by Bob Gersztyn

ONLINE EXTRA, November/December 2004

II Corinthians 4:7 states that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels...(KJV)," and this verse was the motivation for the "Jars of Clay" when choosing their name. In case you're not hip to alternative music, the "Jars of Clay" are a multi-platinum alternative rock band, who also happen to be Christians. They've won a couple of Grammy's, six Dove Awards, have been part of MTV's regular video rotation, and have toured with Billy Graham, Matchbox 20, Michael W. Smith, and Sting. They've made guest appearances on CBS's Early Show, CNN's Worldbeat, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brien, as well as being featured in Billboard, CMM Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, People, and Rolling Stone. Film credits include "The Chamber," "Crossroads," Jack Frost," "The Prince of Egypt," and "We Were Soldiers." With mesmerizing melodies, and intelligent lyrics that allow the listener's thoughts to develop their own conclusions, the "Jars" are the vanguard of the "Gospel" message to a new generation ready for harvest. The question now becomes, what are they being harvested for? To try and find that answer, the Door had its west coast potsherd authority, Bob Gersztyn, arrange an interview with band member Charlie Lowell. Since they only let Bob photograph them in 1996, he had to use this publicity photo that the record company provided to get a good view of Charlie.

THEDOORMAGAZINE: What is the purpose of the "Jars of Clay?"
CHARLIE LOWELL: It's twofold. First, to create art, and to create music that reflects our standards. Hopefully, it continues to excel and we will get better at song writing and performing as each record goes by. The second part of it is to write songs that struggle with deeper issues, where our faith collides with our doubts and our questions, those intersections where we struggle with the things that we ask ourselves, and God. To write about the underlying issues that go in and out of our day.
DOOR: Do you consider yourselves to be musicians, ministers, or both?
LOWELL: I would say both, to an extent. I think we struggle a little bit with being called ministers. I think we realize that God certainly uses us to minister. We see our songs being used in ways that we had no intentions of, and that completely blows us away; that keeps us writing. Honestly, [our songs] keep us doing it, and putting out what's best. That's the part of what we do that makes it bearable, because we're the means that God uses to minister with these songs. Would I claim to be a minister? No.
DOOR: How do you explain your acceptance by both the church and secular audiences? That doesn't happen very often with Christian groups.
LOWELL: It's hard to explain. The first record that really took off, and got the most exposure and acceptance by the mainstream, was really not anything that was planned out by a record label, or our management. It was a matter of us reacting to some radio stations playing "Flood" (some modern Rock radio stations, which at that time didn't know that we were a Christian band). There's a little more of a tag on us these days, but we still have occasional opportunities in the mainstream. I think that when we take advantage of those opportunities we're pretty sensitive to be relational, not to come in and be preachy and have an agenda, but to pray that we would be open to opportunities, and, really, just be ourselves and really focus on getting to know people and finding points of common interest, and sort of run from there.
DOOR: What are your plans down the road, as a group? Do you still see yourselves together ten years from now?
LOWELL: I hope so. We're just hitting our ten year mark, which is pretty significant for me. I find myself really proud of the friendships that we have, and the fact that it is pretty tough to keep a band together these days. We're just putting out our fifth studio album, and, I would say, enjoying what we're doing more than ever. So I would hope that in ten years we're still writing songs that challenge people, and we're still enjoying being on the road, and being friends, and finding a balance with our families back home. We've always said that the minute that we cease to be relevant to the culture at large is when we would want the band to stop.
DOOR: How effective do you think that music in general is for communicating the gospel?
LOWELL: I think it's a pretty tough thing to insert gospel truths in three and a half minute gospel songs. The more we do this, we're seeing that it's a pretty absurd concept in itself. However, I feel like music is obviously a powerful tool, and when we combine certain lyrics with certain pieces of music, it touches me like no eloquent speaker, or learned theologian could ever affect me. So I think that there is an acknowledgment that there is a power there that is beyond us. It's communicating just one small element of the gospel. Sometimes it's a tough thing to do, but we see it work on different levels, so that keeps us doing it.
