Randy Stonehill

We interviewed Randy Stonehill at a show at Church on the Move in Tulsa Oklahoma, which is a mega-church in every sense of the word. Randy is by anyone’s definition a true pioneer of the genre of Christian Rock. Releasing his first album in 1971 Randy, went on to be one fo the most influential voices of his (Christian) generation. With that said all that I knew about Randy was that he was important and we should for sure include him in the doc. A quick trip to his Wikipedia entry confirmed this, not only did he release a Christian Rock album in 1971 it was financed by none other than Pat Boone?!?! But more on that later. Randy’s second album was engineered by Andy Johns, who had also worked with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who. Wow. Ottley was also really excited about Randy too, which meant something. Tim’s background is different from mine in that his tastes range more toward guitar driven pop, so I usually listen when he’s into something.

So we get there and set up and Randy just comes strolling in. Very friendly and outgoing and if I understand correctly something of an amateur comedian in the vein of Robin Williams or Jim Carey. The kind of guy who is on 10 all the time goes into impressions and “bits” at the drop of a hat. To use an “Almost Famous” term, it freaked me out. Since there was really no Christian Rock prior to Randy and Larry Norman my standard first question of “what was your first exposure to Christian rock” didn’t really apply so I asked him what were his thoughts going into his music career. He totally took it and ran. No kidding he talked for about 25 minutes straight and basically answered almost every on-deck question I had prepared to ask. He also mentioned that in the early days he had seen shows and hung out with The Doors, The Grateful Dead and the Mommas and the Poppas. Cool.

While all this is going on however, I started smelling something burning and realized that it was one of Ash’s lights. Now on the surface this is not out of the ordinary, Ash’s lights are like a zillion watts and often smell like they are getting a little bit hot. This time however to my horror it didn’t just get hot it actually started smoking. So there was smoke pouring in a steady stream just to Randy’s right, and it smelled like a volcano. So what to do? Ignore it of course and hope that it wouldn’t escalate into full on flames. I was totally sweating that at any second Randy would jump up walk out disgusted with the amaturish nature of our interview. Thankfully Randy was a total pro. Either this had happened to him many times before or he just didn’t care because he was really cool about it. Even when Ash went to attend to it, he kept focused on the camera and didn’t let it affect the interview.

Randy talked to us for around and hour and it was all good. I brought up the fact that he was actually an actor in the cult classic “Son of the Blob” and he said that I would have to be killed for knowing such information. When I asked about the Pat Boone story he said that he and Larry Norman had gotten a sit down with Pat at his home in the early 70s. When they arrived Pat was out by the pool and the two were seated in the living room to wait for him. For some reason Pat’s wife felt that the Boone children, including a very young Debbie, needed to be present for the meeting and they were called in. Randy said that they all walked in single file in order of age. Kind of surreal. He said that a short time later Pat walked in tanned to the hilt, wearing white shorts, deck shoes and a windbreaker, full-on Bing Crosby style.
I will never in my life ever be as cool as Pat Boone, I mean that.

He added that the kids seemed to be kind of weirded out by the whole thing. He said that their attitude was kind of like “Daddy who are these pirates in our living room?” speculating as to why there were two hippies in their house.

I guess the pitch must have worked out because Pat fronted them the money and the rest is history. Another interesting note, it’s kind of funny to hear these older guys relate the things that people had a problem with in the early days. We all know that the long hair was a major problem as was the high volume but Randy brought up a new one: patched jeans. He said that people absolutely flipped out that he wore patches on his jeans. This actually came up several times. Interesting.

