Mattie Montgomery Interview

   

      I don't really know where to start or how to explain why it has taken me almost 3 years to share this interview. I almost feel like it's so out of date now that much of this is repeated information you can find elsewhere on the internet, but in actuality there is a lot in this interview that was said to me for the first time. I don't think before this interview Mattie Montgomery had ever shared with his fans that he went to school to be a high school English teacher. One of the most powerful topics that I think he talked about in this interview is when I asked him about what he saw in our generation. At the time of the interview I was very nervous, to be honest it was hard for me to even pay attention to his answers, I really missed opportunity on follow up questions, I kind of just kept moving on without a nice flow but hearing it now I am thinking of all sorts of things that I could have asked, he says powerful stuff. I hope you enjoy reading this interview, I hope it inspires you and blesses you.

March 30th 2012

In your song King and The Advocate you mention this generation, what have you seen in this generation that’s inspired you to make music to save this generation?

That Might have been the best question I’ve ever been asked. I have seen in this generation, we are under attack as a generation by that woman Jezebel who calls herself a phrophetist and seduces the servants of God to commit sexual immorality. There has never been in the history of the world a generation that is so steeped in sexual sin and sexual dysfunction and I’m not one of those like one of those homophobic Christian preachers talking about gay people are taking over the world or anything like that but just the fact that kids are exposed to pornography as early as the age of 8. I heard about a 4 year old boy talking about that he is is a woman trapped in a boy’s body and that as soon as he get’s old enough he is going to have a sex transplant.  In our culture we have so allowed sexual dysfunction that I couldn’t help but take note that and interesting thing is this that consistently throughout the Bible there is the spirit of Elijah, Elijah was a prophet and Elijha was threatened by Jezebel and then the spirit of Elijha rested again as it was prophesized on John the Baptist thousands of years later and John the Baptist was actually killed by Herod because Herod made a promise to a seductive woman named Herodias that he would get John the Baptist head for her. So that every time the spirit of Elijha comes this woman Jezebel comes and so when I see to the fact that this seductive woman Jezebel has come after this generation I can’t help but think this generation must be operating under the spirit of Elisha we must have it resting on us. Otherwise Jezebel wouldn’t bother with us at all. And secondly I see in this generation a natural resistance to buying into the way things used to be done. When we see the way our parents did church, we see the way our parents did religion, or work or culture or whatever there’s something in us that just can’t accept that as the way it is. We are naturally inclined to change the system, to shift the course of history. And I believe that’s because God made us revolutionaries, He made us resistant to indifference in apathy to the system because we were made to change it forever and so you know what I see the potential of our generation I can’t help but see that if we were focused on Jesus we would be able to shift the course of history forever to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth and that is where my heart is.

Your Music is very Jesus driven, what made you decide that this was the kind of music you were going to sing?

It was just natural, when I started following Jesus I didn’t really have a dream of playing this music for Jesus. It was just the music that I loved to play as a kid, I tell people all the time that being in this band is my job and I just refuse to go to work without preaching Jesus. I feel like people that are lawyers, bankers, bag boys at wal-mart, or taxi drivers should do the same thing. If we all just went to work and told people what Jesus did for us told them about His goodness and His love for them that it would change the world, you know. And it’s not like I have some sort of special opportunity because I play in a band, I just go to work and I tell people about Jesus while I’m there. This band was never like a I was sitting in prayer one day and God told me you are going to play in a band and tour the world or anything. I played this music it’s a talent that I have and I gave it to the Lord and He just told me to move to Iowa to join this band For Today and I didn’t know where it was gonna go or what that was gonna look like or where it was gonna take me but I’m glad I did and it’s been awesome.

So it’s like you would have done this no matter what your job was it just so happens you’re in a band?

Yes exactly, absolutely.

How did you guys meet?

Well two of the guys Ryan and Brandon, our guitar player and bass player are brothers so they’ve known each other for a while obviously. And then our drummer and our other guitar player Mike and David, they grew up together in church so they've been friends for a long time. And the four of them all met when they were like 14 or 15, you know little kids in the scene trying to play in a band and so they all sort of formed and then actually David the drummer used to play drums and do vocals at the same time. They only had four people in the band, so he was the front man and the drummer at the same time and it was awkward. Then they found a singer who was a guy from Missouri and he came out and joined the band for a while, he quit the band to get married. I heard sort of through the grape vine that this band was looking for a vocalist so I prayed and really felt a real sort of peace about joining the band, so I was actually playing in another band at the time and I had my last show with the other band and a girl came up to me and she said I really feel like God is telling me to give you $200 and I took that $200 and I bought a one way bus ticket to Iowa and left to join For Today.

Your music is a lot different than a lot of other Christian bands how do you think your genera effects your message?

