An Interview with Sean & Kelly Green of “Behold The Beloved: On Being Ministry Minded, “Harsh Realities” and My Beloved

Hailing from Central PA, Behold the Beloved has a sound that immediately recalls the hard-hitting riffs and memorable hooks characteristic of bands like Pillar, Kutless, and Disciple. Since their inception, they have produced multiple number one hits, three incredible full-length albums and had the chance to play at Loud and Proud Festival in Germany. We've seen them perform live on multiple occasions, including at The Junction Center alongside Disciple and recently Pillar, and on the Rockstar Stage at Uprise Festival. This is a band that you’re going to want to keep an eye on in the years to come! We had the opportunity to sit down with Sean Green, the lead singer and his wife, Kelly who heads up the women’s ministry My Beloved. We talked about the growth of Behold the Beloved, the opportunities to collaborate with amazing artists, and Kelly’s new book All That Remains.

Behold The Beloved is:

Sean Green - Vocals

Jeff Lehman - Guitar, Background vocals

Jason Stauffer - Guitar

Tim Kitchen - Bass, Background vocals

Sheldon Stauffer - Drums

Solid Rock Unplugged: For a little backstory, we were first introduced six or seven years ago when Behold The Beloved came to my church to do a worship night. I remember doing soundcheck and you guys started the first riff and I’m like “Oh man, I’ve got a congregation of old people coming!” I’m freaking out like “Is there any way you guys can play softer?” I think you guys switched out the drumsticks.

Sean: I remember this night, we switched out the drumsticks and we switched out some songs. We turned it back a little bit. I remember this night so much. I remember, we still make fun of Jeff for this night, because we talk about the people we meet at the merch tables. I’m like “Do you remember the place we went and there were two older ladies that were just hitting on you, Jeff? You get all the cougars!” There’s just these two older ladies and they just wanted to give him hugs. That was back before when he wasn’t really a hugger with anybody and now he’s gotten better. He’s just complimenting them. We all laugh, we still give him crap. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Since those days, you guys have grown incredibly. You’re not just playing shows in Pennsylvania, but across the country. You’ve released two more full length albums. What has God taught you the most in the last five or six years?

Sean: What has He taught us the most? We’ve learned and we’ve grown so much. Our sound has grown, we’ve grown as artists. I feel like we’ve grown even in our spiritual walks, individually, but also as a group. The way we carry ourselves, the way we handle conversations with people. It sounds cheesy to say that God has taught us how faithful he is, but we see the opportunities that we’re getting, the doors that are opening in front of us for us to walk through. 

We see the bands that we’re around. At any point, we could drop tune our guitars more and play more metal riffs and put some screaming in our music to be what a lot of rock bands around us are doing. Maybe we’d be more popular, who knows? But we just feel like this is what God has called us to be. This is the sound that He’s called us to create, the lyrics he’s called us to write. It might now be the most popular style of rock, but it’s the style that He’s called us to be right now. 

I feel like because we are faithful to that and really have a heart and a mindset of “We’re going in this for ministry first and nothing else,” that we are getting these opportunities. We’re growing at the pace that we grow. And we’re experiencing the things we experienced. We’ve known you for seven years. Back then, that was our first record. In seven years, we’ve dropped two more records, and we've toured in Germany. That’s a lot to happen. I know people say “Oh, seven years is a lot.” In musicianship, seven years is not that long. I feel like only in the past four years has everything just exploded for us. We still have more growth!

Solid Rock Unplugged: You mentioned your albums. Let’s talk about Harsh Realities. What was the planning process for that album?

Sean: Should I admit that we don’t have a plan? No, it’s been really cool because I feel like every time we write a record, we learn new ways on the best way to write a record. Our first record, you can tell it was our first and there’s a lot of things we could have done way better. No Surrender came out and during that writing process, it was us five guys trying to write music together. It got a little heated from time to time. But we learned some things in that. 

In writing Harsh Realities, we started with the two singles we did with Josiah and Andrew [of Disciple] and learned some things in that co-write that we applied for the rest of the record. We’re like “You know what, Jason is gifted at writing.” So we gave him full ranks to start writing music. He writes all the music, but brings it to us. Then we, as a team, are like “This one speaks to us more.” Then we start going through the lyrics. Me, him, sometimes Jeff and Tim, but it’s mostly me and him, because I need to make sure it’s lyrics that I feel convicted of or I can resonate with, because I’m the one singing it. 

Then we work together, we just tweak a couple things. Then we get together musically and figure it out. So it went a lot smoother.  We took some of those things from Andrew and Josiah, like learning different co-writes, and we kind of applied that to that. Our game plan going into it was almost the same as in, you just write a bunch of songs and you get over 16, 17, 18, 20 songs and then you figure out which ones feel like they should go on this record. 

You pray about it, you sing the songs and then you find the theme. When you write that many songs and you like more than the ten you’re going to use, you start saying “Alright God, what’s the theme, because all of these are kind of going together.” Once we started getting “Toxic Lullabies,” and “Dear Martyr," we started finding an underlying theme of just the harsh realities of this world, things that people are uncomfortable to talk about, things that sometimes a church won’t talk about. We’re going through crap in this world, in society. So just the stuff that people go through personally or in this world that, it’s harsh, like “Hey, Harsh Realities!” So that kind of helped us narrow down what songs to put in. 

I love that balance that we have that we can literally call out some of the things that need to be called out, empower people with that. Bring recognition to things, as well as just talk about the things, like “Hey, Christians are humans too!” We can go through hard times, we can go through depressing times. And sometimes we can go through thoughts of suicide. So that’s where stuff like “Live Again” comes from. Sometimes things happen and we don’t know why. That’s where “Am I Broken” comes from. So songs like that, but we can still put kickers in there, like “Ready to Die,” and just kick the enemy in the mouth, “Untouchable,” “Power Play,” just have fun. We’ve still got those bangers and anthems. But the plan was “Here’s our songs, God. What’s the theme? What are the right ones to put on the record?”

Solid Rock Unplugged: What was your favorite part of doing Harsh Realities? Besides getting to work with Jon Micah?

Sean: Well, I didn’t really work with Jon Micah. We sent the stuff over to him, we told him what he had to sing and then he did. Should I take out working with Josiah and Andrew? That was a huge thing, that was a cool thing. We never thought of co-writing. We thought it was cheating. I mean, we write our own music and do it all! We just felt like co-writing maybe it just brings new ideas. And it did! It opened us up and it taught us things. So if we’re adding those two, I say working with Josiah, for me, was my favorite. He actually opened my vocal range, working with him. He is a gifted individual. I spent a couple days with him when we did the singles. When I went back by myself to start doing the whole record, he already knew my vocals. He’s an encourager but he also pushes you. I was like “I don’t think I can hit this” and he goes “No, you can.” So working with him definitely made me a better vocalist. So that would be my favorite.

If we take them out of the equation, what would be my favorite part besides hanging out with those guys? I think my favorite part - I don’t have favorite parts in the writing process. Really, I hate writing music. I just want to go play it. And I want to see how it impacts people. I think Harsh Realities, a lot of those songs impacted me more than other songs and other records. I think on other records is like “Oh, this is a good song. Like I can feel this.” This one, like a lot of songs were very, even more personable. Things I’ve seen in my life and our marriage and it was deeper. It was more personable. So I enjoyed seeing it come together.

Solid Rock Unplugged: And then “Heartbreak,” we’ve been hearing that on WJTL [FM 90.3]. What was it like the first time you heard “Heartbreak” or heard your song on normal radio programming, not just on “Some Sort Of Rock Show” but WJTL programming?

Sean: So throughout the years, if we would hear it on morning radio, it would be on Friday mornings when [John Stafferi] brings one song. That was always cool over the years, but I reached out to John and said “Hey, do you think WJTL would play ‘Heartbreak?’ It’s a ballad, it’s a soft song. It means a lot.” He goes “Well, I don’t control any of that, this is who you should talk to.” So we emailed her and just kind of said “Hey, is this a possibility?” She said “I think the listener is looking for something a little more edgier. This isn’t too far out there and I love this song. We love supporting you guys, we’ll give it a go!” 

To see it on the playlist four or five times a day, it’s very encouraging. Because that’s the market we want to get in. We really want to show people who don’t normally listen to rock that our style of rock is different. We’re trying to make worship music that doesn’t feel watered down. We want to make worship music that is true and encouraging and uplifting and challenges you. It makes you look deep within to see the nooks and crannies that you’re not working on with God, that you’re kind of just pushing aside and really make you challenge yourself to work on them. So yeah, it blows my mind that we have a song on morning radio. It’s a good start. I love it. Let’s get more!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Talking about this new record and getting in the nooks and crannies, it makes me think of “Dear Martyr.” A lot of people think about sending money over to help missionaries, but we as the church have a hard time comprehending the harsh realities that these missionaries are facing. What inspired you to write this song?

Sean: Like I said before, Jason writes all the music. It was all Jason. He brought it to me, though. I think he was encouraged because the first record, we have “Trenches.” That was our first diving into writing a song for the church. So when we started talking about this record, he’s like “I want to write a song where we go deeper. And can we go farther? And can we go just bold and blatant and talk about the most uncomfortable things?” He’s like “I really want to write a song for the persecuted church.” He just had one hook in his mind. It was like “This one’s for the saints.”

So that’s where it started, and I was like “Do it, go for it. I’m behind you.” As we started going through some of it, like how am I going to sing this live that it’s not awkward? How are we going to put this on a record that it’s not weird? How can we do it that it’s tasteful. This was a really hard one to write when it came to finding the right lyrics, because we want to bring awareness to the persecuted church. We want to make sure that we do it justice. But we also want to make sure that it’s in a way that’s tasteful, that it encourages the listener, it brings awareness to the listener but at the same time, it doesn’t scare them. It doesn’t bring a fearfulness to anybody. There was a lot of tiptoeing around certain things, like how bold do we go with certain lyrics and I think we pushed it to the line. 

[Jason] really did his homework. He reads books, he reads a lot of books when he starts writing a song. He’ll read, which I’m not a reader. I’m glad he has the will to do that! Because, he wants to learn the history of things, learn the lingo of it. He did a great job with that. We have lines in there that kind of pay tribute to the Voice of the Martyr, in the bridge, that’s a deep book and those kind of things. So I love that we go to do this. 

It’s cool, because the song is not for the listener. That’s like second. It’s literally for those who are out there dying for their faith. This is just for them. To make it in a way to be like this song is for the saints, but as Christians here right now in the safety of the room where we’re all having fun in a show, let’s encourage you to pray for these people, don’t ever forget about them. This song is a reminder that we are living comfortable lives, even though we say “My life sucks,” or “Crap, it’s crazy out there!” Well, think about it. This is real life. I talk about it on the stage all the time. People kind of say “I read the books back in the day, like they used to hunt down Christians.” You know, that’s not back in the day anymore. It’s everyday. So just to remind people that just because you’re not seeing it right in front of you, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Especially with the news about Nigeria, with all of the Christians being martyred over there. Like you said, it’s not back in the day. It’s today.

Sean: 100%. We like to believe that all our songs came from God. We put work into creating it, but this song specifically got written, got finished, recorded, mastered and when we released it, it was the exact same time that public stuff was coming out about Christians in Syria being crucified on the roads. I’m like, this is definitely a God thing, having this song ready to be put out, to be the next song, just as that’s coming out. People are hearing about that. It happens all the time, but in the past you don’t always hear about it. It’s kind of nonchalant, push aside, you have to dig deep. But now we’re living in a time where it’s being brought forward a little more. I’m glad it’s being publicized more because it needs to be. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: With the new album release, are there any plans for a tour?

Sean: Oh man, do we have to? Can we just stay home? Yes, we did release a new record. Is there going to be a tour? Yes, but I just want to clarify. Some people think touring means we’re gone for months, like, we’re not Skillet! We don’t have a 100 grand every time we play somewhere. Bands like us and even Disciple, it’s hard nowadays to find shows to put tours together. It takes a lot of hard work because it also takes venues to have funds to be able to put on shows. So are we going to tour? Yeah, obviously every year we tour. But our touring looks like putting together weekend runs, a Thursday through Sunday doing four shows in a row. Maybe put a week or two weeks together with a couple days off in between traveling.

Right now our set list has a lot of Harsh Realities songs in it. So next year, we’ll swap it up. We’re going to add a new one in and add some things. We’re already booking for 2026. And we’re booking our own tours. We tested out a weekend run where we put together, it was us, Relentless Flood, and From Ravens to Doves. So we are going to put together a Harsh Realities tour run for a couple months, but it won’t be in a row. It’ll be from this month to this month, here are select weekends that we’re looking to book. And we’ll bring a certain package. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Because outside of this, you all have full time jobs. So it’s not like you can just stop what you’re doing for a month. 

Kelly: And families!

Sean: Yeah, it’s a lot. But it’s worth it. I feel like Christian rock is on the rise. Christian rock dulled out for a long time. I think right now, it’s slowly picking back up. But the funds need to be there. If we can get churches and venues that want to book Monday through Sunday, I’m game. I will leave my job and I will go. So we’re not against it, just the funds need to be there. The venues need to be there to make it happen. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Your last tour was the Pokemon themed tour, right? It was you guys, Relentless Flood, and the Protest. 

Sean: Yeah, The Protest put that together. The Gotta Catch Them All tour. That was fun!

Solid Rock Unplugged: So over the past few years, you’ve done “Come Alive” with Kevin from Disciple. You’ve done “Am I Broken” with Jon Micah from Kutless. You just did the show with Pillar. How crazy does it feel to be playing alongside some of the giants in Christian rock, just getting the opportunity to share the stage and the mic. How do you not fangirl in that situation?

Sean: No, it was hard! I ain’t gonna lie. If we break it all down from day one, working with Disciple, that was the coolest thing ever. But since day one, all of us guys get together and we always go “This is our chance to show that we belong, that we have a calling, that we have talent, that we love to do what we want to do.” We’re not looking for fame. We always go into these situations trying to be as professional as possible. Learning our role where we’re at, any time we’re opening for a big band. We go in there to get the crowd going, because that’s our job as the opener. Let’s get them ready for the headliner. In doing that, it shows that you do your job well and you’re not there to just take the spotlight. We always go in and try to be professional, but also learn. Let’s ask the right questions. Let’s learn from these guys. 

But yeah, I can’t believe that I’m living the life that I’m living. When we got Kevin on the song and we eventually at the Junction Center got him to come out, it was one of the coolest things that ever happened. I admire him. I do talks in the middle of my sets because of him. A lot of artists do! I didn’t handle that moment the best. I always tell people to take that moment. I was like “Stay professional, stay in the song.” And I didn’t interact with him. I should have interacted with him! I couldn’t get in the mode of “Have fun with this!” No, I was just like “He’s out here. Don’t make him look bad. Focus!” So I wish I could redo that. But I just recently did that with our buddy Marshall from Relentless Flood. We brought him out on tour with us and he was singing “Am I Broken” with me, instead of Jon Micah. I could just play around and we interacted more and I had such a blast. Like, that’s what I need to do. 

But yeah, asking people like Jon Micah, “Hey, can you sing on this song?” And he checks out the song and for him to like the song and agree to it. That means the world to me! Those are the bands. Those are the big bands, the giants that I listened to that played a huge act in my life, Kutless, Pillar. Then to be around those guys and see how normal and cool they were. Sometimes you don’t want to meet your heroes. In our industry, there’s not a lot but there’s some I’m like “Yeah, you could do better bro!” 

But Pillar, man, all those guys were so kind and so genuine. They spoke a lot of encouragement to us. To just play two shows with them was such a highlight. But you’re right. They are monsters, like when Christian rock was up there and the thing. Those were the guys carrying the torch. It’s just cool to see who they passed the torch to and you just want to show them that we’re trying our best and we’re really doing this for the reasons that they did it. The reasons they gave it their all, that’s why we’re giving it our all now. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I remember being at the Junction Center when Kevin came out, because I was standing next to my wife and she’s like “Do you think Kevin will come out?” I was like “No, he doesn’t really do that” and then we saw him come out. We were all like “No way!!”

Sean: We’ve been blessed. Like you said, Kevin doesn’t really do that a lot. It was two years after “Come Alive” had been out. I’ve had many conversations with them at many shows and I said “Hey, I’m asking you again. And if you say no, totally cool. I don’t hate you. That’s fine, I understand. I’m just letting you know that I’m a persistent person. Every show that we are together, I will ask you!” He always talks about “I don’t want to mess it up for you. I don’t want to make your set look bad. I can barely remember my songs!” I said, “Kevin. I will write it on a giant poster board and lay it on the floor!” and he goes “All right, if you do that, I’ll do it.” 

So Kelly ran out and bought a poster board and I wrote out his parts and I laid it on the floor of the stage. We talked about it as he came to me during soundcheck, he’s like “All right, you wanna do this?” I’m like “Yeah!” But yeah, he doesn’t do that and same with Jon Micah. How many songs do you see Jon Micah featuring on? It’s very hard to find them out there. To say that we’re blessed is, I think, an understatement. It’s crazy the things that have happened to us and for us and it’s all God. It’s like, normal people can’t do this. I’m just a Joe Schmoe. There’s no way I’m doing this, it’s a God thing. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: So what you’re saying is next record you’ll have Trevor from TFK on?

