Gideon| “Because It’s What We Loved”
Written By: Jeremy Seick

Meet Gideon. These dudes are pretty straightforward:  they’re stoked on what they are doing for the time that they have to do it, and they want to get to know you, yes you! So check them out here in this interview then go find their album (locations listed below), and then go say “What up!” to them at a show. Ready, set, start.

Timmy, thank you for chatting with us! Tell us about your name Gideon and how it is you guys came together…

Timmy Naugher: Gideon is a warrior from the bible. His story is kind of like the original “300.” In a nutshell, He had an army of 300 men and destroyed another army made up of thousands of men. Gideon, our band, formed through the death of another band called Awake the Watchmen. Two of the members of that band, Scooter Lee (vocals) and Kris Gottlieb (guitar), wanted to continue being in a band, so they contacted our drummer Jake and our guitarist Daniel. Soon after that they contacted me about playing bass. When we started we were more metal and more technical. We had lots of shredding and lots of guitar solos. Kris, the guitarist who played all the solos, ended up leaving the band because of how much time it was taking away from his family. After he left, we started writing less technical metal influenced songs, and more hardcore influenced songs.

Being that there are seemingly endless hardcore bands out there these days all with something to say, what does it mean to you guys to have a chance to sign with a label?

TN: It’s a huge blessing. It’s a chance we never thought we would actually get. When we started, we weren’t at all focused on being part of a label. We just wanted to tour, play music, and meet people because it’s what we loved. We never ruled out a label because if someone wanted to help us do what we wanted, then why wouldn’t we want to partner with them? It just wasn’t our main focus. Through playing shows, we got to meet a few Facedown bands. After talking with those bands, we started to see that Facedown was pretty much on the same page as we are. We got in contact with Jason Dunn and he came to one of our shows in California. He later gave us an offer to be part of his label and we took it. We are beyond stoked to be part of the Facedown family. We would not want to be a part of any other label.

What are some hardcore bands that you guys have looked up to?

TN: I would say the bands we look up to the most are bands that spend lots of time hanging out with their fans. We’ve played some shows with A Plea for Purging, My Epic, & War of Ages. Seeing those bands just hang out with people at shows is very encouraging. One of the most awesome experiences we had was at Cornerstone festival last year. We are all pretty much P.O.D. fanatics. P.O.D.’s vocalists, Sonny, was at Cornerstone hanging out. A few of us went and talked to him and got pictures with him and he was so rad. He took time just to hang out and showed interest in why we were there.

Your recordings are big! I like that. How well do you feel this reflects your live show? And how important is that to you?

TN: Well we hope it’s a pretty good representation of our live show. We didn’t want anything on the record that we couldn’t play like we hear of some bands doing. There are some effects we can’t recreate, but everything else on the CD we can do. We want to put on a great live show. We try to use our music to meet people. We feel if we put on a crappy live show, then we won’t meet as many people. So we try to put on the best show possible in hopes of meeting as many people as possible.

Talk to us a bit about this freshman release Costs. What does this record mean to you and what do you hope to see it do to this scene and generation?

TN: It means a lot. This is our first full length and we are excited for people to hear it. We hope that people will listen to it and love it. We don’t really feel we wrote an album that would change a generation. We feel like our responsibilities as Christians are to meet people and show them the love Christ would. We use our music as a tool to meet people. We try to write music that people would enjoy listening to. Then hopefully through our music we would meet that person and then just get to know them and hear their story.

If you were to look out over your life right now, what would you say is biggest thing weighing on your heart right now?

TN: I would say for us as a band, it’s just how we get distracted by things we “need” or “problems” we have, when really they aren’t problems at all, while we should be focusing on people who have so much less than us. We usually end up on tour with lots of excess food, whether it be from things we brought on tour with us or things we have acquired through dumpster diving. We usually encounter homeless people who are hungry and will give them some food. It’s always a humbling experience when we forget about our worthless wants and focus our attention on people who truly need things.

I feel like there are constant complaints from young bands about touring, which is fair, but there is always another side, so what has been your favorite part of touring thus far?

TN: Our favorite part of touring is honestly all the people we have been blessed to meet. We have met some awesome people that we will never forget. Many we would even consider best friends. We love staying with people and really getting to know them. We hang out hard.

What do you want Gideon to be 5 even 10 years from now?

TN: I honestly have no idea. Just whatever God wants us to be. I would think we would still be on the road full time and continuing to meet anyone and everyone we can. But we might not be. We might not even be a band in 10 years. Who knows?

Where can eager readers find your new album?

TN: Our shows, Facedown Records online store, iTunes, select Hot Topics, and hopefully a ton of other places.