I feel like our music sort of fundamentally, I feel that it draws forth feelings of aggression you know and intensity and anger even. So many people in the church look at our kind of music and they say ‘well that can’t be Christian music, it’s angry sounding and my response is always you don’t think God ever gets angry? You don’t think God is angry about sin and injustice in the world and brokenness you don’t think that even Christian men aren't supposed to be angry sometimes that we shouldn't be riled up in the face of injustice and finally do something about it you know? And the bible says there’s a time for war and a time for peace and I feel like that one thing that Christian music has done a really good job of is making music for times of peace but there needs to be a soundtrack for the times of war.

How long have you guys individually been playing music?

I have been playing music since I was 11, that’s when I started playing drums and played until I was about 14 or 15, just in band you know in school and then when I was about 14 or 15 I started doing that and playing in a band, I was in a punk band for a while and that band just started getting heavier and heavier, I started screaming and doing drums.

When did you realize you could scream?

It must have been 2003. We were sitting at one of my friend’s houses and we were all trying to find out ‘man what if one of us could scream lets just try it’ or something you know and I just did it and I was so bad but they thought it was awesome. So I was like playing drums and screaming, if people look it up well enough they could find videos of that on youtube. I did that for a while and then I switched to just doing vocals we got another drummer. That band ended in 2004 and I have been screaming on and off ever since then.

How do you do that with your voice?

My tip for screamers is if it hurts you’re doing it wrong. There’s a place in your voice where you can scream and it doesn’t hurt and instead of trying to move it around to make it sound good you need to find the place that feels good and then develop that to a point which it sounds good. And I’ve seen screamers, even guys that tour full time in a band that cough up blood after, that’s wrong.

I’m real serious about making sure people can hear the words

Was it ever an issue in the band where not everyone’s heart was in the same place and you had to let someone go?

No never, which is awesome, a lot of bands that ends up being the case but not us.

When you first joined the band did it just feel really right, because I can tell that being in a band you really have to trust the guys you are with.

Our first practice of the band was actually more praying and reading the Bible than playing music . and I always say we are a Bible study first and a band second.  We are guys that want to see each other succeed as men and as children of God before we want to see our band get big. I feel like that has been sort of our priority that has kept us unified and kept us moving forward and kept us focused on our goal, regardless of what’s happening in the business side.

Through the years being in a band have you learned lessons about being in a band or in the business?

I mean I guess, I mean it’s all about Jesus, It’s always about Jesus. You can’t compartmentalize your life or you’re gonna find yourself being a Christian when your with your Christian friends or when you’re at church or when you’re doing your Christian things and then suddenly you get into a business situation and you’re just another worldly godless business guy and that’s not what the world needs, the world doesn’t need people that are reserved areas or aspects of their life form the Lord Jesus, we need people that have fully given themselves over. I think that’s the most important thing and not only specifically for bands but for anyone. You can’t compartmentalize your life. As people follow Christ you’re not really following Christ at all.

You’re working on your album Immortal, what can your fans expect from that album?

I feel like in this album we really have sort of got out finger on the pulse of what makes For Today work. There are sort of a lot of new things that we’re kind of exploring we really I think tapped into what it is that works best for us and what we feel most comfortable with playing and most confident presenting to our fans. I think if you liked Breaker I think you’re gonna love Immortal.

In the song a Higher Standard it points out living for what you believe in, why do you think it’s important to remember who we live for?

Because it’s the natural tendency of human nature to slip back into living for yourself, and that’s why even Christians will tell you know Jesus wants you to be happy and Jesus wants you to be comfortable and He wants to love you and take care of your problems, but really that’s not it you exist for Jesus you exist for His pleasure you exist for His plan and if you don’t like that sorry, you don’t get another God, this is what you get you know. I think it’s important for us to be reminded who we live for because if we’re not reminded all of us are in danger of being mistaken thinking it’s us.

What were your favorite bands when you were younger?

I was really into a band called Crass, Floging Molly, Yellowcard a little bit, the Ramones, just a lot of punk bands. And then I kind of morphed from that I got into Cohead and Cambria and things like The Used and Finch stuff like that and then sort of got caught up with the times and got into As I Lay Dying and Haste The Day.

Did you ever like Underoath?

You know that was the band that everyone like and I was like whatever I don’t like that band. But I don’t really know why, I think I just wanted to be cool.

Was it because they were overpopular?

Yeah

How did you get into music as a career or was there anything else that you were ever interested in growing up that could have been another career?

Yeah actually I was in college to be a high school english teacher, it’s funny because I really wanted the opportunity to speak into the lives of young people, so I wanted to be a high school English teacher and God said I have a better plan for you.

Me: Because being in a public school you can’t talk about Jesus

Exactly, I was gonna get fired. But God gave me this amazing platform where I get to talk to way more kids than I would as a teacher  and it’s really cool so as much as I think being a teacher would have been awesome

How was the first time you guys performed together?

