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Our Conversation with …
The Waiting
January 8, 2002
Todd Olsen (guitars) and Clark Leake (bass) of The Waiting, dropped by for a live chat with us and their fans. To learn a little bit more about how the band got its start and what went into the making of their new album, Wonderfully Made, read on!
CTI Coordinator: The Waiting is an Atlanta based band who has just completed their fourth recording, entitled Wonderfully Made. It was just released Dec 24th, but they have been writing and preparing this album for about 2 and half years! I'm going to let them introduce themselves to you and then we'll open it up for some questions. Welcome Waiting!! Which members do we have with us tonight?
The Waiting: (Todd) Hello, we're here to answer all your questions! Well, maybe not all. :)
The Waiting: (Clark) Hello to everyone!
CTI Coordinator: OK well Led by God has a few questions to start us off, and then we'll take more from our studio audience.
HOST CO LedByGod: Can you give us a brief history of how your group formed?
The Waiting: (Todd) Well, there were precursor bands to The Waiting, but in '91 we got the name "The Waiting" and solidfied the lineup. Clark has been playing since '88, and with other bands before this one. We're practically related now.
The Waiting: (Clark) We all predate The Waiting. Todd and Brad were playing together, and I had moved to Atlanta to return to school and wanted to be in a band. I heard Todd and Brad were looking for a bass player, and went out to hear them. We really struck up a friendship that night. I don't know, it was just a good fit.
HOST CO LedByGod: You've had albums out since about 1991. How has your music changed since those beginning years?
The Waiting: (Todd) Well, it's changed a lot, I guess. We feel like we've made a natural musical progression, you can always tell that it's our band. We've changed a lot since we made the demo album in '91. I think as artists we're always trying to explore the territory and try something new and different. We probably think we're changing more than we are. We keep on trying to stretch and grow.
HOST CO LedByGod: They have a website up of course — http://thewaiting.com. Check it out! What are some of your upcoming tour stops for this year?
The Waiting: (Todd) We don't have too much booked yet because we've been locking down an opening act, but it's looking solid for us to go out with LaRue. So that was just confirmed today and we'll be booking for the spring, probably mid-March to the middle-end of May. We do have several dates already booked: The Icthus Festival in Kentucky, and we're opening for the Atlanta Hawks here February 2nd. So that ought to be fun! Sunday we're doing a TV broadcast, as well.
HOST CO LedByGod: So how did you guys come up with the title for your album, "Blue Belly Sky?"
The Waiting: (Todd) It's a small phrase that came out of one of the songs. My brother Brad came up with it. It's a descriptive term he used to describe this guy and we liked it. Actually, it wasn't us. Gene liked that phrase and picked up on it, and so we all liked it. It's like how the Wonderfully Made album title came about … just part of a song. Parts of songs often make good song titles, and parts of songs also make good band names.
HOST CO LedByGod: And how did the friendship with Third Day contribute to the making of your new album, "Wonderfully Made?"
The Waiting: Brad co-wrote four of the songs on the record with Mac. I guess that's the most direct way.
The Waiting: (Clark) We've been good friends for them with years and years, and we were out on the Newsboys tour with them. For maybe 8 or 10 years we've been good friends with them.
The Waiting: (Todd) All the friends in Atlanta are really tight—us, Smalltown Poets, ThirdDay, Newsong … it's really a neat community of musicians here.
HOST CO LedByGod: Two and a half years is a long time for an album to develop. Why did Wonderfully Made take so long to produce?
The Waiting: (Todd), Well, we were working on our own without a record company to help produce the album. Then after about a year and a half we signed with Inpop, and they had a few things they wanted us to change. Me and another guy, Bryan Lennox, ended up co-producing the album and we really wanted to get it just right. We wanted to get it as good as we could make it. So that's how it came about.
CTI Coordinator: Tell us about the title song, "Wonderfully Made." How did it come about, and what is the message?
The Waiting: (Clark) That's one of the songs Brad and Matt co-wrote. It's basically about your self-image, the way we deal with how we're bombarded with images of how people are supposed to look. We're encouraged to get into our own looks, but the focus of the song is that God made us. We're supposed to get our value from God and not from how we look.