Showbread

We interviewed Josh Dies and Matt Davis of Showbread at the Where-House early on in the production of the film. One of the first questions I asked as usual was “what was your first take on Christian rock?" to which Josh said something to the effect of “since we’re aliens from Mars we don’t really know too much about that.” It seems like they followed that up with something about eating insects or once being insects or something along those lines.
Ash and myself secretly (or not so secretly) rolled our eyes and I kept asking questions. Surprisingly the answers became more serious.
Later I read this on their Wikipedia entry concerning the same issue:
“Showbread is known for being notoriously unreliable in the press. Most interviews, regardless of purpose, vary from light hearted nonsense to outright absurdity, and the band seems to become serious only when answering questions dealing with their faith. Showbread has made many absurd claims, ranging from the accusation that Tooth and Nail Records was holding their family members hostage to guarantee a softer sound in Age of Reptiles than No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical, to blaming the war in Iraq on Queen Elizabeth, to saying that the members of the band Pillar are made of grass clippings, to admitting to storing of weapons of mass destruction in their tour bus, to the claim that certain members of their band are space aliens and travel the country on mutant Manta rays.”
So now I don’t feel so bad. Actually with all that said, I feel pretty good that they decided to talk to us seriously. Anyway I really like Showbread, I think in an age where most bands are just trying to sound like everyone else, Showbread is a true original. They are influenced by old school horror films (as am I) and have done songs on George Romero, the Evil Dead and Tobe Hooper, Franz Kafka, William S. Bourroughs, and Emetophobia, among other things.
In the interview the guys were very outside the box. I had been asking them about Christian bands and they were semi-responsive. I do remember Matt saying that he had been kicked out of youth group for playing a Third Day song. They really didn’t open up until I mentioned Marilyn Manson and then they really go into it. Josh said that he was really influenced by his work and when I told him that “Mechanical Animals” was my favorite Manson album, we really had a good discussion.

Delirious?

“My Glorious” is probably one of my favorite rock type worship songs so I knew that we would have to interview Delirious? at some point. The show was at a large church in Oklahoma City called the Cathedral of Praise. The good people at this church are all about servitude and I mean that in a good way. In most instances I am completely respectful of the fact that to most promoters our film crew is little more than another headache to deal with prior to the show. That’s OK, I used to be a promoter and that’s how I would have felt. Anyway the people at the Cathedral of Praise were the exact opposite. They treated us like kings. They gave us a room to ourselves and repeatedly brought deli trays and drinks in to us (it is a dangerous thing for anyone to offer food to Ash and myself), always asking if we had everything we needed. At one point I had to tell one woman that although we appreciated it we weren’t the band and they didn’t have to be taking care of us so well. She looked at me like I was absolutely crazy. I really got the impression that they just want to serve the people that came into their church. Here’s your shout out, people of the Oklahoma City Cathedral of Praise: You Rule!!!
We did the interview with Stu G and Jon Thatcher in this TBN stye room complete with paisley, rich mahogany, potpourri, gold leaf and catering everywhere. It was easily the funniest interview we have done for “Bleed Into One” mainly due to what we later dubbed “the language barrier." I knew that the band was from England and knew that I would have no problem understanding them, I mean we’re speaking the same language right? I never considered that they would have a problem understanding me, specifically my American euphamisms. Apparently I’m much more of a rube than I thought. I became aware of this when during the interview, I asked them “what’s your take on POD?” Then silence and both of the guys look at each other for a few moments as if thinking that I am insane. Then Jon says as proper and nice as can be “do you mean in a fight then?” As I am still trying to process the answer when Stu says “I think if we got in a fight with POD they would crush us.” So we all kind of look at each other and burst into laughter. It dawns on me that what I said was “what’s your take on POD” and what they heard was “what would happen if you took on POD?” Ash ever the personal motivator says “English, only the Queen’s English, you hick” to me. It was really funny. Later I said “let’s riff on some bands” and Jon said “we don’t feel comfortable ripping on other bands.”
As I said before I’m a rube.
The interview itself was pretty good. I was really interested in their influences. Being from England they were into Joy Division, Queen, Suede, Pulp, etc. Stu had even gotten to see Pink Floyd on the Wall tour if you can imagine. Wow.

