The four guys that make up the rock band Pillar have seen quite a progression in both their music and their album sales. Yet the pressure for success is as big on this album as ever, says the band. In this interview, the guys tell us about their brand new record, the pressures that linger and being ashamed of what they used to be.
Matt: New album. New tour. A lot of things on the horizon. How are you guys feeling?
Noah: We can't sleep at night. (Laughs.)
Rob: Yeah, we're getting excited.
Well, let's talk about the new record. You decided to work with Travis Wyrick again. A lot of bands like to work with a different producer on each album, so what makes you decide to stay with the same one?
Kalel: It takes a lifetime to figure one person out. Why would we decide to go with a bunch?
What does that continuity bring to the recording process?
Rob: One of the things with Wyrick is that he understands us as people and we have a really close friendship with him as well. A lot of times, recording in the studio can be stressful. With this particular record, we were told that this had to be the record of our career.
When you're under that pressure, you don't wanna go in and work with someone you've never worked with. We wanted to have at least a little comfort and somebody's opinion that we respect. Plus, Travis's resume and portfolio just keeps growing and growing with various artists that he works with and his knowledge and his ideas... he's very respected by us, our manager, the label. So he's really... I don't think there was really even a question of not going with him.
Now, we've had discussions and he knows that someday we will have to go to a different producer. In the evolution of a career, you have to work with someone different at some point. But for this particular record like I just said that are in play, Travis was the guy.
What do you mean by the intense pressure you are under?
Kalel: I think it is this way for every band. They always feel like every record has to be this way. They always feel that pressure. But our last album, Where Do We Go From Here?, we felt it was a strong record but, honestly, when we were done recording it, we were already thinking, "What do we have to do to this next record to make it better?"
Okay, but you make it sound as if the pressure is more intense on this one. Is someone physically saying that this is a make or break album?
Rob: Yes, our management said that so many times through the recording process that this has to be the record of your career. You have to write the best you've ever written.
Is that just to keep you at the top of your game?
Rob: At this point in our career, there has to be something there right now for us to say that we're gonna do this for awhile. For bands that stick around for awhile, they consistently have good albums. For us right now, if we went in and recorded 12 junk tracks and threw them on a record, our career... that would be it. There's no coming back from something like that at this point. Plus there's a long gap between albums. We had so long to work on it, there can be reason why it shouldn't be a great album.
Every musician or band talks about their upcoming album as the best thing they have done to this point. But with this pressure, how are you feeling about this collection of songs?
Rob: Well, I think overall - collectively - by far, this is the best album we have written. It's so cliche for artists to say that. But we really believe that because of all the blood, sweat and tears that went into making it.
Was this a harder album to record than the others?
Rob: Well, as far as recording goes, it was actually the easiest. But we chose to put a lot of hard work in. It was hours of sitting at home trying to write and come up with concepts and ideas for songs. Throwing away countless pieces of paper and notebooks. So we chose to put in a lot of hard work. It wasn't hard to record. We just chose to work hard.
After recording three albums worth of songs already, what well do you have to go to for creativity to come up with another ten or twelve songs?
Kalel: Musically, we just try to jam year-round. All the time, you know? Even now, Noah is writing riffs. You should be writing non-stop.
Noah: As a musician, I feel that even when you go through your slumps, you need to be writing because that's still part of the evolution of where you are going. If you're constantly writing, even if it's crap, that is setting you up for what's to come. So even if it's crap, I never throw it away. You can always [use] one thing for something else anyway or that will help you write better.
Rob: Lyrically, it's one of those things of always having to have your eyes open. You can always write a song about anything. Road signs can give you an idea for a song, you know? Sometimes just watching movies, reading books or hearing or finding stories to write about... sometimes you hear a story and you think, "That's crazy!" and it makes you want to write.
Is there anything musically you've been listening to that has found its way onto the new record?
Kalel: No, I don't think so. A long time ago, before the Where Do We Go From Here? record, I know we were listening to Sevendust a lot. It seemed like that found its way onto a few songs.
