Flyleaf Interview

a small portion of the interview has been accidentally deleted but most of it is here besides small portions where it could not be heard

Me: Your tour is called Unite and Fight to raise awareness about human trafficking what led you to get involved to help young women all over the world?

 Lacey: right after they had asked me about it that they wanted us to play and this man randomly came to our show talking about that issue but the very next day I was on the and randomly something was on a channel the green planet and um they were doing a special about sex slavery in china and I just sat down and watched it and wept and wept and wept it was the saddest thing I had ever seen and I just felt like those three things in a row was really a sign that we should really focus on that because it’s a really big issue and God thought that too basically and it was just really clear and so I don’t know how much we’re gonna help doing you know what we’re doing which is just telling the audience about it and that they can text to donate but we’ll see in the end you know if it really helps I know a lot of people have really help by just donating $10

Me: I own your album Memento Mori how was your experience writing and recording Memento Mori and what was the message you wanted to say to your fans through this album?

Sameere: well some of the songs were written for the Flyleaf debut record but then some were written through a period of time between after our first record and before we started recording memento mori there was so much jump from that time to memento mori and there were so many things that we experience about life and so many things we learned about music and other stuff

Pat: I guess a lot of deaths are occurring in our lives in the band with people we knew and I guess leading up to when we were trying to figure out a name for the album we kind of had one idea that all the songs have in common you know they all dealt with how important our lives are and how short they are

Sameere: the message of the record I think the last line of the record sums it all up when it says arise and be all that you dream that’s like a charge to that now as apposed to waiting till that tomorrow because you just never know its important to live our lives now and make the most of it now and to be a person that you’ve always wanted to be you know not to much like I wanna be a rock star but like I want to be the one to help somebody I wanna be a person that someone can rely on and depend on and I don’t wanna hurt people anymore you know those kinds of things

Me: I've listened to tiny heart in the past and I know it has been around before memento mori what made u decide to put tiny heart in this album?

Pat: we kind of read the song and recorded it I guess in 2004 or 2005 and it just kind of has been sitting forever and I think Lacey and or Howard wanted to put it on the record again, Howard Benson excuse me record producer anyways a like we recorded memento mori in just a bunch of sections like we’d go to Los Angeles for like a couple of weeks and then I'm home for like in some parts like just a month you know and um we did a tiny heart and in the dark were like the last two songs that we did and in the middle of the summer last summer we just through um out and did them in two days basically and I'm glad we did it it came out like really really good and Howard kind of chopped it up and then edited the very end of the first version became the cord that you hear now it kind of expanded the song a little

Lacey: and the message too is exactly fitting with memento mori a lot of it brought back in time where he was you know saying to someone he loves  before one of us must go you know before that time has passed

Pat: we feel that they had this connection with that person I guess that reminded me of me like just the connection with death and how um as human beings we really latch on to people and when they’re gone you know you kind of like oh no I don’t have them around me now but if they may not be around in my mind at the time but now realizing it like tiny heart it’s a lot about just kind of letting God have that person

Me: what is the story and message behind your song this close?

Lacey: well I think, well pat wrote this song and um he got his own you know inspiration for writing it and I think that he did write it for you know I would related to my own understanding or whatever and have my own thought behind it in believing it having to sing it, for me its just this idea that we try really hard what we do to coming up with an identity for ourselves and I remember when I was younger and I was hanging out with this group of people and doing drugs and you know these kind of drugs and talking in this kind of way and wearing this kind of clothes and you know I felt like I was independent and I didn't have that pressure to be like them but at the same time I was trying to get that identity for myself and it was really important for me to do that to figure it out at some degree when your in junior high and everybody is pressuring you to be one way or another its important to grab hold of something if you don’t really know who you are or have a lot of guidance of who you are or whats gonna be life to you, you don’t think, you just kind of grab on to something that um that whatever you think fits with what you want to do at the time you know and that may be not even who you are it may be like for me its true that I wanted peace and its true that it felt like drugs felt like they gave me peace for about a couple hours (laughs) but as soon as that was over it got much much worse and of course that was the worst thing you know I wanted peace but I knew that the truth was I wanted peace it wasn’t true that I wanted to be drug addict or it wasn’t true that I wanted to be that quick with my life in a way but it was true that I was desperate for being different so in this close we kind of talk about the idea that we put on an identity but it may not be who we really are and we can grab everything life has to offer so we can see because I think ultimately what your looking for and as a Christian maybe you understand what I mean by this not all of out fans are Christians everybody can see this song differently but as far as from my perspective I think that no matter if you get to your final grasp on to who God wanted you to be and what you know what God is talking about what true peace is and who you are really meant to be I think that that’s when you find out who you really are

