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æ.com: What were we talking about? Oh, you're going to play El Rey (in Los Angeles) and Exit/In - when are you going to play Exit/In?
Kmax: I'm going to play Exit/In in about 3 weeks.
æ.com: During GMA Week?
Kmax: Yep. Maybe all the Christians will come out ... have a drink, have a good time. Celebrate. For once in their lives, they can celebrate, they don't have to worry about what everybody else thinks about them. I'm pulling out my Elvis outfit for that show [laughs], I'm probably going to be wearing a cape [laughs] ...
[Editor's note: This information has since changed. Kevin says that show has been moved to the beginning of June.]
æ.com: So are you going to be a clothes designer on the side now? Because like a lot of the stuff you wear, you've kind of put together.
Kmax: I'm not interested in that one bit, but I love fashion. I love trying to play around with different ideas, trying to play off of things that inspire me from a fashion standpoint. I didn't know I'd have to deal with plaid [laughing], which you know everybody's going off on this whole plaid thing …
æ.com: I didn't say anything about the plaid [laughing].
Kmax: Well, you know, even on the æ site they're talking about the "Man in Plaid" and I'm like, that's cool - I wore that for a photo shoot, you know? But it wasn't the only thing I wore at the photo shoot. But the thing that is interesting is that raincoat became such a huge deal, that people were either horrified by it or they loved it. And I think, it is what it is, it's a Burberry raincoat, you know? So, I don't like to have one piece of clothing overcome everything, that's why I constantly change.
æ.com: So let's talk about fans for awhile, since we're on the subject. What's something good about having fans?
Kmax: The fans to me are people that really feed my desire to continue to create. I mean, it's kind of like, it's a relationship, isn't it? It's like you want to make music that everybody's going to really dig into and love, and love it to the point where they want the next thing. And you're inspired by them wanting the next thing ... to go into the studio and create something that's even better than the first thing. And you constantly are about topping yourself, I think, trying to come up with new ideas, to inspire people, to make people look inward, to make people laugh, cry, you know. To be honest with you, that's the life of the artist, constantly reinventing who you are and what you are to inspire people. And, to me, I really take it with a grain of salt. I don't sit back and go 'I have the end-all-be-all tell-tale vision and everybody must listen to me or they're like, all pigs,' which some artists have done in the past. A lot of artists feel 'hey, listen to me, and everybody else is wrong' whereas I feel like 'listen to everybody and glean information from lots of different sources.'
And that's why I think my music is interesting because it's not like everybody else, it kinda has its own feel to it, and that's why I constructed it in the first place. So it's almost like a club to itself, it's like if you dig this kind of music, you're one of the only ones that are out there into this. But, it doesn't mean that it's the only thing, you can go out and check out other things. The problem with modern music to me is everybody's trying to emulate everyone else. Nobody is willing to take a risk, to try something different, you know what I mean? And that even though my record is full of influences, I still feel like it has a fresh take on life. It's got a fresh style to it. I'm very proud of that.
It's funny because everybody in the Christian industry right now is talking about 'well, who's selling the most units out of the three guys' and I know I'm selling the least amount of units. And I'm happy about that, because I know that the people that are buying my record really like it. And whether that's 50,000 people or 100,000 people or 2 million, it's really great to me that people that have this record, I know it's special to them. I know it's just not a record that they picked up and they go 'oh I like this single' and then they throw it away and they're on to the next thing, you know what I mean?
æ.com: Are you your toughest critic?
Kmax: I'm pretty hard on myself from an artistic standpoint, you know what I mean? When people tell me that my music is this or that ... I'm pretty tough on myself when it comes to creating stuff. But I'm also kind of like a hippie how I go about it, like I just kind of create it, and I don't worry about how I get to the end product. I don't worry about what's going down when I put it down. And a lot of people sit there and reconstruct, reconstruct, reconstruct, reconstruct, until they have the perfect work. For me, it's like, I throw it up on the wall, and if it sticks, cool, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, then I'll try something else, you know? But yeah, I can be tough on myself. I think where I get tough on myself is from a live performance standpoint. I want to make people happy onstage, and if I feel like I'm not doing it, then I get really hard on myself after a show. Like I'm notorious for coming off after a show, and everybody going 'that was awesome,' and me going 'it was horrible, just pathetic,' you know what I mean? [laughs]
æ.com: What would make it horrible?
