Thousand Foot Krutch have been making waves all over the place with their latest release "Phenomenon" on Tooth and Nail Records. Songs like "Rawkfist" and the title track show a bold new direction for this young band and it seems to me that the future looks bright for these guys. TFK deliver a solid rock record chock full of anthem after anthem of heartfelt radio rock that will stick in your head for weeks at a time. (I'm still putting up my "Rawkfist" daily). We caught up with Trevor to find out more....

By Mark Fisher

www.toothandnail.com

Mark: How are you Trevor? Are you guys on tour right now?
Trevor: Yeah, we are just starting out on a couple month tour with a band called Kutless as well as Falling Up and another band I and the drummer from TFK are in called FM Static. We are all happy and healthy, so no complaints man.

M: Can you give us a little history on the band?
T: I started the band about 7 years ago back in Toronto when I was in high school. Actually just north of Toronto is where I'm from. We just played our hearts out after high school. We ended up losing a couple of the members to university and college and that sort of thing. Now we finally have 4 guys that are super committed and I'm totally blessed to be playing with them. We have a lot of fun and I'm excited about being out making music together with them. We signed to Tooth and Nail Records, which is a sub label of EMI, about a year ago and we just released the record about 6 months ago. We are just playing shows all the time for like the last 4 years. We mostly play in the U.S. We are just working hard and having fun and trying to get our music out there. We feel blessed to be able to do this.

M: Everyone seems to have a strong opinion, whether good or bad, about Tooth and Nail. What made them the right place for you guys?
T: I think that....you know when I was growing up Tooth and Nail was the "cool" label. Kids were, and are, fans of the label and not just the bands on there. That's a plus side in my opinion. People sport Tooth and Nail gear and stuff. We were never really that into it though because it always seemed like they put out a hundred bands and only about 5 of them were cool and the rest had really bad recordings and things like that. That was their kinda grassroots time though where they were building the business. The last 3 years or so they have restaffed and refocused and everything and they are a really awesome label all the way around. We were blessed at the time to be talking with several labels, about 10 or 11 or so. At the end of the day we just felt like Tooth and Nail were the label that had the most passion for the band and the music. We were just on the same page. They have a really fresh and young staff there that does their job and we were really excited to work with them.

M: This is your first mass distributed release, so knowing this was a lot of people's first taste of TFK what did you want to get across with this record?
T: I think that on this record it was just about having a bigger platform for the band. On this record we had the chance to talk about a few more life issues and more things that were just "real" to us. The last record was more of a party record and that can still be found on this record, but there are other issues here as well, like suicide and child abuse, that really hit home and are happening all around us. It was a blessing to be able to put those songs out there and see the response it gets. People call and email all the time and we are happy that people can take a part of our songs and feel a connection to themselves. That has just been a super blessing to us man.

M: Aaron Sprinkle produced this and he's not known exactly for your style of music. What was it like working with him?
T: I think that Aaron's a very talented guy. We really hit it off and had a lot of fun. He's a very talented musician and we produced the record with him. He had ideas that we hadn't thought of that were fun to try and we had ideas that he hadn't thought of. So it was a lot of fun. I'd recommend him for any band to work with, he's a great guy.

M: It seems like this album gets bigger everyday, like there is a lot of momentum behind it. How has that been for you? Have you been overwhelmed or is it more business as usual for TFK?
T: I think for us it's been something different. We have been away from home more than at home for the last 4 years now. We have just been working hard and God's been so good and he's blessed this band and opened doors for us. It's not something we really stop and think about. We are just fortunate to have a great team of people working behind this music and we give them all the credit for that. They are just awesome. We just do everything we know how to do and keep working hard. For sure, it's been exciting to see all the new doors open though.

M: How does this compare to your previous albums? I always thought you guys were a rap rock band.
T: (laughter) No, that's cool man! Back a few years ago we were fusing hip-hop and rock a ton and having a lot of fun with it. Really only bands like Rage Against the Machine were doing that then though. The Chili's have always messed with it a little bit, too. It seems like a couple of years ago though it became this huge thing and there were like 200 bands rapping and mixing it with rock and everyone had a DJ, you know how it was. I think it kinda killed the whole vibe for everyone. We tried to refocus and not just be another one of those bands. We worked really hard to try and make a record that was fresh for us and had a little bit more focus.

M: So the change was a constant decision then?
T: For sure. We weren't really sure how people were going to receive it because previously we have mixed a lot of hip-hop into our stuff. I am a big hip-hop fun and I have a lot of fun with it but it's something we wanted to step away from a little more. I think you can still notice the influence, especially the urban influence with the heavy grooves and everything, but it's not something you can compare to POD or Limp Bizkit or whatever.

M: Can you tell our readers a little about the song "Last Words" and the thoughts or inspirations behind it? That's a great song.
T: Yeah man. "Last Words" is a song that came to me one day when I was writing at home. I go to this place to write and sit on the hood of my car with some candles and an acoustic. At least that's how I like to write but I can only do that when I'm at home. When I wrote that it was probably one of the most powerful experiences of my life. It was one of those times where you get taken to the place your writing about. The song is about someone who has committed suicide and gets one chance to come back and tell the people they love whatever they want. It was a powerful experience man. I kinda teared up and was really brought to the place where I could see both sides of that. It's a situation I have seen before with friends but not closely like with immediate family. That's a song that definitely hits home nightly when we play it. A lot of kids seem to connect with it and write us or email or call. It's been a real blessing. Sometimes you get some pretty serious calls like "I'm gonna commit suicide tonight. What can you say to stop me?" That's like "Wow!" I mean we are not professionals at that. All you can really do is tell them your heart as a friend and someone who cares. We actually hooked up with a company called Lamplight that works with kids contemplating suicide and things like that so we are able to direct them towards people who are professionals after we try to encourage them.

M: What song on the record do you feel best represents the best picture of the TFK sound?
T: I would say probably "Step to Me" or one of the ones like that. That one represents the sound of the record really well in my opinion. I think it just kind of wraps up little things that we as a band enjoy playing and that I enjoy writing. There are a lot of different elements in there. I think that song is cool as well because of its whole lyrical scenario. It pretty much says, "You know what? If you have something to say about me don't go say it to someone else. Just be a man and come to me and say it to my face and let's talk about it." That song really deals with that kinda dead on.

M: How do you hope people feel at the end of the first listen to this record?
T: We hope that the enjoyed the music and enjoyed the record and didn't feel like it was one of those records that they could only listen to a couple of songs on. We hope that most people can take a small piece of what the record is saying with them, that's the most important thing to us.

M: Do you have tour plans lined up over the next few months?
T: We don't head home from this tour (with Kutless, Falling Up, and FM Static) until May. We'll hit the summer festivals as well. There may be a big summer tour as well. It's not for sure yet though. Looks like it's gonna shape up to be a busy summer.

M: Parting thoughts?
T: No, I think we are good man. I think we did great. I appreciate your time man.