Interview with Lucas from Oh Sleeper

By Adam Warner - 2009

What kind of highlights are you guys hoping for on this tour?

For us this is like a dream come true, we all have been touring forever and this is kind of one of those tours that everyone just sort of dreams for since they first start touring. Our singer Micah, Every Time I Die is one of his favorite bands and so it is pretty surreal to be able to listen to some of these bands and you get to the point where you are touring with them. It is super cool though and we are super blessed. We are very lucky to be able to do this and this is an Epitaph [Records] tour and the fact that we got this tour is beyond me, but for whatever reason we got it and we couldn’t be more stoked; and we are really excited about it.

I assume you have had a chance to see Every Time I Die play?

I saw them once like a few years ago. We have all seen them play. Definitely not so much anymore, but back in the day, that was a big influence on me starting out in music. It’s cool to grow up and now we are like ‘ok cool, we get to say now we are going to go tour with this band’. I don’t listen to a lot of heavy music any more, but it is really cool.

Yeah there was one time where Every Time came through here I would say 3 or 4 times in less than 10 months. No disrespect to the recorded stuff, but wow to their live show, holy balls.

They are great. This whole show is really going to make them look super legit. We are really excited! We are not even… it’s weird because I know we are a heavy band, but some people don’t really consider us a heavy band. But for some reason whenever we tour with a heavy band I get a little nervous. I feel like on this tour we will fit in more so than we do on death metal tours. We don’t really do real well on that.

Obviously you have the really heavy part and then you have the more mellow part.
It’s melodic. Yeah it is hard finding that spot where you can fit in like tour wise. We just did a few shows with a band Silverstein, they are not heavy at all. They like rock but they are just, I don’t know. They had hardly any screaming at all. We tend to do really well on shows where we are the heaviest band. It’s real weird man. When we tour with heavier bands I don’t feel like our response is as good as it is when we tour with less rock bands. I am anxious to see what this tour does for us.

Do you guys find it hard being a Christian band in this genre that is traditionally known for more evil meanings?

Not really! The whole Christian band thing, and I know that every Christian band says this, that whole thing is for us we are just a bunch of dudes that sing about what we want to sing about. We are not here to convert anyone or preach to anyone. And to be completely honest this summer we did a completely full blown Christian tour. It was really uncomfortable for us. It sounds weird but I don’t know but we are not that kind of band. We sing about what we want to sing about, we sing about the spiritual struggles we go through as a band, and we are not really here to try and push that on to anyone, I mean we want people to respect us and we want to give people respect. Some of our best friends, and some of the best tours we have done where non-Christian tours, with non-Christian bands. We meshed really well so, I personally prefer non-Christian tours, but that is just me. I know it is weird because I know especially today is the first day [of the tour] so I know that all the other bands are looking at us like this is the Christian band on the tour. Hopefully a few days into this they will realize that we are just here to have fun like they are. Whatever they believe is cool and whatever we believe hopefully they respect it. That is what touring is about, that is what friendship is about, and that is what life is about. Meeting people from all different walks of life and beliefs and so I think it will go over really well actually.

Do you guys still keep in touch with Ryan?
Conley? Yeah his wedding was two days ago. We were all groomsmen in the wedding. We went home after the tour we did this summer and we had a week home and in that week we did bachelor party, wedding rehearsal, wedding and so yeah this whole last week we spent with him. We did a two day, twenty mile canoe trip down the Bravis River in Texas. That was kinda his bachelor party that he wanted to do. Then his wedding was two days ago, and he is heading to I believe it is Barcelona to do a Mediterranean Cruise. He is doing awesome, he joined the Navy. He is ships out for boot camp in November and he is married now and doing great.

No rest for the wicked for you guys.

He is still one of our best friends. As far as I am concerned he is still just as much a part of this band as he ever was.

For Sure! Son of the Morning is still #7, on billboards Christian top ten Christian Albums.

Sweet!

How does that feel to be in the top ten?

It is really cool man. I wasn’t aware of the Christian charts or whatever to me it is really easy to be a big Christian band. I feel like it is really easy for Christian bands to sell a lot of records. It is really easy for Christian bands to be in buses and do these huge youth group tours and stuff. When you asked me earlier what it is like being on tours like this, I like being on tours like this because I feel like it is more accurate. You put Oh Sleeper up next to a non-Christian band then let’s see where we are on the billboard you know. It is cool and I am super thankful and totally stoked that we are that high, but when we are compared with other bands I wanna be in their with all the real bands.

I think in the general rock category I believe you where 40 or 41.

