Oct, 2003 -- It's been a long time coming, but the multi-platinum, multi-Grammy Award-winning Christian band Jars Of Clay will dispense upon the world their first studio-only album in almost three years.  Who We Are Instead hits stores on November 4th, 2003, and the band spent the summer touring on the weekends and recording the new album during the weeks while holed up in a studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

Album Blitz caught up with the band while their tour schedule sent them through Fowlerville, Michigan [in July].  The boys were gearing up for a headlining bill with Ten Shekel Shirt and Jeremy Camp.

Album Blitz: What did you listen to when you were growing up that was big influence on you, such as any particular bands or any style of being raised?

Matt Odmark, Guitarist: Me and Charlie (Lowell, keyboardist) both grew up in Rochester, New York.  We were kind of influenced by what most kids who grew up in the Northeast were influenced by, like a lot of classic rock, and then into high school, it’s sad to say, we spent a lot of time in progressive-rock doldrums and listening to a lot of notes and a lot of key changes and weird time signatures.

AB: What kind of bands would you say?

MO:  Rush, Marillion (Indie-Progressive bands).  So that’s kind of what I use to listen to in high school.  And then into college I started to listen to more acoustic, more songwriter-y type music. I got into some of the college bands of the time.  Ya know, at the time it was the Indigo Girls, stuff like that.  That’s kind of what got me really into playing acoustic guitar which is sort of how I ended up with these guys. 

AB:  How long have you guys been together?

Dan Haseltine, Lead Singer: Nine years, yes, almost a decade…

AB:  Cool…and it’s all been smooth sailing?

MO:  Pretty much.

DH:  Yup, it's been pretty easy.

MO:  Wait a second. I disagree with that!

DH:  First time!

Steve Mason, Guitarist:  (To MO) When did you sell your boat?  I don’t think there was one time when all four of us were on the boat together.  I mean, the time when you and I, we were on the boat, it was kind of choppy waters.

MO:  It’s true it’s true, so it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.  And it wasn’t, in fact, a sailboat. (Laughter ensues) Next question….

 DH:  That was almost homicide.

MO:  Yeah exactly. What are your influences, Charlie?  

CL:  Well, you gave away most of mine.  But mine in high school were coming out of classic rock. I went a little English, a little new wave, a little Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, 10,000 Maniacs, REM. 

SM:  I liked King's X, the Beatles, Yes, that’s pretty much it.

DH: You were into some of the hip-hop too.

SM:  Yes I like hip-hop.

DH:  Vanilla Ice!

SM:  I don’t remember Vanilla Ice.

CL:  No, that was your favorite kind of ice cream.

SM:  Yeah that’s what it was.

AB:  So nothing totally off the wall.

SM:  Umm…Michael Jackson's Off The Wall!

DH:  Well, I mean what is so unusual about (the other band members)  was how eclectic their music (taste) was. Steve really liked the Beatles and then some of the more aggressive rock stuff, and he also liked certain kinds of rap and R&B, which is pretty unusual especially when we were growing up. Your identity was who you listened to and you usually were like a rocker or...

CL:  And we listened to a lot of the techno-rave music, too.  Acoustic and techno-rave, sort of like schizophrenia. 

DH:  I think I probably listened to a lot of the same stuff these guys listened to, but really early on I listened to things like ABBA, Queen, and stuff like that.  It was a little more power pop, I guess, for the time.  I was a keyboard player growing up and I was actually in a band with three OTHER keyboard players and we would do New Order and Depeche Mode covers.  I loved Sting, Peter Gabriel, really dug the Indigo Girls and other types of acoustic acts as well.  'Tis true.

SM:  Everything we've said here so far is true.

AB:  Well I hope you wouldn’t lie.  Was the time on the boat really true?

DH:  Sometimes we're just stupid. 

AB:  Who do you guys listen to now that you think is really cool?

DH:  The Jayhawks, Wilco, David Gray...

SM:  Love David Gray, listen to him a lot.  Guster...

CL:  Coldplay, Neil Finn, Johnny Cash, Patty Griffin, The Thorns...

MO:  The Thorns are kinda so-so for me...

DH:  ...Just to name a few.

MO:  There's actually been, like, a windfall of music for me, just in the last year it seems, like there is just a lot of great music.  I'll go for a few years where maybe I'll buy one or two CDs that I really like, and a lot of stuff that is just disposable, but for some reason it seems like there is a glutton of stuff (today) that I keep going back to and listening to.  It's exciting.

DH:  It's really innovative music too.  We're starting, I think just because of our age, we're able to see a fusion of (music) today with a lot of stuff from the Eighties, and that's making some creative, creative music.  Super groups like Interpol and Coldplay and Radiohead, Pete Yorn, they pulled a lot of their stuff from the early Eighties.  They kinda made it their own, but you can still hear some of those elements that make their music both nostalgic yet cutting edge at the same time.

SM:  No Doubt... Beyonce...

DH:  David Lee Roth has a new record out... (Laughter ensues) No Doubt...It's Hella Cool...

CL:  It's Hella Catchy!

DH:  We're also getting into a lot of stuff like the Rolling Stones in the last couple of years.  The Rolling Stones have infused into our music libraries.  Most of use never really grew up on it, I don't know, maybe Steve may have more so than the rest of us.

SM:  Yeah, but that's alright. 

MO:  We were kinda like, you either like the Stones or you like the Beatles.  It's usually like you can divide people into those two groups, like it was when you were growing up. 

AB:  You guys just released a half-live, half-studio album (Furthermore).  What's the big plan for you guys?  What do you anticipate doing with yourselves in the near future?

DH:  Taking over the universe...

SM:  We've got another new album coming out in November, entitled Who We Are Instead.

DH:  Trying not to screw it up... No, I mean, not to mess it up.

CL:  Almost done.

AB:  That means you've been in the studio.

SM:  We have a couple of songs left to do, and then we're done, and it's gonna be out really soon. 

DH:  So Furthermore was kind of a "tweener".

SM:  Yeah, a transitional work in the sense of "out with the old, in with the new".  Going a little more acoustic-heavy on the new record.  That's a little bit about what's to come, which is exciting for us.

AB:  How do you guys work in the studio if you are on the road?  Are you playing on a big tour?

CL:  We did a tour for the Furthermore record in February, March, and April, and we've been recording since then and doing a couple of shows on weekends, so we're in and out of the studio. 

DH:  All of our recording is done out of our hometown in Tennessee.

CL:  We don't write much on the road.  It's like two different things.  We don't try and record while we're on the road.

AB:  I know that some bands, they're on the road all year and they only have so much time.

DH:  So they have to do it.

SM:  Yeah, it's a necessity.

DH:  Some bands probably like it too.  Less pressure.

MO:  There's a million and one ways to make a record, that's for sure.

AB:  Is there anything you guys want to tell the world?

MO:  It's a big world...

SM:  Get off our backs...

MO:  Yeah, get off our backs and buy our records!

AB:  Don't run with scissors?

CL:  Don't swim until at least twenty minutes after eating.

SM:  Try the guacamole.

DH:  Yeah, try the guacamole, man!

AB:  What, is that some sort of inside joke?

SM:  No, we just love it.

CL:  It's the summer of the avocado.