Sean: And I tell you we’ve already worked on that for this record. It’s one of the things on our bucket list, let’s just say that!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Well, you guys did a wonderful job with the Pillar concert and Uprise Festival and all the other times we’ve seen you. You guys have always laid it out there. You stay firm in what you believe, you give it one hundred percent. But there’s so much more to the ministry than the band. Kelly, you just finished a women’s retreat with My Beloved. What was your drive to start My Beloved?

Kelly: My Beloved is a women’s ministry that is underneath the band Behold The Beloved. So my role with the band, I do all the management, all the administrative behind the scenes. If you email us, you will probably get an email from me. I also run the merch table. That is the best way that we meet our people. That’s the way that we can talk to them, hear their stories, pray with them, or they just want to support and buy merch. So what I was finding is that I would have these really incredible conversations, with people in general, but especially with women. I’m just not that type of person to go ok, I’m going to hear your story, pray with you, we’re going to cry together and then say goodbye. 

Sean: That’s what I say to people in line!

Kelly: No, I’m not that type of person that can hear something like that and not check in. So what I was finding is that I was checking in with these people, when we’re coming off their shows, off the road. We’re on the road all throughout the year, just to keep up with them. They would continue to come to different shows, then I was finding that a lot of those same women were going to the same shows. They were finding community together and we were just talking. I’m like “what if we have a women’s ministry?” I don’t know of any other band that has a women’s ministry, so that’s how My Beloved got birthed, kind of from that. 

Some of the different things we do, usually at the end of the summer, we do a book study then we do our retreat. To do the retreat, we ask that you go through the book study. It can be between like six to eight weeks over Zoom, because again, a lot of us are so widespread. We travel all around the US and so we just meet a lot of different people and we can’t all meet in my living room. That would be pretty amazing if that were the case, to have a whole bunch of women over here. That’d be great! 

So we meet over Zoom and we end it with a retreat. We always go to the Poconos and it’s such an incredible time, just being in person. We just kind of recap it, but also have incredible fellowship with one another, have so much fun. Two weeks ago, we had the most incredible time. We were actually up to probably about 4:30 in the morning, which I don’t want this to be a deterrent for people, please don’t not come! But we were literally praying over one another and it was probably just one of the most beautiful things just to see the Holy Spirit, honestly. So that’s been really incredible!

Then I just offer our hub on the Facebook page, where I share some different encouragement throughout the week. I also offer a Spring Bible study, again over Zoom, because most people don’t live in the area. That’s really the mission, to bring community and have fellowship with one another and a lot of those women, we meet at the shows with Behold The Beloved, concerts, festivals, whatever it is!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Along with that, you also released your first book, “All That Remains.” Was this a lifelong dream or just something that was on your heart?

Kelly: So yes and no. Yes, I have thought about writing a book for a really long time, but I never pulled the trigger because I knew I had a lot to say, but I didn’t know specifically what. Sean, a few years ago, had been really encouraging me, “You should really write a book!” “No.” “You should really write a book!” “No.” So we did this song and dance for quite some time. And with him honestly really encouraging me, I started sharing a little bit more publicly through Substack. Just kind of collecting some different thoughts from my life and the things the Lord has taught me and I just decided “You know what, I’m going to start writing.” And that’s what I did. I just started brain dumping, writing everything down. 

The book is called “All That Remains: Finding Wholeness Through The Wreckage.” It’s kind of a mix of my story and the things that I walked through and that the Lord has walked through me with. But also kind of how it relates and can relate to your life and the walk that you are having with God. It’s not a memoir, but more of a Christian living/devotional book. It’s perfect for small groups. If you have a small group, it’s awesome. We have three or four questions, reflection questions, that can just be for you or for your small group. Then I always end with scriptures and a prayer. So when you go through the chapter, you’re just not like “ok, that was a great chapter.” It really gives you time to reflect back on what you just read and how that can apply to your life. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: What was that process? How long of a process did that take? 

Kelly: I started writing sporadically for it, but then I really dedicated a lot of time. I want to say maybe like six or seven months that I wrote and maybe six of those months were pretty dedicated. We have an eight year old son, so I don’t currently work a full time job. I do the behind the scenes things for the band and My Beloved. So I really do have the freedom and flexibility to be home to be able to do that. 

I would drop my son off at school, come home, kind of do a little thing to get into writing mode and I would just go in my office and honestly just type for about four or five hours. Then it would be time for me to go and pick him up from school. I really tried to dedicate as much time to it as possible, especially when I felt inspired and felt like “ok, I have a lot to say.” Because there were definitely times where I couldn’t think of any words coming to my mind because I’ve literally put them all right here and I can’t think of anything. I can’t formulate this sentence any more. So that’s really what some of the writing process was within that. 

Sean: But then the last month or two was all of the random detailed stuff.

Kelly: So then in the last few months, it got sent to an editor. They read through it and sent it back, sent back questions or things to fix here and “Do you want to clarify this” and just kind of that editing process. I took a few months to do that and I had Sean read through it, which he’s not a reader. That was a huge thing. I’m a reader, I can read four to five books at a time and be cool. But he is not. And then I sent it off to some really good friends that know me, know my story. Some of them have walked through some of those things with me, just wanting to make sure that the story brought clarity and that it was also true to me and true to the things that God has done in my life. 

Sean: Yeah, it was good to see you giving it to some friends. She gave it to some friends who actually are going through their own walks of wreckages or whatever and trying to find God in the midst of that. So it was great for them to read it and see if they could resonate with it, to make sure that it wasn’t just an autobiography of Kelly. Which when I read it, it was well balanced. She gets to set the tone of what she’s saying, but then takes it away, out of her story, and makes you think about your story. So yeah, artwork, everything got done. I’m just like “What’s next?” But I was proud of her, I’m still proud of her and it’s crazy. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I want to thank you guys for giving us time. Getting to hear your heart for your music and hearing about My Beloved and the direction of that ministry and the book. Any last comments or last encouragement that you want to give to anyone reading this interview?

Sean: I would always say don’t ever think that you can’t, that you’re too small for something big. I would say reach for it, strive for it. My rule is always dream it and do it and go for it. The worst people can say is no. Always shoot your shot and go for it and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I think that’s what we’ve done this whole journey. It started from being a part of a band to then seeing a need and an opportunity to see that there’s leaders out there and women that need leaders beside them and creating a women’s ministry. Who cares that we’re a rock band? We’re a ministry first. We went from a women’s ministry to then we have an author and we have this and that. We have our own record label, all these things. It kind of piles up. 

You never think that you could do certain things that you’re doing, but unless you just go for it and believe in yourself, knowing that you can do whatever you want to do, as long as you have God’s will. You have God with you doing it, you’re not doing it by your own strength. You’re not just a small fish that can’t swim in a big ocean. Go ahead and swim that ocean. Swim that ocean. No, do it for real, if there’s something God lays on your heart and it just seems overwhelming and too big, it’s not. He’s laid that on your heart for a reason because he believes in you, he trusts you, and he will give you the strength and tools that you need to do it. Because it’s his plan, it’s something that he wants done that He has chosen you to do it. That means that He believes in you. 

So that’s how I like to look at things, that’s why I feel like God has taken us from A to B to C and we’re living the life that we are, that is bonkers. We know there’s more to come, so as long as we work hard and believe that He’s behind us and with us, we believe things are going to just get better and better. So that’s what we want to give to the reader, just go for it. Don’t ever think that you’re too small, you’re too worthless!

Check out Behold The Beloved on Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify. Keep an eye out for tour dates in 2026!

An Interview with Matt Greiner of August Burns Red: On Recording New Music, Maintaining Authenticity, and Christmas Burns Red

Matt Greiner (Left) - Drummer for August Burns Red

Solid Rock Unplugged: What has been the biggest difference between where August Burns Red started to where you are now?

Matt: Great question. The biggest difference, well my mind goes immediately to all the ways that they’re the same. Because there are a lot of similarities. I’m in a band with the best people, the hardest working, talented and in it for the right reasons. Meaning we’re not going to settle and we’re not going to do things with half of our energy. We’re going to give it everything. 

Every aspect of the band, you give everything. Not just the music, not just the performance. But the merch designs, the tours, and what mode of transportation we’re using to get to the airport. Like, we’re critical of everything and we think through everything. Because you have to for business and we’re supporting our families, five of us. We all have families to support. We all have a mortgage to pay and we get to do this band. 

We get to do this after 23 years of doing it, which means on one hand it’s a tank and on the other hand it’s very fragile, because we look around and see all the bands that aren’t here any more. So what’s the biggest difference? I think it’s who’s not in metal any more, who’s not around. Man, I’m so grateful we are. We are really fortunate as a band to still be putting out music and still be touring. Still have fans show up to our shows and mosh and sing along and buy our merch. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Speaking of merch, I don’t know whose idea it was to bring back some of the old throwback t-shirt designs. Great idea! I got the Smokey The Bear shirt that says on the back “Only You Can Prevent Horrible Music.” So many conversations get started because of that shirt!

Matt: Yeah, I think we came out with that shirt in an era of metalcore that seemed like things were just very fluid. No one really wanted to do the 2003 metalcore any more. But no one knew where it was going, so there were all these kind of watered down styles. That was around the Rescue And Restore, which is how I see the messaging behind that album. It’s like “Dude, metal’s awesome!” We’re not going to just let it die, let it change and let it go somewhere we don’t really love. We’re going to stick to our roots and do what we want to do, not follow the trends.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Going through the writing process, what are your biggest influences when you’re writing new music?

Matt: My answer is really boring and I know that. I don’t have a whole lot of musical influences that creep into my playing when I’m writing drum parts. The biggest influence by far is what JB and Dustin have tabbed out in our program called TabIt. We send our songs over a program called TabIt. It’s all MIDI. So numbers represent notes and beats. They represent songs, so snare drum is 38, I had 42. Then you have the guitar tab for the guitar line and you have all zeros so it’s open chugs. They send everything to me that way and I look at the drums and say “ok, this is the idea they have for it so far.” That’s the most influential.

Because I’m looking at what they think would fit really well here. What do the drums do here that sells the song to the band? If I'm writing the song on guitar and I want to put drums in, I want to make sure everyone likes the song. So I’m going to write drum parts that make it sound cool and extreme and heavy and like all the different feelings. So I'm sitting down and I’m going to first look at that. Usually they’re amazing ideas. Honestly, really cool ideas and what I’ll try to do is improve them. Maybe the parts are really cool. I’m going to try to beat it. 

That’s really our mentality as a band, it’s who has the best idea, lyrically, on the strings, on drums. It doesn’t matter what your position is in the band, I’m going to beat what’s there. If you don’t, then the thing that is coolest wins. It doesn’t matter who wrote it, doesn’t matter who tracks it even. Who wrote the best thing wins and they don’t win a prize. They just win. Their idea is what ends up on the album. That’s winning. Then August Burns Red calls it a song. It might be JB’s song, but everyone’s humble enough to say this is the band’s.

What if the US politics looked at ABR and said “Let’s try to model what we’re doing based on five guys that all think differently, live differently, believe differently, act differently, and let’s just see how it goes!” I mean, it takes time and it took some growing pains, but I’m really grateful to be in the band. It’s such a well-oiled machine. I look at the world around me and think gosh, people are so bored! People are so upset. They’re so bitter. They’re so resentful. They don’t get along with anybody, like their own kids, their own spouses, their own friends. Defriending people on Facebook because of some guy that got shot in the head. 

If people had a drum set to play, whatever that might be for you: hiking, reading, sewing, golfing, fishing. If you find something that really fulfills you, when someone cuts you off in traffic, you don’t throw your middle finger in the air and lose your cool the whole way to work. It’s fine, it’s totally fine. I’ll be a little bit late. You know what I mean? It just cools you down, it centers you. I wish everyone had that sense of fulfillment because I know when I don’t, I”m not a great person to be around. 

My wife will say “Matt, you haven’t played in three weeks, I can tell. Go play drums!” I’m like, “I’m fine!” 20 minutes later I come upstairs like “I’m a new man! I’m a new man, what happened to me!” What is it, you know? You have to ask yourself, what is it that I’ve been procrastinating, putting on the backburner. Because that might be the thing that I should be pursuing and prioritizing and actually working on. I do it all the time. I go mow my yard instead of playing drums. Why? Because I have immediate gratification when I mow the lawn. It’s easy. It’s relaxing. What’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done? This. What’s the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done? This. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Speaking of the new album, what should we expect? Any themes, any stories that go behind the album?

Matt: Sure, I can’t talk about the lyrical content of the messaging and to be honest, I actually don’t know that much about it. I’ve been so invested in the drums, the drum factor. Coming up with cool parts that rip and fit the music. I can speak from a musical standpoint, the band really rooted in writing the music first. And the lyrics and vocals come later, like a layer cake. It’s up here. Now obviously vocals are eventually the most prominent thing, but musically, there’s so many hundreds of hours that go into this song. 

It’s funny when we get asked “What kind of lyrics or what kind of message do you guys want to say?” That’s kind of like me as a drummer hearing “What kind of heads did you use?” It’s more than that. Obviously, it’s the most important part. But at this stage in writing and recording it, it’s such a peripheral thing to me, because there’s so much that goes into the music. I will say Jake is absolutely destroying it. He’s working his tail off. So is Brent, helping him come up with patterns. So is Grant, helping him, pushing him. I think he’s pushing himself in a big way. 

I think we all are pushing ourselves. We are looking at AI and saying “Ok, people are going to start to wonder what’s real and what’s not.” We’ve been asking that for 15 years with metal, because everything’s fixed up and doctored and beat detected and perfected. We like that sound but now it’s to the point that we don’t really like it anymore. 

We especially don’t like the idea that you can just tell Suno to make a song and ten seconds later it spits out a metal song that sounds ok. So we’re trying to get our best performances instead of having to fix everything up and make it sound over-the-top glossy and fake. Musically, we are returning to our roots in some ways. There’s some speed and there’s aggressive, just bites your head off kind of breakdowns. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: So you’re going back to that Messengers-type sound?

Matt: I would certainly say some parts are. Constellations for sure. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Are you halfway through the recording process?

Matt: No, we’re two-thirds of the way through. I have four songs to track on drums yet. Guitar is almost done, vocals are pretty far along. 

Disclaimer: This interview took place at the end of October. August Burns Red has announced they have completed recording the album. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: For people who are getting ready to see you guys at Christmas Burns Red, could there potentially be a new song played?

Matt: No, no definitely not. There won’t be any new songs anywhere, online or heard, until next year for sure. Yeah, next year is going to be a great year. So much to look forward to next year!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Speaking of Christmas Burns Red, how did that get started? I know it started as the CI Christmas Show and then it’s kind of morphed into this two-day extravaganza of metal.

Matt: We wrote Carol of the Bells and recorded it with Messengers back in 2007. We started playing it live, I think that year, at the Chameleon Club. CI Records did their Christmas show. We started doing Christmas songs every year - just one! We recorded Sleddin’ Hill in 2012. We thought “Man, this is fun!” Now we have a Christmas album. People are coming out every year. We’re wrapping gifts. Jake’s dressing up as Santa Claus. 

Eventually we’re like alright, let’s just make our own festival. We’ll make a weekend festival like a destination so that bands can come here and experience it. It’ll be awesome. They can just stay in the hotel where we’re having the show, in the Convention Center. We’ll have a bunch of our friends come out and play and that’s exactly what we’ve done.  It’s been so cool.

Solid Rock Unplugged: I’ve noticed in the past couple of years, you guys have taken the chance to pay respect to Thrill Seeker, Messengers, and Constallations. This year you guys are celebrating both 20 years since Thrill Seeker and 10 since Found in Far Away Places. It doesn’t feel like it’s been 20 years since Thrill Seeker!

Matt: I think it feels like it’s been 20 years. I remember it. I’m very fond of that time of my life. I remember it really well actually. But to think it was half of my life ago, it makes me almost think “Boy, that was half of my life before it.” That seems like way too big of a chunk to be before Thrill Seeker if I’ve lived the same amount since. Which I guess just means that 20 years have flown by since Thrill Seeker.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Will we be getting an August Burns Red Christmas song this year?

Matt: I don’t know. I know that we are working on new songs currently that are not Christmas and that’s filling our plate pretty full. So I think it’s safe to say we’re focused on the album for next year. Which next year’s going to be a big year. We have some really cool touring next year. We obviously have the album to look forward to eventually. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: How was it touring with Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine this year?

Matt: This spring, yeah it was cool. I never really knew about Bullet For My Valentine. I knew the name, but I never listened to them. I’d heard the one song because it was a big song. Man, I thought they were such a good band live. They are tight. They sound great. Jason’s an awesome drummer. I really liked touring with them and Trivium.

Same thing, I never really listened to Trivium. I of course knew the name, I knew they were a big band, and knew they were shredders. But I would say that tour was somewhat easy because we played second of four. We played a shorter set and we played big rooms. We didn’t really have to work to get crowds in the door. We did do our best to win the crowd that came. So I will see how much it benefited the band next year when we get out there and start touring again. See how many people come back. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: What should fans expect from this year’s Christmas Burns Red?

