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Interview with the Tait Band
Ardent Enthusiast
Exclusive Material
November 18, 2001 - A
few days ago, I had the privilege of sitting down with 3 of the 4 members
of Tait to find out what they've been doing lately, and ask some nagging
questions I've had about their album Empty. What follows is the
majority of our conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
--Jessica
æ.com:
So you guys aren't really touring right now, what have you been up to?
Lonnie: Riding our Harley's. And Yamaha's. [laughter]
Chad: Riding bikes.
Michael: Working on a little music. Some riffs, bits and pieces.
æ.com: Music for a movie maybe?
Michael: Movie soundtrack, yeah. The Painting, comes out sometime
in the spring, I'm not sure, but Tait has a song on that, yet untitled.
We're working on it right now as we speak. We've already recorded the
track, just working on lyrics and melodies and stuff. We're getting
there.
Lonnie: Oh, we were on, I mean, there's been quite a few other Christian
bands but we were on Dawson's Creek for about 25 seconds last
night. We had some friends from San Diego call us and say "We heard
Empty on the TV."
Michael: Yeah they played part of the song.
æ.com: That's cool. Yeah, the WB is really good about using
good [Christian] music.
Michael: Yeah they are.
æ.com: What about the Altars video, is that for a television
special?
Michael: Yeah for the Salvation Army. That is in the Spring. I think
it's so timely too with all the stuff that's going on. We were watching
the video a couple of weeks ago, we were like, man, it's almost... prophetic
would be the wrong word but... it's kinda foreshadowing, if you will.
Chad: We shot it in New York City, like a month before...
Lonnie: ...with the Manhattan skyline behind us.
æ.com: Were the towers in the video?
Michael: No, I wish they were now.
Lonnie: The Empire State Building is in the video, stuff like that.
But the towers were just to the left of where we were shooting. We were
right in between the Empire State Building and the towers is where we
were shooting.
æ.com: You were like up on a building.
Michael: What building were we on?
Lonnie: The Salvation Army building.
Chad: We shot like 80 feet in the air on top of that building.
æ.com: So what are you listening to right now?
Chad: Let's see... Remy Zero.
Michael: Yeah...
Lonnie: Another group for me is Ours. Pretty killer. And I've also been
listening to some Tower of Power. [laughter]
Michael: Have you ever heard of them?
æ.com: Uh, no.
Lonnie: Oh you don't know? Oh, some nasty crazy funk, like '70s funk.
Michael: George Clinton too. I just recently got re-introduced to George
Clinton.
Lonnie: I think the next record you're gonna hear some crazy funk rock
influences. We've all been influenced with that all of our life growing
up.
æ.com: Okay, if you could pick only 3 CDs to listen to for
the next year, what would they be?
Michael: Coldplay for sure.
Chad: Yeah, I'd agree with that one.
Michael (to Chad): I know you wanna pick John Denver.
Chad: Definitely John Denver. I love John Denver.
Michael: You gotta pick a rocker.
Chad: Like STP.
Michael: But their old stuff, nothing new. What's a good new rock record?
Lonnie: I'd like to take Lenny Kravitz's Greatest Hits with me.
Not the new record, I've only heard one song off of that. I would take
the Kravitz Greatest Hits record. And maybe a Journey record.
Chad: How 'bout the Tait record?
[laughter]
æ.com: Well I'm sure that would be somebody's answer but it
doesn't have to be yours.
[laughter]
æ.com: What do you think of band's like Lifehouse, P.O.D.,
Creed, Collective Soul?
Michael: Thumbs Up [enthusiastically] More power to you.
Chad: Definitely.
Michael: Where we wanna go, where we're headed, where we're called.
Lonnie: Yep.
Michael: Staying true to their faith. All kudos. Kudos, kudos, kudos.
Chad: Especially P.O.D. for sure.
Lonnie: Yeah. I think you might see Tait in that same kind of category
with those people here coming up.
Michael: And if you don't, we wanna be there.
æ.com: That's kinda the underscore of my question. I know that
at one point you were trying to shop the album with some mainstream
distribution.
