Comments (Ashley West-Albin
CASTING CROWNS: WHAT DO YOU DO MONDAY MORNINGS?
Sometimes we get lost in
music in which money, breakups or ‘how cool we are’ is the general subject.
Though some of this music is and has been a pillar for our musical preferences
and perspectives, there are other subjects – the honest, achingly real depth
ones – that need to be talked about too.You remember that old Jeff Foxworthy
quote, “by the time I get to church, I need church cuz I done yelled at everyone
in my family?” It begs the question, what do we do on Monday mornings?
Internationally acclaimed Casting Crowns “puts it all out on the table,” with
their new tour, The Alter and The Door.
“According to Pollstar, the tour comes in as the highest-ranking Christian music concert event of the season and at No. 30 overall. In addition to remarkable ticket sales the tour also had a profound humanitarian impact. The tour allowed Casting Crowns the opportunity to unite more than 8,000 children with sponsors through the World Vision child relief organization,” informs promoters.
Melodee DeVevo, CC vocalist, violinist and female
influence, gives N4U readers the story on her journey.
Well,
I’m from
I’ll bet that was just awful!
Well,
I’m the kind of person who likes snow and mountains, so it was hard to feel
inspired because it was so hot. But, I went to college and majored in music. I
play violin in the band and do vocals.
The group has been together almost 10 years, how long have you been a part of it? Well, it’s been more like 8-9 years. We base it off when Juan and I got married, but I’ve been with it since the beginning.
What do you lend to the group especially being outnumbered by guys?
There
are two of us – Megan, the other girl, is my best friend – but they say I have
a heavy hand. You need that with guys though!
How does touring affect you spiritually, emotionally and
physically?
I have to remember touring is not the real world. Spiritually, it’s great because I’m surrounded by people that I can talk with and get different perspectives from but physically, it’s hard. My husband is on tour with me, and so is my 11-month-old, Jesse, and that is a challenge because you are changing diapers at 8 a.m. trying not to wake anyone up. We also lead worship most Sundays at home, so in the past six weeks, I have flown home for three of them.
According to my research, your music is a hybrid of several genres including Christian rock and Worship. How might you describe your music?
It talks about real things that we don’t necessarily talk about in church. We go to church with that smile pasted on our faces when we really should be getting down into the deeper things. We fight on the way to church and then sit there and do nothing about it.
Do you think people who normally listen to secular music can get something from your music as well?
Yeah, Mark has been so good at finding subject that relate and speak to people – things that God wants us to relay. I’m not going to cram anything down your throat, and we have heard religion, religion, religion, but we are all searching for something. I hope everyone can find something in our songs that speaks to them spiritually and emotionally.
I think it’s kind of
interesting how you came about the inspiration for The Alter and The Door. (Mark Hall, band leader and Youth Pastor, sat
down and viewed the msypace pages of the kids in his youth group and found
messages to the world that didn’t exactly match up with what they had said they
day before.) What does the album mean to you personally?
I believe in absolute truth. There isn’t a different version of the truth for different people and when [Mark] saw the myspace profiles it was kind of reflection of all of us. We go to church but what’s after that?
Favorite song or
verse of the album?
“East to West”
I know you’ve cast my
sin as far as the east is from the west, And I stand before you now as though
I’ve never sinned. I think it is so amazing that God will cast away your
sin and forget it. Some people say they forgive you but you can tell they
always hold a grudge; but forgiven sin is cast from God’s mind. We take God’s
sacrifice for granted so much …
Tell me about working with World Vision…
They told us if we
had 3% of our audience to join we’d be doing good. I don’t know the exact
numbers, but I will say it has been such a joy on a personal level. We live in
such a blessed world, who can’t come up with $35 a month to help someone who
barely eats and who has to go down a mountain every day just to get some water?
We “adopted” a little boy and he sends us pictures and letters. It’s the cutest
thing. Your heart can’t NOT go out to them.
What have you learned
from the success from Casting Crowns?
That God can use
anybody. We were just a bunch of nerds playing at church. Now, we aid in
hundreds of people giving their lives to God.
What would you like to say to
We can’t wait to see you!
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