Before their concert at the Knitting Factory in New York City, Nevertheless took the time to chat with Music Faith staff writer Elizabeth Chan about their brand-new album and the band’s plans for the upcoming months while also sharing some funny stories from the road.

Music Faith: Your new album, In the Making…, releases today. Could you tell us a little about it?
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, first of all, we love it. We recorded that record in March and April of this year in Nashville, Tennessee, actually, which is different. Last time, we recorded in Orlando, Florida. So, the scenery was different; the producer was different. A guy named Rob Hawkins produced this record, and we really just put our hearts into it. It’s eleven tracks, a lot of which we’re playing here tonight. So, pretty excited about the record.

Music Faith: Going into the recording process, what was the vision for your sophomore album?
AJ Cheek: We added a new element – piano – and that definitely took it quite a different direction. There’s a few more slower songs this time. We just wanted a few more moments of maybe a little bit more slower ballads, I guess you would call them. That’s one different thing. As far as vision goes, we pretty much wanted to keep musically and lyrically the same vision, the same goal we had of [having] a message of hope to bring. So, that pretty much stayed the same. There’s still a few rock songs on there; but we changed it up a little bit with the piano and we added strings as well.

Music Faith: For many artists, they go through the “sophomore slump” where they find it hard to come up with a second album that tops the first or even equals it. Did you guys feel that pressure going into the recording process?
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, there’s definitely pressure. We did probably nine demos back in October and November of last year, and we thought we were kind of ready to go into the studio and do the record; but we ended up scrapping all but two of those songs and starting over. And I think no one in particular was pressuring us, but you definitely feel the pressure to take what you’ve done well in the first record and do it even better the second time around. And that’s the reason we scratched all of the demos. They weren’t good enough, and we really just tried to focus on being the best version of Nevertheless that we can be. So, we felt the pressure ; but I think we came through.

Music Faith: What’s the one most important thing that you want to get across to the listeners after they’ve heard the album?
Joshua Pearson: I think, like AJ was saying a minute ago, we really just want to bring a message of hope. Everywhere you look in society, there are people who are kind of hopeless it seems like, you know; not all people, but a lot of people are hopeless and they’re kind of down and out on life. And we believe that God created all of us and God wants to give us hope; and if we can actually know who God is, good things are going to come about the earth. And after listening throughout the record, even in the sad songs or the more – I don’t know would you say – depressing songs, hopefully it comes out that, during those times, there’s still hope – there’s still light at the end of the tunnel.

Music Faith: One of my favorite songs off of In the Making… is “It’s True.” Could you tell us about the inspiration behind that song?
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, definitely. I remember writing those lyrics – we had no music at all – but I wrote pretty much all the lyrics in a coffee shop in Chattanooga, in our hometown. And I think I was really=2 0just overwhelmed by the fact that the world is kind of messed up sometimes. If you turn on the news and you see all these bad things happening, you can really start to doubt this life. But the truth is that I still believe that God is in control of it. And the point of that song is that we believe that God stays true and you can’t really question Him just because we down here kind of mess things up. So, that’s the premise of the song. And then, musically, it really came out well; and to get the point across, we added a lot of strings and some different guitar work that we hadn’t done before. So, it’s probably my favorite track as well.

Music Faith: Could you also tell us about your current radio single, “Sleeping In”?
Joshua Pearson: This guy [AJ Cheek] showed us the piano part and –
AJ Cheek: Yeah, it was about two years ago – no, maybe a year and a half ago. At a show, we were backstage on a little piano and I had that little piano riff, and that’s how it started. We really only had that piano riff and like one melody, “I’ve been sleeping in for days,” for literally a year. And finally, when it came to buckle down – we were almost done with the whole writing process – we pulled that out of the wood works and Josh started working on the lyrics. We kind of added what we were going through at the time, “sleeping in”; and Josh can tell you a little about that.
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, there’s a lyric that talks about sleeping in as an analogy for not wanting to get up and face the world ‘cause we’re insecure about certain things or fearful about certain things. But the point of the song is that we can get past those insecurities and we can move forward. And a really interesting thing is that we put up a website called tiredofsleepingin.com; and a lot of kids have gone on that website and they’ve posted their own personal stories about struggles and how they got through them. So, it’s been awesome for us in the van and just at home to go on that website and to see all these people pouring their hearts out right there. To me, that’s the coolest part about the song.

