With the Jars: Steve Mason, Matt Odmark, Dan Haseltine, and Charlie Lowell (front) circa 1995

Hard to believe it's been ten years since Jars of Clay's humble beginnings on the tiny campus of Greenville (IL) College. In the decade since, the foursome has grown considerably, finding themselves with dual footing in Christian music and the mainstream while selling millions of albums and winning numerous awards in both markets. But rather than focusing on the fame, the guys define true success in their families and in making music that connects. They also want to connect with the world's needs, and thus have invested much time into developing Blood:Water Mission, an organization dedicated to HIV/AIDS relief in Africa. Here's more from a face-to-face conversation with front man Dan Haseltine and keyboard player Charlie Lowell.

After being in the business for ten years, what do you know now that you wish you would've known in the beginning?

Dan Haseltine: I really get the sense that we could've relaxed a little more back when we started. I think there's just a sense that you want everything to be perfect and you want to control everything. The music world just isn't a place where you can control anything.

I think also everybody seemed to think success was something you could kind of create, but it's a lot wilder than that. You can't predict what people are going to like. And you can't really write songs with that as your goal. You just have to be honest and write about the things you believe. That's something I wish I had a much greater grasp of when we were kind of navigating the post-"Flood" hurricane damage [when that song, from their 1995 debut, became a huge hit on MTV and mainstream radio].

As an established band, how do you view independent artists and seek to help younger artists?

Haseltine: We have a pretty good connection to the independent scene. One of the guys we work with, Mitch Dane, does a lot of producing for independent artists and we've stayed connected [through] him. He does a good job helping artists find their purpose, their vision and their goals. I believe we have a role in that and that's exciting, like to be able to watch a new artist like Sarah Kelly. She's doing some shows with us and she's an incredible talent who maybe not since Janis Joplin have we heard such a great earthy voice. She has all this nervous energy and I feel like we're able to say, "Just relax. Even if you mess up, most of the audience finds it endearing because you're letting them into your show and a side that rarely gets seen. You've just got to be a good sport about it and not take yourself too seriously." It's fun to be around a new artist like that because they have the potential to do great things.

How would you define success?

Haseltine: We were taking stock of where we were as a band recently, thinking about a lot of bands that were doing music when "Flood" came out. And only a few of them are around anymore. I think when it comes to success in terms of our music, we still feel like we're connecting with people and talking about things we feel are relevant. But success is really our families and being good dads and husbands. That seems like a greater success story—that we can do music and still keep our marriages intact.

How do you balance that with so much time on the road?

Charlie Lowell: It's a constant give-and-take. We try and set up boundaries and limits. We'll only do this many shows out before we'll come home for a couple days. Trying to be in tune with the families' needs and being understanding of one another and each others' different seasons is key. We do a lot of weekend runs and then we're home for a few days. There's a lot of sacrifice and it gets tricky with more kids being born.

Haseltine: We've been touring more than we'd probably like, which has made it really hard. Our kids are old enough now to hate when we're gone; it's heart-wrenching when you hear, "Daddy, you don't have to go."

Tell us about Blood: Water Mission.

Haseltine: Blood:Water Mission is an organization that we founded to bring HIV and AIDS in Africa into the conversation of college students, mostly. It's something we originally were brought into by way of World Vision. There's a need for somebody to be a bridge between this issue in the church—some way to dismantle some of the myths and the stigma that's attached to it in America. It allows the church, which for the most part has been very afraid of AIDS and HIV, to engage in more service. We do symposiums on college campuses where we basically bring people in to talk about AIDS on a lot of different levels—what the disease looks like and the effects of the disease. We're taking a world map perspective of this issue and putting a personal perspective on it in a way that would bring you to act.

What has been a surprising statistic you've learned so far relating to the cause?

