Thousand Foot Krutch did something that few bands have the privilege of doing: They made the most of an album. The rock band's first crowd-funded, post-label record--
The End is Where We Begin--generated singles for two years after its April 2012 release, not to mention
two remix EPs.
The strength of that record, and its two-year-long, deep mining operation, has brought the band a ton of momentum heading into their ninth album,
Oxygen: Inhale. Now, the band--comprised of frontman Trevor McNevan, drummer Steve Augustine and bassist Joel Bruyere--is bringing some fresh inspiration and some new musical experimentation in what certainly will be another deeply mined collection of rock favorites.
Before his set at Creation Festival Northwest, I chatted with Trevor McNevan about the successes of the past, and the promise of the future with Thousand Foot Krutch.
First of all, how's fatherhood treating you, and when is the TFK lullabye record coming out?
[laughs] You know, you do hear some hilarious renditions--lullaby records, like Michael Jackson lullabies and stuff, it's so funny dude. I love it. Some guy's just on his keyboard. But dude, fatherhood is awesome, man. It's so good. It's crazy and wonderful and amazing all at the same time, you know? Much how you expect it to be. It's great.
And as a touring musician, you're already used to not sleeping, so...
Very true, very true.
Looking back for a sec, you guys stretched the singles of The End is Where We Begin better than I've seen any band I've seen in years as far as singles.
Right on man, thank you.
You just squeezed every bit out of that--in the best way. And you had two remix records that came with that as well, two EPs. Have you been surprised that it's lasted as long as it did?
You know what, we were thankful. It wasn't--it was definitely not one of those things where we were trying to drag something out or procrastinate on it. It was just, we really believed in the record and we were blessed and thankful to be able to kind of put that many out, to be honest.
Why else do you make a record?
[laughs] Right? Yeah, you don't always have a chance to--there's a lot of songs on a lot of bands' records that we all love that don't always have a chance to present them like that. So we were fortunate.
The new album is titled Oxygen: Inhale. There's a phrase that has stuck out to you in the process of putting out this new record. Talk about that for a second.
I got kind of a vision for the concept of this record before any of the songs--about a year, year plus ago--about oxygen, and there'd be an inhale and an exhale. So we were originally talking through some different ideas about putting both of them out on the same day, two new records in one day and all this stuff, and we kind of came back around to just we're going to do
Inhale now and
Exhale later.
So the whole heart of it and where that came from is I was kind of digging in thinking, "What does oxygen mean? What does it stand for? What does it mean to me, what does it mean in life? What does God want to say?" And so I just kept seeing "breathe through me." And I think we're going to try to build more of a campaign as a part of the record with that, cause I kept seeing, you know from prostitutes and drug addicts to business men and tradesmen and guys like us and all walks of life holding a sign that says "breathe through me." Where it's like, God's such a gentleman, and it's our choice, you know, to follow Him. So I just thought it was such an interesting way to say, "You know what, I'm just responsible to show up. You're going to do it anyways. Use me."
You know, I wouldn't. To me it's something that has a common thread I think throughout the record, and it's something that does symbolize this part of our journey as a band. It's been a refreshing one. But overall man I think it's more just about the idea of living life to the fullest, and kind of living every day like it might be our last. And the way that we treat people, the way that we love people. And I think that's kind of the heart of these songs, you know?
A lot of people are asking, "Does the rest of the record sound like 'Born this Way'?" Talk about the sonic direction you've gone in.
Man, this time around--every time, it's all about inspiration and just kind of following that and what feels honest to you and what gets you excited as a fan of music and as a band. But for this one, yeah man, there's some new rooms that we've stepped into on this one. When I was writing on tour and at home, I was inspired to take some new steps. I think there's a large part of TFK in each of those new steps; you're just seeing other sides to this band that have always been there.
So it just really felt like these were the right songs for this record. I think some of this is a fresh new TFK, and some of it is maybe just the 2.0 of what you would expect from this band. So I hope that people feel that kind of safe, refreshing feel that we feel about it.
The song 'Untraveled Road,' you've said, is all about being at a crossroads. What untraveled roads do you still feel are ahead of you?
Man, as a band? You know, we still feel like we're just getting started, to be honest. It's like a second wind. It feels that way. So I don't know, I can't really answer that. Would it be an honor to win a Grammy? Yeah, of course. But it's never been about that. So I just think there's a lot of room for growth, and we're just excited to make music that we're really passionate about, and be a part of that voice in this generation.
When can people expect Exhale?
No idea. I actually can't give you any idea on that. We're kind of just finished Inhale, so we're kind of... we had talked about a bunch of stuff, but it's... Inhale was a really consuming process. So we've really just kind of pressed pause, just to be like, "All right, that's going to come out whenever the right time is."
Have you written material for it as well?
I worked on a bunch of stuff for it already. Whether or not a bunch of new stuff will be written or not, who knows. So we'll see when the time's right.
So a lot of fans are asking about FM Static. What's the status of that project?
It's just been temporarily on hold is probably the best way to put it, because there's been no time. It's been busy in TFK land. Steve and I love it man, I think there's a very good chance that we'll put something else out when the time's right. For sure.
How can people be praying for you?
Thank you. I think for us, going into this next phase of this record, this next step, next platform, whatever it is, we just, more than anything just pray that, we're believing that God's going to go before us every step of the way. And just for unity in the band, and for health in our bodies and sleep when you don't have it. You know, just all that key stuff. So yeah, we appreciate it man, big time.
