I could hardly wait for Anberlin’s performance. Earlier in the day, I had interviewed Stephen Christian, the lead vocalist for the band, and from the moment the members stepped onto the stage to Stephen Christian’s leave at the end of the set, fans were screaming lyrics, pumping their fists in the air, and picking each other up to crowd-surf to the front stage. While Anberlin didn’t play songs off of their new album, which is set for release on September 30th, they did justice to their fans by choosing a variety of songs off of the three successful albums they have released so far. And I can’t deny that I wanted to go read Stephen’s book, donate to his cause, and learn every Anberlin song after he saw me in the photo pit, recognized me, and pointed directly at me from the stage mid-performance. He’s one of the most inspirational, positive people I’ve ever met, and I am very excited to share with the readers my interview with him below.

D: Could you introduce yourself to readers?
S: Sure, my name is Stephen Christian, and I sing for the band Anberlin.
D: How would you describe your music?
S: I think all musicians would hope that their music is revolutionary and genre defying, but it’s rock-and-roll with a little bit of indie in there.
D: What image do you think Anberlin conveys to the public?
S: Hopefully the deeper you dig into Anberlin the more you get out that we’re a band with causes and beliefs and that we’re trying to send out a positive message instead of filling the airwaves with just ‘blah, blah, sheep, I love her because she has pretty eyes’. I just hope our music has an underlying theme. This new album has a lot of themes such as fighting homelessness, finding what truly matters out of life, and we have a song about the seconds before you die.
D: That leads me to my next question. In a past interview, you stated that each album seemed to progress. Blueprints [For The Black Market] was man vs. world, Never Take Friendship [Personal] was man vs. man, and Cities was man vs. self. Would you classify New Surrender, coming out in September?
S: This one is finally enough with the man, and it’s all about everyone else. I realized that this world is not just about me. This life is not supposed to be about man vs. something or us vs. them; it’s all of us together. To create change, it’s awesome that one person can go out and be a leader or a forefront for change like Muhammed, Ghandi, or Martin Luther King Jr. but it takes an entire people, an entire culture, and community to make the change in the world.
D: Even though you guys don’t label yourselves as a Christian band, your faith is still very important to you. Can you tell the readers a little bit about the influence that God has in your lives and in your music?
S: God is the influence. I don’t sit down and try to write a Christian song. I think as a lyricist, everything you’ve experienced thus far in your life is the source where everything comes from. To say that I separate myself from God or try to say that my band is not Christian or that I’m not a Christian, well I don’t understand how people put it into boxes because you’re all the same person. God has a huge place in my life, but it’s an everyday thing. It’s not one song here or a label here. I live this life, I live out my faith, and if it comes out in the music then that’s great. If people can learn something, or walk away changed, or learn from my failures or successes, than you know what? All the better. I think sometimes people cite us as “Oh, you like Anberlin? You know, they’re Christians.” I don’t remember there were that many Christian bands that were good. You know, now we have guys like Switchfoot, Forever the Sickest Kids, and Norma Jean who are good bands. Five or six years ago it was Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Plus One. I was like ‘dude, this industry sucks!’”
D: I’m not going to lie. I still have Plus One on my ipod.
S: You do? You really have it?
D: Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing.
S: Actually, one of them is my friend. Nathan Walters. Anyways, he’s a great guy.
D: So one of my good friends, Geoff Johnson, is a huge fan, and he has a question for you; he wants to know what your favorite song is that you’ve recorded.
S: Wow, that’s so hard. There are some sentimental reasons, like “Readyfuels” because that was our first “single”; it got us signed. The one I would listen to all the time wishing it wasn’t Anberlin was “Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen”. I love that one. As far as meaning, bearing my soul, and revealing it all, is “*Fin”. It’s my life.
D: For our last question, when everything is all said and done, what do you want to be remembered for?
S: Geoff Johnson’s favorite band.
D: He’s going to love that.
S: Okay, that the short time we had as a platform, that we didn’t use it for sex, drugs, rock and roll. That we actually went out and tried our hardest to make a difference in this world, whether it was through helping out and starting up companies and organizations like To Write Love on Her Arms, or starting our own like Faceless International, or going out every day of Warped Tour and being right alongside the fans, doing autographs, and acoustic sets, and that we did everything we could to give back for all that people have done for us. That we were actually a friend of there’s and not just some music that a radio station got. That we didn’t take our time for granted.