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Everyone's heard the old adage that "good things come to those who wait." Hopefully listeners will agree with the release of Uncommon Days, the long-awaited debut from Circleslide, which was pushed back a full year from its original 2005 release. Why the delay, and how did the San Antonio natives come up with their unusual moniker? We learned the story from chatting with front man Gabe Martinez.

For the sake of those not familiar with your band's story, tell us how you got started.

Gabe Martinez I was a full-time missionary with YWAM and was playing original Christian songs in coffeehouses overseas, and I wanted to do the same thing here in the States. [My brother] Tim soon joined me on bass, and we began touring sporadically around the U.S. We met [guitarist] Aaron [Gillies] at his home church in Michigan, and soon after that, we decided to form our band and call ourselves Circleslide.

On the business side of things, how did you eventually team up with a fledgling label like Centricity Records?

Martinez After winning the Gospel Music Association's "Best New Christian Band" in Estes Park in 2003, John Mays—who handles A&R for Centricity—started keeping in touch with us. Eventually he offered us a chance to make a demo for the label, and it simply grew from there.

It seems as though we've been hearing about your debut for a while now. What was the delay in it getting released?

Martinez It was mostly a distribution issue. Word Distribution liked the album and wanted to handle it, but they needed to get a plan in place, and that just took some extra time. It was a yearlong wait that was ultimately worth every second, though.

During that waiting period, did it ever make you question whether being in the group was the right thing? It had to be a little frustrating not knowing when your album was going to be released after working so hard on it.

Martinez We were a bit disappointed. We had a release party planned with lots of people scheduled to show up. But we just decided to keep touring and use the experience as a way to practice what the album was preaching—not giving up, not allowing circumstances to govern our response. And we were able to come up with two great songs in that process, eventually recording them with producer Pete Kipley (The Afters, MercyMe) to add to the album.

I understand you've added a new member to the group since then. How did that come about?

Martinez Well, our guitarist Aaron has had a few exciting accidents since joining the band, like breaking his collarbone in a recent dirt bike incident. [On another occasion], he was painting a building back home and his friend pointed an industrial paint sprayer at his hand—slicing it open and injecting it with paint reserved for the side of a wall.

We had to fulfill some concert obligations in Denver while he was recovering, so we hired a guitar player out of Seattle [named Brandon Bee]. And he happened to be a good friend of a drummer named Mark Alvis from a prior band. So when Brandon heard we needed a new drummer, he suggested I call Mark. And we all lived happily ever after, except for Aaron, who just slipped on a banana as I'm answering this—just kidding! It's actually great when someone comes along who has the same outlook as you do regarding music and ministry, and Mark shares our commitment. He's become like a brother to us in such a short time, and he's one amazing drummer too.

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