Norma Jean

If you don’t feel “Memphis will be laid to waste” at a Norma Jean show there is something wrong with you. For days after I see them I always have the lyric “you’re doing a waltz with your murderer” in my head.
The first time I saw Norma Jean they were still called Luti-Kriss. They opened for ZAO at the Where-House on their first tour. At the time they were doing this sort of post Marilyn Manson semi-goth metal thing. I remember that the band came out and started playing this sort of extended instrumental intro. After a couple of minutes the singer comes running full speed from backstage does a full forward flip onto his back on the stage and starts screaming to the mic writhing around the stage. Amazing. I couldn’t believe it. I had them a couple more times at the WH until they got too big for us.
One memory I have of them was the big Cornerstone 04 possession thing. Here’s what I remember. Norma Jean was playing in one of the Encore tents late in the evening. If I remember correctly they were still on “Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child” so there were a ton of people just spilling out of the tent. They were also doing this really stark performance where they just used strobes and really bright white lights with stuff being projected onto a screen behind them. I remember going for a couple of songs and then taking off and then forgetting about it until the next day. I think I was waiting in line at the showers when I heard someone talking about the girl that got “possessed” at Norma Jean last night. People were saying all kinds of crazy things about how people were getting sick and passing out and this one chick got possessed in front of the stage. It was hilarious, everyone was talking about it and the story was getting crazier and crazier as the day progressed.
We interviewed the guys at the “Otherside” club in Tulsa that is run by my friend Matt during the “Great American Noise Tour” with the Chariot, the Handshake Murders, and a Life Once Lost. We only got to do a short interview but it came out really good. The guys were really frank about how many bands in the genre were largely irrelevant and had some good stories. We talked quite a bit about Ozzfest and Corey admitted that when Living Sacrifice broke up there was talk of continuing on in a third incarnation with him as the singer. When I asked them about a good Cornerstone story they came clean about the “possessed” girl and said that it was all a set up. You heard it here folks.

The Prayer Chain

Aside from videos I have never seen the Prayer Chain live. They pretty much came and went before I was even aware of a Christian underground. I did know them by reputation however, the Prayer Chain was kind of always regarded as the apex of the cool indie band and their shows were legendary. Retroactively I got all of their releases starting with “Shawl,” which I loved. “Mercury” eventually came into my possession and despite an initial reluctance to accept it became my favorite Prayer Chain CD. Ironically during the interim period before I came to adore “Mercury” I met Wayne Everett, the Prayer Chain’s drummer for the first time. Wayne was playing with Starflyer 59 on the “Americana” tour. He asked me which PC record was my favorite and I told him “Shawl.” He kind of shook his head and that was about it. I found out later that the stylistic change between the albums had been a major point of contention between factions of the band and among other things had directly contributed to their eventual breakup. Which side was Wayne on? “Mercury” of course, and there I was telling him that I liked the other one better. I’ve always intended to tell him that I was wrong when I told him that but it’s never come up.
Since that time I’ve actually become friends with Tim Taber, the Prayer Chain’s singer. Tim ran Floodgate records the label that Mourning September, a band that I used to manage was signed to. Through that time I got to know Tim quite well and found him to be a stand-up guy. From time to time however I would revert back into fan-boy mode and question him about all things Prayer Chain and he would always answer me. He has said many times however that he thinks that me and Dave Walker (Mourning September’s drummer) were the only ones that cared anymore. Hopefully “Bleed into One” will help to change that.
We interviewed Tim at GMA, and it was great. As I said before I’ve known Tim for a while and he was really at ease. He has this unique way of looking at everything from both an artists and an industry perspective at the same time. Probably his best story was about catching Mike Rowe from the 77s blow drying his own butt backstage at a show. I’m sure we’ll get more on that when we interview Mike.