Me: so Lacey I know you write most of the lyrics for the band when do you write and when does a song come to you?

Lacey: well its actually the three of us who write the lyrics um I write things that I can really sing from my heart or it might be really important to him and he gets it and then I don’t connect with it as well so then its just pats song you know as far as how we do it is if its part of you then you have a nervous breakdown or turn it into a song (laughs) and get it out its kind of the way you deal with life sometimes its kind of a way that um you cope and even understand things yourself it doesn’t always have to be a nervous breakdown

Me: we have a band here from Grafton high school named INRI they are playing in the pre-show they are a Christian band what advice could you give to them to help them make it in music?

Samere: the advice that I would give is be honest in what your doing don’t write songs and don’t perform because you feel a need to or don’t write songs to favor a certain genera just really you know they’re Christians so obviously so they have that with them so its important that they listen to that and let that guide them not to force songs not to force themselves anywhere you know if they delight themselves in the lord everything will be just fine for them and success is relative you know success can be ranged in different ways like does their record sell out and radio playing and all the sudden there’s all this stuff really in the end it doesn’t really matter when they know what they are doing that’s the most important thing and that’s where a genuine success is I feel like flyleaf if we would’ve ended two or three months after we started like before we even started playing in clubs before we ever started playing in a pool hall when no one really knew us we were writing and recording songs no one had ever heard before but because we knew what we were doing we knew we were supposed to be doing you know that the songs had a message and they were hopeful and encouraging we knew that God was in them and if we would have ended then it would have been fine because we knew that what we were doing was right and I think that for any band especially a Christian band that a success is fickle and waiting its all relative

Me: our youth is relying on drugs and alcohol to get away from pain how do you think the lord will help the youth in Grafton and in other struggling communities?

Lacey: well i think everybody has a different story and how God will help them in a way weather they recognize it or not but I think that everything that you need to see (the rest of this answer is un hearable up until here) I was think about you earlier today when I was up on the deck outside and I was just thinking that it is so awesome that you have a heart for your community because God (the rest is un hearable until here) he knows what’s in your heart he knows what makes you happy he knows what makes you cry he knows what your created for he knows what your passionate about he knows your family history he knows everything about every person and his desire is that everyone will come to life and its really awesome to know you and to know that you care about your community when we come here and we’ve seen a really bad part of town and we’re staying at a creepy hotel we’ve heard bad stories about this place (laughs) and so we’ve been here a few times but its just like this creepy you know what I mean and we see the kids and we care about the kids but theres only so much we can do from the stage we don’t get to talk long we pray for your community (it is un hearable until here) but the fact that you’re here and you’re here to talk to us its an answered prayer for us you know its inside us (un hearable until here) when we leave this pretty soon and we prayed for her and we will see what god does and how he flips it around and its not a haunted house but it’s a miracle and you know what I mean your hearts are healed and that’s what  its know for you know what I mean and your not known for Jeffry Dommer (laughs) and I was thinking about that while I was looking out over the city today so we want to know whats gonna happen to this city we only know that god is good and he has good plans and he makes good out of bad and he can answer our prayers but I think you’ll know more than we will because you live here