Yeah. Which is still amazing for me; that is a great ranking. That is hilarious because the day our record came out we where riding between, this is funny but we right between I believe it was Alice in Chains and George Strait.

Wow!

For me it was really cool. I am a big George Strait fan. Which is kind of funny, but it is awesome man. That day we were all checking iTunes all day; being completely stoked. Christian or not, anyone who buys our record we are still grateful. It’s one of those things where just knowing that people have our record in their hands and they are listening to our music, what else can you ask for? At the end of the day this is hard for me to do because I am a numbers guy, but at the end of the day gotta just not look at billboards, you gotta not look at record sales, because you will always be disappointed. Especially someone like me, because I have really high expectations and I am a pretty competitive person. When we are 7^th and we are not 5^th or 4^th you know

You start to question why.

Exactly. So I am trying to just sit back and be like wow 7^th. Like wow holy crap we are very lucky. We are very grateful and I get to do what I love every day of my life. And people seem to enjoy it. I can’t really think of anything cooler in life.

Son of the Morning seemed to have more direct messages in it opposed to I am God which had more metaphors, was that intentional?

Yes. I mean, I am not saying this is why that happened or that this is why that is so, but I remember having a conversation with Micah and I told him ‘dude the most standout parts of I am God are the parts where he just cut to the chase and said ‘Hey this is what we are about, this is what we do and this is what we believe’’. I told him ‘dude if that is what you are feeling and the direction you are headed don’t be afraid’. The last record we had a lot of people asking what are they about? What is this all about? With this one I was like let’s just put it out there so there isn’t really any confusion. I believe it is bold but not in a cheesy, CCM kind of way. That is what we wanted to stray from something that even someone who is not a believer or not a Christian could still listen to and enjoy it. Even if they weren’t looking for that spiritual reinforcement that we are looking for, hopefully at least they got some sort of positive encouragement or motivation to become a better person or overcome in the fight. Or overcome whatever they are going through, it doesn’t have to be all spiritual stuff or religion it can just be anything in there daily life. I feel like our band has always been a band that is about pressing on and fighting. Especially if it is for the things that you believe in whatever it is. We are trying not to pigeon hole our message to a certain crowd we are just trying to get something in there where any listener of any broad genre could just tune in and relate to in some way.

You have mentioned people getting a lot of motivation, do you get a lot of letters or feedback from the fans where they let you know how a song has helped them deal with a situation or something like that, do you guys get a lot of that?

Oh yeah everyday. Everyday Myspace messages, emails, kids lives are… especially since this record came out, kids lives are getting wrecked, whatever or however you want to call that. I really do believe that people are being delivered from things that they struggle with, I think people are getting that courage and strength that they are looking for and are finding that will to fight; something to fight for, something to fight in. For me I get choked up to this day, I get messages from people who have lost their parents in a car crash and I felt really alone and listening to your record really helped me, it encourages me to press on and continue on. When I read stuff like that I think we don’t have a clue. We all have it really easy, let’s be real, I get paid to tour around the world, and I get paid to jump around on stage and act like an idiot and there are people out there with real problems and for whatever reason they chose to listen to our band and they get encouraged by it, and that is the ultimate satisfaction of being in a band; more so than playing a sold out show, selling records and making money, getting those emails that is the greatest satisfaction you can get from doing what we do. Another thing we do is get messages from the troops, like people who are either home from Iraq, or still in Iraq. I sent a Christmas care package to a troop in Iraq who was a really big fan and he wrote us and said that he missed his wife and stuff. So I just boxed up a bunch of shirts and CD’s and sent it to him you know.

Oh wow!

It is stuff like that man, you have people over there with bigger problems, they could die at any moment, and we have it super easy. There are dudes over there dying for our freedom. That is the least that we can do.

For you guys it is just a couple or shirts and CD’s but for them it is a really big deal.

Yeah like this band took time out of their day to mail something to Iraq.

That is huge.

It is one of those things for me to think, I don’t want recognition or credit for that, that is just our duty. If we did what we did, and had bands in Iraq that did what they did, and we didn’t honor them, I would feel like a douche bag. That is just like a no brainer for me. Let’s give the respect where respect is due. Some of the greatest musicians that happen to write music when those who are impacted by and they are over there and they have to keep fighting for us I don’t understand that sort of dedication. It is super inspiring.

It is widely known that Son of the Morning, is about the final battle of God and the Devil. Is that your guys’ interpretation from things that you have gotten out of the bible or is more your interpretation on your own struggles in life.