Matt: Pretty much the same look and layout as they’ve come to expect. If you’ve been to CBR, you know it’s in the Convention Center. We dress it up in a very festive look. We try to up our production every year and make it bigger and better. As far as the bands, you can see those on our Instagram or website, christmasburnsred.com. You can see who’s playing. I honestly don’t have all the bands memorized because I’ve been busy writing and my brain’s full of information. I’m personally excited for Animals As Leaders above all. I really like that band and it’ll be good to see Tosin [Abasi] again and Matt Garstka. Some of the most talented dudes out there. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Matt: Thanks for having me on Solid Rock Unplugged! I’m looking forward to Christmas Burns Red, I’m looking forward to the new album. I’m looking forward to 2026. Thank you so much to everyone that supports our band. We could not do this without you. You know that, we know that. We don’t forget that. We don’t take it for granted and we’re really grateful. 

Check out August Burns Red on Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify. For tickets to Christmas Burns Red on December 12 &13, go to christmasburnsred.com. Get ready for brand new music in 2026!

Keep your eye out for a special Christmas Burns Red 2025 Guide, dropping TOMORROW, 11/24!

An Interview with Michael “Kalel” Wittig of Pillar: On Life Updates, New Music, and “Pillar: Beyond The Frontline”

Michael Witting (Right) - Bassist for Pillar

After a long career in Christian music, spanning nine-full length albums and many awards, rock band Pillar took an extended hiatus from touring and creating new music. In 2015, they released One Love Revolution and then slowly faded from the scene. However, news broke last year that Pillar was returning for a few comeback shows and fans went wild. 2025 brought a short run of shows, coming to our hometown of Manheim, PA at the Junction Center. Of course we had to go! Check out our review of that incredible show! We had the opportunity to connect with the guys in Pillar and a few weeks later sit down with Michael “Kalel” Wittig, the bassist to discuss their comeback, what the guys are up to, and what’s on the horizon.

Pillar is:

Rob Beckley: Lead Vocals

Noah Henson: Lead Guitar

Michael “Kalel” Wittig: Bass

Lester Estelle II: Drums

J.R. Baresis: Touring Guitar

Solid Rock Unplugged: Pillar took almost a 10 year hiatus from touring. What made you guys want to return to playing live shows again?

Kalel: It’s something we wanted to do for quite a while. We’ve kept in touch and we never really broke up, but we just kind of stopped playing. We all got busy with other things in life, raising kids, and different career opportunities had opened up, so we just kind of stopped playing. We’ve been in touch for most of that time. We have this text chain where we say “Happy Birthday,” we’ll share stuff that we think is funny and just kind of keep in touch. We talked about doing shows for a while. 

Back in 2014 we actually started writing some new music and we released that in 2015. We played one show that year in Michigan at a festival. Then we just got busy again! We had our own paths we were taking, but for the last few years, we were in touch about doing something. Then it just kind of took time, the right time where we were available at the same time. 

We decided to start doing shows in 2023. We made that decision and we were booked for Alive Festival in Ohio the summer of 2024, so that started us coming back together, getting ready for that show. Then a few other shows popped up, so we ended up doing three last year where we came back. But it’s something that was on our heart for a long time to get back to [shows] and not as a full time career. Since we never finished, we really didn’t ever close that chapter, it just kind of hung out there. We thought it proper to come back together and do some things right, go out there and play some shows. It’s been a lot of fun. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Was it easy or hard to get back into that routine?

Kalel: So we had our first rehearsals in June. Around the rehearsals for these shows last year, we booked a show at the end of rehearsals in our hometown of Tulsa, where Rob and I lived. Rob’s a singer, I’m a bass player, so we’ve always lived in Tulsa since the beginning of the band. The other guys live all over the place. We had rehearsals here for two days to get ready for ‘24, then we had a show in Tulsa at the very end of rehearsals. 

The very song we fired up, I don’t remember what song it was, we made it through and we’re like “Dang guys!” It’s like we hadn’t stopped.The magic came back instantly, just immediately. That first show in Tulsa, when we played the actual show, ended up being almost a two-hour long show, which we had never played that long before ever in our career! It was just an amazing experience, it went off really awesome. It was easy.

Now, we had all practiced on our own before we came together, though. It wasn’t like we hadn’t touched the songs for 15 years and then started playing them. I personally was the most detached from ever going through our music for a long, long time. So I had to start getting ready for about six months ahead of time. Just listening through stuff, playing it, relearning stuff that I couldn’t remember how to play. I prepared for about six months before that rehearsal. The other guys, they’re a little bit better than me, so they didn’t have to practice as much. Especially Lester. He probably listened to it once, probably on his flight over and then played it, you know? He’s that good!

Solid Rock Unplugged: He’s insane on the drums.

Kalel: Yeah, he’s one of the best in the world and it’s just a lot of fun playing with him. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: With this mini-comeback, doing three shows last year, this year, and then again next year, are there any plans to record new music?

Kalel: Yeah, we have been talking about that. Now, we don’t have definite plans or anything concrete that I can share. There are a couple of pieces of music that we share amongst ourselves that are pretty much ready for us to record. Rob’s going through the ideas and lyric ideas for them. I think once he gets a little bit further along, there’s a couple singles we want to record and hopefully have out next year. 

At some point we would like to re-record some of our greatest hits. We’ve talked about doing that as well. Some new music is re-recording some of what we consider our hits and have new recordings of that. Because Lester never did play on the Fireproof record. I kind of would like to hear a new recorded version of Fireproof with Lester on drums. Maybe a couple of those songs too. So that’s something we’re throwing around as well. 

We will be playing a few shows next year. I don’t know of all of them yet. There’s only one that I know for sure and the other ones are still waiting. But we’re hoping to release a new song or two next year as well. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: So something to look forward to in 2026.

Kalel: Yeah, we’ve got something to look forward to at the end of this year. Then in 2026, some more shows and hopefully new music.

Solid Rock Unplugged: So outside of Pillar, Lester’s playing with Kelly Clarkson…

Kalel: He’s been playing with Kelly for a long time now. I think longer than he played with Pillar. Honestly, he’s been with Kelly for a long while. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I remember when you guys announced he was leaving to go play for Kelly, thinking that’s going to be tough shoes to fill. Then Noah’s playing guitar for Brantley Gilbert.

Kalel: Yeah, he’s been doing that for a really long time too. Not as long as Lester’s been with Kelly, but a long time. Longer than he was with Pillar again, he’s been touring with Brantly as his guitar player. I think he’s the band leader now too. So that’s their full time gigs. Then they do a lot of producing on their own. Each of them have their own studios, so they’re producing other bands and up-and-coming artists. 

Lester’s gigging, which means he’ll play on other people’s albums all the time. A lot of times I don’t even know what he’s playing on, but he does that a lot. Just because he’s so good. He’s in high demand. People call him and want him to play on their stuff. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: What have you been doing? I know you’ve been doing bodybuilding. 

Kalel: I do a bunch of crazy stuff. I do acting, commercial acting and movie acting. I’ve done modeling for about a decade. I’m a master trainer with fitness. That’s kind of where all my other stuff started off. I always liked to work out. Even when we toured back in the day, we always had weights under our bus. The bus kind of leaned because of the amount of weights under it. We would all work out and I’d kind of lead them. I’ve always had a passion for fitness. It’s not something new, it’s something I’ve always done. 

Once we got off the road, I got certified as a trainer. I’m a master trainer. I’ve written a lot of articles for fitness magazines. I’ve been on a bunch of covers. I started competing at natural competitions when I turned 39. I got my pro card at 40 and I’ve had 29 pro championships since then. So acting, modeling, fitness. Because of the fitness and the education that I’ve done on social media, I have a handful of sponsorships that I’ve been with for a long time, which is kind of my primary job, I guess. Just promoting and talking about the sponsors I have. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Rob, is he still working at a church?

Kalel: He’s worked at a couple of churches. He worked as a worship pastor then got promoted to campus pastor. I don’t know what his current position is actually called. He’s in a church called Battle Creek here in Tulsa. It’s based in Tulsa, but they have a lot of satellite churches. Five or six or so, he kind of oversees. He kind of manages the operations for all the campus, above all the pastors, there to support, encourage, or lay the hammer down sometimes. Whatever needs to be done to help the church do its job, run effectively, and make a positive impact on people. He’s really busy, he has more kids than I do. He has six. 

So, all four of us keep really busy. For us to come back together for any shows, it is a really big undertaking. Besides us four, we’ve been having another guitar player join us. Then we always have a crew guy or two with us. We’ll go do a show, but we’ve got guys coming in from four or five different states to converge. Then we’ve got to figure out equipment, because we’re flying. It’s always a lot of logistics to make even one show happen. 

We’ve been blessed that all the shows we’ve done since coming back have gone really smooth. It’s been a lot of fun! The best part of them is just meeting our fans and reconnecting with familiar faces. They’re bringing their kids to shows now that are seeing us for the first time. It’s just been really awesome. Really a blessing!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Speaking of a fifth member, how did J.R. end up joining the band?

Kalel: So J.R. knew Noah first. He and Noah connected because J.R. has played with a lot of friends of ours. He plays with Spoken now at the moment. But he’s played with a bunch of bands, including Brian Head Welch from Korn, who became a believer and had his own project called Love and Death. J.R. had been playing with them since he was really young, like a teenager. And come to find out, J.R. was a big Pillar fan. So he started to play guitar with Pillar because of Noah. 

I didn’t know this, but Noah met him and learned this. When we decided to do our shows, Noah’s on tour with Brantley Gilbert, that’s his main job. When we booked our shows, Brantley hadn’t figured out his tour schedule yet. He’s not going to book his schedule around us, he’s going to book what he needs to do. If something got booked when we were playing, Noah couldn’t be there. We knew that, so it was kind of rolling dice. 

Honestly, every time we play a show, it’s rolling dice, because he doesn’t quite know his schedule yet. He’s kind of locked in. That has to be a priority to take care of his family. So Noah said we needed a back up in case. Also, the guys do enjoy having a second guitar player on stage. On our recordings, it’s more than two guitars. There’s a lot of guitars going on. When we toured back in the day, we had a second guitar player for a while because of the sound. It's a lot more energy and we can do more musically. So in addition to wanting a second guitar player, we also just needed a backup in case Noah wasn’t available.

Noah suggested “Hey, let’s get J.R.” We all knew who he was and heard of him, we just hadn’t met him. So we flew him in for rehearsals. He was stoked when we called him, “Hey do you want to play with us?” He was super excited. Even though he’s played in Europe with Korn, he’s excited to come play with Pillar. Because he’s been a big fan forever. So he was excited.

When we did rehearsals, Noah wasn’t there the first couple of days of rehearsals because he was out playing with Brantley. He couldn’t be there for rehearsals, so J.R. was there! When we started playing, if you just closed your eyes, his sound was so similar to Noah, you wouldn’t be able to tell. Every guitar player has their own sound, their fingers, the way they hit the strings. J.R. had Noah’s Pillar sound down to a T. It was like magic. Now we try to get him at every show we can. Even if Noah’s there, he’s there. Then if Noah can’t do a show, we have J.R. to make it sound right.

Solid Rock Unplugged: We’ve seen J.R. with Love And Death, and with Spoken. When he came out, I was like “Oh, this is going to be a good fit.” So, what’s your favorite song to play live?

Kalel: Right now, for me and probably for the band collectively, “Underneath It All,” It wasn’t one of our singles off of Where Do We Go From Here, but it was always a popular song. It just hits so hard live. This year in 2025, we used it as our encore. Normally people would think “Frontline” or “Bring Me Down,” but we come out and just kick people in the teeth with that one. I personally like playing “Awake,” but we didn’t play that this year, we played it last year. That’s because of the bass work, but that’s probably just me though. And “Simply,” I like playing “Simply” because of the bass lines on that one. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Prior to your concert, we did a throwback album review of Where Do We Go From Here. Looking across your catalog, I always felt that WDWGFH was your best record and I loved the bass work in “Simply.”

Kalel: There’s a great story behind that song. We played the See Spot Rock Tour in the early 2000s in Pennsylvania. This huge snowstorm came in and it was like, you can’t even go out on the roads. It was illegal. They had it on the news not to go out because the roads were shut down. We were on tour and we were in our room, and me and Noah were writing. 

On that tour, we tried to write every day for our next record, just every day. That bass line was written in Pennsylvania during that snowstorm, just the main bass line. It just came out of nowhere, just popped out of my fingers! Noah was like “Yeah, dude, yeah, yeah, that! Then he started writing his part for it. That’s how the song started. 

Then when Rob had to write lyrics to it, he had a real hard time. Because it’s in 6/8, it’s complex. There’s a lot of stuff going on in that song. He had a block, he didn’t know what to do with it. He was hanging out with Kevin from Disciple and Kevin was like “Dude, that’s rad!” He goes, “If you’re not going to use it, I’ll use it!” Kevin told Rob, “Just keep it simple, man, keep it simple. That word simple stuck in Rob’s mind and he came out with simply and the lyrics kind of came out after that. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: That’s a great nugget! Rob made the comment in the encore how there’s songs that the fans like to see you play live and the band likes playing covers because they aren’t your songs, so if you mess up it’s no big deal. But then there’s songs that you really just like to play and you went into “Underneath It All.” You guys looked like you were having an absolute ball up there, just having fun. 

Kalel: Another reason we were having so much fun, that song just hits so hard, takes so much energy. The thing I like about the encore is we get to walk off stage, catch our breath, then come back and play the song. When we played it earlier on our set, just “boom, boom, boom,” we were wiped out! We have a little bit more energy because we’re using it as an encore, so it can hit even harder. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: You can just leave it all out on the stage then!

Kalel: We did. Every show we played this year, we were definitely sore for several days afterwards. It took recovery time!

Solid Rock Unplugged: What do you guys have to say to the fans?

Kalel: We just thank you! Just thank you for caring. Thank you for all the love and support, for showing up, for sharing your stories about how our music impacted you. It’s been a blessing to us and we’re just really thankful to be able to see you guys again.

We’re not done yet! We have no more shows, no new music, but we did record 100 hours of footage last year. Interviews, our rehearsals, all of our shows last year, fan interviews, just so many hours of footage. We have a full length documentary that’s about 55 minutes to an hour long. It’s done and ready, just getting the bows and the whole process is being done to it. We’re going to be releasing that in December. I don’t have an exact release date yet, but I will soon. 

It’s called Pillar: Beyond the Frontline and it tells our story in depth with just a really emotional tug on it of how we got started, why we do this, and what brought us back. What that whole process of us coming back looks like. It was the first time any of us had seen it. It took a year to edit it. We were watching for the first time with a bunch of fans that showed up and it was awesome, because there was stuff in there that I hadn’t even seen!

I went to the director, who’s my son, and I said “Where did you get that footage?” It was stuff from the early days. I was like “Where did you find that?” It’s pretty powerful, so we’re really excited for everyone to see this. We’ll have it in DVD, Blu-Ray, autographed, and some other holiday merch kind of bundled up ready to go in December. Then it will stream probably early next year. We’ll release it physically first, then stream it later. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: How was that, seeing your son get to pull that all together?

Kalel: He’s always been very talented. Of all our kids, only our oldest kids remember Pillar. Kaden’s my oldest. He’s 21 now and he was a little dude before we stopped, but he’d come out on stage a couple of times and remembers us. Rob’s oldest remembers, but all of our other younger kids, we were done by the time they were old enough to know what was going on. 

His name is Kaden, Kaden Wittig. At a very early age, he just got into filming stuff and editing, making stop animation and dressing his brother up in costumes. Just videoing stuff all the time using my flip video camera that I used to take on the road with Pillar to do Pillar vlogs. He would take it when I was home and make videos. He just never stopped, it’s all he’s done. Now, he’s only 21, but he’s been making short films and documentaries for years now, since he was in high school, winning at film festivals. He’s got quite a name for himself for such a young age here in Oklahoma, working at movie sets and for the news. He’s very, very talented.

So he actually had the idea of doing this. When we were coming back together, he just presented the idea, “Dad, this would be a good opportunity to film this and make a documentary.” I trust his talent so much that I just let him run with it. So we weren’t looking over his shoulder, we didn’t tell him what to film, we didn’t give him a direction. We were just like “just do it.”

It’s all him, the story that he told and he told it really, really well. It’s much more than a normal rockumentary. He told the story in a very creative way and really, really well. So I’m very proud of him. I’m super excited and I hope it helps him out too. He was at the premiere screening in Dallas, signing autographs with us. He got to come out on stage and intro the documentary, and had people clapping for him. It was really really cool!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Last question, what’s your favorite tour memory?

Kalel: Man, there’s a couple that come to mind. One is touring with P.O.D. on their Warrior 2 tour. It was amazing! It was clubs all over the U.S. At the time, there was a Nokia Theater in Times Square, so seeing P.O.D and Pillar in Times Square, like right there, was pretty ridiculous! Or the House of Blues shows we played on that tour. 

One of the memories from that tour is the very last show, in San Diego, where they’re from, where P.O.D. is based out of. So their friends and family were there. Rey Mysterio was there, who’s a friend of theirs. It was just a great final show. Well, bands, they plan pranks normally early, so we were planning our prank on them at least a week before. They had a wardrobe case. Now, we didn’t have a wardrobe case. We weren’t at that level yet. We just put our stuff in the bus, in the suitcase.

