Building 429 Interview:
CMP: How old are all of the band members and are any of you married or do you have kids?
JASON: We were all born in the 70s. That keeps a little bit of mystery out there. Three of us are married. I am (lead singer Jason Roy) and I have a son. My wife's name is Cortni and my son's name is Avery--he's about 10 months old. And Scotty (Beshears), the bassist, is married to Dana. Paul (Bowden), our guitar player, is married to Meg. And Michael (Anderson) is the only single but taken guy in the band.
CMP: How did you guys get discovered or how did you get signed to a record label?
JASON: Well, the first part of that is that we were an independent band for three years and we toured anywhere that anybody would have us. And we went to Nashville to do an independent record and we got ready to do a photo shoot and the girl who did our photos was Kelly Ingram. And she brought her husband to help her take care of all the poses and stuff and he was Jason Ingram, who was actually an artist and a writer for Word records. And he really liked us--we really formed a bond, we all kind of connected. He took us to his management group and before long, we were talking to record labels all over Nashville. And I think it was a one-thing-led-to-another situation, but we were really excited to sign with Word Records seven or eight months ago. The band has been together four years.
CMP: Have you always wanted to work in music or did it just happen that way?
JASON: I think you'd get different answers if you asked the different guys in the band. I think all of us always thought it'd be cool to work in music and we kind of dreamed of it. Personally I was one of those people--and I think this is a rare thing--I knew what I was supposed to do with my life and I really threw caution to the wind and just decided that if this is really what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to go ahead and be a part of this ministry now. And for three years, we went out and played 150 shows a year. And honestly, as the leader of the band, I kind of instilled that in everybody--that if you're in this band, you'd better be designed to do it because we don't want people in the band who aren't completely sold out to the mission. And that's what we've got. We've got four guys who have really found their purpose.
CMP: Do you see what you're doing as a ministry?
JASON: I think music is just kind of a channel we use to spread the gospel and I think in all of our songs, one of the things that remains the same is the songs are about our lives and they're about how we feel at a certain moment. And there may be songs that are less blatant in their message…. Actually, I don't think we have any songs that aren't blatant with their messages. Most of our stuff is worship, but there are also other songs that are really about where we are in our lives. But our band is really focused on being a ministry. But the ministry really comes after the music and the music is really a channel that leads us into an opportunity to share the gospel just speaking. That's what really matters to us.