Matt Carter Interview: Bad Christian & Emery; 10 Years ‘The Question’
Christian rock band Emery has been rocking stages for nearly 15 years and this year they spent most of their time reminiscing over the 10 year anniversary of their hit record The Question in spite of releasing new project, You Were Never Alone.
Founding member and guitarist Matt Carter took some time of to chat about the big anniversary, getting old, podcasting while on the road, and finding enjoyment through the many facets of his career.
Carter is grateful for all the fans the band has accumulated over the years and can’t believe people still care about Emery’s music.
“The interesting thing about it to me is the age of the people. On the one hand there’s the age of the people who were listening to The Question when it came out. But half the people at these shows, I’m certain were too young to be Emery fans when it came out, which means they found out about it because older brothers and youth group leaders and people that showed them the music after the fact,” Carter said.
He said it is encouraging to see the different age gaps between the audience. It shows Emery that they have the ability to reach a broad audience.
“The most fortunate thing about our band is that most people continually had gotten into the band later and later, so we don’t just have fans from 10 years ago, we have fans from five years and they still like our old stuff,” stated Carter. “So that’s way beyond my imagination of what I originally thought.”
One would think doing a entire tour of old songs would be counterproductive to what Emery is trying to accomplish. After all, You Were Never Alone was released on May 19 and they have yet to tour it out. However, this is not the case with the band. They are doing this on purpose.
“It’s not really that bad because there’s something more scary about playing new songs. I don’t want to play the new songs in the sense that it’s a little scary and intimidating to learn them,” the guitarist admitted. “I mean we’ve been playing “Walls” or “It’s So Cold I can See My Breath” for 10 years. I know how to play it, I know it’s going to go well. Playing the new songs is a little fun and really rewarding, but it’s scarier. You don’t know what moments in the new songs will work well. You don’t know how it will translate live.”
Carter said while they love the new songs, learning to play them live and fit them into a live setting is a totally different deal entirely.
They can take some solidarity that some of the songs on the anniversary tour will be new to them in the sense that they were never before played live. “It’s very validating to play ‘The Terrible Secret’ and ‘Miss Behavin’ and songs like that, that we never had an excuse or opportunity to play live before. In a way we are playing new songs as well.”
Emery is only leaving out two songs that former bassist Devin Shelton sings on because it is simpler and makes more sense in the context of the set.
For those wanting to hear some of the newer tracks, after they play the record front to back, they come back out for an encore that includes a few fan favorites and some new tracks.
Although many of these songs are old, Carter revealed that some of the ones they never played before are proving to be difficult to pull off live. He said the song “The Terrible Secret” “is not going very well. It’s difficult.”
He continued, “I don’t know what it is, we played it the whole last tour and I don’t know what it is but for whatever reason that song is super simple sounding and poppy but I don’t really think it sounds good when we play it. It feels like it doesn’t work and I can’t figure out the reason why and it’s kind of frustrating.”
The band has always been known for their crazy stage presence and their ability to rock just as hard as the fans in the mosh pits. However, they are admittedly slowing down as they get older.
“…at the time we started doing it in 2001, we were starting to be energetic and move around on stage in a way that wasn’t all that common. Then at some point during our career it became more standard and more ubiquitous that people were really aggressive and physically moving around on stage,” Carter said. “I mean we are older guys. No matter how committed we were to it, there is physically no way we could have done what we had being doing on stage. The trick for us is to still try to convey the energy and intensity. We jump off of less things and head bang at a slower rate.”
The Question and You Were Never Alone are concept records. While all the songs don’t necessarily flow together, the tracks by themselves create some sort of bigger meaning to the theme of the record.
The 36-year-old explained that usually the songs are original compositions that are not tied to one another. When all gathered he feels one of the most important aspects of the record is arranging them together.
“To me, it really does bug me when things don’t flow well or you have a song in the same key or two in a row. Sometimes it’s actually good, it is an artistic judgment call how does one song flow to another. Sometimes I think two songs in weird keys, like the key change from one song to another, is just too weird so that can’t be the order of the album.”
And while there are no set in stone plans as to any new music coming, Carter revealed that he and drummer dave Powell are already concocting a new way to approach drums for the next record. “We were talking about how we are going to use cymbals and what type of drum patterns we are going to use. It is very preliminary but that’s the first step,” he said.
“What is the overall idea for the album? What should it feel like? What would be the progressively forward boundary pushing musical moves? Should it be louder? Should it be softer? Should it be more dead? Should it be more big and obnoxious? Those kinds of decisions start first and then that helps us refine going further what we want to do. Progress is what we are looking for.”
Another aspect of Emery’s longevity is their ability to always stay relevant. Perhaps growing even more popular than their music is their Bad Christian Podcast, which features Carter, vocalist Toby Morrell, and former bassist Joey Svendsen. On BCP they have all sort of guests in the entertainment field that talk about everything from religion, sex, music, and social issues.
The toughest part about the podcast is that they do it on the road which is “awful” and “terrible,” according to Carter.
He continued, “It seems like it would be easier because we are together but the day comes and goes so fast because we travel and travel. There is so many demands on your time of the day now. Like I have to record a podcast today, and then I have to edit one and post it tonight. Then we have to play the show and come back and get on my computer to get it [podcast] ready, write a description, post it.”
“You have an interview right now, you have to play a VIP set, get your set times down, ‘oh and guess what?’ you still have to do the podcast, you have to get those out…it feels like there’s no free time.”
Between balancing Emery’s electric set, recording, and doing the podcast, Carter said he gets the most enjoyment out of their acoustic VIP set. “It’s so fresh and organic and we are able to play different songs. It’s really super vulnerable. I’ve really been enjoying that a ton.”
However, in general he “loves” the podcast and does not mind pouring all his creativity and energy into it.
“I still like making records but playing our live show as much as it sounds bad to admit, is probably the least satisfying thing I do. I like actually being on tour. I like the energy of it and being around people. I like the thoughts and conversations that come out of it but the 45 minutes or hour and 15 minutes that I’m on stage is one of the less gratifying things,” he said begrudgingly. “I know that’s not really the best thing to say to a concert attender but that’s where I’m at right now.”
Right now the podcast is helping him sustain his career and do what he loves. It is larger than he ever thought it would grow to be and he is comfortable if it stays exactly the same. While he thinks there is room to grow to is more fond of the stability it has offered.
“The audience we have is so good and I feel so comfortable talking to them, that’s the whole idea in the first place,” said Carter. “Instead of focusing on growth growth growth, how can we really maximize, enjoy, and serve well people that are enjoying this? Make it fun for us and then and then whatever happens…it’s already totally successful from my point of view.”
As far as any plans for the future concerning the podcast, Carter said everything is pretty last minute as they go from week to week. “We’ll figure out who we’re going to talk to next, next week.”
He acknowledges there are so many people to talk to but sense no urgency in it. “‘Oh you gotta get Matt Tiessen from Relient K’ and my point of view on that is, ‘Yeah, well definitely do that’. I don’t have to do it next week. There’s so much to do and it’s so endless that I’m sure we’re going to talk to a million great people. I’m just going to worry about next week, next week.”
Carter’s closing statement, “I never know how to answer this question. Does anyone ever say anything good?”
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