Michael: We still are, we've been pretty aggressive with it. I won't
give any names of labels, but we have this one particular one in the
southern part of our country that is very interested in Tait. It looks
really good, it's just a matter of... of course it's radio. You know
EMI, it's a real comfortable place, a great marketing department, a
great record label. But we need that mainstream arm of muscle to push
through the doors of radio and [get into] all the record stores, not
just some. Once again EMI's done a great job, Forefront, with their
mainstream arm (I forget what it's called right now) pushing them to
the pop stores, they're in all the mall stores, in special listening
stations. So it's done well. But I feel good about it. I believe it's
gonna take time to build, but I think it's got some serious potential.
The songs are there, and I know the hearts are there, so I just pray
that if we go that way, we're protected. God protects us, keeps us rooted
and grounded in the Truth. It can be very [rough], you see it all the
time, to go to that kind of arena unprepared. I'm sure P.O.D. has stories
and so does Lifehouse.
æ.com: You've talked to the guys in Lifehouse?
Michael: They were in town like a month ago. I went to the show and
hung out with Jason after the show for awhile and we just talked, as
usual. I'd met him a couple times before. He's kinda all blown away
by everything. He was at the Vineyard Church doing worship music and
all of a sudden, a worship song, which was written out of a pure place
to God, just blew up, #1 for weeks, 3 million records and counting.
That is awesome. You know? He didn't use Christian music to get there.
He just did what he does, and God blessed him. That's awesome.
æ.com: Yeah, it is. So in the same vein of music, what's your
musical guilty pleasure?
Michael (to Chad): Your guilty pleasure should be John Denver. You used
to hate it. You gotta use it.
Lonnie: My guilty pleasure, probably more so... Probably more so several
years ago, but even now I still love throwing it in, is Extreme. They
were my favorite "secular" band, or if you wanna say "mainstream" band,
'cause I loved the riffs, I loved the whole riff-rock thing back then,
not so much the whole glam, but the riffs.
Michael: Guilty pleasure insinuates you must be a little ashamed, right?
But I'm not ashamed of Journey though, but they're still my guilty pleasure.
I love Journey. Um...
Lonnie: I even have Extreme's very first record that they ever put out.
And there's a bootleg I've got too.
Chad: Um, Slaughter. Just kidding.
Lonnie: Winger. Winger was a good band though. Their musicianship was
great.
Chad: But they were 100% glam.
Lonnie: Yeah.
Chad: It's be John Denver for me. For sure.
Michael: I can't think of anything. I don't have one.
Chad: But I'm not really embarrassed of John Denver.
Lonnie: I'm embarrassed, though, I'll just tell ya.
[laughter]
Chad: I was on a flight, and this guy in his 40s was sitting next to
me. And Michael had just bought me the whole John Denver catalog, it
had like all the songs he'd ever recorded, and it's got like his whole
life story, it's like this book with four different CDs in there. I'm
reading through it and this guy next to me leans over and goes "Is that
John Denver you're reading?" And I'm like, "Yeah dude, I love this stuff."
He says "What? I can't believe you like John Denver." I was like "Dude,
I love him."
æ.com: Cause your age, maybe?
Chad: Yeah, exactly, cause he probably thought I looked like, you know,
a total punk. Or young, yeah.
æ.com: You all are career musicians; this is your job. So what's
the best part of that, and what's the worst?
Lonnie: Well the best part for me is hanging with my buds. Going out
on the road and playing music live, I love playing live, absolutely.
But what makes it all is these guys, and this band. That's what makes
the whole thing be something totally different. I think if there was
like some weird funky tension, but this is like a family, Tait is a
family.
æ.com: Is that different than how it was in your last band?
Michael: Lonnie makes a family wherever he goes.
Lonnie: I guess it is different, because these guys are my family, those
guys were my [friends], if you will, just not my family. But it was
still fun.
Michael: We're blood.
Lonnie: But this is more blood, yeah. I mean, it's different. Trust
me, I still had a blast with the other band I played in, had a great
time with them, I wouldn't change that for anything. But this is a whole
different level for me.
Michael: Interesting you should ask that question because just today
Chad and I had started talking about it and Lonnie and I finished it
at lunch about, we were just, "Man, we love our jobs."
