The Myriad's guitarist Steven Tracy says, "You can't separate our faith from our art. We'll never stop doing that. It will always be part of what we do."

When The Myriad debuted in 2005 with You Can't Trust a Ladder, the artful alternative rockers earned immediate buzz amongst the Christian crowd and indie rockers alike. The Seattle-based band was quickly named a "Staff Favorite" on iTunes (sandwiched between The White Stripes and Foo Fighters) and heavily featured on MTV's "Real World Denver." Doors have only continued to open for them in the two years since. During a high profile club tour with David Crowder Band, The Myriad was selected by MTV from among 4,000 entrants for the Dew Circuit Breakout competition—and they eventually won the whole thing. Talk about perfect timing for the band to release their sophomore effort With Arrows, With Poise. Frontman Jeremy Edwardson and guitarist Steven Tracy took time to chat with Christian Music Today about the band's newfound opportunities, and why faith is still a vital component to The Myriad.

How did you attract the attention of Koch after your first CD spent its time in the underground Christian market through Floodgate?

Steven Tracy: About a year ago, we had to go through a label change, and Floodgate was very helpful in finding a new home. We ended up recording With Arrows, With Poise on our own and started getting it out to people; [Koch's interest] started from there. They've been pretty amazing and supportive of what we wanted to do.

Jeremy Edwardson: We seriously threw out our best case scenario of what we wanted to do, and Koch came in willing to help us finish our album in style. They told us the sky's the limit, and we said, "Really?" It's been so awesome and it ended up being a really ambitious sophomore record for us, even though it started [on such a smaller scale].

The new CD has been compared to everyone from Radiohead to Kent to Björk. How do you account for such astute artistic influences?

Edwardson: Kent is an interesting reference because when I met Steven about six years ago at a recording studio in Seattle, we both had Kent's Isola CD in our car stereos. We started laughing because they're such an overlooked and obscure indie Swedish band. We keyed into their idea of writing pop choruses that are undeniably pop, but put together in an interesting, artful way that doesn't necessarily follow a pop formula. It's about writing music that's really catchy, rich, and poignant, and we don't want to be so artsy that we're over people's heads. We have no desire to do that and that's what we've always loved about Kent.

Tracy: We've certainly been influenced by Radiohead, Portishead, and Björk, and that's why we were really interested in going overseas to work with the Swedish producer who mixed The Cardigans' Long Gone Before Daylight album and had connections with Kent. There's something about that Swedish/European aesthetic that really lends itself to our album.

Was there a pre-conceived game plan when you were writing the new record to break beyond the church and dive deeper into the mainstream scene?

Tracy: To be honest, we don't really think about it that much. There was no big master plan, though when we started writing and recording this record, we knew we were at a crossroads. At the time, we didn't have anyone telling us what to do or how to sound, so we figured if we did something really honest and pure from a faith side, that's all God would ask. There really wasn't a lot of strategy to it other than to make something we love and feel we were created to make.

Did the seeds for this CD come before or after all the MTV exposure?

Edwardson: The album was recorded first, but the release kept getting pushed off. Koch is awesome in teaching us patience throughout the whole thing and we ended up releasing an EP in the fall of 2007, right when we were heading out on tour with David Crowder Band. Around that same time, we got a call from MTV saying that out of the 4,000 bands that were submitted to their Dew Circuit Breakout contest, we happened to be in the top twelve. Then we made it to the top six, then the top three and then we flew to Times Square to the TRL studios and wound up winning the whole thing! It couldn't have been better timing because the week the record came out, MTV was showing all sorts of commercials on us [as part of its 52/52 campaign], playing our video "A Clean Shot." We never thought we'd have this sort of opportunity to share our music on such a huge platform.

Does it feel like you've been steadily building towards this or do you feel like an overnight success?

Edwardson: It's all kind of very gradual, but it has brought on some huge "Pinch me so I know I'm awake" moments. Two weeks ago, we pulled up to [an MTV] video shoot in New York and there were two semis and a 50 person crew filming us in an ancient church in upper New York. The second day [of the shoot], we were downtown NYC and there were cameras everywhere. MTV has been super great and sweet to us and it's been pretty surreal working with them and seeing this all unfold.

Has MTV been receptive towards your faith or have they asked you to keep quiet about it?