Noah: I think that's part of finding your way as musicians. Because we don't want to sound like anyone else. We don't strive for that, but we just write what we want to write. I can honestly tell you that thinking about the stuff I have listened to over the last few years, it comes out in little spurts, but you would never know it. It just becomes its own.
Tell me about the Days of Reckoning tour that you guys are doing later this fall. Who are you on the road with?
Rob: We've got Day of Fire, The Showdown and Kids in the Way going out with us.
All four bands are there every night or is it a rotation of some kind?
Rob: All four bands every night. So it'll be a good line-up each night.
Is that the bread and butter for you guys or is it studio time that you love most?
Rob: It has to be both.
Kalel: Yeah, it's both, although you get tired of both. When you're in the studio, you're excited about that. But after a month of that, you're ready to go on the road. And when you start a tour, you're excited. But when you're six weeks into it, you're ready to go home. But it's cool to be able to do both, to rotate back and forth.
Are you guys fans of the bands that are coming out with you?
Rob: I've always liked Kids in the Way. The Showdown and Day of Fire, I don't know a lot of their music, but I'm looking forward to hearing them and getting to know them.
We were talking earlier about the musical evolution and I want to go back to that. What do you think of those early days? For example, when I mention Above, your first album, what goes through your mind?
Rob: Please God make it stop. (Laughs.) No, you know what, as funny as it is for us to look back at that record and just laugh now, it was a stepping stone for us. If we were to put out that album now, we would not have gotten signed off of it. But when we came into the industry... that was the stepping stone for us. We wouldn't have had Fireproof if we wouldn't have had Above. As you said, it's an evolutionary process of building and growing on each album. But now, you look back and can't believe we put that record out.
So needless to say you never go back to just listen to the record?
Rob: No, I don't listen to any of our music. I have to play it all the time, man, I don't want to listen to it. I listen to the record right when it's done being recorded. You listen to it so much - analyzing it and listening to each little intricacy of every song. I listen to it and hear one thing and the Noah listens to it and he's like, "Yeah, but the guitar part..." and I'm like, "I didn't even catch that." Everybody is listening to in-depth to each song for different parts, so when you're done you have to take a break for a little while. So I'm just now coming back so I can listen to it and actually memorize the lyrics and how they go with everything. You really have to take a break from it for a little while because you analyze it so much that you forget that it was a song and that it actually means something. You know, when you start critiquing it sonically, you forget the emotion of it.
What is your hope, then, with this album?
Rob: You know, honestly, I don't know. Right now, our management company... well, right now, the song "Be Still and Know," that's the fill-in-the-blank right there. I don't have any expectations. If it does good, as good as our last records, that's awesome. If it does better, that's great. If it doesn't, that's humbling. But right now, the fill-in-the-blank is just to be still and know that I am God. Let God be God and let Him do what He is going to do because that's what He wants to do and not because I have expectations of what I want to accomplish.
Would the other guys say the same thing?
Rob: Who cares what they would say. No... (Laughs.) They're all sitting here staring at me.
Lester: Rob's, right on.
You guys just finished the music video for "Everything." Is that a fun process to do?
Rob: Yeah, the video was a blast. We filmed it out in the sticks in Kansas. We actually just saw a rough edit today and it was awesome. It actually starts with me on a tractor, so you can let your imagination go from there.
When is that out?
Kalel: About a week or so and I heard they are going to be debuting it on The Reckoning E-Card, which is on pillarmusic.com. We will send a mass e-mail letting people know when that's ready to go.
The tour. The video. The album. Anything else coming for the band in the next year?
Lester: Yeah, Rob's having a baby right after the record comes out sometime. Well, not Rob actually. His wife is.
Rob: Yeah, I'm not gonna have the baby.
Lester: If he was, he'd be rich.
Rob: I'd be the highest paid freak show in the world, man. (Laughs.)
(Laughs.) Any final thoughts on this time for the band?
Rob: It's just an exciting time. It's the anticipation of a new album. We all have families that are growing... as we speak. And to be passionate about what you do is a good thing.
