Meteoric Rise
Two years ago, nobody had heard of Kutless outside of Portland. Today they're one of the hottest bands in Christian rock. Here's their story.
by Dave Urbanski | posted 4/12/2004
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Kutless, the hard-rocking quintet from Portland with barely two albums under its belt, is already big. Best-selling new artist of 2002; three No. 1 singles; 58 straight weeks in the Top 50 album charts; 155,000 units sold of its self-titled debut (Tooth & Nail's fastest-selling debut ever); 220 shows in front of 200,000 fans … and nary a sign of slowing down. Their sophomore release, Sea of Faces, dropped a few weeks ago, and the band—lead singer Jon-Micah Sumrall (23), guitarists James Mead (21) and Ryan Shrout (22), drummer Kyle Mitchell (22), and bassist Kyle Zeigler (21)—isn't resting on its laurels. They're on the 55-day, 47-city X2004 Sea of Faces Tour that'll end just in time for two May weddings—Shrout's and Zeigler's. We caught up with Mead before a recent Salt Lake City show to talk about their wild ride to success.
From left: James Mead (guitar),Kyle Zeigler (bass), Kyle Mitchell(drums), Jon-Micah Sumrall(vocals), and Ryan Shrout (guitar)
Did you ever imagine your popularity would grow so quickly?
James MeadWe were definitely surprised by it. But we feel like we started during a very crucial time in our nation's history; we actually auditioned for Tooth & Nail on September 11. We woke up that day so excited, but then we were confronted with the reality of the terrorist attacks. Before long it was common to see people on prime-time television talking about the Lord; you could see people crying out to God-there was a lot of searching going on. We felt our calling was to go for it and go hard. We've had a real sense of urgency about being leaders to men.
How did your Tooth & Nail audition come about?
MeadWe were living in Portland in a house near Warner Pacific College where the other guys in the band were going to school full-time. I had a job at a skate shop called Zumiez. One day this guy walked in, and we started talking. He noticed my WWJD bracelet and asked if I was a Christian, and I said, "Yeah," and he said, "Me too." So we were talking about our churches, and I was talking about Kutless. He seemed interested and said, "My name is Seth Ebel; my brother is Brandon Ebel, the owner of Tooth & Nail Records."
Bam!
MeadYeah, so I gave Seth a business card, and we kept in touch. Even though I knew he was busy as a talent scout for Tooth & Nail, he worked it out to come to our house and listen to us practice on September 11.
What happened after you got the news about the attacks?
MeadWe were grieving, but Seth came over and said he knew it was going to be a rough day, but we should still play. So we started off with a few worship songs, then we played a few of our own. After about four songs, Seth called Brandon and said, "You gotta hear these guys." Brandon invited us to record a demo up in Seattle at the Tooth & Nail studios so he could hear more of our sound, but he said to come up really soon or else they wouldn't be able to fit us into their release schedule.
So at the same time we were praying about September 11, we were also praying about what God wanted from our band, and the answer was "go do this now." So we went up the next weekend to record the demo, and on Monday we got a call from Brandon saying he wanted to sign us.
You must have been freaking out.
MeadWe were running around in the streets, yelling and cheering. We didn't know if Brandon would like the demo or not, but we figured he would because of what the Lord told us.
So we went back to our house in Portland, I quit my job, and the other guys quit school. We settled the contract in October and November, and by December we packed up our suitcases, headed to Seattle, and recorded with Aaron Sprinkle all month.
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