the road, wanna go? We're getting in for free!' So I was like 'Sweet!' and hopped a cab, and went up there, and the next thing I know, I'm sitting there. It's so nice, a total change of pace. It was weird being there. We play like, 300 shows a year, so it's very easy for it to become commonplace, being at a show, and that being basically home for you. It's cool, and I try to tell everyone that I talk to. Because everyone [not in a band] sees tour as this awesome, crazy party. And I try to let people know that it's not far off. All you have to do is call ahead to some venues, book some shows, throw your stuff in a band and just start driving. This is life for us now. Changing by the van, this parking lot is our living room...[Laughs]
LH: I read awhile back that your van got broken into. How is it being a band on the road with the economy as bad as it is now? What becomes the most important thing?
MK: Food, most definitely. Basically, if we have enough for food, we're set. But it's definitely tough. Especially with record labels and stuff, CD sales, we don't see much from them. So we just try to get out here and sell some merchandise and everything, but whenever we go home, we all have side stuff to do to generate some money while we're home. We'll get a piece of change whenever we get home from this. But it's definitely tough. It's definitely at the point where if you're doing this for the money, then you're an idiot, because there's no money in it. You have to do it because you love it.
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