Chad: We were saying how blessed we are to, like, that we don't have
a 9 to 5 job.
Michael: Do music for a living, which we love to do, we all love to
write and sing and whatever, mess with our instruments. And play 'em,
blah blah blah. And all the sudden, you stop sometimes and you ask,
"how blessed am I?" You know? How often does this, to do this and actually
call it a job.
Chad: You realize you don't deserve like anything that we have. We don't
deserve anything that we have.
Michael: And some of the downside would be anything having to do with
our ego. Any blows to our egos. Like the record doesn't sell, people
comment about how bad the band sounds, you know...
Chad: Or the lead singer sounds...
[laughter]
Michael: Or the lead singer, well, that would be inclusive... But it's
like, even those are neither here nor there as far as what matters in
life but there's sometimes, you know, as a musician, you get like...
I can tell you there's plenty of musicians in this town that would not
be as, I guess you could say, as gung-ho about their career sometimes
as others are because of the success or the lack thereof, you know?
But all in all we're happy and Lonnie said it best, we're a family.
And we just want the will of our Creator.
æ.com: Cool. Alright, let's talk about the album a little bit.
I have some clips that Pete put together, like, almost 6 months before
the album came out. And there were some changes that I wanted to ask
about, you know, why they got made. There was a song that went "When
I was young, I tasted raindrops on my tongue..." What's that called?
Michael: "When I was Young."
æ.com: Okay, and it just got bumped because...
Michael: Maybe next record. We had so many songs, you know...
æ.com: How many do you think didn't make it?
Chad: There were like 10, 12 songs that didn't make it.
Lonnie: We demoed like 25, 24, songs... 28 songs... something nutso.
The band played and played and played.
Michael: We did.
Lonnie: And the band played on. And have you heard the ghost track on
the record?
æ.com: Oh yeah, of course. I was gonna ask about that. Did
you write it, or was it just kinda jamming...?
Michael: Lonnie started with a bass idea.
Lonnie: Started a bass idea and then we set up in Pete's basement, and
we set Chad's drums upstairs on the hardwood floors. Pete and I sat
downstairs, and we just started [playing] so it was like, really, we
all wrote it. And, then once we kinda got the idea of what we wanted,
the song was done in about a half hour.
Michael: They wouldn't let me sing on it. Lonnie said no singing.
Lonnie: [Laughing] Oh yeah, Lonnie said that. [laughing] So it was just
yeah, something we just kinda wrote together...
Michael: I'd like to hear that, when I get home. I forgot what it even
sounds like.
Lonnie: Yeah. Maybe next record it might be a song.
æ.com: [to Michael] You forgot?
Michael: No I mean I know what it sounds like, but I haven't heard it...
æ.com: You open every show with it, right?
Michael: No but I mean like on the record, I'm saying like the record
version. It's killer on the record. It's great live but the whole thing
on the record is so much longer.
æ.com: It makes for a really great intro, you know...
Michael: Yeah it does.
æ.com: ...and then you can be all dramatic and come out...
Michael: Yep. [laughing]
Chad: Have you heard the hidden track like before the first track? Like
you hit play at the very beginning of the CD and then you hit the rewind
button.
æ.com: No! I haven't heard that.
Michael: There's like 5 minutes of stuff, yeah. You gotta rewind it.
æ.com: Okay, I'm gonna have to listen to that. [Ed. note-
It's hilarious!] So, All You Got was remixed? There's less
guitar on the album version than on the clip I have.
Chad: Did they think there'd be too much guitars on the chorus maybe?
æ.com: Because it's a single? Was it the first single?
Michael: Yeah... #1 for like 4 or 5 weeks. Oh no, that was just a demo.
All that you have is a bunch of demos. Well, yeah, some were finals,
ultimately.
æ.com: [to Michael] Are all the vocals on the album you?