ZAO

I freaking love ZAO. “Liberate Te Ex Inferis” is one of my favorite albums of all time. I think that ZAO are everything that every band should be. Relevant, artistic, and above all have something to say. I remember hearing the band for the first time on one of the Tooth and Nail penalty box CDs. The song was “to think of you is to treasure an absent memory.” Just the title alone inspired my imagination.
I remember seeing them at Cornerstone on the “Liberate” tour. It was in one of the Encore tents in the middle of the day and it was like 110 degrees but it was awesome. Jesse Smith played sideways to the crowd and it sounded amazing. I remember that Russ Cogdell was just going absolutely insane, a mass of flailing arms, legs and a guitar. He would periodically scream into the pickups, you could totally tell that he was just in his own world with himself and the music.
I was able to book ZAO later at the WH on the “Self-Titled” tour. Dan had left the band for a while and a guy named Corey was singing. It was still great. Jesse asked me after the show how I would describe ZAO and after a second I came up with “what Pink Floyd would sound like if they were a metalcore band.” He seemed impressed and I hoped that the quote would some way make it into ZAO lore but that was pretty much the end of it.
We interviewed Scott and Marty at Cornerstone and I think it was one of the best interviews we have done. Anyone who knows anything about ZAO knows that they are no strangers to controversy and our interview was no exception, but I really think that they were just being honest about who they are and what they do. The best quote was when Scott said that when they were a “ministry band” that the money they made was not spent to feed the poor or anything but was spent just like any other money. “It went right into my pocket” he said. Wow.
On a side note it turns out that Scott is really into horror movies (as am I) and lives close to the Monroeville Mall where the original “Dawn of the Dead” was filmed.

Living Sacrifice

I have known Bruce Fitzhugh of Living Sacrifice for several years now and am still in awe of the guy. I have many, many great memories of Sacrifice shows from the mainstage at Cornerstone before thousands of people all the way down to church basements for 10 people. Each and everytime I have seen them it has been a moving experience. Even as I am writing this thinking about the sheer power and brutality of LS’s music still brings a smile to my face all these years later.
The first time I saw Living Sacrifice was October 5, 1996 at the Where-House with POD. Simply put it was a life changing event. Sacrifice was on the “Reborn” tour. I knew absolutely nothing about them at the time other than the fact that they were described as “old school metal.” I remember they came out and opened with “Reborn Empowered” and it was absolutely amazing. At the time is seemed like the band was more attacking the songs rather than playing them. I remember Lance (Garvin) absolutely destroying his drum kit, especially during the intro drum jam. He just hit so hard and then locked into an almost metronome quality beat. Bruce was playing a Charvel guitar which was at the time way not trendy, but to me it made it even more cool, like these guys were who they were and they flat didn’t care what anyone else thought.
I will never in my life forget hearing “Reject” for the first time. Shouting “reject your lies” in the middle of a sweaty Sacrifice show is simply bliss. And the breakdown to end all breakdowns, anyone who has ever been to see Sacrifice live knows exactly what I’m talking about.
I remember seeing LS once with Dear Ephesus, and after the show Brett from DE was playing air guitar to Sacrifice. He later said that it was the best show DE ever played mainly because you have to be good to play with Sacrifice.
Enough gushing though, Bruce is now running Zambooie merch with Bill Power and Mike Lewis. We met up with him at the Zambooie offices in Nashville, it was really cool seeing the guys and the company that they have built. Bruce was as usual very cool and admitted that when he didn’t have a guitar in front of him, he was kind of shy. Very good interview though, he was very frank and cool about things.

The Where-House

Since the Where-House figures so prominantly in not only my personal story but Bleed Into One as well. Here's a little information on the venue. FYI this was originally supposed to be for Wikipedia but they determined that we were a "concert venue of little to no consequence" and would not post our info. We'll try again after the movie comes out.

The Where-House is an all ages live music venue located in Bartlesville Oklahoma.

