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Do you miss the days of being the most requested band on MTV or alternative rock radio?

Sandoval You know, bro, I 110% honestly don't. That kind of stuff doesn't do it for me and it's not my thing. Obviously it was cool for us at that point, and it put us in a position to impact more people. That was exciting, but I'm not a real camera friendly guy and am not a big show-off—I like the back of the room! These days we still have our core fan base, and that's what matters most. Having adults my age coming up and saying "I gave my life to the Lord because of your band" never gets old for me. That's just confirmation that God is using you. It's never been about fortune or fame, but rather people knowing what we're about and feeling where we're coming from. Of course, I want to put my kids through college, so success doesn't hurt, but I don't care if I'm known at all.

It's great to see you guys back on the road, but last time you toured supporting Testify, record label support from Atlantic didn't seem as strong.

Sandoval Of course with all things, God in control and that goes for a P.O.D. record as well. That record was built during a time when everyone we had a relationship with at the label feared for their jobs—no one was really doing their jobs, just sitting in their offices waiting to be fired. We had done a video, but it was never serviced and there was no single, even though we were on the biggest tour of that year with Linkin Park. It was a little frustrating, but we didn't want to complain because there were people with 20 to 30 years of work [at Atlantic] losing their jobs, which was a really sad thing to see. After Testify, we still had one more record on our contract, and fought for a year and half to get off the label, [and they eventually did]. Luckily enough, we've since teamed up with INO/Columbia and we're stoked!

Congrats on the new deal. What led you to choose INO, a label that's more overtly Christian in scope than Tooth & Nail or Atlantic?

Sandoval We had been approached by a bunch of different labels and were given the same old run around. But then I met [INO President] Jeff Mosley with no idea who they had on their label. We had dinner, he hung out with my family, and we were ultimately really moved by him and the heart of the label. We decided to go with them, not only because they stood on integrity and the word of God, but they were honest people who weren't trying to rip us off. They wanted to do a deal like every band where we're going in as partners—once we recoup the money [to make the album], we [split the profits fairly]. Plus they have an awesome relationship with Columbia, who's been on board with us since day one.

Outside of the new label, the big buzz is the return of Marcos to the band as guitarist. How did he re-enter the picture?

Sandoval He had actually reached out to us when [Pantera's] Dimebag Darrell was murdered, which really struck a chord with him. Pantera broke up and Dimebag was with another band when he was shot on stage, which led Marcos to think, "Wow, that could've happened to anybody." He reached out to us two years ago—the first time we had all spoke since he left—because he missed his friends and wanted to put all our past stuff aside. He was the bigger man who did that. So we started hanging out again and at that time, none of us had any idea that Jason [Truby, Marcos' replacement,] was considering leaving to spend more time with his family. At first we concentrated on working on our friendship, but then once Jason decided to stay home, we said, "Here we are—let's hang out and jam!"

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