Michael: Yes. Well actually Pete sang on, Pete sang four bars on the
very end of All You Got, or, um the part of the record when it
goes [sings] ooh lalalala laaa laaa ... he sings that with me
and, uh, he sang [sings] spyyyyyy, the drop off. Those are the
only two places on the whole record. I wanted so bad to say that the
whole record was me, but it's like... And I think still, he'll never
tell me, but I think he might have been a little offended that I didn't
ask him to sing more on the record. But the thing is, it's like (not
cause I'm the singer, I don't care about that)... but it's like, that's
what I do with a passion. It's like, as a guitarist, you have a sound.
So why not do the whole thing if you can? You know, as long as it's
[done well]. And like, BGVs from years ago... dc Talk, every BGV you
hear is me with Mark Heimmerman for hours. Mark pushing buttons, me
singing everything from girl parts, guy parts, yadda yadda, I live to
do that. So on this first record, coming from a vocal band, I really
wanted to be [in a] rock and roll band, wanted to be more [of a rock
singer].
Chad: I did the lead vocals on the hidden track at the very beginning.
Michael: Yeah, he did.
[laughter]
Lonnie: People think it's Pete, don't they? Or they think it's Michael.
Some people think it's either Pete or Michael sometimes.
Chad: I've heard like most people think it's Pete cause it's me sitting
there playing a guitar. And singing into a mic, like, totally kidding
around. It's nothing serious.
Michael: It's hilarious.
Lonnie: It's a riot. You'll laugh when you hear it.
æ.com: I didn't even know you could do that, rewind on the
first track.
Lonnie: It's a negative ghost track.
Michael: It drove the mastering department crazy. We had like three
CDs to work with to try to figure it out. Then we still weren't guaranteed
it would work but it did.
æ.com: The clips on American Tragedy, where'd you get
those?
Michael: From the Library of Congress Civil Rights Movement 1961 to
68 ... actually some of the clips, the one where the lady goes, the
whole, you know, 'no niggers allowed to eat in this establishment.'
That came from a restaurant recording in Nashville. That is the true
Nashville, those audio clips, in the 60s, the Civil Rights Movement...
people's opinions on blacks and their involvement, and their presence
in society. [in a southern accent] We don't want them around here,
they don't look like us... you know? But it comes through pretty
clear, doesn't it? The "n" word. We had to add that in the end because
it hurts the ear enough, it's about 20% more audible, and it sticks
out...
Chad: I'm glad you can hear it.
Michael: Yeah, I wanted to make sure they heard it.
æ.com: Did anybody from the record company say, you know, we
don't want this?
Michael: Nobody said a word. Probably because a black lead singer's
in the band, I'm sure. That's a big reason.
Chad: Yeah if it would've been us, they would've been like, uh, "shut
down."
Michael: Actually, I did have somebody comment, you wanna hear something
weird. A very prominent figure in this city, I won't tell you who but
a very prominent figure was like a little bit offended that I would
not do [points to Empty cover] a black mannequin, or a chocolate
mannequin. And even my sister said it would've been pretty intriguing.
Which it would've, looking back now, I wish I would've done like something,
one of those things where maybe it was like a doctored version of the
same lady, could've like treated it in the studio, made her darker so
people would've been like, whoaaaa... you know.
æ.com: That's a real person? [jokingly]
Michael: No, it's a mannequin. Oh, stop it, you know.
æ.com: Well I was gonna ask Pete if it was weird not being
the lead singer, but since he's not here...
Lonnie: Yeah it was.
Michael: Yep.
Chad: Yeah.
Michael: We can answer that for you.
[laughing]
Chad: We all can take that question.
Lonnie: Well I mean, just me speaking, if I was a lead singer and then
I wound up being the guitar player... yeah it'd be a little funky, it'd
be weird. But then you know what I think people say too, it'd be kind
of cool, just kinda lean back and not have to have all the pressure
on me, as the lead singer or whatever, just sit back and play guitar.
But I think after a little bit it'll kinda get on you, if you're a lead
singer, that's what your focus has been for your entire life and now
you have to change. It'd be a little weird. It would be for me.
æ.com: [looking at Michael] Just like it'd be weird for you
to hang back and play guitar.
Lonnie: [to Michael] Like if you were to go back and be a background
singer? Like back there with two other black ladies.
Michael: That'd be even a little bit further back, if you will. Yeah
thinking about that, that would be hard. That'd be hard for me dude.