Founding
The Where-House was founded in 1990 by then 17-year old Tim Cook. Cook, a California transplant and avid music fan became frustrated that his favorite bands had no local venue to support them and began booking his own shows. His first venture in the live music arena was a show by Believer held at a local high school auditorium. Opening the show was an as-yet unsigned band called Living Sacrifice. The show turned out to be a huge success with a crowd of several hundred kids turning out for the underground band.
“It was insane” Cook said later of the show.
“I just remember this line of kids going around the building.”
In the wake of the success of the show, a permanent venue located at 331 N. Quapaw was secured. The space, an abandoned warehouse that had formerly been used for auto repair and salvage was immediately cristenend “The Where-House.”

The First Show
The first show at the Where-House was the now legendary Crucified show held on July 21, 1991. Cook recalls that the Where-House stage was constructed in a marathon 48 hour process prior to show time.
“We finished the stage the night before the show and were taking a break after all the work when the fire marshall came in” he says.
“He basically told us that we had to have a fire exit in the building or the show could not go on.”
Undaunted, Cook and several volunteers rented a jack hammer and were able to tear a ragged hole in the side of the building, just enough to satisfy fire codes and ensure that the show would in fact go on. And go on it did the Crucified, who were in peak form tore through one of the most memorable shows of their career, with singer Mark Salomon swinging on a rope out over the churning crowd.
Cook would later be quoted as saying that the do it yourself spirit that surrounded the first show would follow the venue throughout it’s history.

The Early Years 1990-1998
Focusing mainly on the then underground Christian rock scene, the venue mainly presented punk, heavy metal and alternative music, with Cook booking shows purely based out of his own taste.
Early shows included, Deliverance, Believer, Mortification, Scattered Few, Mortal, Steve Taylor, The Altar Boys, the 77s, and the Prayer Chain.

Formative Years 1998-2005
With the Where-House in full swing Cook began dabbling in artist management, with several bands that had come through the Where-House including Mortal, Grammatrain and Squad 5-0. Eventually Cook signed then fledgling hardcore act P.O.D and eventually guided them to multi-platinum status. In the coming years Cook’s company, Cook Mangagement would come to represent acts such as Blindside and Pillar. With the increased activity on the management side, Cook began finding less time to devote to the venue. Eventually he appointed then volunteer staff member, Tim Hudson as new director.

New Band Tournament
The Where-House New Band tournament began in 1997 and has since grown to one of the most successful tournaments of it’s type in the United states. Beginning with 30 unsigned bands, the tournament kicks off in January of each year and runs through March, with the top band securing a showcase at Cornerstone Fesetival or the Gospel Music Association convention. Throughout the tournament’s history numerous bands have went on to national record deals, including Philmore, the Agony Scene, Mourning September, Edison Glass, Fern, Eleven Hours Down, Jackson Waters, Neveah Nevi and Mindrage.

Title?

If there were a FAQ about “Bleed Into One” one of the first questions on the list would surely be “where did the name of the film come from?” The short answer is that it comes from a U2 lyric, specifically a lyric from “Where the Streets Have No Name” off of “The Joshua Tree.”
“I believe in the kingdom come, when all the colors will bleed into one.”
The main idea for this came from an unlikely source: Hootie and the Blowfish. For some odd reason, I remembered an anecdote about their gazillion selling album “Cracked Rear View” that the title of the album came from a Bruce Springsteen lyric. Seemed like a good idea to me at the time and I apparently filed away said information until the time came to choose a title for the film.
I knew I wanted something that would represent not only the scene but of culture in general, and from there it was only a short jump to U2. Thanks to the trusty internet it only took a few minutes to have every U2 lyric ever written at my fingertips, so I started at “Boy” and went from there. I had a stack of post-it notes on which I would write any phrases that I thought might be a candidate. I had compiled a list of about 10 or so possibilities before I came to “The Joshua Tree” which is actually my favorite U2 album. As soon as I got to “Streets” I just knew. I had heard the lyric literally hundreds of times before but I knew as soon as I read it in the context of what we were trying to do I knew that “Bleed Into One” would be the name of our film.
And the rest is semi-history……