DOOR: Some feel that musical melodies communicate on a level that is comparable to verbal language. How do you feel about that?
LOWELL: I would absolutely agree. The fact that our culture still listens to classical music, instrumental music, movie soundtracks and other compositions without words meets us and moves us, and gives us an avenue to express ourselves. There is something innate, at the gut level, that connects with melody, notes and rhythm. Whether it's a song that's really trying to say something that's focused and intentional, or a beautiful melody set to music, it does connect. There is something there that seems like we're designed to resonate with.
DOOR: To what do you attribute your musical inspiration?
LOWELL: That's a complicated answer, which I guess I would have to answer on different levels. Lyrically, I would say the community that we're immersed in when we're home, as well as the people that we surround ourselves with. Also, the situation when we're on the road, the things that we talk about, and the books that we read. A lot of different things musically, as far as styles are concerned. I would again consider inspiration to be a result of the community, and the experiences that we're going through; things that our families are teaching us.
DOOR: Your musical sound has roots in folk music. Who were some of your influences from that genre?
LOWELL: Back since we met in college we had interesting influences from the modern folk scene, heavy on the Indigo Girls, James Taylor, David Wilcox, a little bit of Nancy Griffith, Emmy Lou Harris, and some of the more mainline folk stuff. But then our influences were also from techno and rave music. So it was this bizarre combination of very "rootsy" acoustic song writing, and then this technical programming techno music.
DOOR: When you write a song, how does it develop?
LOWELL: We generally set a writing appointment. Then the four of us will meet up in, preferably, a studio in our guitar player's basement. We'll literally show up with no ideas musically, and just start messing around on our instruments. Dan might have a little melody, or he might react to something I'm doing on the piano, or one of the guys is doing on the guitar, and it's this chain reaction, where we kind of chase an idea until we get really excited about it. Before we know it, we're sort of watching a song developing. It's almost like a birthing process. Our goal is to go in with nothing, and to come home at the end of the day with something, with an expression of something that we're excited about. That's what we would call a "demo," at the end of the day, and then that may survive the process and end up on a record in some form or another, or it may never be heard by ears again.
DOOR: What advice would you give to a struggling band?
LOWELL: I would say to take advantage of any opportunities, and consider what it would be like to be a voice in your community. I think a lot of young musicians have the goal of signing to a record label and being a touring act nationally. There's a small amount of artists and bands that get that opportunity. We're fortunate in some ways to be one of those bands, but I feel like there are very legitimate opportunities, on a local level and in your community, that can be taken advantage of and that can really grow you as a musician. Don't overlook those smaller opportunities that can teach you how to communicate with an audience, and possibly prepare you for a bigger scale.
DOOR: What was your inspiration for the haunting melody of "The 11the hour?"
LOWELL: That record was a lot of things for us. We were becoming more comfortable as a band, with writing together. I think it was about leaning on our trust for each other. So much of our writing is about being vulnerable, and about communicating to each other our ideas and how to make them better. We often change each other's ideas, which can be a pretty tough thing to hear from someone. That record came when we were all having our first kids. We'd been married three or four years, and we were starting to feel comfortable as a band. It had a lot to do with asking questions about our faith, and not necessarily having a lot of answers, but definitely finding a hope and a promise in our faith that pulls us through the frustration and the confusion in the questions.
DOOR: What kind of a church do you attend?
LOWELL: It's a Presbyterian Church. It's called Christ Community Church, here in Franklin, Tennessee.
DOOR: What do you like most and least about being a rock star?
LOWELL: The thing I like the least would be how much it pulls me away from my home, and my family, and my community. It's something that I don't get used to; I don't think I will get used to it. It's sort of this continual uprooting of what I find necessary and comfortable. The thing I like best, I think, is just getting to travel with my best friends. Going through the ups and downs of life in a band with guys that I really do enjoy being with. I chose them as friends and business partners.