But they had a special case that opened up and had their clothes in it. Over a period of a week or so, we were slowly stealing some of their clothes. So when we were to go up, we had the lights off and we had all their clothes on, which is all Rastafari, baggy, military-looking stuff for the tour. The lights were down and we started playing Southtown. The whole place freaked out. Everyone came running, their family, “Oh! They’re on!”

We started playing that song and then P.O.D. came like “What’s going on?” and we’re all wearing their clothes and Rob’s like “What’s up!” It was pretty funny. They thought it was funny and they let us keep the clothes. I think I had one of Sonny’s shirts. It’s like a military shirt, buttoned up and patches on it. I think it’s still in my closet. That was really cool!

Then the two-week tour with Switchfoot in Australia was really, really awesome. Those guys are just super nice and just were always really cool to hang out with. To see Australia like that, on tour with them was pretty amazing too. Those two pop out at the top of my head.

Many thanks to Michael “Kalel” Witting for taking the time to sit down with us. Keep an eye on their social media for updates on 2026 shows, new music, and their documentary, “Pillar: Beyond The Frontline” coming out in December!

An Interview with Bloodlines: On Theology, Authenticity, and “Holiness Cries.”

Hailing from Texas, Bloodlines is a five piece metalcore band, passionate about their faith and utilizing scripture in their songs, while throwing down some brutal breakdowns. Signed to Facedown Records, they released their first EP, Hevel, in 2021 which featured collaborations with Brook Reeves from Impending Doom on the song, “Devil.” Their impressive sophmore EP, Holiness Cries, was released in 2024 on Facedown Records. 

However, Bloodlines gained controversial attention after a clip of a live performance of the song “Holiness Cries” went viral. Several metal media outlets picked up on the mosh call "Pornography will not take a hold of you,” and mocked it extensively, causing an uproar online.  We had the opportunity to sit down with the band at this year’s Uprise Festival and discuss the response to “Holiness Cries,” as well as life on the road and the heart behind their music.

Bloodlines is:

Alexis Rodriguez: Vocals

Daniel Camacho: Guitar

Aldo Mayorga: Guitar

Danny Vitola: Bass

Matthew Benavides: Drums

Solid Rock Unplugged: Last year, you guys released “Holiness Cries.” A clip went viral where you guys said “Pornography will not have a hold on you.” Were you guys surprised by the response?

Aldo: 100%, yeah. It definitely was. I think that Alexis just posted that just because.

Matt: We needed content or something! It was just a clip that we put up. We put up a lot of stuff pretty regularly. For some reason, it just took off! I think it’s the message in it that really caught people’s ear and it definitely caught the ear of those in the secular and also the Christian world. So I think that’s why it really blew up. It kind of got both worlds and they both caught wind of it. 

Alexis: Yeah, we definitely didn’t think it was going to explode that much. That night was very special. The show was in Fort Worth. Man, the presence of the Lord was there from the beginning. I believe when Broken Reign was playing there, we were all just connected. We were excited to play this new song. That call out wasn’t anything I planned or anything. It was just the message of the song in a line. I said it, whatever. 

We had that video and it would be cool if we could just post something up. I usually do all the postings. If there’s a cool video I have on my phone, I just post it up to have content. You know, band stuff. I did not think the reaction, that it was going to enter the secular market. I thought it was going to get as far as our fans. This is for our fans, whatever. But Tiktok works in mysterious ways and the social media game is different now. 

A lot of people did receive from that song, from the message of the song and could relate to it. Something they’ve gone through. Something we’ve gone through, and we’ve talked about it. That’s how the song came to life. The only thing that was expected, when we started seeing and reading all the negative stuff, it’s expected from the world, that reaction to that. I believe Daniel said, when we’re sharing, it’s a weapon the enemy uses. And it’s one of it’s strongest weapons. To this day, you can’t open social media without having some content like that. That’s how it happened.

Solid Rock Unplugged: I remember getting into a little back and forth conversation with somebody online. And I’m like “This is a great song by a great band!” And he’s like “Oh, they’re mediocre.” I was like, “Alright, whatever,” and then he called me a white nationalist!

Danny: You’re a white nationalist because you think porn is bad!

Alexis: You should have told him it was created by a Mexican dude!

Matt: We considered it a great honor to be reviled by the world. We were extremely honored to share in just a small working way with the sufferings of Christ. It wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen in the majority of the world. They face severe persecution in ways that we don’t understand and we don’t see. But to get to share even the slightest in the sufferings of Christ was a high honor.

Solid Rock Unplugged: So, the process for writing that song, as well as the rest of the album. How did that come about?

Alexis: We just came with the topic. It was heavy in our hearts of how pornography has taken, even in ministry. One of the secret sins is lust and stuff like that. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves. It is! And we see it, even in the Catholic church and the Protestant church. It runs in worship teams. That’s the truth, ask around! That’s something that people deal with. They’re taught, don’t drink, don’t do that. But the secret sin, it’s that.

It’s a topic that we related to, we could relate to it. Because we got exposed to it at an early age too. It’s something heavy that we deal with. Mostly it came by because Matthew was getting married. I’m married too, and we shared with our wives, “Is this an issue? Does it run through girls too?” Absolutely. You’d be in shock that women take pleasure in looking at this stuff too and they’re victims of this stuff as well. 

So the topic was there. It wasn’t mostly “Oh, it’s a tactic.” You’ve never heard a song about this before. Truely, the Holy Spirit wanted that song to be written. And we brought it to the plate. The lyrics came about. The music came about.

Solid Rock Unplugged: I remember from a preview interview with Kingdom Core, that you guys really want scripture and theology to be present in your songs. Why do you feel that it’s so important to have these elements present?

Aldo: I think it’s because the words of God are light and life. Society as a whole seems to be lacking in scriptural knowledge. There’s so much help readily available from God’s Word. I believe that it is the most important thing that we could ever hear. So for me, having Scripture and just talking about God, theology. Having that present in our lyrics truly positions us to give all the glory to God. It binds us to His very Word. We claim to be a Christian band. So I believe that the only way to prove that, to test that, is if we’re saying God’s words.

Matt: Then you get crowds of people speaking Scripture over themselves. It’s part of the lyrics of the song. You hear all those people screaming “For I can do all things through Christ.” 

Alexis: That carries more meaning than whatever gibberish word or, “I’m going through this, so I’m going to use it as a slogan.” Instead of using actual Scripture and stuff. There’s power when you confess and you declare that with your own mouth. There’s breakthrough. Even if you aren’t seeking it. These are the words of the Lord and He’ll come and meet you.

Solid Rock Unplugged: When you guys put together your tours, what are your thoughts about touring with Christian bands vs touring with secular bands?

Aldo: Honestly, it’s very easy to get kind of pigeon-holed into just doing Christian stuff with Christian bands. It’s just really natural, you know, because we are a Christian band. A lot of our friends, a lot of our fans, and a lot of the bands we play with, they’re our friends! So it’s easy to tour with them. That’s the easy thing to do. 

But I’ll tell you, that was never really our goal. Our main goal, and this is something that we’re still figuring out ourselves, was that we always wanted to tour with secular bands and be a part of their world. Because we’re called to reach the world. It’s fun to be with our Christian brothers. It’s been amazing to do all the tours that we’ve done with our label mates and other Christian bands. It’s amazing. God moves and it’s been powerful. 

But I feel like there’s still a part of something that we’re doing that’s missing, you know? My dream is to tour with the band that people would probably not expect us to tour with. At the same time, to me, I feel like that would be the most effective thing that we could do. Again, it’s great to be with people that love us. It kind of goes back to the first question about the “Holiness Cries” video. We’ve always wanted to reach the world. The world isn’t just the Christian bubble we live in. The world is everyone that is Christian and non-Christian. 

For us, we’re most effective when we’re reaching those that don’t know Jesus. And that maybe have never gone to church, or have completely walked away. So when we do tours, I try to see if there’s any opportunity to do that. Where we can kind of step away from the Christian stuff. Not for a long time, but even if just for an opportunity to tour with a band that people never think that we would tour with. 

I mean, if you think about For Today, they toured with Thy Art Is Murder and Motionless in White. Those guys, they all toured and played together. I thought that was so amazing, how crazy that those two worlds could come together. It’s possible! I feel like that’s what we should be doing in some way. Again, it’s not to downplay any of the Christian stuff we do. We love it. That’s our bread and butter. But I feel like we’re most effective when we’re doing something else that people are probably like “Oh man, Bloodlines is going out with who?” I would love to do something like that.

Solid Rock Unplugged: To expound upon that, being an outspoken band, what’s it like sharing the stage with bands that don’t share that sentiment?

Aldo: Honestly, I hope this doesn’t sound too pretentious, but it’s natural for us. We live this life. This isn’t just a performance, something we do on stage because we feel like we should do it. We do this. This is what we live every day, every time we worship individually. This is just a natural part of who we are as people. Not as a band, as individuals. I think they see that too. 

Danny: They realize that we’re not just putting the Christian label on so we could try to hit a certain market and make money. They see “Oh no, these guys, they actually believe what they say.” So even if they don’t agree with it, I’ve seen that most of them still respect us for it. Because they see how genuine we are. 

Alexis: Me and Aldo had this conversation in the last show. On our way to the last show, we had an 8 hour drive or so. I mentioned to him how the day before that drive, I was feeling convicted. Because in my mind, I was like, “Maybe I should tone it down a little bit for this show. Because we’re not headlining. We’re the only Christian band in there.” But I got super convicted, because that’s not who we are. That’s not what the Lord wants us to do. 

It’s not anything about the performance, it’s just who we are when we’re worshipping Him. So none of that has to be excluded anywhere. Whether we’re playing a Christian festival, whether we’re playing non-secular bands out there. We’ve just got to come back to the root of it. It’s just worshipping the Father. 

Matt: I think, though we are not church leadership, the Bible does command that leaders would be of good report, even among outsiders. Like Aldo says, this comes naturally to us. We are completely engulfed by following Jesus. Our entire lives, every single one of us, is marked by discipleship under Christ. We love to love people. We love to smile and laugh and make friends. Really just put love into action and lock arms even with those in the world. How can the world know the love of Jesus if Christians don’t actually show that?

Solid Rock Unplugged: So, it’s been a year since Holiness Cries EP came out. Are we going to get that first full length album? Or another EP?

Alexis: Yeah, we are in the process of writing a new full length, for sure. The writing process has started. Hopefully next month we’ll start actually recording a couple songs here and there. Our goal is by the end of the year, we’ll have at least a single out. New music is coming for sure, under Facedown [Records].

Solid Rock Unplugged: Is there anything else you guys want to promote or discuss?

Matt: New record next year. Yeah, I think that’s the only thing right now.

Alexis: Keep praying, read your Bible. 

Matt: Aside from the band stuff, keep seeking the Lord. Keep reading His word. 

Daniel: Be intentional in the time that you spend with Him.

Check out what Bloodlines is up to by following them on Instagram, Facebook, or Spotify! Bloodlines is in the studio now, so be on the lookout for new music in 2026!

An Interview with The Protest: On Musical Inspirations, New Music, and Tour Memories

Hailing from New Castle, Indiana, The Protest brings a fiery blend of old-school rock and intense energy. We’ve been long awaiting new music from the guys since their last EP Death Stare in 2021. Following the release of their single “Take It Back” last year, the band has been hinting at new music on their social media, creating a buzz among their followers.

If you’ve ever been to one of their shows, you know how hard they like to rock, sharing the stage with a variety of bands ranging from Christian rock staple, Disciple, to mainstream rock band From Ashes to New. They were one of the featured acts on the Friday night line up of the Rockstar Stage at Uprise Festival We had the opportunity to take a few minutes to sit down with the Midwest rockers to talk about their writing process, favorite memories and any potential new music.

The Protest is:

Josh Bramlett: Lead Vocals

Adam (Sarge) Sadler: Guitar

Jarob Bramlett: Drums

TJ Cowell: Guitar

(TJ was not present for the interview)

Solid Rock Unplugged: Thanks for taking time to sit down with us. Could you give me a history of the band? How did The Protest come about?

Josh: My brother and I, we started playing music together when we were in middle school. We grew up listening to classic rock. We just had a passion for rock. As we grew older, we met some friends who had that passion too. As we grew even older from there, we started finding the Lord and following Him and trying to become more Christ-like. That naturally turned into what we’re doing with music. 

So me and Jarob, brothers, we’ve been working together for a long time. Then TJ, our other guitar player has been in the band about the same amount of time. Then Adam, our lead guitar player, joined in 2009. It’s been the four of us since then!

Jarob: Technically me, Josh, and TJ’s first show was in ‘05.

Josh: And never really stopped!

Jarob: That’s 20 years ago!

Solid Rock Unplugged: So what you’re saying is there needs to be a 20th anniversary tour?

Josh: Well, most people wouldn’t even know we were around.

Jarob:  I was in middle school, so…

Josh: I’d say 2012 is when people really probably got us on their radar for the first time. But, we’re coming up on 15 soon!

Solid Rock Unplugged: You mentioned classic rock being a big inspiration. What are some other inspirations that drive you guys, both musically and lyrically?

Jarob: Josh is the main lyricist, so he can probably speak better on that. But as far as other inspirations besides classic rock, Disciple is one of the big bands, one of the first faith bands that we really got into. Skillet and other modern bands, like Avenged Sevenfold. Things like that. 

Josh: Lyrically, when we’re writing a record, we always want the Lord to speak, you know? We always pray for what He wants out of it. I think our band has something pretty special. I do a lot of the lyrics, but we all sit down and kind of put our stamp on the lyrics together. So almost every Protest song is from four different hearts that love Jesus and four different men that love each other. 

It’s a really special thing, something we’ve really tried to adopt in the last handful of years. We want our songs, yeah there is personal struggle and it’s important to share your struggle, but we also want our songs to uplift and encourage. Something we’ve really been focusing on the last couple of years is just writing songs that make people feel empowered through Christ. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I was taking the time leading up to Uprise to listen to the song “Greater.” The lyrics paint this picture of taking myself out of the equation, because I’m doing this for something greater. I think that’s a great reminder to all of us, that what we’re doing is for a greater cause, no matter if we’re in just a regular 9-to-5 job or being in a band. What’s the story behind “Greater?”

Josh: Thank you man, that song is really special to us. So we actually wrote that with a band called Wage War. We wrote that with Cody from Wage War. The thought process behind that song, during COVID I had a different job because I was kind of in-between stuff anyways. We couldn’t tour, we couldn’t play shows. I got this different job. 

The owner of that business, one day it was raining, so we went inside. He was asking me about the band thing. He’s like, “Man, why do you do that? You don’t make any money. It’s got to be hard on your wife and your family. Why do you do that? It doesn’t make any sense to me.” I just had to explain to him that it’s not about that for us. It’s about sharing love in a world that desperately needs it and sharing Christ’s love, which is a special love. Agape love, which is unconditional and unique. Sharing that is everything. I think that’s kind of where we got that from. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: You guys do some shows with secular bands. What’s it like being a faith-driven band playing with secular bands? What’s the interaction backstage or interaction with fans?

Jarob: Man, honestly so far, everyone’s been really accepting and think it’s pretty cool that we stand for something. Fan-base wise, we have people come up to us after the shows and it’s just a different dynamic. We played this one bar in northern New York and this person had a pentagram tattoo. They said “I used to be Wiccan” or “I am Wiccan right now.” And I’m like, “Cool, what’s your story?” We don’t always get to meet people like that at a festival like this, which puts us in a cool opportunity for that truth to go even farther, deeper into people’s hearts.

Josh: We don’t really change what we do, though. From stage, we still talk about Jesus. That’s what we feel like we’re called to do. So we still talk about Jesus. Now, my approach may be a little bit different. For example, we’re opening for a band called Vended this coming week. They’re Corey Taylor’s son’s band. So that could be a really cool opportunity for us to reach some people that we normally wouldn’t get to and we’re really excited about that. 

Solid Rock Unplugged:  Yeah, I saw that was an upcoming show!

Josh: Yeah, I would imagine that it’s going to be a crazy show. It’s going to be wild and different types of people. Maybe it’s a chance for us to be a light, but still throw down. 

Jarob: We’ve only been booed and flipped off a couple of times!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Ok, dig deep for this one. What’s your favorite tour memory?

Josh: There’s a lot! Being with the guys, you’re not just out here working and trying to reach people. You’re also with your best friends, so everything’s special! To name a few, we were hunting for a treasure, the Forrest Fenn treasure, a few years ago. We had a couple of days off. Our bass player had a map and he had the poem memorized. He thought he knew kind of where it was supposed to be. 

Jarob: It’s a riddle online. If you look it up, it’s the Forrest Fenn treasure. 

Josh: Yeah, so we hiked off the trail at Yellowstone, way out of our element, didn’t really know where we were going or what we were doing. We built a lean-to out of trees, built a fire. We weren’t supposed to build a fire. We had $7 machetes we got at Walmart that barely worked. 

Jarob: We had two bottles of water and peanut butter sandwiches! Of all the thirsty items in the world! Even though it was August and so hot during the day, at night it was frigid. We were literally cuddling each other in this lean-to that we built out of fallen logs and stuff.

