interviewpage
Divine in Sight - interview October 2001 |
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Victory: First of all: could you give as a brief introduction about the band
Divine in Sight (playing style, history, members and so on)
We call ourselves a "spiritual progressive art-rock" band. Our style is a direct descendent of the music of the great progressive rock movement of the 1970's, which is currently undergoing a sort of renaissance in the last several years or so. We are most often compared to Rush, but we have extremely strong leadings towards pre-Rabin Yes, Gabriel-era Genesis, Queen, and Pink Floyd as well. We are a bit heavier than all of them, but not quite heavy enough to be considered "metal" or "progressive metal," although most fans of those genres would find us intense enough I think. Our current lineup consists of myself on vocals, guitars, and occasional keyboards, Jonathan Dexter on bass guitar and keyboards, and Frank Ralls drumming and doing occasional keyboards as well. Jonathan and I have been the core of the band for the last nine years, and we've had something like 13 drummers to date. If I'm not mistaken, Frank was drummer #3 and is currently #13. He is by far the most musical of the bunch and we appreciate his involvement. Touring with him is an uncertain prospect due to his commitments at his church, as he is their praise and worship pastor, keyboard player, recording engineer, and resident musical genius, and because he has a young and growing family (three children under 4 years old, last I checked!). I am also married, with one 2 1/2 year old daughter, and Jonathan is still single. As your readership will quickly discover if they pay a visit to our web site, the featured instrument in our music is the bass guitar. Jonathan is a brilliant natural talent who also possesses the fierce, stoic internal motivation to develop his gifts through literally thousand of hours of practice over the last decade. He works a job where he is permitted to practice during down times, and has consistently logged 40+ hours a week for as long as I have known him. He is world class, period. In the writing of our material, I always try to make sure that we leave plenty of room for his fantastic playing., even if this is to the detriment or minimization of the guitar work. While I believe I have a very passionate approach to guitar, I am not the "chopsmaster" on my instrument that Jonathan is on his, and I'm the frontman anyway--there is no need to draw any additional attention to myself! Victory: You've released one impressive piece of art, what was the idea behind it, I mean it is not like saying "Hey, let's go in to the studio and do some songs". I've been in the progressive scene for quite a long time but I've never experienced (at least not in the Christian area) anything compared to your work. Was it hard to do the CD? Jonathan and I had done some songwriting before the album, but we were really hoping for some "big idea" concept to fall into our laps so we could do a large scale work. One day, while making bagels at a bagel shop I used to work for, the idea hit me. I went home and told Jonathan after work (we were renting a house together at the time and rehearsing in the basement) and he was enthusiastically on board right from the start. I went through a compilation of Jonathan's latest creative bass grooves (which I euphemistically call "Jonny's Bag O' Riffs") and began hammering out vocal melodies and chord changes. Then Jonathan and I hashed and rehashed all of the arrangement ideas until we came up with the final product. It was an incredibly hard album to make, for two primary reasons: it was a very ambitious project to self-produce, and we suffered a seemingly endless string of setbacks. To put this in perspective, keep in mind that we were anticipating a January 2000 release! On the artistic side, the backing vocals (four part harmony, each quadruple-tracked) took me at least 100 hours of recording time to complete, and the guitar work took another 100 hours, I would guess, as I triple-tracked all of the rhythm and acoustic guitar tracks. I did all of this in a warehouse where I used to work with portable equipment in order not to incur outrageous per-hour studio fees. For the more critical elements (lead vocals, drums, keyboards, effects) we did use a project studio in Wisconsin. Jonathan had recorded all of his bass parts in Texas, but a technical glitch rendered them unusable and he had to do them all over again in the studio (although this only delayed the project for a day and a half because Jonathan is a "one-take-wonder" who nails everything). I had commissioned an artist to do illustrations for the booklet, but the work turned out very poor--so I had to do it all myself, which took that much longer. All things considered, we probably invested 1,000 hours worth of work on this album between the two of us. Victory: : I find the story line very interesting (in the rock opera). Tell us about it; do you feel like it was a vision from God or something? It was a creative impulse that was God-directed and inspired by my own life and spiritual leadings, but I would hesitate to declare it as a "vision from God" because it is not on par with Scripture by any means. The narrator of the story is not me--I did not actually have such a dream. It is just a story I was blessed with when seeking for thought-provoking, spiritually challenging subject matter. Some people have labeled the story "sheep-bashing" because of the implied criticisms to certain constituencies of the Christian church. To that criticism I would cite the end of the opera, when the narrator renews his spiritual life. Ultimately he does not use the shortcomings in the Church as excuses for his own behavior and takes full responsibility for his actions (or inaction). It is easy to point the finger--what do you do when YOU are the guilty party? Unconditionally repent and seek to serve God and others--that's our answer in Sorrow & Promise, anyway. Victory: I have to honestly say that I was astonished by your VERY high vocals, how do you manage to keep them so high? (is it the coffee?) :I was mercilessly teased in high school for my voice. It just never changed much at puberty. Keep in mind that I am 6' 2" tall, 225 lbs. Very much like Aaron Neville, the huge guy with the sweet, high voice who sings R&B stuff. I am thankful for it now, as it does set us apart as a band. Oh, the irony of the quality I was persecuted for as a young man becoming my greatest asset and means of blessing! Victory: Musically some says that you are inspired of bands like Rush and Yes. Is it true? One listen betrays this! Jonathan and I used to be in a Rush cover band together years ago, and the 70's Squire/Rutheford/Lee overdriven Rickenbacker bass tone is our holy grail! Victory: You have received some great response from the secular media, but not much from the Christian area, what do you think about that, do not the Christians know about you? I am baffled. Our stuff is not "Christian influenced" or "spiritually engaging"--we're downright preachy at times! Closer to Jonathan Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" than U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." And still, the secular prog world will actually accept it on the merits of the music. Apparently, the Christian world is having trouble accepting the music style on the merits of the lyrics. The markets are entirely different. Christians are used to hearing bands on the radio and buying CDs in stores. Prog fans listen online and order by mail, which is our current system. That may be as big a factor as any. Or maybe the Christian market just reacts a bit slower. Time will tell. Victory: Was this just a one happening project or can we expect further releases later? Already working on the next "big idea." No promises on completion dates this time!! Victory: Now, on to the story. I remember when I read the lyrics (I always do that the first time I listen to a CD) thinking: "Man, these lyrics fits perfectly in to our world!" I mean sleeping Christians, blind Christians and all the corruption. That is the truth of today. Do you feel the same? Yes, but let me stress again--we can't ever use that as an excuse for our own behavior. It is useful to look at such things if only to learn from them as a cautionary tale of what not to do, but dwelling on them cynically just ensnares you and renders you just as ineffective for service as the people you are scrutinizing. That's why Jesus tells us not to judge--not so that we let sin go unpunished, but so that the sin of others does not well up pride in ourselves and sidetrack our own ministries and calling. Victory: What do you think about the future, will there be a world-wide revival, will the Christians really release that they'll have to change life style and seek God? I don't count on it. Revival occurs on person at a time. If enough people turn their hearts toward God and surrender completely, enabling the Holy Spirit to have full reign in their lives and ministries, worldwide revival can happen. Victory: Finally, please tell something to our readers. If there is anything you want to add. Please check out our web site. Bring your credit card and buy a copy if you like what you see. 100% of the proceeds go to the band--no managment, agent, label, distributor, retailer or any other middleman. SUPPORT THE ARTIST--NOT THE APPARATUS--BUY DIRECT! If we can break even on our first production run, we will be in a good place to begin booking a tour. Thank you for your help and support! Victory |