Music Faith: Yeah, actually, I was just looking at the site yesterday; it’s pretty amazing all the stories that are posted there and how the song is reaching people.
AJ Cheek: Yeah, it’s pretty unfiltered. I mean, if you look at the stories, they’re just being real, they’re being honest. It’s no Sunday school answers on the comment board, you know.20So, that’s been cool for me just to see people find that place where they can be honest and real and release some stuff and let some stuff out. And if you look at all the comments, you’ll see conversation with people – “like Katie said, I deal with the same exact thing, not wanting to deal with this or wake up in the morning.” So, it’s almost like it’s created this separate community and ministry aside from even the music. It’s like tiredofsleepingin.com is a place to go to if you’re hurting, if you need help to face the world or to face whatever is going on your life. So, it’s been awesome.

Music Faith: Over the last two years, I guess many different changes have been taking place in your lives with touring and with getting married also and putting out two records. What’s one of the things that God has been teaching you in this season of your lives?
Joshua Pearson: The coolest thing that’s been happening lately is that we’ve really kind of gotten back to the fact that we believe that we have to stay reading the Bible; we have to stay praying for each other and really just spending time together and spending time with God. Because I think we started there, but through our band’s career, you’re touring and you0re tired and it’s easy to kind of just lose those disciplines. And lately, all of us and our road manager, Bryant, who is out with us – we’ve all been getting together before the shows and connecting with each other and connecting with God before the show. And I think that’s important because, at one point, we were just hanging out, hanging out, hanging out on stage and were feeling really, really drained. So, I think God’s just teaching us, “I put you here and I started this. Don’t forget about Me. You can’t do this without Me.”

Music Faith: Well, you guys just started out on the Unbreakable Tour with Fireflight and Me In Motion. What are you looking forward to the most during this tour?
AJ Cheek: Some cool spots that we’re going to that we’ve already been to [previously]. The Underground – that’s going to be a cool show. Tomorrow is a cool show in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Adam Rowe: Today. *laughs*
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, we’ve been looking forward to the Knitting Factory.
AJ Cheek: We’ve been looking forward to this for sure.
Joshua Pearson: Just being in New York City is cool.
Brad Jones: Yeah, we’ve been in New York City several times; but we’ve never actually played in New York City. We’ve done Jersey, right outside, but never in the city. So, it’s pretty cool.
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, pretty stoked for sure.

Music Faith: Yeah, and also, with it being your release date, it’s pretty cool that you get to play in the Big Apple today.
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, I know! It’s kind of like our CD release show. Then, we’re doing another one in our hometown next week. So, we’ll have two. *laughs*

Music Faith: Any pranks planned for the other bands?
Adam Rowe: Can’t tell you. *laughs*
Joshua Pearson: Um…anyone around? *glances around the room*
Brad Jones: We’re not any good at that We really aren’t.
Joshua Pearson: We have to make up something on the spot to make it cooler.
AJ Cheek: We’ve never been too good at that. We tried, we tried a few times.
Adam Rowe: But it always backfires.
AJ Cheek: One time, with Everyday Sunday, Brad and [Adam] Wann and a few of the other guys got some smoke bombs; and somehow, they got it in their RV. So, Chris, the former drummer for Everyday Sunday, was running to our van. We were all just running to try to get into the van; and he made it and pushed Wann out of the way and threw a smoke bomb in the rain and it actually hit Brad in the neck. And we thought the van was on fire ‘cause you literally saw sparks and all I heard was, “Fire! Fire!”
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, Brad was saying, “Fire! Fire!”
AJ Cheek: So this smoke was in the van. We were jumping out and running. It was chaos.