Edwardson: They definitely touch on it a little bit, like in an online description of us. They say we strive for something bigger then life—a higher calling if you will—and that we have a lot of spiritual elements to what we do. I think that's great and it feels inviting! There are so many people out there who know that there's more to this life and know God is real, but something in their life makes it a fear for them. We want to be inviting and not condemning or critical. It may sound funny, but I think MTV is actually helping us in expressing that.

Tracy: For all intents and purposes, everyone's been really supportive. I hope over the last few years of touring that we've showed we're a band that's certainly concerned about other people, loving the world, and making good music. Hopefully that's been built into the culture of this band and who we are. We occasionally get some flack for being on MTV, but the truth is even when we signed to Floodgate, it was always our heart to make music for everybody. There hasn't been a shift of plan last year just because we landed on MTV. We started out playing clubs, and for the better part of the last three years, we've still been touring those kind of venues. We're really interested in getting into a position to have conversations [with listeners] about their lives. We want to hear their stories and what they think about God and faith, whether we agree or not. We want to give them a forum to have the conversation and that's where it gets interesting.

Have you had productive conversations about your faith in all of this?

Tracy: It's pretty amazing how many conversations we get into, asking if we're coming from a Christian background or saying that they see something different about us and ask us about our beliefs. Sometimes they'll even say that they noticed a particular lyric and ask us what it all means—having that platform allows us to say, "Yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ." You can't separate our faith from our art. We'll never stop doing that. It will always be part of what we do.

How would you describe the thematic thread that runs throughout With Arrows, With Poise?

Edwardson: There are a lot of stories in the songs and they're all very cinematic—almost like these little mini movies. When the songs were written, we wanted to capture so much visual imagery in the songs. One lyrical idea that kept showing up is that we know God loves us, but sometimes don't know what that love looks like. It's joyful, but it can also be scary and mysterious. So [a lot of these songs] are about coming to the realization that we don't know everything about God. He's very mysterious, and once you come to that realization and submit to that, you can say, "God I don't know everything about you, but I'm willing to take a journey with you, whatever it looks like."

Tracy: There's a song called "The Holiest of Thieves," and when we finished that song, it was one of those moments where we were like, "I can't believe we wrote that." It seemed way above our abilities and lyrically ended up matching the vibe Jeremy described about God being so huge and still unknown in some ways. Faith is believing in something without necessarily having all the answers, and sometimes even prompting more questions. But then it wouldn't be faith if we had all the answers!

What does the title of the record mean?

Tracy: It's funny because we had the title before we'd written a single note. We love the idea of archery and adapted it metaphorically. There's so much that goes into taking a shot with a bow and arrow. It's very precise and graceful, yet it can also seem violent at the same time. [So it ties in with what we were saying about the mystery of God.] It's a multi-faceted idea that we really latched onto driving home from a show at 3 a.m. It was cool to have that direction [to get us excited] about stating the writing and recording process.

Outside of the new project, you guys have also covered "Perfect" for a Smashing Pumpkins' tribute. How did you come in contact with the band and wind up as one of its top MySpace friends?

Edwardson: Billy [Corgan's] always been huge fan … I wish! (laughter) Back in the day, I was a huge fan of Pumpkins. Last summer, somebody from their management saw us play a show in San Diego. We got a call the next day saying they were working on a tribute album for the Pumpkins and bands like The Bravery and Panic! At the Disco were selected to cover their songs. But the [executive] loved our show and wanted to know if we'd like to do a song as well. We told them tat we love the Pumpkins and it would be an honor. The catch was it had to be done in four days, and at the time, we were in three different States and taking a little time off. But we picked the song "Perfect" because we felt like we could put our own spin on it and still keep it the way it was originally written. Everyone worked around the clock to turn it in on time, [the band] really liked it, and we wound up among their top eight MySpace friends, as well as the tribute project [available on iTunes].

What are your visions for The Myriad in the short term and long term?

Tracy: Right now I think the main focus is this album and spreading the word about it. We're always restless and excited to start writing again, but we're all so excited and certainly proud of the album we just made. But as artists, our nature is to ask what's next and how do we top ourselves. My mind's split between the two at the moment. To have this as a full-time job is pretty ridiculous and I feel this overwhelming gratefulness to have the opportunity. It's a such a blessing and a huge responsibility that I hope we can keep doing stuff that's important creatively and honors the gift God has given us. We're here to do this as long as he'll have us do it!

Read more about The Myriad at Christian Music Today's artist page for the band. You can check out our review of With Arrows, With Poise by clicking here. Visit Christianbook.com to listen to song samples or purchase the music.

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