***Brandtson***
(a conversation with Fay Jakymec)

Unlike some bands that are content to keep the same sound throughout their existence, Deep Elm band Brandtson has successfully reinvented itself. Even though the dark, harsh guitars of their debut Letterbox was an instant hit, they climbed out on limb taking things in a more pop-ish direction with their follow up Fallen Star Collection. I recently sat down with guitarist Matt Traxler and bassist John Sayre. While being huddled on a curb in a Michigan March evening with only a lighter to see my questions and the occasional strain of small town hardcore assaulting our ears isn't exactly the most ideal situation to hold an interview in, the guys graciously answered my questions on Christianity and the arts.

Fay: Why aren't you guys playing at Cornerstone?
John: Basically.I guess the guy who had been running it for years and years isn't running it now and somebody new took over and they just booked the bands a lot earlier this year than they ever did before.
Matt: We just didn't get asked and we called and tried to get on and it was all full so.
John: We're pretty bummed about it, but.
Matt: We're bummed, but whatever.
John: It happens
Matt: There's plenty of other stuff to play.
Fay: You guys have a new album coming out?
Matt: Well, not an album it's an EP. We're on tour now and we're going to be recording in a couple weeks and it's just going to be like six songs, so six new songs.
Fay: Do you know when that's going to come out?
Matt: Um. I'm not positive. My guess would be.
John: I would assume.
Matt: What is today? *laughing * It's March. My guess would be early May, somewhere around there, but I'm not positive.

(discussion about which songs they had played that night that were new)

Fay: The last interview I did with you (Matt) was for Bandoppler. In that you said that you had had opportunities to go with Christian labels when Brandtson was first starting out but you waited them out. Why was that?
Matt: Umm.we just kind of from the start.like all of us in the band are Christians, but just kind of from the start wanted to stay away from the whole Christian scene. We'd had bad experiences from being in other bands that were on Christian labels in the past and everything I saw of how some of the more well known Christian labels were run I just didn't really want anything to do with. I don't know.we're just playing the music that we like and don't feel that we need to.we don't need to use Christ as a selling point.so I don't know.there are several reasons, but I mean kind of in a nutshell that's it I guess.
Fay: Do you think like a lot of bands in the Christian music industry are doing that - using Christ as a selling point?
John: I don't know if it's so much the bands cause I mean we've met a lot of Christian bands on Christian labels and they're all, from my experience, pretty genuine. I think when.anytime you put God and business together it gets kind of ugly.personally, it's just.I don't know.I think you have to walk the tightrope and I think in some cases labels tend to go for the profit more than.you know.whatever evangelistic motives they have.
Matt: I think it's also like a built in market that no matter what you put out on a Christian label if you make it look cool. I mean you can make your CD look cool and you can advertise it however to appeal to anybody in.outside the Christian market and there's still no better chance of it selling than any other record, but because there's such a tight close on the Christian market.there's only a handful of bands that kids are really into within the whole Christian scene so that anything that certain labels put out it's guaranteed they're going to sell so many of many of them because those kids are only supposedly only allowed to listen to "Christian" music, so anything that comes out they're going to buy so that they can have new records. That's understandable, but it's like.I don't know. I would rather us sell our records on playing the songs that we like and people liking our songs or liking our live set than because it's on a certain label or because it's in the Christian bookstore they'll buy it. I don't know I'm just babbling.
John: Well I guess the bottom line is basically, we don't necessarily have anything against Christian labels if that's what.you know...if that's what they do and that's that their thing that's cool we just didn't feel like that's where we belonged. It's pretty much that simple. It took twenty minutes to get there, but....*laughing *
Fay: I did this whole thing on Christians and the arts with another person and I thought it was a really good idea, so that's basically what the rest of the questions are, not anything.
Matt: That's cool.
Fay: Okay
John: Nothing that's going to get us in trouble.
Fay: No. *laughing *
Matt: Is that helping at all?
Fay: Yeah it is.
Matt: Or am I just annoying you? *laughing * Borderline catching you on fire.
John: Pyromaniac