Haseltine: The World Health Organization released a statistic that 80% of deaths in developing Africa are caused by water-related illnesses. As most people with HIV/AIDS die from opportunistic illness that take hold while the immune system is depleted, we find the connection undeniable. [To that end, Jars and Blood:Water Mission are launching the 1000 Wells Project next spring, an effort to raise funds for the construction/repair of 1000 wells in sub-Saharan Africa. They're trying to raise money to get the ball rolling; for more information, check out the website.]

Dan Haseltine performing at Night of Joy 2004 at Disney's Magic Kingdom Copyright 2004, The Walt Disney Company

What are the different ways for people to get involved and lend a hand?

Haseltine: For college students, the biggest question is, "I don't have any money so I can't really sponsor a kid. What can I do?" We tell people to talk about the issue, to talk about HIV and AIDS. Most communities have an AIDS center where they can get to know someone with AIDS, and talk to them. There's the Student Global AIDS Campaign, a lobbying front that lets people know how they can become activists. When certain bills are coming up in Congress, they can notify you to put in phone calls and be active. Writing articles for your student newspapers, writing papers, using it as a topic of discussion in classrooms—there are lots of ways to just bring this up and keep it in the minds of the people who need to know what's going on.

Our government listens to college students. The whole anti-apartheid movement was in effect college students who caused it to fall. That's because they told our government they cared about this issue and if they didn't do anything about it, they wouldn't be re-elected. When people get behind HIV and AIDS and start demanding something be done about it, the government has to listen. And they're already listening to the church in a very big way, more than I ever thought possible. It's been huge.

Back to the band: Is it what you would've imagined ten years ago?

Lowell: It was so beyond us to see that we were doing something that was really going to connect with people and last the long run. I don't know that I necessarily tried to imagine us ten years down the road. I think it was more a matter of surviving one year at a time. Like Dan said earlier, we were very reactionary. We thought we had to manipulate the variables to make sure we'd stay around. Now it's much more wanting to be good songwriters and craftsmen. How do we express what we're learning in a three-minute song? So now I think there's a little bit more vision for five years down the road, God willing, ten years down the road, to still be doing this and making a difference somewhere.

What has been your favorite part of the band's musical evolution?

Lowell: We made that first record in the studio and we weren't much of a live band. But in between that and Much Afraid, we learned to play live so that second record sounds like we're more of a band, which is what we wanted to do in that season.

Haseltine: For me, it's this latest record because I feel like it was really natural in the creative process, to create with the right amount of tension—not too much but enough to let the ideas rise to the surface. There was just a synergy to the way we were writing and the way the whole album came together. There was a unity that I don't think we've ever experienced on a record before.

What does the future hold for Jars of Clay?

Lowell: It's hard to say at this point. We're doing a hymns record [due spring of 2005] and then I think they want us to go back into the studio to start working on the next normal Jars studio record, so we'll see. I think we're really enjoying where the band is now with the sound, and I'm sure it will evolve.

Blood:Water Mission consists of five main components, starting with its partnership with local organizations to support community-driven, sustainable development projects that contribute to holistic community health, including water projects and AIDS relief.

Second, Jars of Clay raises awareness about the AIDS crisis to its audience by sharing first-hand observations of those they've met afflicted with the disease in African communities. Next, the group encourages churches and youth groups to engage in dialogue about the AIDS crisis and to work with their parishioners to donate financially to the assistance work and missions outreach programs being offered in Africa.

Fourth, awareness is sought to be raised on college campuses through various symposia that strike up conversation about the crisis. During these meetings, the band challenges students to bridge the gap between worship and service, recognizing that worship should be a formative experience that encourages tangible expressions of love through service. Finally, the program is building a new model for educational and cultural exchange and service that will provide American and African college students with transformative experiences in African communities. The program will pair one American college with one African community, selected from among the communities where Blood:Water has partnered with local organizations in water provision and AIDS relief. American and African college students will work and live together in these African communities, applying their disciplines to train local leaders and experiencing a rich cultural exchange.

These personal transformations are the first step toward addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression that perpetuate the problem of AIDS. For additional information and resources about Blood:Water Mission, keep visiting www.bloodwatermission.org, which will officially re-launch their site in November.

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