atural progression. Time and time again this phrase came up during our chat with Anberlin vocalist Stephen Christian and drummer Nathan Young. This is a band that a lot of us have grown up with and will continue to do so once we discover the splendor that is their new release Dark is the Way, Light is A Place. Never shying away from their 80’s influences, this time around Anberlin has delivered a stark contrast, not only in the record as a whole, but from their previous works. For those of you who never quite caught onto their last record New Surrender, you’re in for a treat. And for those of you who have been loyal fans throughout every Anberlin release, you won’t be disappointed. Understanding that a band must progress and age just like everyone else is tough concept to grasp sometimes, especially when you literally have grown up alongside a band such as this. We’re most critical of those we adore and we expect the utmost respect in return for years of loyalty and criticism. The bottom line? I’ve had this album on repeat for weeks and Anberlin will continue to hold that spot in my heart for years to come.

First of all, catch our readers up on what has been going on in your lives since the release of New Surrender at the end of 2008?

Stephen Christian: So much has happened, yet so little. I moved from LA to Nashville which for me was a great move and lead to a lot of opportunities to write with other bands and great writers. As far as the band is concerned we had the opportunity to tour with a lot of great bands (AAR, Taking back Sunday, etc.) and see some beautiful parts of the world we had not yet explored (namely Brazil).

Being on a major label for these last two records now, has your creative process changed at all? Do you feel added pressure to maybe write differently than when you were on an indie? Or does that just kind of come naturally with getting older?

SC: The creative process has not changed at all to be honest, though Christian (who joined us right before New Surrender) has been vital to the growth and development of the Anberlin sound. I do not feel pressure now being on a major but I did when were on an indie. More than once our indie asked us to change the name of songs because they sounded “too suggestive”; so yes I have felt pressure to write a certain way, but it has never been from the major.

The major, for the most part, largely cares about numbers, as long as I keep those numbers up my ‘job’ is secure. No pressure, no grey area, very black and white.

Nathan Young: Surprisingly no, that was one of the biggest worries going into being on a major. We’ve always heard the horror stories of them contacting you and being like “hey we want this writer to write with you or it needs to sound like this” but no we don’t really have that pressure. I think if there is any pressure there, we put it on ourselves. The first one we did on Universal I think we just kind of psyched ourselves out and thought “We’re on a major, it needs to sound like a major label record”, whatever that means. I think that may have choked it a little bit. They really are a great label and they’ve never really hassled us with that. When it comes down it, they signed us for who we were not who we could be, it was what they heard in us. They wanted to sign Anberlin for who we were. So no, there’s not as much pressure. We just kind of do what we do and hope that they’re stoked on it.

As your fans kind of grow up along with you, what do you think they expect from Anberlin?

SC: Better music on every record.

How do you respond to fans who are maybe a bit sad and say that Anberlin has moved away from the rock sound of their first three albums and gone for a bit more of a crooner/indie feel on the new material? Do you feel that’s a true statement?

NY: You really can’t make everyone happy. There will be people that will say “I wish every single song was like a heavy song”. Everyone is going to have a different opinion and from what I’ve seen and read it’s true that some people are saying “Their best record is their first record!” But we think it’s our worst or our least favorite but that’s just kind of the way it goes. I don’t know if we really think about it. We do take note in the sense of like knowing what our fans like. I think that does affect how we write and I think it should. There are a lot of bands who will do a couple records with the same feel then completely make a departure from it, from what their fans like in the first place and I’ve never been a fan of that. I’ve never been stoked when bands do that. I just think “Dude, I loved that record!” And I’ve never wanted them to keep putting out the same record.

A complete departure is never a good idea in my opinion. With this new record, some people hear it as being softer or some hear it as being heavier. In my opinion I think its closer to the darker stuff that we’ve done but again I think everyone has a different opinion on it but I definitely would say that we’ve grown out the super aggressive harder stuff. I don’t know if its because we’re getting older, (laughs) its not like we don’t listen to that stuff anymore but I think we just try and make music that we love and that there is a natural progression. I think it pulls a lot from what we listen to and I think that’s kind of way we kind of completely went away from the poppy side of things because we’re all grown men and we all tend to like stuff that is not that way at all. Not that we’re trying to sound like that but that’s just what comes across from what you’re inspired by and what you look up to.

That makes sense, as someone doing this as a career you want to progress and not be

singing to teenagers about girl problems your whole life. I’ve listened to you since I was 17 and it’s nice to grow up along with one of your favorite bands.

NY: Yeah I was actually just talking about this in an interview earlier. I was saying the same thing. People who started listening to our records when they were 15 or 16 are now in their mid 20’s. We don’t want to keep trying to write for people who this is going to be their first introduction to us. I think its almost like a respect thing to our fans like saying that we’re not going to keep putting out records that are like our first record because at this point we’re all older and we have all grown up together and that’s a really cool special thing to me that we’ve been around and been blessed to do this for so long and that we have fans that we literally feel like we’ve gone through so much together, it’s a really cool thing for sure.

For those who maybe thought that you went too soft on New Surrender, what do they have to look forward to on this new release?

