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And then, on top of all that, the Christian music industry, when tallying up its year-end record sales, claimed P.O.D.'s sales as "ours"!

Sandoval (laughing) Of course! You'd really get frustrated if you think about it for too long. But in the end, my hope is that we'll put out music that will touch somebody and affect somebody's life. We just don't get lost in [the business side of things] because there's enough things to worry about. We're just a band that makes music. So whoever wants to put it out, hey, if you get into the kids' hands, that's what we want.

Some people would say there shouldn't even be such a thing as "Christian music," and I can see pros and cons both ways because …

Sandoval Me too.

It's the only genre that's defined by the message instead of the music. What's your take on it? Do you have to choose one side or the other—Christian or mainstream? Or can you just be both, with feet in both worlds?

Sandoval I think we do and I believe that we are. When P.O.D. came out, it kind of broke that mold of either/or. When we signed to Atlantic, we had a successful record [Southtown], and then the entire mainstream industry is saying, "Hey, look at P.O.D." To them, we're "that Christian band. But look at the sales and the response they're getting."

Then they look into the CCM industry and see all the money that's being made, and all of a sudden—because it's big business—they start looking for Christian bands to sign. Everywhere I look now, the Christian bands we used to play with back in the day are all signing to major labels. Doesn't matter if it's a P.O.D. or it's a Switchfoot. Doesn't matter if the bands are saying, "I just want my music to encourage people" or "I want to glorify God through my music." The label heads don't need to know that. They just know music. They just care whether you sell or not.

Speaking of the mainstream, you guys are willing to go and play almost anywhere. You and I have a mutual friend who describes you as a modern-day Daniel.

Sandoval (laughs)

Well, you've played Ozzfest, you've toured with Korn and Staind and TapRoot. You just don't just do "safe" mainstream stuff, like Leno and Letterman. You step into some pretty dark places—sorta like Daniel in the lions' den. How do you prepare yourself, and are you ever afraid going to these places?

Sandoval I'm not afraid of anything. These places are more familiar to me than most Christian places, because I wasn't raised in the church. If anything, I'm just more afraid of myself. When we go into these places, as P.O.D., we want to do our thing, to represent the things we believe. We're trying to walk our own walks and not get caught up in all the nonsense, because let's face it: It is a different world. We've gotten to a place [of fame and celebrity] where everybody wants something from you, or they want to take care of you, or they want to kiss your butt. And it's like, man, that's not the worst feeling in the world, you know what I mean? (laughs)

So you've got to learn to back up from that. You go in these places, you've just got to keep those roots so you can stay grounded. We always go to these places in fear—the right kind of fear. We've got to keep our guards up nonstop. And then when we get in these situations and they're a little tough, we have people on the road with us—our wives, our family, pastors that we entrust. We come alongside each other, and we're always in prayer—and we encourage people to do the same for us.

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