I think more just our own struggles, I mean I don’t speak for everyone but a lot of us aren’t really even that religious dudes. For me I know that my relationship with God is a very personal relationship. I love God a whole lot and I try to be a good dude, but as far as religion goes and church goes I really don’t know how much of that really plays a part in this band. I mean of course you know we are all believers. I think that the way Micah writes stuff like I said earlier is written in a way that even if you don’t really believe in the God that we believe in that you can take what we are saying and apply it to other situations. I guess just to sum it up its general idea is the ultimate victory over evil. Or Victory over whatever it is. We happen to tie it into spiritual warfare. There is nothing in the bible that talks about God physically harming the devil. That was just kind of our take on it, and we kind of threw in some sweet adjectives to make it cooler to read.

Colorful.

We are all pretty nerdy dudes; we all read comic books and watch nerdy movies. So when you get an image of God, literally cutting the devils horns off. Like you said it colors it up a little. When I read that and I remember when he showed me the lyrics I was like Wow. As far as spirituality goes there is not really a greater insult then it was like when I read that last line it was like really cool I didn’t feel like it was that cheesy. At the same time I felt like any one who read that would say that it is bad ass. Really that is the only word I can describe is that, that it is bad ass. I know that we get a lot of slack from Christian people that think that it’s too violent, or that we put a pentagram on the front of our record and that pisses people off. Like I said, more so than religion we are just doing what we do. Trying to express trials that we go through, and hopefully we can help someone man. This is more than just… we are not here to try and convert people, shove anything down anyone’s throat or anything or offend anyone. We are just doing what we do and if people get something out of it that is awesome, that is really what we are trying to do.

You have mentioned the cutting off the horns on the cover album, what is your interpretation of the cover album? Micah did an interview recently where he kind of spelled out his interpretation of it, what is yours?

That goes back to what I was saying to me that symbol means the ultimate victory. As far as I am concerned that’s it, and we all really at this point are all going to get that symbol tattooed on our selves, Micah and I already have it tattooed on us. We already have 10-15 people who have sent us pictures and they already have that tattoo. There were a couple dudes who had sent us in that tattoo before the record had even dropped. There are people who are really latching onto that, and we more or less just want to take that symbol to when people see that symbol they think of Oh Sleeper. We don’t even have to put our name on that, just that when they see that symbol they make the correlation. We have 8 foot banners that we hang from stages with that on it; t is on our merch; more or less it is like an iconic thing. Without being disrespectful when you see a swastika you see a Nazi symbol, automatically that’s what you think of. That is obviously what we wanted to do, well in the reverse. But when you see that symbol automatically you are like oh cool that is Oh Sleeper, or that is victory.

People are going to naturally put their own feelings behind it.

Yes.

Meanings, things behind it, things like that.

Yes absolutely.

Son of The Morning just released just a few short weeks ago, what is next for you guys after this tour?

We have a couple of days off, then we are doing a co-headliner with another band on our label called The Chariot. I think that is going to be just some more southern stuff. We are from Texas, they are from Georgia. For us we haven’t headlined anything super serious for awhile so that is going to be cool to do a headliner with those guys.

Are they still just the three guys or do they have more members?

They have got a full band now.

When they first really hit the scene I wanna say there was only 3 of them.

Yeah they have a full band now. We toured with them in the summer. That is when we met up with them. These dudes are super cool, let’s do a tour with just these guys. So we are doing a co-headliner and the idea obviously is that we are a south state band and they are a south state band so naturally we said let’s take 2 non-Christian openers. Same thing as this we don’t want to make this a Christian tour. We don’t want to make it something like where people feel alienated where like they think they can’t come because it is a certain sect of people. So we have two bands, we have a band called We Came As Romans, and some of our friends from Canada called Dead and Devine. They are going to do the tour with us, and then right after that we go into another headliner with a band called Impending Doom. And that will be a little heavier.

When I first saw them I went into that show not having any idea what they where about, never having heard of them, and when we got there it was like Shit they are awesome. They are doing brutal death metal and then they were like Praise Jesus we all Love you, and then right back into it. It was such a weird transition.

I have never met those dudes but I have heard their CD. That tour for us is going to be a good test for us. We are really scared to do heavy tours. Because whenever we do heavy tours we are always the soft band.

Last question, if you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

I would probably go back to school and finish my degree in Psychology. I would love to be like a child therapist.

Like in counseling?

Yes I would love to do something like that.

Social service?

Yes so if the band ended today I would probably just go back to school to do something like that.

Well Lucas I appreciate your time and we’ll see you later.
Thanks Adam, take care.