OK, so I'm here with Bruce from Living Sacrifice. There have been some lineup changes, tell me a little bit about it.

 

Well our guitar player Jason was not all comfortable with the idea of going on tour anymore. So our bass player, his brother Chris kind of took the opportunity to go to school during that time, a time of indecision really, and pursue his missions training which is awesome. But we just felt like we had a lot more than we needed to do and part of it included going on the road and playing shows. We were able to get a longtime friend of ours, Jay Stacy to play bass with us and Rocky Gray who was an acquaintance of ours in Little Rock and is now a friend of ours and everything because he has been playingwith us for a few months now and he is an amazing guitar player.

So we are really blessed to be able to continue to play and keep the integrity of Living Sacrifice as it is, musically and spiritually.

So do you see this as a kind of new incarnation or pretty much in the same direction?

A new incarnation, it's going to be different dynamically I think. But I think the music would evolve regardless of whether or not it was somebody new or if it were the same four guys. You can never predict what someone else is going to bring to the table. The fact of the matter is that me and Lance have been playing together for over ten years and we have kind of worked at.. honed what we do. Anything that we do is going to sound like Living Sacrifice. Obviously, Jason contributed so much to the music and the songwriting. His input is definitely going to be missed. But what we are doing now is new and fresh and everyone is excited about it.

You guys have obviously been blessed by the Lord talent wise and to be able to keep the band together for so long and still be relevant and uplifting spiritually. Could you tell me an instance where you really felt like Living Sacrifice had made a difference.

A lot of times I have to search for those things. I handle a lot of the administrative stuff and the everyday kind of phone call stuff and it's not very spiritual at all. But some of the mail that we get, when I'm able to sit down and read it and sometimes when we're able to respond to it. It is really encouraging and it's awesome. One event I really can't come up with right now, but it is the constant testimonies that keep coming from people that have heard Reborn or that came to the show.

I talked to this guy earlier who said, and this is a direct quote, "this record changed my life". How does stuff like that make you feel?

Uh, just thankful to the Lord that we were obedient to do it and to write it and to put it out there on Tooth and Nail. Regardless of all the other factors that could clout or get in the way of actually doing a record. The business is really taxing sometimes and everything. We just want to make music that uplifts the Lord, but to do that you have to get it out to the people and a lot of things that gets in the way. But when you hear that, that is why we do it. All glory unto God because it's only him and us that is portrayed and reflected through the music and everything that has the power to do anything like that. It is nothing in and of ourselves that we could do to change anyone's life. It is what the Lord has.

That's awesome. Tell me a story about the "Reject" video shoot.

 

It was really weird, we've never done a video before. It was done on really nice 35mm film and everything. We were basically just standing in a garage and he was filming us and you're not really playing. I've got my guitar and I'm lip synching, I don't even have a microphone or anything. It was just uncomfortable. What was funny about it was that the Lead singer for Strife, Rick Rodney was there because he is friends with the director Darren Dunn. So he was there taking black and white photographs because he is all into photography of us while we were doing the video. And those photographs ended up being part of the video as well as some other photographs that were taken by the guy that did the cover for Reborn Syzico Biacchi. He took some photos as well that night and they incorporated them into the film and the video. It just really turned out really neat in terms of focusing in on a still photograph of

me singing or whatever. So basically I'm sitting there in this garage in front of like twenty people lip synching to this jam box playing the song over to my left, and I just feel silly. I mean I'm self concious and I'm like "I look stupid". I'm sitting there trying to look like I'm on stage and performing live and I'm in front of twenty people in a garage by myself not even with the other guys. They were in the house playing Nintendo or something waiting for their turn. I don't know it's just weird.

You probably had to do it multiple times though….

No that's just it. I did it the first time and I felt so dumb about it, I was like let me do it again because it must look stupid. And they were like, no, no, no, when we edit it, it'll look fine, it's gonna be really quick shots and so when I see it I'm like, I really look stupid I should have done it again. But you know hey whatever. The live shots toward the end of the video are real. That was taken in a club in California, the Showcase theater, a show that we did with Zao, Training for Utopia, Overcome, and all these killer bands and the crowd was just awesome. They just went crazy. That is where we are in our element when you get to that part in the video. It really starts taking on the way it was supposed to be, when you get to the live stuff. I kinda wish we would've done the whole thing live.

If you were to speak to someone that just came upon this interview that is not a Christian what would you say to them?

They might think it's interesting or strange to be talking about God in the context of hardcore or metal music or whatever but.. we just feel like it is the perfect way to share our faith and what we believe with others because it is such a powerful and amazing art form. It is just so intense. We feel like if they are wondering or searching for what God might have for them that they would give them a chance that they would open their heat to what the Lord has for them and specifically Jesus Christ who died for them. If they are wondering about Living Sacrifice or about picking up our record that's cool and I would hope that anybody who would read this would have the opportunity to do that. But I would rather, if they never get to hear our record or our music, that's fine but if they never get the chance to accept Christ in their life that if much more tragic. I hope that everybody would come to the place where God present us with the truth of what Christ did for us. And we have a chance to decide. And like the bible says that everyone would have the chance to come to know Christ.

I try to keep these short so God bless and good luck with the rest of the tour.

Thanks