DOOR: How do you avoid believing in your own myth?
LOWELL: That's tough. We've always heard, "don't read your press." We keep a sense of humor about what we do and who we are. At the end of the day we really are still surprised and humbled that people buy tickets to come see us play, and that there's a steady amount of people that continue to buy our records when we put them out. I think that truth sort of reverberates with the verse where we get our name, in II Corinthians 4:7. It's the power in us and not us ourselves. It's God's power working through us that draws people to us. I think that sort of dispels the myths that we might have a tendency to want to get grounded in. I think that verse and that truth break down any tendency that we might have to want to believe those myths.
DOOR: You have a new album that came out in November 2003 called Who We Are Instead. How did that develop, and is there a theme behind it?
LOWELL: Yes, there is. It was really exciting for us to release that record, because it was a bit more of an intimate song writing process, and a lot of our conversations when we started writing these songs was, "how do we communicate this gospel in a way that relates to people that are suffering?" People that are frustrated with the world around them may be frustrated with their faith. How do we speak into that, and how do we find comfort in the fact that the gospel does relate to those things? It speaks into our darkest scenarios, our deepest anguish. That was one of the main questions. We talked about how a man like Johnny Cash, whose new record we listened to, did this. We were talking a lot about how honest he is, and how obvious it is that he needs every drop of blood that's been spilt for his redemption, and he claims it, and hangs onto it, and lives by it. So much of Christian music today is not about the fact that we're all living in frustrating situations, and we don't get what we need here on earth, this side of heaven. We continue to wrestle with those things, and if we don't want to sing about them, then we're fooling ourselves. So it was sort of embracing those issues, and maybe speaking a little light into them, and then letting them go.
DOOR: Do you guys believe that you're in God's perfect will, and do you believe that everyone has a destiny?
LOWELL: I feel like God in His sovereignty has put this band together and has kept us alive. He's given us the grace we need to be able to come back together in reconciliation, even after we hurt each other. Every day that the band survives, and continues to love each other is a testimony of God's grace in our lives. I feel like he has a plan for each of our lives, and he wants to bring those to fruition.
DOOR: Like many Gospel artists today, you're involved in humanitarian efforts; specifically, with an organization called the "Blood Water Mission." Tell us a little about this project.
LOWELL: Blood Water Mission is designed to do a few things. Mainly, to raise money for grassroots medical missions in Africa. Basically, hospices that are already on the ground and running (that care for Aids patients, administer medicine, and meet the needs in their community) hook them up with other people that are struggling with the same things they are, to help bring funding to them. Part of it is awareness. On our next tour, to the West Coast, we'll be doing symposiums on college campuses, which are basically just conversations with college students to inform them and to talk about ways they can be involved. Ways to sort of open up our world view and be involved with our world, and make our reality bigger than our home, our street, and our college. So it's been amazing for us, just in the sense that everything we do feels like it's about self promotion. It feels like we're sort of building this kingdom that's the "Jars of Clay." Being involved in "Blood Water," and Africa in general, is this constant reminder that it's not about us. It's not about our music per-se. It's about God building a kingdom internationally, around the globe, and it's about serving our brothers and sisters, and being a part of that huge community of believers.
DOOR: To take on something like AIDS takes courage, because that's one of the areas that just does not seem to get a lot of sympathy from the church.
LOWELL: There's no way the numbers will go down unless the Church is willing get their hands messy, get rid of the stereotypes and the myths about AIDS, and make a decision to be a part of this, and to show the love of Christ to these people. These are "the least of these" that we are talking about. I think our Biblical mandate is pretty clear to be involved, and to serve, even in very small ways. It doesn't mean traveling to the Soviet Union and giving a year of your time in an Aids Hospital. There are other creative ways to be a part of the bigger issue here.

Exact Match Search

Interviews Index