• Home
• Subscribe
• Store
• Service/FAQ

---

All Pages |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4 

Every once in a while we get an interview that just seems excellent and it's one we want to share with everyone. This conversation with Jeff Suffering was one such interview. Check it out:

Tell me about your new album, Ashamed. What are the highlights for you? Why? What songs stand out as truly special to you? Why?
Ashamed is the first record we have written as a whole band. We recorded it fairly quickly in two different sessions doing overdubs in the basement of our drummer's house with his roommate who engineered the first set of songs that were recorded. This album is not a concept like Rats in Heaven. It is more of us documenting all the songs we were writing together for the last few years. It is the most diverse album we have done stylistically speaking. We have our pop-iest song, as well as our most punk song, along with polka, blues, indie rock and Goth type songs all on the same album.

My favorite tracks are “Awake”, “Babylon”, and “As You Like it”. “Awake” came from a jam that we ended up refining. It was pretty spontaneous and a lot of fun. It ties in really well with “Babylon.” “Babylon” is based on The story of Belshazzar in Daniel 5, as well as aspects of our culture's depravity, and some of the stuff about the great whore in the book of Revelation. It was fun to write and came together pretty quickly. We have a few other arrangements of the song, but this was the one we decided to use for the album. Musically It reminds me of a punk rock version of “the Doors.”

“As You like it” is a great song that is very funny to all of us. We don’t really fit in musically with any other bands we know, or any scene that we know of. This song was our attempt to sound like a “Seattle” band. The lyrics are all about us not fitting in, but being more musically interesting than all of the status quo boring indie rock bands that seem to plague the beautiful city we live in. It is tongue in cheek, considering we don’t really think we are better than any other band, and wouldn’t care if we were or weren’t. We do what we do, and all of us enjoy it much more than most other musical acts. So it is kind of an arrogant song, but at the same time we really don’t care. playing music to all of us is a primal thing that spawns from the fact that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, and have the desire to create something new, and in community with each other.

This may be an unrelated question; but many people, even (some would say especially) people of faith, seem to be ashamed of their bodies -- the human form. Why do you think that is? What do you think is the root of that shame? How do you relate to that shame? How much do you resist or disagree with that shame and how much, if any, do you understand and claim degrees of that shame yourself?
That is great you got that. The concept I gave to Electric Heat for the artwork was the garden of Eden after the eating of the fruit. I told him the album was going to be called Ashamed and it is also the title track of the album. The song “Ashamed” is about the guilt and shame we all experience because of Adam's original sin. As well as the fact that we will all stand before God naked and ashamed of our iniquity, He will judge us based on whether Jesus knows us or not.

I think we are Ashamed of our bodies due to the fall. When God created man and woman in His image “Imago Dei” He made us to reflect His glory and be in constant communion with Himself, just as Father, Son, and Spirit are in perfect union glorifying one another equally and perfectly, we are made to constantly reflect glory back to God.

When Adam and Eve inherited sin through the eating of the fruit from the tree of “The Knowledge of good and Evil” they suddenly found themselves out of communion with God. Suddenly their bodies that contained a creation in the image of God, was blasphemous, self glorifying, and utterly depraved. Sin had entered the world and they were naked and ashamed.

I do think Christians understand that we are inherently sinful, that all humans are wicked and depraved and the vessels we live in need to be covered (read Romans). When I say covered I am speaking of Christ’s Blood according to His atonement sacrifice, so we may be Justified, and Sanctified, and made Holy in Him. Since we are born into this world of Adam's family line, and not Christ’s, we are filled with Sin. We need Christ’s redemption to make us clean. Our bodies are vessels for wickedness. Until we are with Christ and receive our heavenly bodies we will always be reminded of our sin when we are naked, unless it is in the proper context of a Holy sanctified union in Christ (a Christian marriage between a man and woman).

I submit my life as one who is living under the Word of God. Sometimes it manifests itself in ways that even I am surprised, I am not a super religious person or one who likes to follow rules and laws, but I Love Christ. I may use language or make points in ways that other brothers and sisters in Christ misinterpret or feel ashamed if they themselves were to use, but this is not a reflection on my faith. Those things are not the fruit I bear. They are words or ideas working themselves out ultimately for the glory of God. This may mean at times I am sinning and need to repent, and then move forward from there. That gives God glory and bears witness to God working through me. Repentance, forgiveness, and love are major details in being able to see whether someone is submitting to the authority of Christ, or simply glorifying themselves.

I think this may answer your question as well as some you may have about other projects I have been involved with, and other interviews and conversations we have had together. I pray that I am always growing in Christ submitting to His authority, and reflecting His glory and grace through Him in all that I do, even when I (bleep) up.

NEXT PAGE
All Pages |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4 

Return to Internet Exclusives

---