needtobreathe

We filmed needtobreathe the other day and it was amazing. I knew that the band would be interesting in that they seem to be completely sidestepping the Christian industry but I way underestimated them. Virtually everything about these guys are unconventional, first off they are from Possum Kingdom, SC where they all met and went to school. I was also surprised to find that not only did the singer, Bear, play college football for Furman university, but he holds numerous school records and received several awards for excellence. Anyway it turns out that Bear and his brother Bo, the guitar player, were preacher’s kids and pretty much grew up around Christian rock. They had a ton of great stories and didn’t hold back at all when talking about the genre as a whole. After the interview we (being myself, Ash and Paul) raided the show’s catering. We devoured everything that wasn’t nailed down. During the feeding frenzy, we got to talk to Matt and Mark from Sanctus Real, who we had interviewed about a month prior. Good times.

Genesis

The project that we now know as “Bleed Into One” began one day on my couch watching a film called “Grey Matter.” “Gray Matter” is a documentary directed by Joe Berlinger on an Austrian movement to bury the brains of 700 childhood victims of Nazi medical experimentation held over from World War II. The doc was very moving and relevant to not only it’s subject matter but the human condition in general. For those who aren’t into documentaries, Joe Berlinger is a name right up there with Michael Moore in terms of influence. Some of Joe’s earlier films include: “Brother’s Keeper”, “Paradise Lost: the Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills”, “Paradise Lost 2, Revelations”, and “Metallica, Some Kind of Monster.” He is also responsible for the “Iconoclast” series on Sundance Channel. Anyway, I was thinking about how great Joe’s films were and how he was really doing well for himself making docs that were important as well as entertaining. Then I had a thought: “someone should do this for Christian Rock” and that was about it. The gears started turning (as much as the gears in my head can turn at least) and I came to the realization that I could actually do a documentary on Christian Rock, or at least be a part of such of film. A bit of background on me, I’ve been a film and music geek most of my life and at that point been a promoting Christian Rock concerts for several years, but more on that later though. It began to dawn on me that I actually had enough connections in the scene to make such a film happen. But then reality set in and I realized that although I was very familiar with the subject matter, I had absolutely no skill or knowledge in the field of filmmaking. Problem. In the next few days I remembered that a friend of mine, Chad, had mentioned to me that he knew a guy that was a director and had recently completed a documentary on the band Hanson.
Turns out the guy was Ash Greyson. Shortly thereafter, Chad hooked up a meeting at a Chilis in Tulsa. I had the chicken crispers, I think. Anyway Ash tuned out to be pretty cool and was interested in the idea right away. That was pretty much it, and then on to the interviews….

Cast of Characters

Cast of Characters: I will try to give a description of the players in this blog.
Tim Hudson, your humble narrator. Read about me on the side of this page.
Ashley Greyson: Accomplished director, cimematographer,and all around good guy. Ash has worked with Hanson (yup, Mmmbop Hanson) for the last ten or so years and did an amazing documentary on them called "Strong Enough to Break." Likes fancy macaroni and cheese and is a personal friend of Weird Al Yankovic. Also is not afraid to come at you like a spider monkey when provoked. The next big thing.
Tim Cook: The Cook portion of Cook Management. In addition to managing Tim and Ash, Cook Management handles POD, Blindside, and Pillar. Founded the Where-House when he was 17. Likes Jazz and handguns.
Tim Ottley: The Ottley portion of Cook Management. Also manager of Tim and Ash, POD, Blindside, and Pillar. Really into U2, Rush, and Midnight Oil. Is from Australia and thus knows a lot about the Road Warrior and Men at Work (the band not the film). Feels that "Crocodile Dundee" is a bad stereotype.
Lori Lenz: Publicist for Tim and Ash. Lives in LA and pretty much knows and is friendly towards everyone on earth. Trendy.
Paul Lawson: Assistant to Tim and Ash. Also trendy. Kind of Andy Travis to Hudson's Mr. Carlson (WKRP reference).
John Russell: Editor for Bleed into One. Guitarist for Tulsa favorites Admiral Twin. Also collects Planet of the Apes memorabillia.