SC: The same. New Surrender may have not been my proudest moment, but it was my moment. It was me. It was where the band was at in that moment. I do not have any apologies for NS, it got us to where we are today. All I can say is that we are perpetually in a state of forward progression, progress may not always be for the best, but at least it is moving in the right direction.

One of the first songs we’ve all heard so far “We Owe This To Ourselves” is based on some of your thoughts on Ghandi correct? Can you expand on where this song came from?

SC: Actually it was based on one of Ghandi’s pupils, his name was Martin Luther King Jr.; the theme of the song came to me after I heard a story about him on NPR. It was talking about his final days and the fact that he felt like he could do no right, and that his “dream” may never be recognized. He even foreshadowed his own death in several sermons. The song is a call to action for the rest of us who believe racism is one of the greatest crimes against humanity in our worlds history.

Talk to me about the name of the new album?

SC: It comes from a poem by the poet Dylan Thomas. I believe it aligns the perfect contradiction between our heavyhearted, “dark”, and sobering moments with our consistent pursuit of hope.

Was the dark/light contrast something you were aiming for from the beginning of the writing process?

NY: I think as it got closer to finishing the record and even more so when the record was done, it kind of felt that way. We were throwing around album titles and we kind of all felt that. It is true that the dark and light has been done a lot in a sense but I think that musically it feels darker and some of the lyrics are lighter. I think it just kind of fit with this album. We threw around that title and we just thought that it really does go together. I think sometimes that people want too much of a literal definition but it really was more of a feeling. I think that’s why we wanted to accomplish the most with this album was because of the feeling of it. It was the artwork and the vibe of the record rather than wanting it to be a concept album or this tying in with that. I think the title really just fit well. If you read the full poem by Dylan Thomas I think it really just ties in with life and everything.

I read constant updates from your drummer Nate that you were doing a fair share of experimenting on this album. What new elements are you most excited about?

SC: One of the first things that Brenden (O’Brien) did when he met with me was to say “I know you can sing, I know it! You just finally need to put it on a record”. At first that was shocking to hear, because as a vocalist you want to think you put everything into each and every album; but he was right. For me the most exciting thing is that for the first time the musicians weaved the music around my vocals and not the other way around.

As music changes and we see more and more waves of auto-tune and “artists” who don’t write their own songs, how do you see Anberlin staying relevant in the years to come?

SC: Those who fight to remain relevant only succeed at looking desperate and outdated. Again, all I can do is stay true to who I am, whose I am, and write & perform the music I am inspired to write. There will always be a new and shiny gadget for the music world to play with… but they will come and go, and be forgotten.

What are Anberlin’s plans for the Fall following this release?

SC: Tour, tour, tour, tour, eat, sleep, repeat.

Nate, I read that you actually wrote the epic album ender “Depraved”, can you tell us a bit about what inspired that?

NY: It was really weird. For one thing I’ve never written a full song for Anberlin. I’ve thrown in some ideas and parts but that’s it. I didn’t write it to be the last song by any means. I wrote it as just more of a heavier rock song because if you heard the demo it’s really different, its just a little bit more straightforward and I guess it wasn’t like this long epic song. I remember Stephen putting vocals and melodies to it and we sent it back and it just had this dark cool feel so then Christian, our guitar player, said that we should try and make it the last song. Immediately, I was like “Oh the last song!” That’s the ones fans are always like stoked on because its longer and we always try to make it this big and epic song. It was really cool, I feel really honored and it’s this special thing for me because none of us are like that, like “Oh I wrote this or that!” It’s just all songs written by Anberlin. It is cool to hear it all finished with everything on it and to think that I have the last song on our record. I think its weird to think of “inspired by” because I was listening so much to that band Editors when I wrote it. I just feel like I listened to that a lot and I like how it’s slick but dark all at the same time. I’m really stoked on it.

I read a quote from Stephen saying that you’re on the brink of something, either world domination or destruction. Can you elaborate on this thought?

NY: I think what he’s saying is just that we’re at a point of this is our fifth album and with Anberlin its always been a very slow and steady build which we’re very thankful for like I said we’ve brought so many fans with us. But at this point it is kind of a weird spot because with it being our fifth album, and our second on a major label, its kind of like make or break time. You either go straight up and it ends up being like this record does really well and kills it, which is what we all hope for or, just with the way the industry is and the way people are, it could totally bomb. It could totally be it for us and I think a lot of fans get bummed when we talk about it and not to be depressing but it’s just the honest truth. It could either be the biggest thing we’ve ever done or it could be total destruction for us, it could be the end.

There’s just a lot of time and a lot of people and money that goes into bands, I don’t know if people realize that, it’s a big thing. When you go for it, you really go for it. If you put it all out there and it doesn’t do well, that’s kind of the end. Not to say that if this record doesn’t do well we’re just going to peace out and never do another record but we’ve kind of all said that like this is what we love to do and we’ll do it until it makes sense not to do it. At this point if the record doesn’t do well we could very possibly be done but none of us think that we’re done for but it’s just a true statement, it’s honest.