Kmax: Just the feelings that I have when I'm performing. [If] I don't feel like I'm pulling off the music the way I wanted to pull it off. Or I'm not connecting with people the way I want to connect with them. The thing that I hate about performers is when they turn their back on the audience and they're just into their own music and they don't want to bring people into it, you know what I mean? That's my least favorite performer. That's why some of my favorite performers are people like Freddie Mercury, and like another great example was Elvis, constantly involving the crowd, constantly bringing them into the show. Bono does that quite a bit now too … so all my favorite front people were always people that constantly emoted, went out there, and really tried to draw people in.
æ.com: On this last tour, would you say there were more performances that you felt good about rather than horrible?
Kmax: Good question. I can't remember, I have a really poor memory too. I'll tell you what - the summer festivals were the most horrible because I didn't think the show was put together. I didn't think it was packaged. We didn't have any time to sound check. We all went out and our bands had like 10 minutes to sound check and then we were out on stage doing it. There wasn't a consistency, a storyline behind the show, where I think this tour, the dc talk solo tour, had a little bit more of a storyline to it, had a little more consistency, continuity, and that helped a lot.
But I also think it is very hard for me to perform my music in 20 minutes and [leave]. And that's why I threw a few covers in there because it's really, my music is pretty difficult to grasp in 20 minutes. I mean, I feel like I need an hour to let people know what I do. And so I struggled with entertaining as opposed to letting them know what my music was. And I really struggled with that entertainment thing, like I said, I really enjoy making people smile and making them think and making them get into it.
And I actually carved out, I was going to do another cover, I was going to continue doing the "Hold Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, Thrill Me" song, but I got a lot of flack from youth leaders and promoters about that song, so I decided not to do it. But, it's like, I would've loved to have done "Blind" and "Her Game" and like "Dead End Moon." But to play those songs in front of the dc talk crowd, I'd say 20% of the crowd would be with me, maybe 30%, 'cause it's something brand new, again, something tough to get their head around, you know? I don't know if they're willing to go there yet. They're wanting the "Get the Party Started," that kind of thing.
æ.com: How did you pick the two covers you did? I mean, "We are the Champions" makes sense, it's recognizable and you like Queen, but the other?
Kmax: You're right, I went against protocol with "Alleluia" because I wanted a moment of sincerity and reverance when it comes to the music. I wanted to make a musical statement as well as have fun. So, really, to be completely honest with you, I really struggled with knowing what to do during my set. Because there's so many statements you can make. You can make a statement, I think, that Toby made very, very, very loudly that 'hey I'm here to rock the crowd and get you all up and dance and have a good time.' Mike, I feel like, kinda got caught in between being a rock show and trying to play emotional songs. I got caught in trying to make artistic statements and entertain, you know, and so it was very difficult for me to try to be pure entertainment or be artistic. I love to be just all artistic sometimes as well, but to do that, you have to have the right kind of crowd.
I think "Alleluia" for me was just to be able to let people hear my voice. Because I think within that 20 minute set without "Alleluia," it's kinda like a lot of people want to hear me sing. And it's kinda hard in 20 minutes to really latch into the vocal sound. So I wanted to play that song because I think people really could hear what I do, you know, as a vocalist. I mean Jeff Buckley used it for that same purpose, people really heard his voice. It's a wonderful song to showcase a voice, very simple, it's really all about the melody. The lyrics are amazing [too], one of my favorite songwriters, Leonard Cohen, wrote that song [as well as] Bird on a Wire, Suzanne, all those songs. You read the lyrics and they're just so deep, so amazing.
æ.com: What's your favorite version of "Alleluia," Jeff Buckley's?
Kmax: Yeah, hands down. A friend of mine says John Cale has a version that's really great ... to be honest with you, I'm a very big fan of Rufus Wainwright, but I don't think he pulled it off like Jeff Buckley did. Bono does a version that's really interesting, but it's more of a spoken word thing. It's cool, but it's not as great as Buckleys. Buckley nailed it. And if I did it recorded, I would probably do a different take on it. Because I think Buckley and I have very similar things that we do with our voices and I wouldn't want to sound like I'm taking from Jeff Buckley. I'm more from a Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, school of influence. But there's a lot of people out there that think I'm taking from some of the more modern people like Jeff Buckley, you know, who do they say all the time, Cheb Mami from Sting's band, that middle-eastern singer that sings with Sting, and I just think 'you know what, hey, that's cool that you think that, but I go way far back before that,' you know what I mean? I've been singing before Jeff, even though I know it sounds crazy, but I've been doing this before Jeff was doing it. I appreciate that people are trying to link me, I don't get mad about stuff like that. I have one person that says that I'm not original at all, and I'm just taking from U2, Rod Stewart and Sting and everybody, the Smiths, and lumping it all together. And I think that's what everybody does, they take from their influences and then they make something better, or make something that's a part of them, but they keep their influences. I mean, it's kind of hard not to do that.
