The five guys in Family Force 5 have alter egos, just like any good superheroes. By day, they are normal citizens. By night, they step on stage and become whole new characters—with fun names. Singer Solomon Olds is Soul Glow Activator, Jacob Olds (drums) is Crouton, Joshua Olds (bass) is Phatty, DJ and keyboardist Nathan Currin is NaDaddy, and Derek Mount (guitar) is Chap Stique. igniteyourfaith.com got the chance to sit down with the five guys in Family Force 5 to talk about their nicknames, their mission as a band, and big giant robots.

How do you explain Family Force 5?
Solomon: People ask us, "Is your name Family Force 5 because three of you are brothers? Or because Christians are all a family?" And I'm like, "No dude, it's because it sounds like a big giant robot." We thought it was cool.

Really, this band is all about having fun. The way we dress. The way we talk. The stage names. It's all very tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken way seriously. But at the same time, there is something to take seriously. We're not just a goofball band around for no reason. We're serious about our music and using it for Christ. That's why we named the album Business Up Front, Party in the Back. It is a play on the mullet haircut, but we also feel like we are business-like about creating a fun party for Jesus. We're serious about having fun.

Joshua: The names for the characters came from just growing up in the ATL (Atlanta). It was just something fun to do. It started as a joke between us. We thought, Hey, let's come up with stage names! And then at shows, people started calling us that. So we thought we'd roll with it.

Solomon: And we also kind of create characters around those names, too. My brother is Jacob Olds by day, but by night, he's Crouton. And he sounds completely different when he talks as Crouton. It feel like Family Force 5 are superheroes.

Speaking of your purpose and mission as a band, why did Family Force 5 chose to sign a with two record companies—one in the Christian market and one in the general market?
Solomon: The vision of signing with two companies like that came about because we were offered a mainstream deal and we wanted to do that to reach people. But from the beginning we thought, We cannot not just turn our back on the Christian audience. We feel like there's a lot of Christian artists that go the other way—they start off in the CCM market, and then they go secular and they kind of have this image that they left all these people behind. In our case, we signed with a mainstream label first but wanted to be accessible to Christian audiences.

I don't ever want to ever deny who my core audience is. It's Christian kids. They're the ones who are coming out to see us. And they bring their unsaved friends.

How does Family Force 5 reflect Christ to others?
Solomon: We feel that what we put into a live show, into our music, into our website and even into the CD artwork is a passionate love for what we do—for this art. And there's only one type of love that brings out a passion like that and it's the one Jesus Christ showed. He came down to Earth and died for us on the cross and rose again on the third day. That is a very passionate and bold act. We're trying to make Christ-like passion real and alive by being passionate ourselves.

We want a non-Christian to think, Man, you guys party just as hard as I can. We can, but the difference is we're doing it in a Christ-like manner. Partying is usually associated with drinking and getting high but we are talking about a different kind of party. There is a high that you can't get higher than: Jesus' love. We want to party, entertain and hang out with believers or non-believers, but always in a God-honoring way. We're firm about this. We want to live out our passion for Christ and be a light in the darkness. That's what Jesus did and we want to model ourselves after him.

How do you try to approach your fans?
Solomon: If Jesus was here physically on Earth today, he would be a very approachable guy. You look at the past—like when we was talking on the Mount—and look at how he was so real with people. He was approachable and likable. Five thousand showed up to see this guy. He was kind of the rock star, but at the same time, he was very approachable. He wasn't like, Away from me, peasants! He was like, Come unto me.

We want to be approachable. We have a chance to do that on a one-on-one basis with MySpace.com and we are always around to visit after shows. I'd like teens to somebody to look up to and relate with—and I'd rather have them look up to us than Eminem or somebody else like that.

I want this band to be an alternative to what else is out there. There's so much garbage out there, that there's room for some light, you know what I'm saying? So we want to be that light. That's what Jesus was and we want to model ourselves after him.

How did Family Force 5 become a band?
Jacob: Three of us (the Olds brothers: Crouton, Soul Glow Activator and Phatty) were in a band. It was called The Brothers. That taught us and helped us to get where we are now. We then started playing music with NaDaddy. The four of us have been playing together for about 10 years. We added Chap Stique almost two years ago. The whole sound has just evolved out of what each person brings to it. Each of us has his own character and his own flavor he adds to the sound and to the band's makeup. We don't know how to make any other sound. We just put it in the Crock-pot and cook it!

Solomon: We've been a band for about three years. The first song we came up with that had this sound was "Peachy." It's on Business Up Front and is s the oldest song that we have. We're so tired of it at this point, but at the same time, when we first wrote it we were like, "Man, this is something new, something fresh, it sounds different. This is what Family Force 5 sounds like. " We kept developing that sound into a smorgasbord of all kinds of musical genres smashed together.

Fans really connected with this sound. Some kids are like "Dude, this is weird, but I like it for some reason." We get a lot of these comments like "Man, I'm not into this kind of music, but for some reason I love you guys — don't know why. There's something about your music that is entrancing."

What makes a song a Family Force 5 song?
Solomon: I feel that the first element is it's got to be fun. And the fun comes from the joy of Christ. When you've got that joy, joy, joy down in your heart, it automatically shows. We're all pretty happy guys. If you hear a sad Family Force 5 record, something's wrong.

Nathan: That will be the last one that you hear.

Have you guys always been happy? What were you like as teens?
Solomon: The three of us were homeschooled so youth group was huge for us. It was the only place we had friends. So we depended a lot on that. Being in that youth group was a huge foundation for me spiritually—and musically. They let us play whenever we wanted to. It was totally different music, but as far as growing, that was three or four years of awesome growth. And we've stayed in touch with a lot those friends since then. The guy who is always on stage with us, Xanadu, was in our youth group.

Joshua: I was always around youth group and going to church, but I wish I'd gotten more serious about the Lord sooner than I did. I wish as a younger teen I would have actually sat down and used my time to learn more about the Scriptures sooner than I decided to do it.

Nathan: I moved between elementary and middle school, and again between middle school and high school. Those transitions were hard. I had some issues with fitting in. But the place where I found my family—I'm an only child—was with my youth group. Those people became my brothers and sisters.

Around the age of 14, my life changed as I was sitting downstairs on my ping-pong table, listening to Cheryl Keaggy albums. God used her songs to minister to my heart. It sounds weird, but there was something in those songs that inspired me. And from that day, God planted a seed in me to do music fulltime and that's what I've been pursuing ever since. It's a long road, but once God plants that seed in you, you know you're not going to be content with doing anything else. God puts those passions in your heart for a reason. That's the purpose that God has given you so that needs to be your number priority.

Derek: I always felt like I had to succeed. I felt a lot of pressure and a lot of stress to make good grades to get into college, do well in SATs , excel in sports. And the thing was, I think it's incredible to have a good work ethic and work at that stuff, but do it stress-free, with liberation, freedom and joy. I wish I would have enjoyed it more.

Jacob: Crouton just had a party the whole time. I just had a cool Christian Party Fun Festival.

See the March/April issue of Ignite Your Faith for a shortened version of this interview and the 3rd Annual Golden Ear Music Awards.

Read more from 'Bands & Artists'

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