Awkward.  I especially was just a little bit confused of what I wanted to be you know, just because I grew up watching those dudes where girls pants and just swoopy hair and like tight clothes and stuff and I was like I guess that’s what I should be like I’m in a band now so for the first couple months that’s what I did and then I was like this is not me, I’m over 17 now so it’s time for me to start acting like it. That kind of dyed off pretty quick . The first show was in Buffalo, Minnesota, and it was a blast. I loved it I’ll never forget that show, but it was definitely not as fun and as together as we are now. 

Interview

Hello! Friday March 30th I will be interviewing For Today! So Check back soon to see it! 

I'm not sure what to title this

So like almost a month ago I said I'm back but I've realized there's too much stress on me right now to keep up with this blog as much as I used to but I always am thinking about posting something and never do. I kinda suck. But anyway I had a dream last night that made me really happy, it was sad when I woke up but I'm still happy I had the dream. I was about Flyleaf, of course, they were playing a show in my old high school which was weird but whatever my dreams never are normal anyway. So what happened was I needed to get back stage to say hi to them but I couldn't figure out hot to get backstage so I ended up finding a floor above where they were and I fell through the ceiling to see them, weird I know, but i think that just represents the dumb things I might do just to see them. So then I'm sitting there and they don't seem to see me and the other band that was touring with them was playing music and they were siting around listening and I remember really liking the music and then I saw Lacey's son crawling around and she got up to get him. Flyleaf started leaving and as Lacey was almost on their bus I shouted for her and she turned around and I looked at her and said " do you remember me" and she said "yes" and then I woke up. I don't know why I felt the need to post this on here but it just meant a lot to me, even though it was just a dream I know my dreams do tell me things that are true in real life like a message from God, the same way music speaks to me. I feel like this dream means God wants me to know Lacey still remembers me and that means a lot to me. Post a comment tell me about a dream you had about someone maybe someone who is no longer here that you felt was a message from God telling you something. 

I'm Back!

I know it's been months since I've posted on here and I feel bad because I really had something for a while. I want to get right back into this and start writing about more bands and focus more on local bands near me and then maybe hear from other people about bands near them. I guess my new goal here is to write about bands that could use some promoting but I'm gonna keep the genera to Metal/Screamo and Post-hardcore. The genera is evolving a lot but there is still a crowd that likes the original stuff like The Devil Wears Prada though there are some haters too but the point is lets see where this genera goes and how newer bands are putting a twist on it. Now that I think about it I would like to write about all local bands not just Metal bands because all bands need a start and someone to help get them out there not that my blog is all that popular but I can interview the bands and they can post the link to their facebook and all that dandy stuff so their fans can learn a little more about them rather than just what they hear in the music. :)

Krysta Cameron Interview

Q and A with Krysta Cameron

Q: Throughout the album It's All Happening There seems to be a theme of relationships with either a significant other or a parent how did songs like See you In Shell and I'm cold And There Are Wolves After me get their meaning?

A: The song titles that we have are never ever serious but a lot of family issues occurred some family issues happened with me growing up and i think this was finally the album after being in so many bands it was finally the album that was letting me release it so that I could shut a bunch of doors everybody's got family problems nobodys family's perfect that was one way for me to talk about certain things about my parents about my parents splitting up so those were basically songs that helped me close doors with my past it wasn't able to get out years ago

Q: so you write most the lyrics?

A: Yes I write all the lyrics

Q: Tastes Like Kevin Bacon seems have lots of lyrical meaning as well as musical talent, words such as "Ignorance is'nt bliss we are lied to you suckers, everyone" what does this mean?

A: basically that entire song people write us all the time they say that they like that song a lot but its kind of like an abstract painting like as far as my thoughts on war like I was a senior in high school when 9/11 happened and I'm from New York so when all of that went down a lot of our friends parents and family members were affected by it our entire state was affected by it, our entire country, the world but that's just not our world that was affected by it theres other countries that are affected by it too and theres people just like us like our age out there watching their families be blown apart basically that's just what that song is about and it really funny when we actually get people writing us that "we respect our troops" and "we love our troops" and at the same time we have people writing us they say "I love the blow up" so and so and they use this word and this word I don't want to use those words but some racist gesture about using that song and I was just like please don't listen to our album please don't listen to us because you don't get the message but yeah its funny and its quirky but at the same time it's really dark so it's about anything political

Q: When you started this band was it your goal to become popular?

A: No (laughs) I've been in a band since I was 15 I'm 27 now just released my second record when we released our first record I was shocked that we were able to even do that and yet so late in the game we never ever thought that things were gonna come from that because nothing ever did in the past and we were like man we're getting so old like we're never gonna get signed but we just wanted to do because we love music so much and we just wanted to play and tour the world and try to the best as we can

Q: whats it like being in a band with all guys?

