We hung out with Spencer Chamberlain, Tim McTague and Aaron Gillespie from Christian metal band Underoath and chatted about Spencer’s battle with addiction, how religion (doesn’t) effect their rock’n'roll credibility and how they’ve remained grounded despite being a high profile metal band. 

Is it weird that people always want to talk about Underoath being Christians?
Tim: “Yeah, everyone we speak to touches on that at least once.”
Spencer: “As a band we’re not trying to force feed anyone, but we’re not going to lie to people about what we are. People are learning to be more open minded about us.
Is there something inherently un-rock’n’roll about being a Christian?
Tim: “We’re not really in a ‘rock’n’roll band’ in as much as we play heavy music in rock clubs, but we are worlds apart from guns N’ roses: we don’t trash dressing rooms, bring girls backstage we don’t really don’t do much of that stuff. That’s something we always get asked about, but we never really think about it that way. It’s not an issue. We’ve been on tour with bands that do that, do things we would never do, and as long as they respectfully keep it in their rooms and buses then we’re fine with it.”

Underoath just seems like friends having a laugh?
Tim: “Yeah, I think a lot of bands are friends, it’s all a matter of how you construe whatever you’re heard about us. After you meet us… we meet a lot of bands who say, ‘oh we heard this about you, so we thought this, but you guys obviously aren’t X or Y’. That’s understandable. People will think that those people are either lying or those guys are just like hate everything that they’re around.”
You’re huge in the US but you’re still down to earth guys. No egos then?
Tim: “That’s perception I guess. We have good days and bad days. Days when we wake up and dudes are just jerks for no reason, some days you wake up and are like, ‘wow, I’m just really happy to be here and playing’. Some days I’ll yell at our tech for messing something up, and others something will break and we’ll just go with it. The only way you stay grounded is by constantly talking about where you came from, where you are and what else you could be doing, and how grateful to we are to be here. If you do that it’s hard to get up the next day and be a jerk-off.”
Is it your upbringing? From the south?
Spencer: “I think that’s just different people. It depends how you grew up and what you grew up doing.”

On Spencer:
Spencer: “We’re all different people, but I think we all have the same beliefs and the same goals. Everyone has their own issues. God works on us all as individuals.”
The last album was about overcoming addiction, what’s the new one about?
Spencer: “a lot of the same thing. Things you struggle with and deal with is an everyday thing. I pretty much wrote the album in the two years since Define The Great Line, until present, so a lot has happened, people got better and people got worse. It’s always up and down… people don’t just…”
What do you mean?
Spencer: “I had similar struggles between those records at times, and our bands almost broke up and we were friends for a while, then we were. There was a lot of real life stuff happening and it’s gone into the record.”
Tim: “It’s not like because the record is out in 2008, that this is a snapshot of what we’re all doing right now, it’s like all the music and lyrics were written at the time that that stuff happened. It’s a long view. It’s all since then. A lot of the stuff you’re talking about happened after the last album, so it’s all in the new one.”
Do you mind talking about it? Private?
Spencer: “I think that was my job is to do. Talk about personal things AND put them in songs: to talk about it and write about it. If you’ve been through things that you know other people have been through then the best  thing to do is put you’re best foot forward and be honest about it. The more I write about it, not only does it help me but it can help a lot of other people when they read it or are singing at a show. Everyday I love writing about… humiliating myself. Everyday when I’m onstage I go back to when I wrote that.”
So, humiliating, self-deprecating songs keep you level headed?
Spencer: “I write down things that I wouldn’t even want to tell my best friends or parents. It’s humiliating but it’s great. That’s our approach as a band…”
Humiliating? Like what?
Spencer: “No one’s proud of addiction, or struggling with addiction. I don’t really know how to explain humility… in our situation, people think that because we’re a Christian band we shouldn’t have these issues so I guess that’s humiliating. I’m an honest dude, so I write down honest things.”

Do you think there’s a twisted idea of disclosure and rock’n’roll, that you have to be on drugs to feel on the edge, that you have to be destructive to feel life?
Tim: “I think it’s true to an extent. I think that’s the easiest way to feel it. Movies that people walk away from and say, ‘oh that movie changed my life’ or movies that you cry in, there is some kind of euphoric experience with pain and sadness whether it’s physical or mental, I think that’s why people have such a hard time dealing with depression – I think a lot of depressed people enjoy being depressed it’s like, another cool way of being ‘still broken’ and by the time you wise up you’re already in it and its over. I know from me, the songs that make me feel the saddest are the songs I like listening to the most a lot. I think that’s just a natural thing.”
It’s better to feel pain than feel nothing…
Aaron: “I’d rather feel pain than nothing. I think with loss, comes happiness.”
Spencer: “You can’t have one without the other.”
Aaron: “If you’re feeling no pain, then you’re feeling no joy. If you’ve never tasted bad food, you’ll never know good food. The people that have never really had hurt in their life, never really know when they have something so good.”
Do you enjoy it now for that reason?
Spencer: “Yeah. When things aren’t going well, it’s a result of not really doing nothing. When you’re doing well, you… when things are bad you just have to work real hard to get better again. The bad things get worse but it makes the good things better. That’s how my life has always been.”

How do you find being on tour with drugs/booze around you?
Tim: “We all drink. We don’t get wasted every night, but we all drink.”
Spence: “I drink. Everyone drinks apart from Chris.”
Aaron: “Chris hates the taste of alcohol.”
Forums talking about what happened. What happened:
Spencer: “I used to do a lot of drugs. And one drug in particular. And I don’t do that anymore.”
Trent can’t drink because it leads to the next drug…
Aaron: “I think some people will party and just grab whatever they can…”
Spencer: “some people have super addictive personalities, and I don’t think that’s necessarily the case with me because I can drink or not drink and be happy. I can drink a lot or one beer and stop. There was just one drug in particular that was very addictive… and anyone can be addicted to it. It’s not something you run into every day… so…”
Spencer: “I think any powerful drug is going to be destructive. That’s what happened to me.”
Aaron: “Anything you put above, anything else, drug an illness an anxiety problem, whatever you’re putting it above, it’s probably bad, you can do it with food or worry. Anything can become a vice.”
Spencer: “Anything that distracts you from what you should be doing is bad…”