æ.com: Okay this might just be me but the first time I heard
Loss for Words and the "doo doo doos" it sounded really familiar.
Did that come from somewhere?
Michael: Who do you think it came from? What does it sound like to you?
I mean... everything comes from somewhere.
I thought about it for so long, and I was thinking maybe some old Amy
Grant song.
Michael: That's what we got. Some magazine laid us out about that. They
said...
Lonnie: They said a bad rendition of Baby Baby...
Michael: ...a bad rendition of Baby Baby, yeah, they dogged us
out.
Chad: She had some "doo bees" but they weren't like in the same, they
weren't like, as far as melodically...
æ.com: It's not so much the melody, it's more the rhythm.
Michael: Yeah, you're right, that's true. [pauses] You know what, though,
it's not a bad thing.
æ.com: No, no, no. I mean, the first time I heard it, I thought,
"Oh, cool, they borrowed that from... where?" But I couldn't figure
out why it sounded so familiar. [Ed. note-I have since. It's not
from the Heart in Motion album, though. It's actually on a song
called Lucky One that was on the House of Love album.
Listen to it and you'll totally know what I'm talking about. I wish
I would've figured it out before the interview...]
Michael: No, I knew you weren't saying it was bad. But, I mean, how
many times have you heard the end of the Hey Jude song [sings]
naaa naaa naaa na na na na in different renditions. Like the
end of Bonded with the Son, [sings] daaa daa da da daaa daa.
It's a Hey Jude thing. It's the same thing.
Chad: Yeah. It's like the same thing but different.
Michael: Yeah.
æ.com: Okay. On Tell Me Why, [looking at Lonnie and
Chad] I'm assuming this is your guys' father, Ormel?
Lonnie: Yeah.
Chad: Yep. Ormel. [correcting my pronunciation].
æ.com: He helped write the music?
Chad: Yep. He's an extremely talented musician. He was over at our house,
my Dad and Mom, for Thanksgiving like two years ago. Obviously I play
guitar, but my dad was showing me some new chords so, he was showing
me those chords, it's in like the verse of the B section of Tell
Me Why and when he was playing it, he was totally playing it in
like a Bill Gaither type style, my dad's from that whole school of sound.
I heard the chords and I was like "Those are such cool chords" so I
grabbed the guitar and kinda made it modern I guess. So yeah, we gave
him writer's [credits] for it.
æ.com: [looking at Lonnie] Are there gonna be some writing
credits for you on the next album?
Lonnie: Maybe. We'll see. Gotta come to the party. Time to dance.
Michael: He's at the party. He's already there.
Lonnie: I'm there, I just gotta dance.
Michael: Yeah you're gonna see the whole Brady Chapin family including
Mama Sandi's gonna have like writing credits.
[laughter]
æ.com: Okay last one. Do you think about like what you're gonna
wear before you go on stage, or do you just wear whatever?
Michael: Probably the most concerned and attracted to that whole thing
would be Lonnie Chapin. He's really consumed with himself and clothing.
You know we pray before the show and ask God to make use of ourselves
but Lonnie just...
[Lonnie is cracking up at hearing this revelation]
æ.com: So that would be why he looks the best. [jokingly]
Michael: Yes exactly.
Lonnie: Whoaaaaa, hey! [laughing]
Michael: No, we do like...
Lonnie: No, we do, we all like fashion. Michael he really loves fashion
too. Chad does too though.
Michael: Pete probably's the least one of us.
Chad: Well he says he's not and then what he wears is like, it's still
sorta like rock star-ish.
Lonnie: Exactly, yeah...
Chad: ...you can't say Pete doesn't think about it.
Michael: Pete just hates the commercial pop side of, like, wearing a
little belt buckle [stands and points to his silver -and quite stylish-
belt buckle] ... you know what I'm saying? But he wears, you know, beat
up jeans and, like, a thing on his head, and I'm like, that's still
an image. You know, it's not like you're wearing like a pair of khakis
and a white t-shirt.
Chad: When you don't wash your pants for 30 days, it's still a style.
æ.com: And all the little boys that stand over on his side
of the stage are gonna end up looking just like that anyway.