Josh: You and I slept back-to-back next to the fire. 

Jarob:  Yeah, then we ended up getting so cold we just slept next to the fire. We lost our minds temporarily.

Josh: Didn’t find the treasure!

Jarob: And didn’t find the treasure, but we found out years later we were very close. Which was crazy! So that’s one that comes to mind, but as far as tour memories, there’s so many. We’ve had so many just crazy, incredible, weird experiences. You have a favorite tour memory, Sarge?

Adam: There’s a lot, but I guess one that comes to mind is we played a show in Florida. We had an off day and we rented bicycles. On one of our phones, we were playing Beach Boys music and we just rode around town on bicycles. It was simple, but just pure fun. 

I guess we rode by a taco shop and they had a chalkboard that said “If your name is Adam today, you get a free taco.” My name is Adam, so I got a free taco! That was a good day! I have a picture of that somewhere. So that was a really good one, because obviously we’re a close band, but we’re also best friends together. So it was just us hanging out as friends in Florida on an off day and it was just fun times. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Last year you guys released a new single “Take It Back,” and then this month you teased on social media about having new music. What’s been the overall response to the new single and when are we going to be hearing some new music?

Jarob: The response for “Take It Back” has been really good. It’s obviously a pretty heavy tune for us, but I think “Take It Back” is one of the most Protest songs we could possibly ever write. To me, it kind of encapsulates what we do well, you know, heavy but still really fun and energetic. I think the response was really good. 

As far as new music goes, don’t have exact dates but you can expect a new single, maybe this fall. Then some more after that and building towards a full record, which we’re really, really close to getting finished up. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: What do you want your fans to walk away with after seeing The Protest live?

Adam: We just want people to feel loved. Josh always says, “Please don’t leave this show feeling the same way you did.” So we want you to be filled with encouragement, conviction, hope. 

Jarob: My brother and I were talking the other day that we have a unique opportunity to see lots of different people and love on people. Right now that means more than ever. Sometimes this job can be very difficult and taxing, but that’s one thing that kind of keeps us revitalized and have that passion to do it. Because the world needs love. Even outside of our music, that’s what we can offer, you know what I mean? “The Lord is our refuge and our hope,” and if we can share that with others, then that’s it. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Anything else you guys want to promote?

Adam: Just keep your eyes open for new music soon!

Take a moment to go follow The Protest on Facebook and Instagram. You can find their music on Spotify and everywhere else you can find music!

An Interview With XIII Minutes: An In-Depth Discussion on Mental Health

Midwest rockers, XIII Minutes, sat down with us at Uprise Festival for an amazing, hour long interview. It was so good, we didn’t want to cut any of it! 

This is Part Two, an in-depth discussion about mental health, HeartSupport, and how the church can better face the mental health crisis! Check out Part One, where they discuss the history of XIII Minutes and the inspiration behind their new music.

Solid Rock Unplugged: We talked a little about mental health in your interview. You guys have been pushing HeartSupport. Why do you support HeartSupport? Besides that it’s a great organization.

Jamie: Have you ever read Jake Luhrs’ devotional, Mountains? Honestly, that was my inspiration to really get involved. Jake is really raw about things, offensively so, and I love it. Very unpretentious about where he comes from, what he’s struggled with, how he’s overcome his mountains. Honestly, why would I not want to be part of that vision?

For me, it’s really just another tool to put in somebody’s hands to help them get through their day and to get to tomorrow. We’re not changing the world, but we are helping it. If you’re struggling and you need a resource, but you don’t want to be judged for saying “I’m hurting.” We have something for you, because that line is completely anonymous. 

Jerrod: The only thing I would add is I worked with teens for a long time. I worked in youth ministry as a leader when I was 15,16, as a volunteer. I worked on staff at a church for three years and I also worked going into schools and talking to kids about relationships for 12 years. As well as doing podcasting and videos and stuff on Youtube, reaching students and teenagers. 

So I’m very aware of how pervasive these mental health issues are in our culture. You don’t overcome something, you don’t defeat a problem by ignoring it. So that first step could be something like HeartSupport for a lot of people. Recognizing that you can’t do this on your own because we are made to be in relationship. God created us as relational beings because he’s relational. So we buy into this lie that I can be in relationship with people when everything’s good, when I’m solid and everything’s working out. That’s a great time to be in a relationship, but we need it the most when we’re hurt. And they need us the most when they’re hurt. 

That’s when these relationships are proven, if there’s any true value in them. If HeartSupport can be that first step for somebody, to reach out and say “Yeah, I am hurting and I can’t do this alone.” That’s when healing begins and ultimately leads to freedom, redemption, and new life. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Following up on that, what is your personal connection to mental health?

Jerrod: I’ve seen the effects of unhealthy mental issues, through my family, through friends, through a ton of people around me growing up. Because of the field I worked in for 12 years, I also had to be educated on the actual studies and psychology behind it. There’s a lot of misinformation. There’s a lot of things people believe that have been loudly refuted, even in the psychological community. 

The cultural lie is that this is who you are. That your mental health issue is an identity that you will live with for the rest of your life. That it’s caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that you can’t control. You’re born with it and it’s never going to get better. That’s just not true. If you believe this is your identity and there’s no hope, and it’s never going to get better, well then, what are you left with? Without vision, people perish. So bringing truth, bringing light and actually saying “No, this doesn’t have to stay this way forever. You can be free.”

At my old job, I was talking with my co-worker, who had her degree in abnormal psychology and specifically studied these types of issues and brain stuff. We were on our podcast and I shared some stuff. She was like “I don’t think that’s right.” I pulled out the sources, like the president of Psychology Today, multiple sources. As someone trained in the field, she was given a doctrine that was just not true. She had been lied to. Even her therapist one day gave her a handful of anti-depressants and said “You’re going to be on these for the rest of your life.” It’s a life sentence that these people hear.

I’m not saying all pharmaceuticals are bad and all anti-depressants are the Devil or anything like that. But what I’m saying is, this is not a life sentence. There is hope. Your brain can actually heal. It’s designed by God to do so, but it can’t heal alone, without intervention of some kind. We need each other to start doing that.  Just to get that message out there, that you are not stuck, that you do have a hope for your future!

I have a family member who is convinced that she could never have a stable relationship. Even if she did, she was never going to have kids. And now she’s married and has two kids. She’s starting to realize, you can have a life beyond. But it took people telling her that, because the world is telling you a very different story. These are the issues of our day and we need to be willing and equipped to answer them rightly. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: What do you believe the church can do to better help with the mental health crisis facing our country?

Jerrod: Well, I am a pastor. My conviction is that counseling and therapy are meant to be ministries of the church. Not separate and outside. There’s a lot of unhealthy psychology in the world today that will just double down on these unhelpful identities, like “Oh, you’re depressed and you will be for the rest of your life.”

But we have both the ability to speak truth in these subjects and to come alongside and walk with this person. I don’t have to be a detached, Freudian psychologist that has no emotional response to this person. “How does that make you feel?” while they sit on the couch. I can actually be there with you, in the moment. I can come alongside you. I can hug, I can be a brother. I can be somebody that supports you in it. I’ll do that for free, I’ll come over any time, I’ll answer the phone whenever you want. 

If we think that it’s only something an elite few can do, who have a pad and can write prescriptions, then we’re never going to be able to live up to this aspect of ministry that is so clearly in Scripture, something that we are called to. “Whoever is hurting among you.” We cry with those who cry, mourn with those who mourn, weep with those who weep. That’s who we’re supposed to be.

So much of the problem is people think that they’re alone in this. If the church could just be the church and be unafraid to step into the mess, and actually love one another, shoulder each other’s burden, many of the things that we see would not have become the issues that they have become.

We have a long way to go to get back to a place where that can be a regulatory principle. We can’t all just start being nice to each other and tomorrow everything is great. No, there’s repentance and there’s correction, of course, that needs to happen before we can get to baseline. But again, it’s possible and there is hope for that!

Solid Rock Unplugged: I think a lot of issues would be on a better path if people learned to be vulnerable. A lot of times, we’re missing that vulnerability. People go to church and they want to put out this projection that they have it all together, they’re perfect, or they don’t want anyone in their business. I was a youth pastor for six years, and I’ve seen a lot of youth pastors where there’s no vulnerability.

Jamie: It’s the fear of reprisal. What will people say? Now, churches need to stop gossiping, I can say that! A lot of people don’t feel safe in the church culture because of gossip, because of the fear of reprisal, the excommunication. Basically, we don’t want to lose our identity in the community, so we’ll hide it. That is contrary to what Scripture advises us to be as a church. 

I think there’s a tension there, because we live in a culture that finds identity in its issues, rather than its identity in Jesus. So there’s a balance in there to open this door and say “yes, be vulnerable.” But as Jerrod has mentioned many times, you don’t get to stay there. You don’t get to stay in your brokenness. We’re going to walk with you and we’re going to lead you to a path of healing and restoration. 

On the church’s side, we cannot gossip about these people. We cannot diminish them because they’re human. So there’s a double-edge sword here. Who’s going to start the movement?

Jerrod: How many times do you see a pastor being vulnerable? I was in pastoral training, it’s like, find another leader or find a leader that’s not in your church, somebody you can just open up to. So then, our people are supposed to look to us as an example. They’ve never seen us confess anything that wasn’t ten years in the past and now we’re completely healed and everything’s better. They are learning it’s “follow me as I follow Christ.” 

But rather than that, it’s just follow me as I keep hiding all the hurt and all the junk I’m dealing with, because you expect me to be perfect because I’m a pastor. So I have to keep putting on this facade, which then makes you feel like if you say something, well then you’re the weird one. You’re the ostracized one because the pastor is obviously perfect because he’s never confessed to anything. He’s never confessed to anything. He’s never said, “I’m having a hard time with this.” So it’s a self-replicating issue. 

We just keep doing it. But then every time it cycles back and multiplies and doubles down. It gets deeper and worse. That repentance I mentioned has to start from the head. The pastors have to repent and say, that’s pride. That’s fear of man. That’s fear of rejection that has caused me to not do these things. But the Bible tells us, “Confess your sins to one another that you may be healed.” The problem is we’re not being healed. We’re Protestant, we don’t do confession very well. I’m not saying Catholics do it exactly right either!

Jaime: But what they do in the confession box doesn’t go further than the confession box!

Jerrod: At least they do something and there’s a place for that. We need to understand healthy confession and that there’s freedom in it. Pride is a sin. It needs to be confessed. Maybe it’s pride standing in the way of opening up and sharing the dark things in my heart. Maybe my anxiety would decrease. Now there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s out there!

Maybe I wouldn’t have as much worry and fear if I brought these things to life. There’s a reason it’s a command. It says “be anxious for nothing.” That’s not a suggestion, which means it actually must be possible. Now, can we get there without Christ? Without the in-workings of the Holy Spirit? No. But it is possible, otherwise we wouldn’t be commanded to do so. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I have a history of mental health. And I remember I was going through a dark place and I thought about sharing it with the congregation I was serving at. The lead pastor was like “No, keep that. Find somebody else.”

Jerrod: Bottle it up!

Solid Rock Unplugged: If I share this, I have nothing to be afraid of!

Jamie: I think we start with a group of trusted people. I don’t think everything needs to be put out there for everybody. That’s not safe. But if we find a group, a fellowship if you will, where we have the permission to be imperfect. Again, the tension is, just because you put it out there, doesn’t mean you stay there! But when it’s out there, we can look at it and say “ok, what’s next?”

Jerrod: As pastors, we do have a higher impetus of sharing and being open. Again, how will they know if they don’t see it from us first? That doesn’t mean every pastor has to get up on stage and share every single thing. But at least share something. At least be honest with where you’re at. 

For me, when I was working in youth ministry, it was pornography. That was the thing that was buried in hiding. I did go to pastors when I was a student, when I was on student leadership volunteering, when I was an adult volunteer, when I was on staff. I went to multiple leaders. I was like “I need help here.” The messages I kept getting were “Welcome to the battle! As far as being a man, you’re probably going to deal with this for the rest of your life!” I was like “Sweet!”

Jamie: That’s encouraging. “Let me pray for you, brother!”

Jerrod: Yeah, it was so empty, so void of hope. I did not experience freedom and healing until the confession became real. Until I went to the person that I knew I couldn’t tell at all, which was my wife. I had to talk to her. I knew if I did this, I could lose my marriage. But this is the path and God was very clear with me in making it known. 

Then from there, it was six, eight months later, I told my pastor. He already knew because I had been working with him and stuff. Every once in a while, checking in to see how it was going. Maybe once every eight months? Then we got to actually share in front of the youth ministry. My wife and I, as she is still wrestling with the aftermath and stuff. We were very vulnerable. 

From that, I had four or five of my leaders come to me that night and say, “One, thank you for sharing. Two, I needed that, because that’s exactly what I’ve been wrestling with, and I was afraid.” They don’t have to get on stage and tell everybody. But they now have freedom to see that it is possible. There is truth that will set you free!

If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, anxiety, or mental health in general, there is hope! Reach out to HeartSupport by texting 512-647-2871.

Check out XIII Minutes’ new single, “Fake,” dropping on Friday, October 3rd!

An Interview With XIII Minutes: On New Music, Band Changes, and Memes.

Since coming out of hiatus in 2022, Oklahoma based XIII Minutes has been extensively touring the country, bringing their melodic metalcore to the masses. Not only are they internet meme masters, but the band is passionate about inspiring the next generation, tackling heavy mental health issues. Through many changes, including a label switch to NRT music and a new singer, Jerrod Cunningham, they’ve continued to churn out some heavy-hitting singles, “Cult Leader,” “Stay, " and “Who Told You So.”

The wait for new music is almost over!  Mark your calendars for October 3rd, when their new single “Fake” drops. In the meantime, listen to their most recent single, “Stay.” It’s a passionate plea, tackling the issue of suicide and depression and is featured through the HeartSupport organization. We had a chance to catch up with the guys and chat about the Stay EP, HeartSupport and their musical journey, when we sat down with XIII Minutes at Uprise Festival in September.

XIII Minutes is:

Jerrod Cunningham: Lead vocals

Jamie Kucinski: Drums

Thomas Wheat: Guitar and Background vocals

John Walker: Bass

(Thomas was not present for the interview)

Solid Rock Unplugged: To start, tell me the heart behind your music. What is XIII Minutes all about?

Jamie: I think you’ll probably get three different answers on that, but there’s one commonality in it. I don’t think it’s any surprise at Uprise Festival, but we just want to give honor and glory to Christ through what we do. We can branch it down from there and give you our individual answers, but the commonality for every guy in this band simply is Jesus brought us together.

Jerrod: I think the only expounder I would put on that, it goes back to the greatest commandment. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your strength. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s what causes the direction of our music, to the people we’re singing to and trying to direct them to that first love, loving them into the family.

Jamie: If you were to say something, John, what would it be?

John: Well, this is only my sixth show with the band. One thing that’s been the commonality, throughout the entire time I’ve been with these guys, is that someone comes up to the table and says “Hey, I really connected with this song, I’d like to know more about what you guys are singing about.” It’s always about connecting with people, like Jerrod said. It’s always the people we connect with, the lives we touch. That’s one thing I’ve gotten out of being with these guys, that it’s really about serving Christ and going amidst the sheep, tending to people.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Recently, you released the Stay EP and you’ve been releasing singles to go along with that. What excites you guys the most about these new songs?

Jerrod: I wouldn’t say that it’s just because I’m in the band. Because I was a huge fan of XIII Minutes before I was in the band. But what I would say is, I do feel there’s a more intentional, focused direction when it comes to the lyrical output, when it comes to the message that we’re trying to give. That comes with age and experience, being able to be more clear with what you want to put out there. Also, being far less concerned about how that message can be received. Not in a negative sense. We don’t go out trying to push people away or anything like that. But at the same time, we aren’t shying away from all I’ve ever known to be true.

Jamie: I was here at the beginning. So, I have what I consider a unique perspective. I’ve watched this band grow. I’ve been here through every transition, every different kind of talent that God has supplied. I would say that intentionality is a big thing. It’s more of a defined work. 

When we recorded the last album, it really was a group of guys who kind of stayed out of each other’s lanes. We didn’t really speak into what this person brought, or this person brought. We had a producer that would help us, but we really didn’t do a lot of that. With these song creations, we’re really interconnected with the outcome. There’s a lot of sharpening that goes into it. And I think because of that sharpening, the songs are just better!

Solid Rock Unplugged: So to go along with what excites you about the new music, what scares you?

Jamie: John? You beat some girl in the head with a bag today!

John: We were throwing beach balls and balloons, and the bag of balloons didn’t have any weight to it. The bag of beach balls did! And this one lady was able to catch it…with her face! I felt so bad about that. Luckily she turned around and saw it before it hit her.

But one thing I was really excited about with the new music was that I got to listen to it, or at least some early mixes of it, so I could prepare for the tour season. What probably scares me the most is being able to live up to the excellent songs that have come out of prior recording sessions. Now there’s just a bar there, that I’ve got to meet these guys who have been doing it for 10 years!