CTI Coordinator: You've made the comment that this is your most joyful album. What message are you trying to get out to the kids?
The Waiting: (Todd) I think that if there's a theme running through the record, it's that you can be happy in Christ, be happy with who you are. You can take refuge in that. The joy of the Lord is our strength — that's what we're trying to say with this record.
CTI Coordinator: That's a great message for our times. JB wants to know why you said your NEXT record will be your Abbey Road and what you meant by it.
The Waiting: (Both laughing) (Todd) We were saying it would be our Sergeant Pepper's! Any notions that would be going into that, no matter how radical or nuts would go into it! I guess what we're really thinking about right now is this album and this upcoming tour with LaRue.
HOST CO LedByGod: Although the song "Sleepless" wasn't speaking directly to the World Trade Center bombings, it really applies to our current situation. Can you give us some of the lyrics from that?
The Waiting: (Todd) Wow … one line says, "I can't abide another's symptom analyzed when it's all the same disease." The whole song is just talking about sin, and sin as the root cause of all the problems we see.
CTI Coordinator: That's a good line. We do overanalyze and rename our sins. BlueM0ZARK would like to know when this new tour starts up, if there are any cover tunes you plan on doing live?
The Waiting: (Clark) Blue, we haven't had time to work up any new covers, but we have started rehearsals and are going to work up an entirely new show arrangement and are just learning new songs. When you're in the studio, all the instruments don't play together — they're recorded separately. Especially a couple of songs we did in Nashville, we never did play together as a band. So we have to learn to play them all at the same time. It's cool to rehearse one song that we worked on two years ago, and then work on a song we don't really even know and have to pull out the CD and remember what we played there.
HOST CO LedByGod: Guys, what's your favorite album in your collection? Clay 4 Potter says that he likes the website. I've checked it out, and it is a great web site — love that flash intro.
The Waiting: (Clark) Our drummer, Brandon, is the webmaster and does all that stuff for us. It's going to be updated very soon, but he's been very busy since he's about to be a new dad.
CTI Coordinator: What is the song "Diamonds" about?
The Waiting: (Todd) That is about not being too attached to material things, or things that you consider your possessions. The inspiration for that one came when I knocked my new laptop off the table. It was years ago so I had an external modem and external drive, etc. Then I got up to go do something and caught one of the wires and yanked the whole thing onto the floor. I looked at it and had a calm moment and said, "Well, it's just a computer."
CTI Coordinator: So the message is do not cling to your laptops friends!
The Waiting: (Todd) LOL AMEN! God bless us, every one! =)
CTI Coordinator: What are some of the #1 songs you've had?
The Waiting: (Todd) We've had 5 #1 songs, 4 on the CHR chart - "Never Dim," "Speak," "Unfazed," and "How Do You Do That?"
CTI Coordinator: Todd, how can we pray for you guys?
The Waiting: (Todd) You can pray that our record will do well, that we'll keep on reaching the people that we need to reach, that we'll have safety in our travels talking about the Lord, and that we'll be a light out there.
The Waiting: (Clark) Please pray that we'll work hard, too.
CTI Coordinator: Well, if there are no other questions, we'll wrap it up and pray now. Lord, we just lift up these guys, Clark and Todd and the rest of the Waiting in the coming weeks. We ask you to bless their efforts, bless the long hard hours they have put into this Lord, that they may be able to continue reaching youth with Your light. We pray for the ones whose families will be changing as you bring children in. We ask you to encourage, bless and give them strength to be good parents. Protect them from the evil one as well, and help them to stand firm and glorify you. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
The Waiting: (Both) Amen. Thank you all. We were glad to be here.
CTI Coordinator: Thanks guys! The album is Wonderfully Made. It's great! Be sure to get a copy we have a link to it online. Their website is http://thewaiting.com. Try to catch them in concert!
The Waiting: Goodnight all!
CTI Coordinator: This has been a ChristianityToday chat featuring The Waiting and their newly released album, Wonderfully Made, copyright 2002.
Copyright © 2002 by Christianity Today International
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