Music Faith: That would be a way to end a tour!
*laughs*
AJ Cheek: Yeah, so we learned we’re not too good at it.
Joshua Pearson: We’re not very good at it. We’re just – I don’t know – we’re too nice. *laughs*

Music Faith: What’s the funniest or most embarrassing experience you all have gone through while on tour?
Joshua Pearson: Well, who was it that was driving when we ripped the whole entire gas pump faceplate off of the pump?
Adam Rowe: Ah! *laughs*
Brad Jones: Oh, that was me.
Joshua Pearson: Oh, that was you on that one?
Brad Jones: Yeah.
Joshua Pearson: I’ve done it before, but it didn’t rip on me.
Brad Jones: Well, we had gotten out at the gas station and we swap drivers there. So, someone else had gotten out, put the pump in the van, pumped the gas and everything. And so I was like, “Cool”; and then it was my turn to drive. So, I just came back and got the van, didn’t notice the pump was still in it; and, generally – ‘cause I’ve actually done it once more in the past too – but, generally, when you drive, it just falls out of the tank, you know. You’re like, “Oh, crap,” you go, and you hang it up. Well, this time, as we were driving, the cable got hooked underneath the lever that you flip up and down and it actually pulled the entire face off of the pump and hit the ground. Sparks were going, which is scary because, you know, it s gas. So, we were freaking out. And I go in and tell the people at the front desk and one guy is like, “I don’t care! Just leave it; we’ll worry about it tomorrow.
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, he was cool; so we drove off. *laughs* He told us to.

Music Faith: What are three food items that Nevertheless cannot live without while touring?
Joshua Pearson: It maybe differs for each person. I mean, it’s very blase to say this, but water. We have tons of water in the van at all times just for the road.
Brad Jones: It’d be a McDonald’s, but that’s not by choice.
Joshua Pearson: Yeah. *laughs*
Brad Jones: Unfortunately, nobody can live without McDonald’s on the road.
Joshua Pearson: We literally cannot live without food, but that’s all we can afford. So…
AJ Cheek: *laughs* No –
Joshua Pearson: I’m just kidding.
AJ Cheek: It’s almost like, if we don’t have McDonald’s after a we ek, we’re like, “*spasm* I need McDonald’s! What’s wrong here!”
*laughs*
Joshua Pearson: Oh, we like all like that spicy, sweet Doritos, don’t we?
AJ Cheek: Yeah, spicy chili Doritos, man.
Brad Jones: Yeah, we’ve been getting those a lot.
Joshua Pearson: I don’t know. Maybe we should demand more food on the road.
*laughs*

Music Faith: After the Unbreakable Tour, what’s next for Nevertheless?
Joshua Pearson: Three things actually. After this, we’re doing a tour with To Write Love on Her Arms with Between the Trees; and Renee’s speaking. Then, we’re also doing Acquire the Fire conferences various weekends throughout the fall. And then we just, probably an hour ago, confirmed a tour with the Afters for December. So, that’s what the end of our year looks like; and we’re just still kind of making plans for the first of [next] year – nothing set in stone yet.

Music Faith: How did you guys get involved with To Write Love on Her Arms?
Joshua Pearson: How did we get involved? We met Jamie, the head guy, a couple of times; but I don’t actually think that was the way we got in.
AJ Cheek: I think, at festivals, we always came up to the booth and just talked to him. We love the organization; we believe in it; and they actually just had the idea. Our booking agent told us one day, “Hey, would you like to do a tour out with To Write Love on Her Arms tour?” And we were like, “Heck yeah, absolutely.”
Brad Jones: I think there was a person actually. It was kind of a fan of ours that had a connection with him somehow too because we got an email from this person saying, “Hey, To Write Love on Her Arms has been trying to get in touch with you but can’t.” So, I think she liked us and knew them. So, she told them to take us; and it went from there.
AJ Cheek: We wanted to, for about a year, do something with them; and it just happened. So, it was very cool.

Music Faith: Well, any last comments or closing remarks?
AJ Cheek: Thanks for hanging out with us!
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, thanks for hanging out.
AJ Cheek: We have a new record today, September 16th, In the Making…
Joshua Pearson: If you still have time – oh, never mind. You can’t make it to the show.
*laughs*

Music Faith: Fly here or –
Joshua Pearson: Yeah, teleport!
Adam Rowe: Reverse time.
Brad Jones: Use your time machine.
AJ Cheek: Exactly.

Music Faith: Alright, thanks!
Nevertheless: Thank you!