Stellar Kart is (L-R): Jordan Messer, Adam Agee, Brian Calcara, and Cody Pellerin.
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Stellar Kart is (L-R): Jordan Messer, Adam Agee, Brian Calcara, and Cody Pellerin.
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Since the 2006 Summer release of the aptly titled We Can't Stand Sitting Down, Phoenix-based punk quartet Stellar Kart have been a restless bunch, garnering their first No. 1 hit, hitting the road with newsboys, as well as earning 5 Dove Award Nominations including Song of the Year. Take some time out with lead singer Adam Agee to hear the thoughts behind the success.
Are you guys still on the road with the newsboys right now?
Oh yeah, definitely. We will be until the end of April.
How’s that been?
It’s been awesome man, it’s crazy. There’s just a bunch of people at the shows, everybody on tour’s been great - it’s the best.
Were you a newsboys fan growing up?
Yeah, we had some of their CD’s,. I wasn’t as diehard a fan as a lot of these people who are coming out to the shows, but I definitely had a couple of their CD’s that we played in our youth group.
It seems that every tour that you guys are doing is getting bigger and bigger.
Yeah, I’d like to see the next one get bigger than this – this is the biggest one that I can imagine.
For sure; you guys are in the position of rising stars right now, especially being up for 5 Dove Awards this year. What are your thoughts on that, especially going from one nomination for your first record and now having 5 plus Song of the Year?
When we heard the news earlier, it was just unbelievable. Because we’re not a worship band, which seems to be the direction that a lot of the Chrstian music and radio is going, and just to kind of be accepted into that with the style of music that we play is really cool. I think it’s awesome.
Yeah, you’re not a worship group, but for sure you guys have a strong message in your music. And going from the first record to the second record, it seems that your direction has really begun to take shape and come into its own. Can you tell us about the progression from All Gas, No Brake to the current album?
Well, the first record we took songs from all the way up to 6 years ago, so we had a collection of a bunch of songs that we’d written over a period of a long time. And with this record, we kind of had to write it all over the course of a couple months, and just to kind of figure out what we wanted to say and to have another chance to make a statement and say something, and hopefully encourage people and give them hope. And so there was a little bit of pressure on us, because the first record you’re just trying to make it - you’re just trying to get your music heard; and now that people have heard our stuff, we were just trying to make sure that we’re not saying the wrong thing, and we wanted to really make a statement and have an impact on people.
I feel that the songs on this record were a little deeper, a little more introspective. Did you take a different approach for your songwriting?
I think we just developed as songwriters. The more you practice, the little better you get at it, so I think it just came from writing a lot. A couple of different ideas of what we wanted to write about were from some of the things that we’d heard on the road from kids and what they were struggling with, and others were things that we’d dealt with on our own just within the band and within our families and just life on the road for a year and a half, that kind of all went into writing the songs. And just growing up as people makes you a more mature writer and makes you deal with more mature subjects, I think.
Do you have any song on the record that is closer to you personally?
I wrote the song “I’m Pretty Good,” the really fast punk song - it’s kind of funny, it's sort of a description of me in high school. I was kind of good at a lot of stuff, just getting by on trying to be popular, and trying to not screw up and not get made fun of. So I was pretty good at sports, pretty good at school, at my job, but then I wouldn’t do anything meaningful. And so the song’s about describing that and realizing at a point that there is much more to this life than just being good at the things here, and I want to kids to understand that at a younger age than I realized it.
Can you tell us a little bit about “Me and Jesus?”
We basically wanted to write a song that says that you’re not alone, you’re never going to be on your own, and just kind of write from a relational aspect, saying that I’m here for you, but even bigger and more important than that is that Jesus is there for you all the time. And we all have rough spots in our lives, and we have things that bring us down, and we feel that it’s hopeless at times, and we need relationships with people to build us up and encourage us and have people say, “I’m here for you, I’m not going to leave you alone during this,” and of course He’s not going to leave you.
I haven’t had a chance to see your live show, but do you guys offer your fans any follow up to allow them to live out the messages in your music a little more?
We just try to encourage people at shows, and they can also be part of our street team and stuff like that, and it’s kind of a network of encouragement - we have message boards and everything on our website and on MySpace, and we just try to keep people connected, and keep people influenced with positive people. And that’s kind of what we’re about, we’re trying to keep [our fans] with a positive outlook on life. And I think if you surround yourself with people who are positive, then you’re going to be a positive person. There’s just a ton of stuff bringing kids down out there, and so I think if we can do anything to help keep them with better friends and encouragers, and to just kind of keep that network strong, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.
These last few months have been pretty amazing for you guys, but has there been anything particularly memorable for you?
I think having a No. 1 song was pretty amazing, and then getting to go on tour with the newsboys, and then getting the Dove Award nominations - it’s kind of just been all one thing after another, its just been unbelievable. And we’re just riding the wave right now, and having a great time trying to keep doing what we’ve been doing.
It might be a little premature to be thinking of a follow up to We Can’t Stand Sitting Down or what you might be doing after this tour, but have you thought about that?
We’re just going to do a lot of festivals this summer and then probably get back into the studio around September. And then maybe do a late fall tour, I’m not sure with who yet.
Awesome. Adam, do you have a favorite sport?
I like to play golf and basketball, those are probably my favorite.
With your music being so high energy, is golf kind of retreat for you?
Well, I just love being outside, and to be able get away from everything, and being able to turn my phone off and get out there for a couple of hours to relax and have a good time - I don’t know, I enjoy it. And then basketball I love because I really hate to run, but I like to be in shape, and so basketball is like the perfect sport to keep me in shape, and it’s great, I used to play in high school.
Very cool. Thanks for taking out some time with us Adam.
Definitely. Thanks for the support man.
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