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For a young band Pillar has had more than
their share of ups and downs. After being bounced around
major labels the band has come home to Flicker Records
for the release of their amazing new record, “Where Do
We Go From Here”. With a new label, a new direction, and
a lot of press about the band, we had much to talk
about. We caught up with the guys shortly after catching
an energetic live show at Creation East….
By: Andrew Fisher
1340mag
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Andrew Fisher: Last year
about this time you guys were being pushed really hard by
a major mainstream record label. When “Where Do We Go
From Here” came out though, you were back on Flicker
Records, your original label home. Can you tell us a
little about what happened with all of that?
Mike: Our contract had been bought from Flicker
records by MCA and then MCA re-released “Fireproof”.
About that time Universal, MCA’s parent company, shut MCA
down. MCA was one of the oldest record labels around! So,
Universal switched us over to Geffen Records. Geffen then
restructured and everyone who was really into us was
fired. So, we hired a lawyer to get us out of our
contract because we were at a great point in our career
and we didn’t want to just sit around. We talked to
several labels and got down on paper what we wanted.
Flicker gave us the things we wanted so we did the new
record with them and they have done an amazing job
setting the new record up.
AF: “Fireproof” sold over 300,000 copies. With that in
mind did you feel any pressure about what you had to, or
didn’t have to, do with “Where Do We Go From Here”?
Noah: I think we every record there’s a little bit of
pressure. I think though that with this record we just
kind of went with the flow. We didn’t really know I don’t
think. We just wrote from our hearts and I think we’ve
been doing this long enough that it just doesn’t matter
anymore. We just play our hearts out and whatever happens
is what happens.
AF: How has early response to this record been?
Lester: It’s been great! The first week we sold about
19,000 copies which is awesome for us. It was #3 on the
Christian charts and #74 on the Billboard charts. It was
like Switchfoot, Fred Hammond, and Pillar in the Top 3 in
the Christian charts which was really cool because Fred
Hammond is one of my favorite artists and we are good
friends with Switchfoot. We are just excited because it’s
done better than we thought it would.
Mike: People seem to be really excited about. The
cool thing about it is that we are just a hard rock band.
We don’t have any adult contemporary singles or anything
like that. So far us to have the #3 best selling record
is awesome.
Lester: “Fireproof” did 8,500 it’s first week and
this one did 19,000 so….
Mike: So, we are just really thankful to our fans
for going out there and supporting us.
AF: The new album seems heavier, a lot more solid, and
a lot less rap. Was that a conscious move? People seem to
have mixed feelings on the shift in sound.
Noah: As a band I think that you always evolve. You
just play what you wanna play. I don’t think it was
purposefully done I just think that Rob likes to sing a
lot more than he likes to rap. The way that the new
record is, more melodic and more rock and roll oriented,
there’s just more singing to it. Granted it’s not as Hip
Hop, rapcore-ish.Mike: You know we set up
“Fireproof” to lead into whatever we wanted to do with
this record. Rob did a lot of rapping on “Fireproof” but
he also did a lot of singing. There were also a lot of
singing choruses combined with the rap. So, we kinda set
it up to go whichever direction we felt like at the time.
This time it was just a lot about singing more.
Noah: I think Rob just wanted to prove that he
could sing and he took it overboard! (laughter) Boy done
good… (said like Sling Blade) (laughter)
AF: There was an interview I read with you guys in 7
Ball magazine and you talked about how you don’t like to
talk about your songs because people get spoon fed too
much. Would you elaborate on that a bit for our readers?
Mike: Well, some kids we ask us or email us, “What’s
this song about?” and we are like “Well, you could read
the lyrics.” It’s kind of like when someone goes to
church and they listen to the Pastor’s message but they
don’t ever do their own reading or their own studying.
They don’t really double check what they are hearing.
I’ve been to some churches and heard some really wack
stuff that a lot of people just take in and believe
because of who said it. Also, the bible, and poetry, and
books people get different things out of those things.
What you read in a bible verse I may read the same thing
and get something completely different out of it. I might
even get something different out of it myself when I read
it five years from now. We don’t want to tell people what
these songs are about because it may dilute it for
someone who’s getting a different meaning out of it. All
our music is inspired by God and he’ll use the words to
touch individual people whoever they need to be touched.
AF: Can you tell me about the song “Hypnotized” and
what it means?
Collectively: No! (laughter)
AF: That’s what I thought! It does kind of set a theme
for the album though. Would you tell me a bit about the
theme of the album in that respect?
Noah: It can mean a lot of things really but we just
see a lot of Christian who are really judgmental and
people that aren’t very loving in the church,. They care
about things like smoking and they don’t just love and
embrace people like Jesus would have. They are just
really judgmental and closed off from the rest of the
world. It’s really just a cry out to ask people where we
are gonna go from here. Are we gonna be closed minded and
create our own religion or are we gonna do what Jesus
did.
AF: There was an article on you guys in Hit Parader
magazine and you said “We aren’t here to preach at anyone
or try to convince them that our beliefs are right.”
Obviously that’s an upsetting comment to many of your
fans who are Christians. A lot of them would even
probably say that without that element you are not a
Christian band. What do you have to say to the people who
think that?
Mike: I actually don’t completely remember that
article but what I do remember is that there were some
misquotes in it. It wasn’t a one on one interview really.
The way this company works is you do this hour long
interview with a dude and then they put it on a file and
all these magazines can get online and use what they want
to create an article. They combined several quotes and
stuff. I’m not sure if that’s the exact interview but I
think it is because it really misrepresented what we
believe. Honestly how I feel about Pillar is this, we are
all Christians and Christians are called to follow God
all the time no matter what you do, teacher, plumber,
musician, whatever. We are musicians and we are gonna do
that to the best of our ability and God’s gonna work
through that. We aren’t “called” to go out and be
preachers just like a plumber can still touch people by
his words and actions we are the same way. People think
because we are on a stage that we are expected to do more
than that but God hasn’t told me that. It’s cool of he’s
told another band to do that but he hasn’t told me to do
that.
AF: Parting thoughts?
Noah: Check out the new album “Where Do We Go From
Here”! Catch us on tour as well. This fall we are going
on tour with Project 86, Falling Up, and Subseven.
Thanks!
~1340mag
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