Jamie: I don’t know if anything scares me about it. I think early on, trying to get the band mobilized, there was a lot of fear about what people would think or what people would say or how people would receive it. I think Jerrod hit the nail on the head, I’m at a stage now where it’s like, this is simply who we are. It’s honest, it’s authentic. How people receive it is really out of our hands. If you like it, awesome! If you don’t, there’s a lot of other bands. There’s not really a lot of fear in there. I think excitement really is the one constant. 

Jerrod: Yeah, I would agree. Fear is not something that I really put in the equation. I see the opportunities that we have in this band as being a gift. I know Jamie and I, separately, have been on this music journey for twenty-something years. So now it’s like, we get to experience this, we get to share it with our families. We get to do things that we used to dream about when we were kids. Man, if it all disappeared tomorrow, if this was our last show, I’d be grateful for what God has for us. Because this was not promised. He doesn’t owe us one more show. Every time we take the stage, it’s a gift. Perfect love casts out fear. And God allowing us to do this is such a loving, fatherly thing.

John: So I’m the only one who’s scared. Got it!

Jamie: He’s young! You’ll get to this place. You’re new, it’s okay to have nerves, man!

Solid Rock Unplugged: What do you want your fans to take away from these new singles?

Jerrod: Our merch!

Jamie: That’s such a hard thing. I want a genuine response. I would rather you love or hate what we do, rather than be apathetic about it. If you’re kind of like “Eh, it’s just there,” I don’t feel like I did my job, you know? A response is good, no matter which way you lean. My hope is that you like it, but if you listen and think “No, I don’t like it.” Cool! You listened, you gave it weight and you just didn’t like it. 

Jerrod: I think coming back to the message, I really appreciate this transition season. I feel like this EP is a bridge of what XIII Minutes was in the past and the direction that we’re going in the future. It makes me really excited, because we’ve covered a lot of heavy stuff, especially on this album. We talked about depression, we talked about suicide. We talked about lies and religious manipulations, or influencers, and all of this kind of stuff. 

So, we covered a lot of heavy things, but we don’t intend to stay there. This is a bridge to get us somewhere else. This is where we’re at, now let’s talk about where we’re going. We’ve already been internally discussing, as we’re getting back towards thinking about the studio and writing new stuff. Intentionally putting out hope, putting out victory and overcoming. 

You don’t have to stay, like in the moment of a song like “Stay.” Yes, that’s the first step, but now let’s talk about where we go from here. It gets better, let’s talk about that too! I want to have crowd responses that they’re not just yelling things like “Hey!” and “Oh!” and “I’m obsessed,” I want them to be yelling things that have power. 

Jamie: Fun story, when we went to Mexico, we were sitting there going “How are we going to do our call and response? None of us know Spanish!” So we really dialed in [the intro to] “Who Told You?” The beginning, it doesn’t matter what your language is, you can do that! Our plan was actually to drop “Who Told You?” from the set list after Mexico. It was because of the Mexico response, it was like, maybe there’s something still there! That was one of the cogs that turned that drove us to do the re-write. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: In the last year, you guys switched from Rottweiler Records to NRT Records. How’s that switch going? And why did you switch?

Jamie: XIII Minutes was with Rottweiler for six years. I will say this until the end of the earth, Rottweiler opened so many doors for us in the beginning. They really did. I am eternally grateful for Shawn Browning. It was a great season! 

When Shawn sold Rottweiler, I was left with the question of “Ok, what is the vision for us? Do we still fit in the grand scheme of things?” After meeting with the new owners of Rottweiler, I just didn’t feel like we were a good fit any longer. Really, at that point I wasn’t looking for a label. It just so happened the label found us!

We met Kevin McNeese in Nashville and he loved what we were about. Unbeknownst to us in the meeting, he was launching NRT Music. Of course, Kevin’s expertise is 20+ years of New Release Today. It’s arguably the biggest Christian media site out there. When he approached us, to have that expertise behind us, it was worth the opportunity to see where it can go. There’s a risk in it, because on NRT, I think we’re probably the heaviest band. Whereas, with Rottweiler, we were the lightest band. We’ve gone to the heaviest band on the roster. So there’s these extremes. 

Jerrrod mentioned bridges. For me, speaking on my own accord, I like to build bridges. There’s so much dissension within music culture. Who cares if someone likes CCM? If you enjoy it, go enjoy it? The whole throwing stones thing, that “you suck and you suck and you suck,” and “my music is the best thing there is!” I’m like “let’s just stop!” We are all on the same team.

I think NRT was a good bridge to get in there with a lot of artists who are not like us. We hear a lot of “Oh guys, CCM stuff! Don’t you know they just write the same chorus over and over again?” Maybe we can bridge some of that and bridge for us too. There’s a risk there, it may not be received. But at the end of it, after we prayed about it and talked about it, we felt like it was worth at least the opportunity to try. 

Jerrod: And just as a side for Kevin, he has no reason to want to sign a band like us. We do not fit in with the bands that he already had and the artists he already had. He doesn’t even like heavy music! He told us that. He likes Lacey! He’s like “I don’t really like heavy music. Skillet, they’re a little bit heavy for me, I can like some of their stuff.” We’re not Skillet! But he was like, “there’s something about you guys.” He could see something that he found value in and believed in us. There’s no other reason that you would want to do this, other than, I like working with good people who have your back, who believe in you, and are willing to invest and put some skin in the game. To be able to show it, not just say it. He’s been a really great encouragement.

Jamie: Like with Shawn, I’m truly appreciative of Kevin as well. Any band that is fortunate enough to have somebody come along and say “I believe in what you do,” I think that’s great.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Now, with the switch in the label and the addition of Jerrod as the new lead singer, what does he bring to the band?

Jamie: Soul. Urban soul. 

Jerrod: A pink shirt. Just not to the stage.

Solid Rock Unplugged: The confidence to wear a pink shirt!

Jamie: I’ll speak from my perspective. Jerrod and I officially met back in 2018. It was this little coffee shop in Omaha, Nebraska that we stopped in at on this tour we were on. The first thing I saw was a family who loved their husband and dad. The kids and the wife were there. Nobody had to say a word about that. And I saw this man who obviously loved his wife and kids. 

I think there are certain things in life, many things in life, honestly, that have greater weight and value than [XIII Minutes]. Loving your wife well, being active and engaged with your children are a few of those things. So that was my introduction to Jerrod. We didn’t really go any further than that. We became friends and we stayed connected, but it was not like “Hey, you got an opening at any point?”

But God. That’s my life’s motto - But God. Not really realizing that five years after that, we were going to literally lose a singer in four shows. But God, even in that! And we had this opening. It wasn’t one of those things where Jerrod was like “Hey, I might throw my name in there.” You never know how it’s all going to unfold, but Jerrod has a voice that I knew could work. 

It’s always the question, you believe that it could, now will it work? So that was touch point number two. Jerrod said “I want to try!” And so he got his demos ready. I knew what could be, by the demos, but I will tell you when I was firmly sold with Jerrod, the talent, is our first time in the studio. I didn’t know Jerrod could do some of those things. I’m serious. He was on key for 12 hours that day! We were sitting in the studio, Thomas and I, we were like “Holy smokes, where did this guy come from?” 

That’s when we knew that this was going to be a good fit. Jerrod does well bridging the gap between the old stuff. He does the old stuff well. We hadn’t turned into a country band from what we were, right? Or a hip hop band in Jerrod’s case. 

Jerrod: You know me!

Jamie: Then on top of that, he has brought so much more of what I had in mind when I started this band. There are things he does through his voice that are the things I was looking for in the beginning. It took us a little to get there, but God, as always! Here we are, he brings what we had and then some! So he really excels and enhances everything we’ve done as a band. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Jerrod, you have another band, correct?

Jerrod: I do, I Am The Pendragon. Been going on for 15 years now. We’re just about to release a new album and go on tour in the fall. Just a little short run tour, a little over a week, to kind of hit a few places that we love. I’m still doing Pendragon, but we make it work. We talk about the schedule way out in advance. We’ve always done a minimum of three months, except for very rare exceptions when there’s an opportunity that would come up. Even in those times, it’s “Hey, I know this is last minute,” and we make it work. 

My position has always been, if I can make it work, I’m going to make it work. If it makes sense, if it furthers a certain aspect of the band. Oftentimes it’s not financial, like “oh we’re going to make a ton of money doing it.” We may break even doing it. But is this going to get us in front of more people that wouldn’t know us? 

We did a really small show in Nebraska with a guy that we had played with earlier in the year. He’s like, “I want to bring you to my hometown.” That show was for him. There were 30 people that came out that night, it was a bar show, in and out, all that. But it was like, no, God wants us to be there for that guy.

Jamie: And it really was that guy!

Jerrod: That one show is still bearing fruit and the opportunity to speak into lives, to minister. So it’s not always something that’s going to make sense on the budget or on the calendar. But if this is where we feel God is calling us to go, we’re going to go, and we’re going to give it our all. I’m going to figure out a way to make it work! I have an extremely awesome and supportive wife and family. They come out to a lot of shows with me. This time they couldn’t, because we’re on the far side of the country.

Solid Rock Unplugged: How old are your kids?

Jerrod: My oldest, Emery, is 15. He’s the new drummer for Pendragon. He’s just taken over this summer. He’s a few shows in now. Jax is 12 and Atlas is 9. Our daughter is 7.  

Solid Rock Unplugged: She’s got you wrapped around her finger?

Jerrod: Oh no, we’ve never been those kinds of parents, which is great. My wife is very loving and firm. I am a jungle gym most of the time when I get home. I don’t even realize they’re crawling on me. I’ve had them literally climbing all the way up to sit on my shoulders, as I’m in conversation with somebody. And I don’t realize that until their hand’s on my face, because it just happens all the time. I don’t even know what’s happening any more. But we have a really fun home, a lot of love. A lot of laughter. 

John: I mean, me being new to all this, I’m still trying to figure out scheduling and things like that. However, if I wasn’t using my vacation time for this, I’d be just taking trips to places, going by myself anyway. You know, I think this has been a better, way better, use of my vacation time. 

If I hadn’t toured with you guys, I wouldn’t have met my fiancee! Our guitar player Thomas, who’s MIA right now, probably getting a nap somewhere, he introduced me and my fiancee! Just through this! Wild how it all worked out. She’s been really supportive and even excited about how this could translate into our future and that sort of thing. I’m really excited for what the future holds for XIII Minutes and married life. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Especially if you guys keep on doing performances like you did this morning! Sheesh, you guys came out!

Jerrod: Yeah, that’s kind of the feedback that we’ve been getting. I think to people on the outside, it can seem like this all came together real quick. I’ve only been in the band for two years and we’re playing Uprise, we’re playing Icthus. We’re on Main Stage at Kingdom Come Festival, going to Mexico and doing all this stuff! But this is built on literally twenty years. Twenty years for me, twenty years for Jamie, probably close to twenty for Thomas. Twenty years of not having any of those things. And just sticking at it, sticking with it, and having a support system that can sustain it. Took a while to get here!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Jamie, this is for you. You have quite the presence on social media!

Jerrod: That’s a way of saying it!

John: Memelord!

Solid Rock Unplugged: You put a lighthearted spin on it, sharing memes in an area that’s so doom and gloom. Especially in the last week. What’s your approach to social media?

Jamie: I used to be, and I still have to fight this, a really serious person. I was in a place in life that I literally couldn’t find it in me to be joyous, unless I had some alcoholic bravery. And it bothered me! It bothered me that I couldn’t find joy. I didn’t understand, at that point, the root of where I was at. It bothered me that it took all of this other stuff before I felt like I could laugh. It was a terrible place to be as a human. It was heavy. 

I’m not saying to put my head in the sand and act like “I’m blessed and highly favored, brother!” You know, the pat Christian answer because you don’t want to look ugly or broken. But without going too deep, my story is I got sober. I came back to Christ, and I learned to deal with me sober, which was really, really hard. 

Then one day, the absolute worst news you could ever expect to receive happened. I received word that my little sister was murdered. I was 24 years old. Mine and my sister’s relationship was very contentious and I went into a spiral on the back end of it, of regret. Things I didn’t say. Things I didn’t do. Expressions of love. I wanted to let her know how much I loved her. But there was this thing inside of me that just wouldn’t let it out. 

I went through a really, really dark season. And the great thing about it, is in all of this, Jesus sat with me. I literally had nothing to bring to the throne. I really didn’t. I didn’t realize at this point I was depressed. Before that, I was like, “I’m too strong, it’s weak people that get depressed,” and then here I was. I was that guy I said I would never be.

The great thing about Jesus in that moment is that I wasn’t judged, I was loved! Slowly, but surely, this pretense and these burdens that I carried, that wouldn’t allow me to express joy in my life, began to be built back. And I came out on the other side with a new lease on life. But it was one where I’m not going to not do something for fear of rejection or fear of reprisal or fear of judgement. 

And that includes saying “I love you.” That includes things like crying. It was one of those things where I became free. I made a promise to myself to live in that place. So, I am not personally going to live in doom and gloom. I lived there, I know what that feels like. It’s a heavy place to be and it’s a place I don’t want to be. 

I imagine there’s a lot of people just like that, maybe just like me, that struggle to find joy. To struggle to smile and to see the goodness in others. The memes are a daily reminder, almost to myself, that every day is worth smiling at. If it makes me smile, I know there’s somebody out there that it makes them smile as well. Are they deep theological dissertations? Absolutely not. And I really don’t care! …Memes are funny! If I find them funny, I’m sure somebody else finds them funny. If their day is better because of it, then I feel like I did what I was supposed to do. 

It was really step-by-step. Every day now is an intentional choice to be joyous, to find something to smile about. Even a stupid meme! .…I read a quote recently that says “When I send you a meme, it means I took a moment to think about you,” That’s the truest thing I can put out there, that I took a moment to think about you. If you want bad news, if you want to be mad at your day or if you want to be disgruntled, you can find it pretty easy. 

It’s also a little bit of a rebel in me. I don’t want to be that and I’m not going to be. So I’m going to be something completely different. If you enjoy it, I’m glad you do. And if you don’t, I’m sorry you don’t. Because tomorrow there’s going to be probably two more memes in your feed and that’s going to make you mad. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: To wrap up, is there anything that XIII Minutes wants to promote?

Jamie: We create music because music is a bridge to someone's heart.  We pray that the message in the music comforts you, inspires you, gives you hope, or just makes your day better.  

We have 20 plus songs sitting in the internet world now and would love for them to be listened to.  You can find us on ALL of your favorite streaming services. Oh, and our new song “FAKE” is dropping on NRT Music this Friday, October 3rd!

Check out XIII Minutes on Instagram and Facebook (especially if you want your daily dose of memes!). Be sure to pre-save their new single, “Fake” today!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! We had such a good time talking with XIII Minutes that we split it into TWO posts! Check back in tomorrow for a deep discussion on HeartSupport, mental health, and how churches can help.

An Interview with Brotality: On “The Body,” Song Inspiration, and HeartSupport

A fun play on words, Brotality began as a musical project between two New York based brothers, Bryce and Reese, and a friend, Liam on drums, replaced by John Haring in 2022. With looks reminiscent of 80’s hair metal bands, this thrash and groove metal band has been rocking and touring the country since 2016, including locally at Creation Festival. They released their first full-length album, Worldwide Desolation in 2021 through Rottweiler Records. The Woods Will End You was released in 2022 and their most recent EP release It Feeds in 2024. New music is on the way, with their new single, “Blasphemy” dropping earlier this summer, and a new single dropping on Friday!

In addition to the band, both Bryce and Reese work for HeartSupport and are passionate about helping every person know they matter and are here for a reason, a cause that Solid Rock Unplugged truly believes in. Next month, Brotality will bring their piercing guitar riffs and heavy metal screams to Furnace Fest in Birmington Alabama. We had a chance to catch up with the guys at Uprise Festival 2025 and discuss the new single, their work with HeartSupport and the insane opportunity to play Furnace Fest.

Brotality is:

Bryce Maopolski - guitar, vocals

Reese Maopolski - bass, vocals

John Haring - Drums

Solid Rock Unplugged: The first time we saw Brotality was at Creation Festival 2019 on the Fringe Stage. How have the past five years been?

Reese:  It’s weird to think about five years in the scheme of like, a whole band who’s been at it for decades. You can maybe narrow it down, but I feel like our whole Brotality history, most of it is in those five years. Most of the music we’ve released, two full albums, an EP, more music being released right now. All of that’s been in five years. 

I mean, personally too, all of us graduated college in the last five years. It was us being in education for most of that time. I graduated high school in those five years, then college, now we’re working jobs while doing the band, so a lot of life changes personally in those five years too.

Bryce: I think it’s also changed how we kind of work together in the band over the last five years too. Because the writing process would be - I’d come with a riff, put it together, and then we’d kind of build from there. But nowadays, I’ll still start a lot of songs with riffs, but we write a lot more collaboratively. I feel like it is a unit of the three of us together, writing what we write now, rather than just “hey, here’s a bunch of riffs, let’s put drums and bass on them.” I think that’s how we’re exploring more of our sound.

Reese: Yeah, especially in the last year or two. This album we’re gearing up for is very much like that!