Chad: That's why at the shows you see like most people flocked in front
of Lonnie on that side of the stage.
[laughter]
Chad: I'm totally kidding. I'm joking.
Michael: You know what's funny. That is true, Pete gets these congregations
of young pubescent boys that watch him.
æ.com: They all want to learn to play just like him, so they
get where they can watch him play.
Lonnie: Yep that's true.
æ.com: [looking at Michael] What's with the Wilber's Vault
t-shirt though? Like is it just a random t-shirt?
Michael: I don't know what it even is. I got it from a store, Urban
Outfitters.
Lonnie: Yeah, Urban Outfitters.
Michael: Yeah, it's a name of a shirt. Wilber's Vault. Perhaps it's
somebody's father's company maybe.
æ.com: You're getting them a lot of business and you don't
even know it. Alright. Thank you guys for taking the time to do this.
Lonnie: Are we done already?
æ.com: Yeah, I don't have anything else.
Michael: Good questions, J.
æ.com: Thank you.
Michael: You have any other burning ones?
Lonnie: Do you have any questions, you personally, that you didn't write
down?
æ.com: [looking at Michael] Well I was gonna ask you about
being on the cover of Christian Single, but I wasn't really sure
how to word that.
Michael: I was?
Lonnie: You are. Remember, the one where you, like... with the hair...
Michael: Ahhhh yeah.
Lonnie: That was a killer picture, I might add.
Michael: What about that.
æ.com: What's it like being [labeled] a Christian single? 'Course
you all could answer that.
Lonnie: Yeah we all could.
Michael: I got an[other interview about that recently]. I'm just sick
of this singles thing. It's like, okay, but if it helps people, that's
cool.
Chad: [leans into the microphone] Lonnie, Michael, and myself are taking
applications by the way.
[laughter]
Michael: You know what makes me mad is that lately all my friends have
been like "Man, you need a wife." "I'm like, do I really?" I mean, I
think I want one, I mean, I know ... I don't know what I want. I know
one thing, I want God's will. But it's like, they were like "ah man,
you need" and I'm like "well if I needed that, He'd probably send her
to me."
æ.com: I'd be really offended if a friend of mine said "Gosh,
you need a husband."
Michael: Some of my married friends tell me I need a wife like I need
a hole in my head. 'Course, you know, they're not happy in their marriages.
Chad: See the thing is, to me, about music, you really don't have to
grow up.
Michael: That's true Chad.
Michael: Watched Steven Tyler last night, he looked amazing.
Lonnie: Joe Perry on the guitar, with his shirt off, unbelievable.
Chad: You look at guys who are like in their forties and fifties still
playing rock n roll, and they look so young... But then you look at
guys who wear suits...
æ.com: [to Chad] So you're saying you're gonna wait till you
get old and then marry someone who's like 20-something?
Chad: Yeah, exactly.
[laughter]
Michael: But in your mind you think that, it's the fountain of youth,
rock and roll. And for awhile I told myself "oh there's a million girls
out there." There are. But you know, my last girlfriend was awesome,
cause she was a solid girl. But [you don't make a commitment, thinking]
there's more fish in the sea, and I'm going to hold out for that one.
But you can't do that. You gotta find one that you can't live without,
and [don't let go]. But for me, I can live without one, I guess, sadly.
Yeah I'm alone sometimes, but it's not killing me, obviously. I'm not
like, warped, you know? I got great friends. Basically, I'm holding
out for someone who's not [holds up album cover and points to Empty
mannequin].
æ.com: There you go.
Chad: My wife's actually out there on two wheels. [glances at his Harley
in the parking lot]
Michael: Lonnie's ... got this girl. Lonnie's not single by the way,
all you girls out there, don't let him lie to you. Don't let him give
that pretty little smile to you. Lonnie Chapin has a friend named Jennifer.
Her name is Jennifer, please print this by the way, she's a hottie,
and Lonnie likes her a lot. So girls, get in line.
Lonnie: [laughing] Get in line! That was not Lonnie speaking!
Michael: It was me.
æ.com: I think we need Jennifer's permission to print that...
Michael: Nah.
Lonnie: Nah.
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