:: Monday, April 11, 2005 ::

The Wedding Interview
by Randy & Erika Brandt

Randy and Erika Brandt interviewed The Wedding on Monday at GMA 2005 in Nashville. The band consists of Kevin Kiehn(vocals/keys), Trevor Sarver (guitar), Cody Driggers (bass) and Clint Robinson (drums).

Note: Click for Randy's review of The Wedding's self-titled CD.

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The Interview

Kevin: I'm Kevin. I sing and play keys. I started playing with the beginnings of The Wedding in eighth grade back in junior high.

Trevor: I'm Trevor. I play guitar in the Wedding. Played in a different band called Easier Said, back in junior high and high school days, and that spawned into The Wedding.

Cody: I am Cody. I play the bass in The Wedding and I sing. I've been playing with old Kevin and Clint since back in the junior high days, about seventh or eighth grade.

Jeremy: I'm Jeremy aka Beans. I play guitar for The Wedding and I've been playing with them for about two months.

Randy: So you're the rookie of the group.

Clint: I'm Clint and I play the drums. I've been playing with some of these boys since junior high and what not. Been playing with this particular group for two years.

Randy: I saw that you basically got going with Sam from Bleach--he kinda helped you guys out a little bit. Who wants to talk a little bit about that process, how you got to know Sam and putting the demo together?

Trevor: Let Clint grab that one.

Randy: Okay, Clint.

Trevor: Take it home, Clint!

Clint: Well, we played with this band called Bleach and Sam is in that band.

Trevor: Look at Clint get all nervous and fidgety.

Clint: Oh, give me a break. He dug our music and what not, and he was like, "Hey y'all wanna come demo with me in Nashville," so we're like, "Heck, yeah." So we come up to Nashville and we're demoing and Mark Townsend, who has done Relient K's records, he was up there doing the Supertones most recent record, The Revenge of the Supertones, which everybody should buy. And he heard our stuff and he was interested cuz he just now started A-and-R'ing for Rambler Records, which is our label, and he was looking for a young band. So he got to help mix our demos and decided he liked our stuff, and that's basically about how we got signed. We owe our last to old Sammy B. He hooked us up quite a bit, I reckon.

Randy: That's adding some of that Arkansas flavor.

Clint: I was shaking the whole time.

Randy: I could see the beads of sweat on the video. No, you did a great job, Clint.

Clint: Thank you.

Erika: So is this your first time at GMA?

Cody: Yes. It's crazy. It's weird.

Kevin: I saw Michael W. Smith. He's my hero.

Trevor: I saw George Huff from American Idol. I saw Ashlee Simpson yesterday walking down the street. She is so fine.

Cody: We saw her! I watch her show every week!

Trevor: And we saw her and she looked at me and smiled.

Cody: She smiled at me, too. She caught me staring. I wanted to talk to her, but I was too scared. She's so pretty.

Erika: So the music on your new album--have you been playing those songs for a lot of years, or is it all new material?

Cody: Our new record are songs that we've been writing for the past couple years. Like the song on the record is actually our next single was the first song we wrote after I joined the band, which was my senior year of high school. So, it's been awhile. It's got a lot of old stuff and a lot of newer stuff; we took everything we had really.

Kevin: There's a wide range.

Randy: So in the future, are you working on any new material, or are you just busy in the moment with getting the CD out, doing tours, and GMA and all that stuff keeping you so busy you're not really thinking about new stuff right now?

Kevin: Yeah, we're pretty busy, but Trevor's been working on some stuff that we like a lot and we've messed around just a little bit, but nothing serious.

Cody: We've got some ideas flowing, but that's about it.

Trevor: We're churning some butter, little bit.

Randy: Alright. What's the tour schedule looking like? Got any major tours going out on on the next little while?

Trevor: We've got a lot of spot dates, actually. We've been doing a few tours here lately, but for May and June I know that we've got like forty dates.

Randy: Hitting some of the big festivals?

Trevor: Umm hmm. Cornerstone. We're going out with the Evan Anthem and Kids in the Way.

Randy: I saw Kids in the Way about a month ago in the Denver area. My son really likes them, and I like them too. I took my fourteen-year-old son, and we got to chat with Dave. They put on a great show. It was really good. They were opening for Skillet. That was a really good night.

Cody: They're really nice guys. We met them yesterday.

Randy: Have you seen the Flicker Rocks Harder DVD?

Trevor: Uh uh. I haven't seen it.

Randy: Oh, you'll have to check that out. It's hosted by Dave and Obadiah, and they have a little chatter between the songs. It's kinda like a TV show in the sense that they're chattering between the songs and doing stuff and they have videos from basically all the Flicker bands. It's pretty good. And the bonus on it is Kids in the Way, a live set, in the studio, playing probably five or six songs. It's a pretty cool DVD.

