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Interview by DVP

How do you think FIF was successful at being ridiculously funny and yet be taken seriously as a band? I mean, really. How would you explain the endearing appreciation of your fans over the years?
Good question. I think that it was kind of a fluke that we ever became popular. We were quirky and funny, yet somewhat deep. Steve Taylor has always been one of my heroes, and I think that we really tried to emulate him in a lot of ways. I believe that the humorous side of us is what drew people in, but the deeper side is maybe why they stuck around. Another big thing is that when we started touring, we had the opportunity to play with, and be on a tour with Less Than Jake. They were a secular band who made it a point to have cheap ticket prices, bargain merchandise, and to spend time with their fans as much as they could. For a secular band, they made most Christians seem fairly hypocritical. So early on, thanks to Less Than Jake and some others, we had very strong convictions about how our band should be, and I think that those things translated into some very strong loyalties amongst our fans.

What are you bringing with you from the FIF years (besides fans, duh) into your new career as Roper?
Hopefully I am bringing the same principles on how to do business, and how important the fans are. I know we made a lot of mistakes, and I am also hoping that I don’t repeat any of them. It’s nice to have the feeling that I have already paid my dues, and that anywhere I can go from here would be up, so I do hope that the Five Iron Fans stick with Roper. We’ll have wacky stage presence, and crazy shows, some funny lyrics, and some deep ones. I don’t want it to be Five Iron 2.0, but a lot of who Five Iron was will still be alive in ROPER.

What's new with your writing career? Please update me on the poetry book project, etc?
Doug, you flatter me by using the word “career”. Yes, I wrote a book of poetry called “More Than Paper Thin” that I had manufactured at some copy place before Jeff the Girl, Mark Soloman, Pigeon John, and I went on a short poetry tour last January. I had actually written it to be released on an imprint of Random House Books, but they kept shelving it due to budget cuts, so I just had it made myself. I believe that it will be released via Skeleton Key publishing later this year (fingers crossed). Also, I am trying to flesh out an idea for a book about getting the church to return to the church model set up in the book of Acts. It would just be some things that I have learned from starting Scum of the Earth church back home in Denver. I think that will be called “How to Fail”.

How would you describe the sound of your new music?
The new sound is somewhat pop-punk, with a heavy rock influence. Sort of Blink 182 meets Katrina and the Waves meets ACDC.

What are your goals for Roper? How long do you see this thing lasting? What are your tour plans? Album output plans, etc?
Well, after much prayer, I felt like this is what God wanted me to do(still!). So I’ll do it as long as I feel like He and I are still on the same page with it. We are going to try and tour at least 9 months out of the year, and hopefully put out an album every two years or so.

What themes are you particularly excited about that you addressed on this new album?
With this album, we really felt that our goal wasn’t just to keep the Five Iron fans, but to try and break new ground. So thematically, it is somewhat of an attempt to get more airplay on the radio. I still think that the lyrics are just as deep as Five Iron’s were, only this time they are a little more subtle. The topics are things like: lukewarmness, lust, addiction, superficiality, shallowness of our Christian walks, some songs about girls, a bunch of funny songs, and a Shania Twain cover.

Please breakdown who plays what, how you hooked up with these players, and how it's been working with them...
Well, we didn’t actually have time to put the band together before we got to the studio. So in the studio, Masaki played most of the guitar, Frank Lenz played drums, Frank’s friend Eli Thompson played bass, Ethan Luck (Supertones) played some smokin’ guitar leads, I played some Monosynths, and Phil Bennet (the keyboard player from Starship!) played some Hammond B3. The live band is a little bit different though...
It consists of Stephen Till (Jeff the Girl’s new husband and a longtime friend) on rhythm guitar, Johnathan Till (Stephen’s brother, and an even longer time friend) on bass, Jonathan Byrnside ( a friend from Scum of the Earth) on lead guitar, and I think Nick White ( from the band Divot) on drums. They are all really great guys, and it should be a lot of fun.

Anything you'd like to do different this time (as far as lessons learned about things NOT to do, stuff like that)??
There are a lot of lessons I have learned from being in bands for the past 11 years. I hope that we can tour smarter and not get burned out. I want to have fun. I think the most important thing is to gather our strength from God every day, so that we will have something good to give others. Oh, and I won’t put snow in anyone’s bunk just because they refused to get out of the bus and pee onto Kansas from the Colorado border.

Anything else you'd like to comment on?
I hope to see you all at the shows this fall! Doug, I love what you’re doing for the kids.

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