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So what’s happening in Highland Park today?

Well, not much right now. I was just reading this article. I made some French Toast this morning that Meredith didn’t like because I used a lot of eggs in that. I’m into that, but she’s apparently sickened by it. I like my French Toast icky.

Why?

I just like the flavor. It kind of beefs it up, you know? Did you know the US government is doing all these covert operations in Iran right now? It’s totally ridiculous. Well, I think it is. The article I was reading when you called is about these runs they’re making into Iran and all of these guerilla strikes. They’re really going after them. Apparently all of these people in the military have a lot of problems with, but the White House is really leaning on them because they want to destabilize Ahmedinejad, Ah-medin-e-jad’s government.

Are they using Navy Seals?

I think it’s a variety of special ops forces. They’re giving money to local minority groups that are opposed to the government.

I’ve always been confused by how the government chooses which special ops groups should be deployed and when. There are so many.

I have no idea how that stuff works. I think it’s about who’s already on the ground and when maybe.

Isn’t it kind of incredible how much money the government funnels into covert ops without us really thinking much about it? Sort of blows my mind. It just kind of evaporates.

Yeah. Isn’t it 40 cents on every dollar in taxes we pay goes to the defense budget? It’s not really (pauses) This is depressing me, David. Let’s talk about something else.

Let’s talk about the new jams.

It’s funny you say that – I was just answering an e-mail and talking about how when we were working on the new album, we had working titles for all of the songs. We referred to them as different sorts of jams depending on what kind of jam they were.  So, one song was the “Jazz Jam” and one was the “90s Jam,” and one was the “Rock Jam” and one was the “The Stone-y Jam.” There were many different jams. In some ways it might have been better to keep the descriptive jam song titles.

Yeah, I like that. There are definitely many flavors of jam on the new record.
Totally.

I think it’s interesting that it seems as though a large portion of the press the band has received focuses quite a bit on the Christian undertones present in your music. It seems so far removed, especially sonically, despite elements of gospel.

All of us are pretty removed from temporary evangelical Christian culture. There is a music scene that is associated with it that we aren’t a part of. It doesn’t really enter into our sphere, I guess. We don’t listen to that music very much, I guess. I listen to gospel music—pre 1960 or kind of the mid-50s—, and I guess everything you listen to manifests itself to some degree in what you’re listening to. I can’t really speak to what degree it is in our songs. But I guess that’s the only Christian music I listen to. Well, in the classical tradition, there’s a lot of liturgical music and masses. Some of my favorite music in that vein is specifically Christian. I’m thinking of Verdi’s Requiem and most of what Bach did. That’s some of my favorite music and it’s all about Jesus.

Were you ever concerned that the Christian stamp might be stigmatizing?
I guess maybe because we are so removed from that culture, from that whole subculture, we didn’t feel threatened by being lumped in with it. Nothing we’re doing seems reminiscent of that music or that scene.  I guess I wasn’t too concerned about it. I guess maybe I give people too much credit. No, I don’t give them too much credit. I give them exactly the right amount of credit because I don’t think people associate us with those dudes. I don’t mind people talking about us in terms of spirituality or faith because that’s a huge part of what we’re doing. I think because of the aesthetic bankruptcy of the contemporary culture and the politics of it as well, it could be a real pejorative label to be a Christian band. But I like I was saying earlier, I really like the Christian music of yesteryear. I don’t mind people exploring that aspect of what we’re doing because I think it’s more in that tradition and that’s one I really respect.

I wonder how the way you might engage other people’s art in a spiritual sense might affect your own.

I guess what everybody aspires to when making something is to create an architecture that part of their soul can inhabit and that other people’s can as well. (dogs bark) Hey, shhh shhh. Sorry. We have three dogs and they’ve been really rambunctious lately. Not rambunctious, but on alert, and they keep yelling at people that walk by on the street and everything. It’s making me crazy. We have this squirt bottle that we fill with water and then a little bit of vinegar. When I spray them with it, they freak out and run away. They’ll shut up but I don’t think it sinks in that if they bark, I’m going to squirt them. They’re just like, ‘Oh no, he got the bottle. I need to take off.’ I don’t think they’ve made the connection. So I guess it doesn’t teach them not to bark, it just teaches them to watch out for me when I’m coming with the squirt bottle.

Is that a photo of one of your dogs on the cover art of A Certain Feeling?
Oh, no. I took that a long time ago. I had a roommate, who had a wolf. It wasn’t totally wolf. It might have been a quarter German Shepherd. But he had this wolf and it was the biggest dog I’ve ever seen.  I think his name, Cole. He was mostly wolf – apparently, they’re really loyal. That was back in the college days. But my dogs are on the inside cover of the new album.

Over the holiday weekend, I was back home in New Mexico and I was driving with my parents. A coyote crosses the road about 50 yards in front of me and my dad yelps. I think he wants me to slow down so as not to hit the coyote, but what he’s really yelling about is that when a coyote crosses your path, it’s a terrible omen. He flipped out and yelled at me for letting that happen. He said we officially have the worst luck ever.

And he’s never done anything like that before?

Never. I was spooked.

Has anything bad happened to you yet?

Not yet.

I think you’ve got some time. I wonder if it’s like when you break a mirror. Maybe you should drive backwards across the same stretch of highway.

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