A: Oh, it's actually fun it's not as bad as you think it would be because they all treat me with respect I'm basically like a sister to them and I feel a sense of security being with them I always have someone there to watch my back. Being in a band with girls we always get in fights and stuff, look at every girl band you know back in the day they always get in fights you know Pussy Cats, Kittie (laughs) I was in a girl band back in the day just little girls fights all the time but with guys they are a lot more laid back

Q: When you were younger what did you want to be?

A: I wanted to be a quote on quote rock star and I wanted to be Beetle Juice I didn't know how it was gonna happen but I actually drew I remember drawing a door  trying to knock on it and nothing happened I cried and I got depressed, went down to the beach I wrote a poem about it, I remember that day

Q:When did you first realize you had talent as a screamer?

A: I never like you said you asked about us getting big or not, I never thought of myself as talented I always thought I could do better I still think I could do better and once you let that you know you always need to be humble about things you always don't wanna be like "oh that's the best thing I've ever done" because it's not you're always gonna get better in whatever you're doing and I first realized I could start screaming probably when my first band covered Birthmark by Deftones they took the guitar out of my hands and they said you're gonna do this and you're just gonna scream and I did it and I was like wow I didn't know I could do that and they were like yeah without a guitar in your hands you have more like your a front person like look at you you have more charisma on stage

Q: was that when you were in this band?

A: No, this was when I was in one of my first bands called Into The Pink I was 16

Q: How many bands have you been in?

A: lets see, 3, this is my 3rd band

Q: have you ever gotten popular in any other bands?

A: My first well my second band we tried we toured we were called This Years Addiction it was with my little sister Mim and my friend Samantha my childhood friend, we did all we could do but sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't you just got to break your ass and go out there and we did so at least we can say we tried

Q: what question have you never been asked that you would like to share with your fans?

A: Oh, where the bands name came from, no just kidding, I don't know any question basically I don't hide to much of my personal life so I really want people to be able to connect to us not need to feel that they are distant from us or to feel that they are smaller and we are bigger that's the problem I think in a lot of bands

Q: what was the first band that you listened to that got you into this type of music?

A: Lets see I always listened to things my parents raised me on they are pretty much hippies so like Zeplin, Pink Floyd, The Who and Aerosmith and I was listening to at the time because I grew up in the early to late 90's where all that grunge was coming out so a lot of like girls in bands and they were screaming L Seven and the Raincoats these are some bands you should actually get into, music back in the day kind of broke the mold and then new metal came along  like Korn and Deftones so I listened to that, wearing baggy pants and wearing black lipstick and I ended up going to Long Island and Long Island has a lot of bands coming out of it and I went to a show with From All The Ashes and I believe Sighlo was playing also at this little youth center and it was like $2 to get in and I went and I was like I wanna do that I want to do exactly that because that combines everything that I like so pretty much that's when I started getting into what at that time was more hardcore, Long Island hardcore

Q: was that before you were in your first band?

A: No, this was after it was when I was in my second band when i started getting into that I said I want to start screaming more and kicking ass

Q: what genera was your first band?

A: Girl grunge rock, rock punk, progression angry feminist music

Q: Did you scream in that band?

A: Yeah, sometimes

Q: Tell me a little about your new album Ruining It For Everybody and how these songs came together

A: The songs came together by us just we've been writing since the last album came out and we ended up just kinda we get together we wrote the songs and recorded them in our house even so we would just go downstairs in out basement because at the time we were living together and when we get an idea we just write it down, play it, record it, come back to it little things like that. Steven and John are mostly always down in what we used to call the dungeon but they would be down there all day all night and me Mikey and Ricky would just be goofing off whatever it's out time you know we don't care but we'd go down there and the would show us things that they wrote we would end up just having a really good time and we would be like hey that sounds awesome and then when all of the rest of the songs started coming together then came the vocals actually I had Ricky and Mikey there for some spiritual guidance through the whole entire thing and they helped me out too so it was cool because they actually got to be a part of it through the vocals as well

Q: Did you have fun doing the album?

A: Yeah of course who doesn't I mean it's new music

Q: How long did it take you to put together the album?

A: We started writing here and there since It's All Happening came out and we went in to record a little bit after November, December and we were done in Febuary musically and then and then the vocals were done at the end of March the finish of product after tour because we had to do tours between that too

Q: Did you ever write on tour?

A: Oh yeah the guys always bring a labtops on tour and I always keep a notebook and a pen so I can jot down little things here and there

Q: do you like tour?

A: yeah, of course it's fun

Q: do you ever lose lots of sleep or get stressed out about things?

A: all the time, who doesn't , I actually sleep all day because sleeping is good for your voice except for this little monster right here ( Puppy) she keeps me up all day all night