Trevor: Those guys are really cool.

Randy: So, who's the creative one in the band? Who comes up with the most original ideas, whether it's for songs or anything else?

Trevor: It's twenty five percent four ways.

Randy: It's all split up.

Cody: Yeah, pretty much everybody brings something to the table when it comes to the writing process. We've never really been the kind of band where somebody comes into practice and says, "Oh, I wrote this song."

Randy: Someone's got an idea and you develop it?

Cody: Somebody has like a two second riff and we work off that, and that's about it.

Trevor: Like right now, I've been working on some guitar parts and stuff like that. And the other day, Kevin was at my house and was like, "Hey, check this piano part out." It usually starts like that, you know what I mean?

Randy: Do you just start with the music and then add some lyrics later?

Trevor: Yeah, most the time it starts with music. That's just kinda how we been rolling for a while. Actually, Kevin took a different approach to writing here recently. Instead of while we were all writing together, he actually sat down and just watched us write and compose an entire song musically, then just came in and then sang. And that seemed to work out really cool. That kinda stuff is fun; messing around with different ideas and stuff. It's a lot of fun.

Randy: Do you all work on the lyrics too? Or do you just do a lot of the lyrics, Kevin?

Cody: Kevin's pretty much the lyric man.

Randy: Is that something you've always enjoyed doing when you where younger, or is that something you picked up as you got into music more?

Kevin: I never really did it. I think I wrote my first song in eighth or ninth grade. And just started then. I keep a journal. I've never done that before, but I keep a journal now. And just write a lot. It's not easy for me; I get writer's block a lot. And I'm not the kind of lyricist who sits down and pumps out a really deep, moving piece of work, but it's something I'm working on that I hope evolves by the second record, but I'm pleased with what we have on our first record.

Trevor: Yeah, we're all developing a lot as musicians for sure. Hanging out with people like Mark Townsend.

Randy: Experienced guy.

Trevor: Oh, yeah. When you got veterans like that guy, you can't help but just kinda want it to rub off on you. The production skills, the musicianship... the guy's incredible. It's insane.

Randy: It's worked out pretty well for Relient K working with him.

Trevor: I'm telling you. Yeah, and those guys are incredible too. Their musicianship is just stupid good. It's insane. But, we're all really excited about the creativeness that gonna happen for the second record. I'm sure it's gonna be super intense and show a new side of us.

Randy: So you have a multi-record deal with Rambler?

Trevor: Yes, we do.

Randy: So, that will keep you busy for a while. Looks like a good young label.

Trevor: It's funny: young label, veteran people. Veteran industry people.

Kevin: They're good. They're not what people expect. A lot of people don't realize how legit they are.

Randy: When did you sign with them?

Kevin: May of last year.

Randy: And pretty much started working on the album right away?

Kevin: Yeah, we started in June.

Randy: What about the ministry side of things? What do you guys see your role as, as far as positive role models? Trying to reach out to kids that don't know the Lord, encourage kids in the church, or a bit of both?

Kevin: I, at first, wanted to play in the secular market. I was diehard, I don't mind playing churches, but I wanted to play in the secular market and reach kids that don't hear Jesus that often and don't hear anything about Christianity, what we believe. But, we talked with our producer just a couple weeks ago and he really changed our minds about that. Now I want my ministry to be, no matter where I'm playing, I'm willing to play in front of Billy Graham or Ozzie Osborne, I don't really mind. My ministry, what I want to do when I get up there, as the front man, is just to let kids know that we're just normal people, we're just normal kids, that are playing music, and we're real people and we have real problems and real issues, but we have a real God that can help us out through that. And He can do the same in their lives as He has in ours. My goal is to keep things with our fans and our audience and the kids who like our music as real as possible and as much as a relationship between us and them. As big rock stars, which we are not all. I don't think I'll ever think of myself as that. Yeah, so that's my ministry: kids. Yeah, just talking to kids, and everyone just hanging out together.

Trevor: Whoever will listen.

Randy: So you'll allow old guys like me to come to your shows?

Trevor: Of course!

Cody: Of course, with open arms.

Trevor: Dude, if one kid gets it in our entire career, we're in the very infant stages of our career, like at the very end, if we look back and there's one kid that got what we were trying to tell'em about Christ and the love that He has and the happiness that you can have through Hhim, if there is one kid that gets it, that's gonna make our whole career completely worth what we did. Whether we do it for two years or ten years, it's gonna make every single second of it worth it.

Randy: Have some fun and impact people at the same time.

Trevor: Exactly.

Randy: Thanks, guys!

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