John:  You gotta remember that I interrupted the flow of everything by joining the band. After the first two albums, we started from scratch and now we’re in a good groove of things. And it’s pretty good, pretty efficient. I would say a well-oiled machine. I think we have a hold of ourselves. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: So you mentioned the full length albums and the EPs, with It Feeds, The Woods Will End You, and Worldwide Desolation. Out of everything you’ve released, what’s your favorite?

Reese: I feel like my answer is the classic, active musician answer, which is the newest stuff! I want to give a more interesting answer, like “nothing was like the second album!” or something, but I don’t know. I think that just as we grow as people, what we’re most passionate about is the most recent stuff.

So I think out of the projects that have been released, I think we’d all probably agree that the It Feeds EP is probably the one we’re most proud of. If we’re talking songs, not to speak for the guys, but I feel like “Blasphemy,” which we just released, and “The Body,” which comes out on Friday, the new song. 

John: Honestly, I think the first song we ever released was the best, and it’s all been downhill from there! (laughter)

Bryce: To give a little bit of a serious, different answer, I think The Woods Will End You. That album has a little niche of Brotality sound. We always talk in the back of our heads, when 2032 comes around or something, I’d like to do a 10-year re-record of it, tour and play the full album. I think because that one is a full album length, it has a little bit of a special spot and I love the way that album came together. Especially the second half of it.  

Solid Rock Unplugged: So how did you come up with the names of your albums? Is there a special meaning or was it just “let’s figure out what could be the most brutal sounding name?”

Reese:  For Worldwide, it was so long ago that I’m forgetting a specific answer or inspiration for that. For Woods Will End You, we went back and forth on a few possible titles. I forget the other ones. I remember we wanted it to sound cool, but also obviously have thematic reasons for it being there. Obviously, the album cover of Woods Will End You is this Wendigo creature. And the song, “Flesh Eater” is the forest. 

Throughout the album The Woods Will End You, I like to think of it as an overall concept album. So not a story about a character from start to finish, but each song is kind of a story on its own. Each one follows a character, most of the time, in a different part of the earth. So “Frost Empire” is in a cavern, a kingdom of ice. In “Glow,” it’s like the end of the album, someone summiting a mountain and seeing a valley on the other side. “Flesh Eater” is in the forest, an evil presence in the depths of a cave. So each song has its own kind of earthen setting like that. The Woods Will End You theme fits into all of that. 

It Feeds is just from the title track. I wish I could give more of an interesting concept name for that. Just because “It Feeds” is one of those singles, that’s kind of where that one comes from. Do you remember Worldwide, exactly the inspiration for that?

John: Weren’t you like sixteen or something?  

Bryce: We were also sixteen. I don’t remember. I’m sure it was very profound!

Reese: Definitely wasn’t just that it sounded cool!

John: If we just wanted to sound cool, we would have named the album like Monster Truck or something!

Reese: That’s the next album, we’re going to name it. Oh crap, I leaked it! Dang it!

Solid Rock Unplugged: So speaking of “Blasphemy” and “The Body,” the new single coming out this Friday, could you tell me the story behind those songs?

Reese: “Blasphemy,” at least lyrically, was a very topical thing for me. When we were writing that song, I had a lot of feelings and emotions around certain bands that were releasing music, especially in the metal scene. Using Christian imagery to be kind of intentionally subversive. It’s a hard line, because I think on one side, we have people in the Christian scene that if there is someone using the cross imagery and they’re not a Christian band, they’re just immediately denouncing what they’re saying or doing. 

I think it’s hard, because I don’t think that is necessarily the answer. I also think that hearing them out, but everyone needs to be coming from a genuine place too. So if you’re just going to use Christian imagery, I don’t know, to look hard or use this imagery because it’s not what you believe and you have problems with it. So they want to make the cross a symbol of fear, I’ve seen that being used a lot lately in metal. 

I feel like sometimes those visuals lack actual depth behind them. They’re kind of using it to be attention grabby and look cool and look hard. So “Blasphemy” is kind of me trying to point that out, but also acknowledging that, those people who have different perspectives than someone who’s Christian, it’s also valid and important to hear them out and understand the world they’re coming from. Instead of just shutting it down and denouncing their perspective. 

So it’s kind of this interesting middle ground, but that’s why the climax of the song is the line “Will you speak blasphemy?” It’s not me, just trying to point fingers, because I think there’s enough of that being done on both sides. Which isn’t helpful or productive. So, is there a place where we can just rightfully question one another, but from a place of humility and openness still?

Solid Rock Unplugged: So what was the inspiration behind “The Body?”

Reese: “The Body” is a little easier, I think. “The Body” is about separating the spirit from the flesh. I love that idea and recently, especially in writing for this new album, a lot of the lyrics are inspired by the ideas in Christian mysticism of the dark night of the soul and the idea of having to put the body to death to be spiritually enlightened. That idea just fascinates me, kind of like excising yourself from the physical world to be fully in the spiritual world. I just love that idea. 

“The Body” is specifically about that. It’s about being within your body, representing again the flesh and the physical world, and yearning for light beyond that. So much, to the point where it is like taking active action against the will of the flesh. 

Bryce: I think instrumentally, I don’t want to say the cliche that every metal band does where it’s like “it’s heavier, but it’s also lighter than everything we’ve ever done!” I do feel like with every release, we make music that’s more packed with emotion. I think a lot of times, with a song like “Blasphemy” or even with “The Body, that kind of shows its head with intensity, heaviness, super in-your-face music that has a lot of emotion behind it and it’s right there. But then I think there’s other stuff on the album that shows emotion in a totally different way, where it’s more of a catharsis or this big euphoria. There’ll be singles that have all of that coming out. 

We’ve all kind of been diving into the trenches of metal, and even a lot of non-metal stuff too, but getting into some bands that are doing crazy stuff like Nails, or End, Alluvial, Full of Hell. All of these bands that are in the almost avant garde side of metal. But then Bon Iver is awesome and we’ll listen to English Teacher and Yumi Zouma, and all of these bands that are indie bands too.

I think it all kind of comes together a little bit. Throughout our own listening, we’re listening to stuff that’s weirder and weirder all the time, so I think our own music brings a little bit of that in now. Definitely, I think turning up the dial on the emotion in our music has been a big refrain for the big new album. 

John: And monster trucks! 

Solid Rock Unplugged: So, in addition to “Blasphemy” and “The Body” coming out, anything else coming out soon, before the end of the year?

Bryce: Nothing solidified that I can give a date for yet. Probably!

Solid Rock Unplugged: But we’re expecting a new album early next year?

Bryce: I’m not exactly sure. We’re sitting on an album now. But the way the industry goes, singles are so huge, so we might be ripping a lot of those for a while. But we are sitting on a full album’s worth of music that we’ll be rolling out for the next 9 months.

Reece: I think it’s safe to probably say 90% that next year, the album will be out. 

John: Yeah, at some point. Unless we flop everything leading up to it! Which is perfectly possible.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Love the confidence!

John: I’m confident in the realism of it. We have a real shot here!

Solid Rock Unplugged: So, within the last year, Bryce and Reese, you guys have been brought on by HeartSupport. What are your responsibilities within HeartSupport?

Bryce: I started at HeartSupport in September of 2024. Actually, I started as an intern in January of 2024. Even before then, Brotality had a custom HeartSupport text number. We’ve done fundraising and stuff. So Brotality and HeartSupport go way back. But in January, I started interning and became staff in September. 

For my job, I’m in the development department. Half of my gig is working with donors, just helping to fund the organization, making sure there’s dollars behind our mission. The other half is working with bands, which is where I feel my bread and butter is. That’s what I love to do. 

So I get to work with all of our band partnerships and help encourage bands to open up, so that then their fans feel encouraged to open up. I’ve gotten to work with some freaking sick bands for that. That’s the part of my job I love. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I’m sure you’re probably working with Christian bands, non-Christian bands. I’m sure it’s a full array of genres.

Bryce: Yeah, I work with Lacey a whole lot and Shinedown, Citizen Soldier, Breaking Benjamin, some cool bands! It’s an honor for sure. That’s the part of my job that I love. It’s definitely like “holy crap, this is my job! Like, are you giving me money for this?”

Reese: Yeah, I was volunteering there for a little while. After Bryce had gotten hired, I was a volunteer there, one of the support wall replyers, writing online encouragements, us and a few friends, just doing that as part of the volunteer group. Then in February, a position opened up, Program Assistant, that’s my role. My role is very ground level at HeartSupport. I do basically all the communications with our volunteers, specifically focused on our support calls program. 

The support calls program is where we encourage people to get on weekly phone calls with someone who’s been training to give peer support. Just listen and encourage this person, alongside them for a year. So, people that are struggling or just need someone to talk to, can reach out, apply to get support in this one-on-one connection. I’m in charge of finding people that are in the same time zone, same age range, and gender preference and I connect them together. 

I’m basically the person on staff who anyone in the program can fall back on if they have any concerns, questions, or things they need help with. There’s a lot that can come up in the course of a year, being one-on-one with someone. So yeah, most of my job is in communications with all of our volunteers. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: So why should people check HeartSupport?

Bryce: It’s free mental health support, using music as a catalyst to get people to open up. I think the most beautiful part of it is, 3 in 5 people don’t open up about their mental health, for that demographic, it’s so hard to find the reason to start. But even if a lot of people don’t feel comfortable opening up about what they’re going through, they will feel comfortable talking about why their favorite song matters to them. So if we can use that moment to actually get them real, trained support, that’s what we’re about. 

We’re really targeted to getting those 3 in 5 people who don’t usually open up, like real, trained mental health support. We’ve seen a lot of lives change because of it. Even with the HeartSupport number that we have at our merch table. We’ve seen people use that and been so thankful that there is a resource for them. It’s great to be able to use music, because it connects us all already. Like, use it and take that connection to a deeper level. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Typically when you hear people with mental health issues, the metal community seems to be the one where everyone just clams up. Everybody wants to put on this hard face. Now that we have something like HeartSupport, people can start taking down those walls.

Reese: Yeah, absolutely. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: You guys get an opportunity that I am very jealous of next month. You get to go play Furnace Fest in Birmingham. Tell me about what you’re looking forward to with this opportunity. Are you excited?

John: I’m really excited to stop thinking about how we get there!

Reese:  Yeah, the logistics. All the logistics!

John: I’m really excited to be 10 seconds before we start playing, because that’s when everything is awesome!

Reese: Yeah, the two-day trip there and the two day trip back. That’s the only show we have booked for that time, because we’re all working and stuff. We still have to figure out logistics and stuff. 

John: It’s going to be so great, I know it. How can it be anything short of awesome?

Bryce: I think the cool part is that it’s one of the pre-shows. So it’s not the full Furnace Fest, but it’s the Furnace Fest pre-show. And I think that makes it a special level of cool, because I’ve always heard about how the pre-shows are packed. People are going crazy. It’s right before the festival even gets going for the weekend. So people are just stoked to be there. They’re energized.

We’re playing with a really mixed bill too. It’s like us and then a beat down band. Then later in the lineup is ISetMyFriendsOnFire, which is actual screamo music. Not like what somebody’s grandma would call us. So I think being part of a mixed bill and being able to kick it off with some heavy riffs, you know, real guitar amps, I think it will be really, really fun. 

And then we get to be at Furnace Fest with HeartSupport for the rest of the weekend, so it’ll be fun. I’m very excited. It’s such a cool lineup, so it’s going to be such a good weekend!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Anything else besides the new single coming out Friday? Anything else you guys want to push or get out to the fans?

Bryce: Follow us on socials! It is a weird time to be in the industry because social media does matter so much and it’s something that we are investing heavily into. I know it can be hard as musicians to take time away from wanting to create and put out art, but from the business side of things, social media is an incredible opportunity to get in front of more fans than we have reached just by playing shows. So we’ve been investing heavily into that. 

If you read this, check out Brotality on Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, all that stuff. If you dig what we do, share it as much as you can. All that really helps, because even in terms of growing as a band, agents, labels, they care about numbers on those things. Any of that helps so so much. I think it’s best to be forward with that, because sometimes there can be this undercurrent of not talking about it or just complaining about it, but it is a legitimate thing that we’re trying to build. It’s a way you can get more stuff from us than if you just come out to a show!

Check out Brotality’s new single, “The Body,” dropping Friday, September 19th at Midnight! Look them up on all the social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

If you, or anyone you know, is struggling with mental health - please know that you are not alone! Check out HeartSupport for help.

An Interview with Saved By Skarlet: On “Memory Relapse,” Rebranding, and Brotherhood.

Saved By Skarlet. From left to right: Dallen, Nate, Matt, and Brendan

Saved By Skarlet isn't just a metalcore band; it's a brotherhood, led by identical twin brothers at the helm. I was first introduced to these guys through the Kingdom Core podcast, who ranked their independent release, Creation and Crisis in their top 60 releases of 2024. With two top 10 Christian rock hits, “Black Knight” and “Lie of the Pharisees”, this band is making a name for themselves. They've carved their name into the scene with one singular, pounding message: Jesus Christ is Lord.

Saved by Skarlet is soon releasing a new single, “Memory Relapse,” produced with the assistance of Brandon and Jeremy from New Year’s Day. We had the opportunity to sit down with these New England rockers at Uprise Festival and talk about family support, using their band as an outreach ministry, and their new song.

Saved By Skarlet is:

Nate Middleton: Lead Vocals

Matt Middleton: Lead Guitar, Background Vocals

Dallen Shrader: Drums

Brendan Ryan: Guitar

Solid Rock: Last year’s album, Creation and Crisis, did pretty well. You had a couple of top ten hits. What was your thought process for that album? 

Nate: That was a very interesting album, actually, because we were in a transition of band members. The first song, “Black Knight,” until “Memory Relapse” drops, that is our biggest hit. That song we developed with our prior band members, and right around that time after it was released, Dallen actually came on board. He helped track the rest of the EP. All four of the other songs, he’s on. Then after we finished that EP, right at the tail end, when we started performing it, Brendan came on. So Brendan started performing it, Dallen had only been a part of it, and then this brand new song, Memory Relapse, that’s getting released this Friday, September 19th. 

That is the first song that we’ve put out that we feel like is the most solid. It’s not the most heavy, out of all of our stuff, it’s just the most all-around solid and mastered by Brandon Wolf and Jeremy Valentyne from New Year’s Day, which is massive! So we’re really excited about that. They work with Sirius Octane and all different kinds of outlets and connections, so we’re really excited to work with them. They did an excellent job. 

So pretty much this Friday, you’re going to get to see what the new SBS really looks like, what it sounds like. As you’ve probably seen, we’ve updated all of our stuff. We got all of our updated images, trying to follow the direct path to the best kind of release. I’ve been handling that side of things, while Matt’s been handling production, and Brendan and Dallen have been doing the best they can with what they’re doing, which is a lot of different things.

This year Brendan has been taking on more roles as a new member. Dallen has been evolving his craft in the band and his dedication to Brotherhood! 

Dallen: And Barbarians! And Warhammers!

Nate: So that’s kind of an overview of where we are, right here on this couch. You’re seeing right now we have a lot of different transitions happening, evolving a lot from where we first released those two top 10 hits. “Lie of the Pharisees” was on “Black Knight’s” tail, which is really, really cool. Those songs pretty much helped break us out. And we’ve been kind of riding along that wave for a little while now. Now that’s starting to kind of simmer down after a year since we release Creation and Crisis. “Memory Release” is right on cue to pop off, hopefully! We’ll see what happens!

Solid Rock: What’s the story about that song, the new one, “Memory Relapse?”

Nate: It’s funny, because I wrote the lyrics of “Memory Relapse,” Brendan wrote a lot of guitar for this one, whereas Matt has written a lot of guitar for the previous songs. It was a really cool kind of mix-up to see how we blend as a team and make sure everybody’s getting to do different things. And my wife actually helped contribute to a lyric or two that I was really stuck on. I couldn’t get one of the words to rhyme and I was like “I need help!” So she did a great job with that. 

Dallen: Rhyming is hard!

Nate: It is hard, man, it’s hard! The reason that lyricism is hard is because you can follow a simple A-B format, where the last word in the stanza is going to rhyme, and the next one won’t, and the next one will. Or you could do every single stanza is going to rhyme. But it’s hard to do that while also choosing your words correctly to depict a story, which Memory Relapse is about self-reflection. If you look at [the new shirt], you can actually see this is the image that was on our first CD album. So that’s a little secret Easter egg that we put in there.

That, essentially, is kind of like a mirror image, a perfect image in my opinion, of where our music is evolving. We’re looking back on where we came from - our stories, our past - each in an individual way that God has brought us out of darkness and into light, which is what the first album is about. 

Essentially, this song encapsulates that. It’s about self-reflection, mystery, curiosity. It evokes a sense of yearning. Really talking to yourself, trying to figure out where you are in life. This song is not really like our traditional type of talking about God. This is more so about the human aspect of life. And it’s a good one, man. On the back of the shirt, it actually says “For now we only see a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”

Brendan: That is a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:12. I looked it up yesterday, so we got the right one!

Nate: Not “love is patient, love is kind.” Not that Corinthians one. 

