Interview with Anberlin

Interview with Stephen Christian lead singer of Anberlin

Q: What causes has Anberlin supported on the Warped tour?

A: Well you know we have been supporting To Write Love On Her Arms for a while now, almost a year, and we took them along with us on our headlining tour, but we just recently started to support Invisible Children and have started to open our eyes to the conflict in Africa, especially around Uganda. We are planning on setting up a benefit concert for I.C. sometime soon, so other than that To Write Love has been our main focus on the tour.

Q: What got you guys interested in To Write Love On Her Arms? Was it a personal experience or just something that happened?

A: Well we’ve been working with causes now for sometime, whether it is with World Vision or something, but To Write Love is just something we’ve really been interested in. I have my own organization that in January went to Calcutta, India to work against human trafficking, and I brought Jamie along (founder of To Write Love On Her Arms) and we were all talking and I just said “man why don’t you just come on tour with us and talk before each show and sell some merch?” and that started it all. And we feel its just a cause that we are called to and its really worth it.

Q: Were there any challenges in writing “Cities” like going on the softer side with “Inevitable” and “The Unwinding Cable Car?”

A: Well we just wanted to expand and say “all music is fair game.” You know we aren’t going to be scared of a ballad, or scared of a slow song, or scared of using strings, it was just really experimentation. We tried to work with different tones, we used different effects and mixers. London Bridge, where we recorded some, really did an amazing job with it all. Just knowing they’ve recorded the likes of Pearl Jam and all of those great bands really set the bar high for us. We had no idea what to expect going into it but it all turned out a lot better than we all thought.

Q: You guys like to cover 80’s songs like “Love Song” and “The Promise” what drove Anberlin to do that? And are there any more in store?

A: Well its just really a love for the music of that time, and its just some of the most innocent and fun music, you know we all grew up then so we just wanted to show appreciation to all those bands by attempting their songs. And we also did it because Anberlin can’t really cover a rap song or a country song, and any other genre would sound bad, you know you don’t want Anberlin singing “Free Bird” or anything like that. And who knows there might be more in store, we are thinking about it, but fans will just have to wait and see.