Interview with Downhere - Under The Radar

A band that I have quickly fell in love with (especially) this last year is Downhere. The more I dig into their music, the more there is to find. I've told folks that they are now one of my favorite bands of *all time*! I had the privilege of interviewing Jason and Glenn from Downhere and here is the first part of that conversation:

DT: How did the band get started?
Jason: Well, we've had several different starts because it's kind of been an incremental start. The ball got rolling when Marc and I met the year after high school & we started writing together. We met Jeremy and Glenn back in 2000. We're all Canadians but we met Glenn in Florida of all places and started the Band in 2001.

DT: Your last non-holiday album was called "Ending is Beginning." What was your overall theme on the CD?
Jason: Yeah, the title really is kind of the whole thing - pretty much every song goes through some sort of fallout - whether it be close and personal, internal or external. You know some level of things kind of coming apar. And that's kind of the season we're in, in an almost global sense. I think Under The Radar might play a track like "Cathedral Made of People" or something like that. That song speaks to, really its a theme throughout, just that God's economy, God's timeline, His purposes are standing alone but part of history. Regardless of what happens in the now, He's building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's one of the themes on the record.

DT: One song that's really taken off is "How Many Kings" - which you dared to re-make last year.
Glenn: "How Many Kings" has done fairly well for us. It's sort of like been this thing we didn't expect. There were radio stations who added it at Christmas time and play it till the next Christmas time because the listeners are requesting it. We recorded a whole new version of that song with Jason singing, re-harmonized the whole song and we're calling it "How Many Kings Re-Imagined". It's really cool that we have two lead singers - two singers and two writers that one can take the other's song and say, "Well, this is how I maybe would have done it."
Jason: It's cool that we're covering our own song. [Laughing] It's one of the only bands that have two different vocalists who have two different vocal ranges that can really do that.
Glenn: Let's be the first band to cover our own songs! Yeah, it's pretty cool - mix it up. You know, we should do an entire record where you (Jeremy) sing Marc's songs and Marc sings your songs.
Jason: I had that thought. I was thinking a good title would be "Dr. Hyde and Mr. Jekyll."

DT: Can you guys pick on one of your Centricity label mates?
Jason: Yeah. Lanae Hale! I have a soft spot for simple, accessible songs that are said in a poetic & new, fresh way. It doesn't have to be conceptually a big thing for me to really go to that space and indulge in that idea. Lanae's voice is complex enough to really sell the ideas she's singing about. I don't know if you've seen her live... but wowe! Unbelievable!

DT: What's the story being your unique album Thunder After Lightening?
Jason: Yeah, that's the B-Side album.
Glenn: What's funny about this album is that this album has been getting confused as just another one of our albums. When we record an album, we spend a lot of time and a lot of money to get the sounds we want and do it all really well. But before we do that, Jason and Marc spend a lot of time in their home studios just raking over the songs and getting the demos ready. But it's not like thousands of dollars spent. And those are the songs that are on this record, not the big dollar ones. So there's been some confusion. Some people have said, "Downhere has really changed their sound a little bit." No. That's just what happens on a demo album.
Jason: A painter would draw up a pencil sketch first. And that's Thunder After Lightening. It's our pencil sketches of songs that potentially could go on a record but never did. We're thinking, "These pencil sketches are pretty cool. Why don't we share them with people?"

DT: Tell me about the song "All At War".
Jason: Yeah, I'm glad you asked me about that song. I'm glad someone cares about that song! It's actually one of my favorites that I've written. To me it's a "full" song. It's a confession about the belief in the Gospel. Paul talked about it... there's part of me that's fighting my own flesh. It's intended to be a conversation in front of God, saying, "I want you to know that I know that You know that I struggle with this. But I also know that You've conquered this." Everything's at war in me, but I live in the promise.

DT: What do you guys miss most about Canada?
Glenn: I actually live there still. I moved back... so when I'm not there, I miss my boys and my wife and my house.
Jason: I miss the open space, the country air, hang drying laundry, hearing some sort of animals running around the yard, big yards, lots of lakes. I don't miss mosquitoes!

Downhere is the special guest on January 22nd's All-Canadian Episode #62 of "Under The Radar". If you want to start your music collection of Downhere, I would suggest downloading these 4 songs as a good starter pack: "Great Are You" (from Downhere), "Little Is Much" (from Wide-Eyed & Mystified), "The Problem" and "My Last Amen" (both from Ending is Beginning).