Thousand Foot Krutch Interview - 07.13.2004
Interview with Trevor McNevan (vocals)Interview by Jason Schleweis & Rob Todd | 07.13.2004 | Grand Rapids, MI | The Deltaplex
Where did you come up with the name Thousand Foot Krutch?It was a long time ago, actually seven years ago when the band was started. It kinda just symbolizes that point in your life when you realize you can't do it on your own strength that you need God's help to pull you through all the stuff that we go through and he's a big God so that was the whole Thousand Foot cliche.
Where did you pick up the other guys along the way?
The other guys have all played in other bands and playing music themselves for a long time. We've been through several member changes along the way but this has just been awesome. We're like a tight knit group now and just different musical circles, back in Canada in Ontario.
You guys didn't like grow up together or anything?
Joel and I, the bass player, actually did grow up together for quite a while and then...long story. He actually moved away and I didn't see him for a long time then he moved back right when we needed a bass player. He's a super talented guy so it worked out awesome.
You guys have a new guitarist trying out with you now or something?
Yeah Jamie, he's at his fifth show with us, he's killer and we're really enjoying our time with him. He's been a buddy of ours for a while too.
I think you guys have a lot of chemistry together, onstage I just thought he was part of the band all along.
Cool, that's good to hear man.
Yeah we noticed on all the posters for the tour that he wasn't on there, we thought maybe he just missed picture day or something. (Laughter)
Yeah the last year we have been auditioning like almost 30 guys just from all over the US & Canada and brought them to Toronto to try out and ya know it just wasn't the right guy. Then Jamie came and tried out and so far so good man.
We can't wait for 'Phenomenon' to release and I was just wondering if there was anything you could tell us about the album or is it under wraps?
Oh no man it's cool! The record is a rock and roll record for sure. It's a pretty focused record compared to the last one, there's still a variety and we hope you can listen to it front to back without getting bored. That's our intent but it's a lot different from 'Set It Off' in a lot of ways. I think a lot of the songs on 'Set It Off' are different or one of the reasons...they were written like five, six years ago. I'm still a big hip hop head, I love it and I still write it. There's just so many bands doing it and we just didn't want to be another one of those bands. So we just wanted to do something fresh and different.
How did you learn to sing in all those different forms? I know regular rappers can't sing and the other way around too.
It's just God seriously. I didn't really learn it...I dunno I have no idea. I do take a vocal coach and stuff like that when I can, in the last year back in Toronto this cat taught me lots about breathing and just stuff like that. Other than that it's just thank you Jesus! But all of us just give Him all the thanks for our talents. It's such a blessing to be able to play and do something you love and be able to give it back, ya know what I mean.
Going back to the record 'Phenomenon' we have a promo release copy of the record and like you were saying the diversity is maybe cut down a little bit, but I think you guys have gone a little further, in a softer direction with "This Is A Call."
Not so it's misleading, but that's the only song on the record that's so much of a ballad. The best way to describe the record is the heaviest we've ever been and the mellowest we've ever been all in one. There's not a lot of really mellow stuff, but there are definitely moments and that's a song in particular but it was meant to be that. It sounds funny on the record but it was just something that we wanted to do.
We were actually listening to "Quicken" and heard the lyric, "My life's just like a prison, We shout but no one listens, We sit all in position, Use us Take us Break us" what did you mean by this?
I think it's basically just a call. It's a searching song, I'm not searching anymore but during a certain period of my life I definitely was and a lot of people have went through that or are still going through that. They are searching for that something that you can understand that you fit in somewhere. In my case I was totally just trying to find God and had no idea how so that's what this song is about. You know what, there are times when you feel crazy and there's times when you feel nuts and it's like 'do other people feel this way,' and 'do other people go through these things' and it's just about that. Let's just be real about it, if you're searching your searching, and that song is about searching and finding.
A lot of times musicians, especially Christian ones just want to get that message out there and the audience really gets into the music but just don't get the point. So hopefully eventually it will just click to them.
I hope so. There's stuff on this record that's a little below the surface compared to the old record and stuff like that. So it's something that I am really excited about and as a song writer I am really excited about it because it's something that was the next step for us and we kinda had a lot to say on this record so I'm really excited about it. There's a song on it that deals with child abuse, there's one called 'Last Words' and it's about someone that has comitted suicide and they have one chance to come back and say goodbye to everyone they love and there's just several different songs that deal with issues head on. And there's some party tunes cause we love that stuff, just songs about nothing just having fun. There's a lot of different angles on the album anyways.
What inspired a change in the style of music from hip-hop to rock?
We had been doing the hip-hop rock thing technically before it was cool man ya know what I mean. We wanted to do it a long time ago and only like Rage and man I can't even think of like two or three other bands that might have even dabbled in it. Like Chili Peppers early stuff and it's just something that we were doing and it was a lot of fun. And then it was like some big thing.
It turned into like a pop kinda thing.
Yeah, totally! Now it's got it's own section in the record store and like 90% of them were just doing it cause of the trend and they couldn't even rhyme! (Laughter) So we were like, man people are automatically going to think we are just another one of those bands, so we just wanted to break it and start over. So we are really excited about it.
How's the Festival Con Dios going so far?
It's going really good, going on five shows and they have been killer. The sucky thing about it is that the weather's been really crazy. Every show has been rainy, honestly today was like the best day and just look at it outside. (Overcast, very cloudy and looks like rain.) It's just a joke we have 'cause last year on Con Dios every show it rained. And so far this year every show it has rained. We had three off days off, Chicago, Nashville and Minnesota and they were just gorgeous days. And then we got back here and it's rainy again! (Laughter) But it's been good man and these are the first shows we have ever played so we're still working out the bugs and everything.
What's the biggest venue you've played as far as fan base?
The Corel Center in Ottawa, where the Ottawa Senators play.
What was your reaction when you came out on stage, were you kinda freaked out by it?
It was wicked man, it was good! We're starting to get more and more used to it a little bit but it's a different element cause we enjoy the personal shows where you can feel the kids.
We interviewed Riley Armstrong a couple weeks ago, I dunno if you've heard of him. And we asked him why Canadian Bacon isn't really bacon and he didn't really have a response to that. So we were wondering if you had any insight to that since you guys are from Toronto?
(Laughter) Strip bacon is like our bacon. What you guys call Canadian Bacon is pea-meal bacon. It's kinda weird but that's what we call it.
The last question, is there an answer to a question we didn't ask? Is there something that you want everyone to know?
Other than if you get a chance go check out www.fmstatic.com and www.thousandfootkrutch.com and actually to add to that real quick...we are giving away the drum kit that Steve played on tonight at the end of this tour. So if kids can go check out the website they can vote on there and put their vote in or whatever.
Is the web site going to be working again soon?
Yeah it's going to be up in two weeks and it will be a brand new one.
How much time is left on this tour and what's next?
We've got a month left on this tour and then we got a European tour coming up. It's going to be good though man!
Well thanks for the time so much, we really appreciate it.
No, thank you man for coming out here and doing this!