æ.com: The second part of the question from a long time ago was, what are the downsides of having fans?
Kmax: I think for me it's just when people don't respect your privacy and they try to infiltrate your everyday life. And I've had some problems with people and I actually had to go legal with a couple of people, and I had to bring the FBI into it at one point. And it got really scary ... I had FBI agents at a dc talk show and no one knew about it except the people onstage and the road management and stuff. But it was very scary to have people backstage with guns and not knowing if this person was going to show up and try to shoot me or kidnap me, which they were threatening to do. That's where it gets weird, that's where it gets wacky. And, I mean, it comes with the job … like Bono says, he wears his sunglasses for protection [laughing], I wear my Burberry raincoat for protection.
æ.com: Have you ever asked someone for their autograph?
Kmax: Yes, when I was a kid, I was fascinated by Duran Duran. I actually sent a letter to them asking them to sign my [album] and they never did, they never sent it back. I was really hurt by that. I also have a signing by Johnny Cash, I ran into him like 5 or 6 years ago and he gave me his autograph, so that was cool. I've bumped into a lot of people since then and it's not like I'm going to ask for an autograph. Like, I saw Thom Yorke of Radiohead during the Grammy Awards and I would never ask him for his autograph, but I really look up to him. And I've just become friends with Robbie Williams over in London ... [trails off because he's distracted by the music and a friend who just walked in the door]
æ.com: Have you ever refused to sign anything?
Kmax: Nobody's asked me to sign a part of their body that's controversial to me ... no, I've never denied anybody an autograph. There have been times where I've felt like it's an invasion of privacy and I'll say 'hey, I can't do this right now, but check back with me in like 30 minutes or so and I'll get it.' Or if I'm walking through someplace and I can't do it. It's just like anything, if you can't stop, you can't stop, you know? And it sucks and you want to. But an autograph is really impersonal, though, I don't look at them as, like, a necessity in life. I'd rather sit down and talk with somebody, have a coffee, or shake their hand, before signing an autograph. I mean, Michael Stipe, I look up to Michael as a songwriter, Michael will not sign autographs, he shakes hands only. I think it's a little hard to say 'I will not sign an autograph,' I mean, that's just a little weird.
My point is that I don't think it's cheap, I just think it's more meaningful to sit down and talk to somebody. It's more meaningful to look in their eyes and say 'hey, how's it going? Are you doing alright?' Actually listening, you know what I mean? Autographs are duplicated all the time. People sign stuff that's supposed to be signed by me and pawn it off as my signature all the time. I'll unravel the mystery of that. People don't know that, but it's true.
æ.com: What are your thoughts on Solo being nominated for and winning the Grammy?
Kmax: I think the Grammies are really about who sells the most and who makes the most impression and who makes a dent in society. And the truth is, they're a popularity contest in some respect. And it's a familiarity thing. You know what I'm trying to say? I was very shocked that it won. But, what it was up against, though, I mean, no offense to the other bands, those people just don't know who those bands are. First of all, Big Tent Revival, even though I like those guys, they aren't known by anybody really outside the Christian circle. You have Sonicflood, who put out a live album and then broke up, and again I like those guys too, I sang on their first record and I really appreciated what they were trying to do. I just feel like it was a popularity contest - people look down and go 'oh, dc talk, we know who they are' and that's who wins, you know what I mean? It's not like 'let's listen to each record and see what the message is.' And if they do that, then great, but I doubt it. I would tend to think it's more about who makes an impression, you know? Which, I was very excited to see Radiohead win in best art packaging because I think that is one of the few art forms in the Grammy industry that people do really investigate, they check it out and they think 'this is really cool' 'cause it's visual and they don't have to take the time to sit down and listen and extract.
æ.com: And you've been pretty active in your packaging ...
Kmax: I'm very into design. Very into art.