Brendan: First Corthinthians. It is part of that whole “love is…”

Matt: Pastor Brendan will be on next! (laughter)

Nate: Essentially, what that scripture is talking about is, I right now am reflecting. I’m paraphrasing of course, but I’m reflecting on my life as a whole - where I stand with God, who I am as a man of God or woman of God. Looking in that mirror, taking upon that self-reflection and seeing, “okay, how can I do better?” But when I see face to face with God, because He knows me fully. I don’t yet fully know myself, but because He knows me, when I look to Him and I seek Him, He shows me who I am. So it’s like such a cool, roundabout way of scripture, a complicated way of saying, look to God. He knows you best, trust Him. That’s the longest explanation I’ve got.

Matt: That’s why we gave Nate the microphone, because Nate really did the lyrics for that song. Dallen, Brendan, and I focused solely on instruments. In the past, there have been times when I’ve helped write: “Lies of the Pharisees,” “When I’m Cold,” “Light it Up,” and even “Out of Darkness,” actually. But for this one, Nate did all of the lyrics and I give him so much credit for what he did, because it came out marvelous. 

Nate: This was a hard one!

Matt: Yeah, this was a tricky one, and everyone will understand once they listen to it. There’s a lot of words and a lot of places to put those words, and he found just the right spots. 

Nate: Thanks Matt. These guys did an amazing job. Dallen with the drums, Brendan on lead guitar. His solo in this song, it’s incredible. Matt just absolutely aced the parts that I had a hard time putting together. 

Brendan: I will say, my favorite guitar parts in this song, Matt wrote. The lead in the chorus is like my favorite part in the entire song. It’s so good. Even in the studio, in the first verse, he was messing around with the part. You weren’t even trying to make it good! It wasn’t even supposed to be good! He’s like “Ah, I’m joking.” I’m like “No! Put that in there! We need that in there! Do it again! Do it again!” 

Nate: I’ll never forget that! I was just jamming on the electric drum set, jazzing away, doing my thing, and all of the sudden Brendan was like “Wait! Stop! Do that again! And I was like “Me?” “No, not you!”

Matt: It’s in the verses, it’s the second half of each verse. You’ll hear just some notes I was fooling around. But sometimes that happens. We go to the studio and we have a vision, but it’s always good to allow enough room for the Holy Spirit to kind of, not to sound weird, but kind of be like “Hey, you might want to try that.” 

And we interpret the thoughts in our mind. We contribute those thoughts always to “I had a thought,” but I am a firm believer that there are intrusive thoughts, both from the enemy and the Holy Spirit, that are God-inspired.” And certain riffs and notes that we find, I personally believe, are from God himself, or Jesus, the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, because he’s technically the intercessor, advisor, the go-between, the bridge between Heaven and earth. 

So yeah, when people are listening, we want to evoke a certain emotion in them, so that they’re feeling what we’re feeling. And that gives them an experience, as opposed to just a sound. I could just stomp my feet on the floor. That’s a sound. But to create and design a song that evokes emotion is an experience, the full package. So, we’re looking forward to how people react to the new song. 

Solid Rock: You mentioned getting to work with Brandon and Jeremy of New Year’s Day. How did that come about?

Nate: Dude, that story is unbelievable! So essentially what happened, Jeremy Valentyne from New Year’s Day reached out to me about two years ago. This is so embarrassing! I thought it was a bot that was hacking his profile, because I did not believe it was him. So I didn’t answer for about six months! He had reached out and said, “Hey, I’d love to get you guys in the studio. Maybe we could talk on the phone about doing something in the studio.” 

At the time, we had just wrapped up Creation and Crisis. I was like, “Oh no, man, we’re all taxied out, blah blah blah.” And I just kind of checked it off my list. A lot of people reach out all the time to do different deals and different things. I vet it, but this seemed definitely way too out there. So I kind of was like, maybe I’ll reach out in a year or so and see if this is actually a legit thing, right? 

So a year goes by, I totally forgot about this. And he reaches back out and he’s like “Hey man, just want to see how you and the band are doing. And then I was like, “wait a minute! A bot wouldn’t do that.” The wording and stuff, that was definitely a real person. So then I was like, “oh shoot!” I go and look, “who is Jeremy Valentyne?” because it was spelled a certain way that didn’t look real. I don’t know if that’s his real name or just a stage name. 

Then I go to his profile and see he’s best friends with Ash Costello, who is the lead vocalist of New Year’s Day and is very famous. So then I go on her profile and I see that he’s literally standing with her in the band picture and I was like “No flipping way!” So I’m combing through and there was Sirius Octane, there was Warped Tour, and I was like “Are you kidding me, dude? I almost blew our biggest chance!”

I messaged him back and I’m like “dude, I am so sorry. I did not realize you were actually legit in all of these things. Surely you can understand with the bots taking over recently.” It’s just insane man. We get so many botting emails and Instagram messages. Crazy!

So he tells me a story of how he added us and found us. We didn’t find him, he found us! Here’s why: when he and his twin brother, just like me and Matt, were young, they wanted to start a band called Something Scarlet. And they were Christian. They wanted to develop a metalcore rock band that was Christian-based with that name in it. Things didn’t pan out, didn’t work out. They ended up getting with New Year’s Day, way down the line. They ended up touring and they just got too busy to create their own band. 

Then he came across our band page somehow. I have no idea how, but they came across our band page, saw that it says Saved By Skarlet, clicked on it. He was really intrigued because it reminded him of his childhood and then saw that twin brothers were in it and that we were a Christian band. He was like “dude, this is meant to be!” So that’s the whole reason.

Now, he didn’t tell me this right out of the gate. If he told me this, I would have answered immediately! I had to dig and find out what was going on. But when he told me his story, it hit me so hard, because that is such a depiction of how God can operate, right? He can take the wildest thing. For me, that’s a dream come true. I love New Year’s Day. My wife, who I’m married to, we love New Year’s Day. 

They’re awesome and they’re so big, it’s crazy! And for him to want to work with us on our music, and he himself is a Christian too, by the way. Even though the band definitely is not, it’s so awesome, that God was able to work through him with his skill. You know, none of us are perfect. If there’s a way that our music can encourage him in his studio, that’s amazing. That it could actually influence even New Year’s Day, would be mind blowing! Like, I can’t even fathom it. 

I hope that the song encouraged them. I know that they loved it. They had great things to say about it and they wanted to work with us on the next song. I mean, it’s amazing, dude. Now Sarah and I are going to Warped Tour in Florida to go meet him! At Warped Tour, behind the main stage. It’s just mind-blowing! 

But I truly believe that it's because of the hard work that Brendan in his own life, Dallen in his own life, Matt, myself, we’ve gone through a lot to get here. We’ve gone through a lot of pain. We’ve gone through a lot of difficulty, finding a band and bandmates that can all work together as a team. It took a lot and I feel like because we’ve invested a lot, the Bible says when you invest a lot, he can invest in you. It’s a mutual relationship and I truly believe that’s why God is starting to really, really use and trust Saved by Skarlet. 

We couldn’t do it without these guys. I could talk to Jeremy all day long. It’s not going to do anything if these guys don’t have their musical talents and everything infused in the music. I mean, it’s incredible how everything’s coming together, you know? We’re really excited.

Solid Rock Uplugged: So with the new single, is there an album coming along with it?

Dallen: So we’ve got ideas cooking. Using jam sessions, online tools, that kind of stuff to come up with ideas. We’ve got a decent one in the works, that we are refining. I know Matt, you have one or two just swimming in your head.

Matt: There’s one that’s definitely, it’s going to land and it’s going to land well. 

Dallen: There’s definitely stuff in the works. I know we want to try and get an album’s worth of music, as opposed to an EP. Like a good ten songs. We’ll see how that pans out. 

Brendan: We don’t have any timetable yet, but it’s something that we definitely want. We want to do it. We don’t have it yet, but we’re trying to also just keep some new material coming out, just to tide the fans over and keep it going because we all have jobs. Two of these guys have kids, the other three, not me, are married. There’s life and we aren’t 100% sure what the time table for a full length is going to be. We want to, but we also want to make sure that we’re still telling the fans, hey, we’re making music. We’re trying to make good music and there’s more coming and it’s going to get better. 

Nate: You can bust out songs every year. You can bust out albums every year. But to really soak in it, ask God, take time to reflect, refine, get it really perfected, takes time. Scheduling takes time. Like you said, we all got lives. 

Matt: Once it’s out, it’s out!

Nate: Yeah, that’s exactly right. And you never want to have to go back, because that looks bad for Spotify. That looks bad for every digital distributor you work for. And so many bands do it. They put out demos and things, and they heavily regret it in the future. So we’re just trying to make sure that everything we release, step by step, is getting better and better, higher and higher quality, better campaigns, better advocating for ourselves. We just rewrote our contract and everything. 

Brendan: And even just the musicality, we’re all improving our craft. We’re all getting better. I’m playing stuff today that I wasn’t playing two years ago.

Matt:  And Brendan’s really good at cello. We’ve been talking about maybe getting some cello in some of our music, some symphonic elements. My brother and I have put cello in our music before, but we put it in the background, layered, and we kind of just did it with software. But it would be really nice to have the organic instrument played by an actual band member. It would be cool.

Solid Rock Unplugged: So in the band, you’ve got twin brothers, as well as other family members helping out with what you guys refer to as a ministry. It’s great to see that family support. How much does it mean to have the backing of your family?

Dallen: I’ve been married 13 years in October. I have three children, after September they’re going to be 6, 9, and 12. So I’ve got a full-blown family. I never thought I’d be a musician at all until a couple years ago. Ever since I decided to make that change, my wife has had my back on every single aspect of this. She knows there’s going to be times where I’m going to be potentially touring for a long time and I’m not going to be home. She’s accepted that, because it’s more than just this dude playing drums, it’s the message of what we’re doing is also a very important message. 

So I’ve had nothing but support, even though I’m a full-time dad. The sheer level of support was unreal to me, because I’d never known anything like that before. I could spend an hour as to why that is, but in a nutshell, my wife is the best thing that’s happened to me on this earth. Obviously, Jesus is top dog, but he’s beyond space and time. 

Matt: I’m very, very grateful. My wife has been very, very supportive. She’s made a lot of sacrifices for me to be here as well. I’ve seen Lizzie in action too, covering for Dallen, and she really is a fantastic person. And I'm very grateful for Ariel’s support too. 

Dallen: So in answer to your question, it means literally everything. 

Nate: Having the support from my wife means the world to me, she has attended every single SBS show since we met 9 years ago and truthfully I couldn’t do what I need to do as band manager without her encouragement, advice, and merchandise work. There are days like today where she will work 8-10 hours in the hot sun managing all things merch related at the booth while I’m running around everywhere answering both team and fan’s questions and handling logistics in order to get everything needed done for/at festivals. And while the physical work she does is incredibly appreciated, her spiritual help means even more to me. She is always honest in her advice, always encourages me to use wisdom and pray about decisions first, and prays with me the night before every show. In conclusion, there literally aren’t enough words for me to even express how much I appreciate her work as our merch coordinator and all of the other roles she fulfills. 

The sacrifice that comes with it, all of our wives, we’re extremely impressed by their commitment to us and to God. Because they believe in what we’re doing. If they didn’t believe in what we’re doing, and they didn’t agree it was from God, honestly, we probably wouldn’t be here. 

Matt: Yeah, we probably would have been too burnt out to move forward, in all reality. We almost hit that point, even with all that support. You know what I mean? It’s a lot to be an independent label. But, you know, we make more money. No, I’m just kidding!

Nate: It’s a lot more work, but you learn a lot more about your craft and you get to be a part of your music a lot more. Whereas, if we were on a label, we wouldn’t have as much decision making, we wouldn’t have as much ability to grow as individuals. Hopefully, at some point we will be able to get on board with a label that sees our vision and agrees with our vision, and wants to work with us. That would be amazing. 

But until that point, we’re DIY right now! “Black Knight” was #5 for 57 weeks, a stupid long number. So long that by the time our new album came out, [Black Knight] was just leaving charts. That’s mind blowing! I’ve literally got it framed on my bedroom wall, because I never want to forget that. Then in the top 100 for that year. Lie of the Pharisees is at number 10. So it’s just unbelievable what you can do, as long as you really really pour in, do the best you can, release really good, high-quality music, good photos/video/content, make sure it all looks really legit. People will check it out! And if they like it, they like it!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Yeah, I discovered you guys through Kingdom Core. It’s been fun getting to learn new bands through Kingdom Core and to see you guys on that list with bands like Meadows and Bloodlines. You guys are holding your own as an independent band, just going for it! 

Nate: Oh that’s awesome! We love Kingdom Core. Shout out to Kingdom Core!

Solid Rock Unplugged: What would you say to people who can’t seem to wrap their minds around a metal/rock band being an outreach ministry?

Dallen: I forget where specifically in the Bible, so forgive me, but when David is on the streets dancing, and it’s talking about how he ripped his clothes off and he’s dancing crazy in the streets. That’s moshing! Straight up, David was moshing. If King David is moshing, don’t you think it’s appropriate for us to be able to mosh too? 

Matt: It says the clanging of the cymbals. It also doesn’t say signing a clean, perfect note. It says the utterances of the Holy Spirit! 

Brendan: So, I don’t want to hear it! You could be Helen Keller making noises and God still understands it! Not to mention that Paul warns Christians, when he’s writing to the church of Corinth in the book of Corinthians, he’s warning people against the notion of becoming so fixated on a particular type of worship or a particular type of religion. He warns against that and he says, “Remember that the body is made up of different parts. Some are the legs, some are the arms, some are the eyes. But all of them suffer when one of them is absent.” 

I like to think of music genres, unless it’s blatantly satanic, obviously that is wrong, in my opinion. But there’s no scripture, there’s no evidence to show that this is wrong. And in fact, we’re seeing deliverance. We’re seeing miracles. The Bible is very clear about looking at the fruits to see what the tree is like. 

We’re seeing people saved, people being set free. People who we’ve actually called the police for, because they were going to take their life. We’ve gotten requests to do that for them, because they couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Those are the fruits of the Spirit of God. That promotes life. That promotes positivity. And we want to be all about that. 

Dallen: For anyone out there that doesn’t like metal, feel free to contact me! We’ll have a great conversation.

Brendan: You’re allowed to not like the music, but you can’t say that it’s not Biblical. We’re not anti-God because we’re playing metal music. It’s also one of the most untapped markets for Christian music in general. Worship, there’s tons of radio stations. You can find worship. You sing it in your churches. But Christian hard rock, heavy metal, there’s not a lot. You’ve got Skillet, maybe Stryper, a few others, but there’s not a whole lot of huge bands that actually reach out into that one. 

We play with almost exclusively secular artists outside of festivals and it’s such a huge ministry opportunity for us, because we see it all the time. We see different bands coming up to us, saying “hey you guys are awesome.” Outside of that, we get the Christians in those bands, they’ll come up to us and say “thank you guys for what you’re doing.” There’s a level of respect when you’re just trying to make good music. We try to make good music and we keep our messaging, we do our best to keep it in line with biblical truth. 

But we’re spreading a message to an area that doesn’t consistently get it. And even if you don’t like the music, which I understand. I love it, but it’s not for everybody, I totally understand that. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people in the community who need to hear it. Whether that’s from us, whether that’s from another Christian band, just making that path and letting people know “Hey, there’s another option. There’s someone greater who you can reach out to with your struggles.”

Dallen:  You also have to think that pages like Kingdom Core exist, but you’re not going to find the pop version of that, because it’s so easy to find contemporary Christian music, any Christian artist. You can just Google Christian artists and it’s going to bring you all your Phil Wickhams and Rend Collectives. But Kingdom Core is specifically for metal artists. There’s a dedicated page for that for a reason. I think that’s a fruit of the labor as well, in my opinion.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Any final thoughts?

Nate:  We’re really appreciative that you’re taking the time to do this with us. Like we said before, all the systems, the minor systems that affect the bigger systems - we can’t do what we do without all of our family. And if anyone wants to support my wife, she actually worked incredibly hard on our merch designing this past couple weeks. She helped me big time with “Memory Relapse,” and everything that entails. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. 

I’m incredibly grateful for her and some days it’s just so much work. I think it’s in the Bible, it says “Many hands make the burden light.” I know God has put each of us with our partners, and Brendan in the future.

Brendan: Woohoo, single!

Nate:  For now, his family, though. He’s got people who are backing him up. Whether it’s a significant other or someone in that person’s life, that’s just a family member or friend. 

Brendan: The beagle!

Nate: Brendan’s dog is the best! 

Matt: We love his beagle!

Nate: It’s just so important. And the fans are a huge part of that. Man, the fans singing the songs just stirs my heart in such a righteous way. It really, really does, every single time. It would be so lonely up singing up there and [the band] playing their instruments up there with people who don’t know the music, who are engaging in the music. 

We’re just so thankful for all of the team members we have on the team too. Everyone is doing their part to help make this happen. It’s just incredible! We’re so thankful. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Anything else you guys want to push or support?

Nate: Please follow us on Spotify! Or any music outlet, for that matter. I use Apple Music

Dallen: Jesus is pretty cool, guys. He’s a cool guy. You should read his book! I hear it’s pretty popular. It’s a best seller from what I hear!

Check out Saved By Skarlet’s new single, “Memory Relapse,” dropping THIS FRIDAY, September 19th, 2025! Look them up on Facebook & Spotify.