When life comes full Circleslide
07-21-2006
by Brenten Gilbert

In 1990, Christian alternative rock band The Choir shared with the music world, their vision of Heaven. Titled Circle Slide, the album would go on to become one of the most loved and influential albums in the history of CCM.

Sixteen years later, a group of young men who grew up listening to The Choir and other Christian music pioneers has emerged as Circleslide. CMCentral.com caught up with Gabe Martinez, lead singer of the band via a phone call to discuss their new album, the weather, working with The Choir, and much more.

Below is the transcript of that interview.

CMCentral.com (brenten gilbert): How are you doing?

Gabe Martinez: I'm doing really, really well, we just had a crazy weekend. I know it's Thursday but it feels like one long weekend. We went and led worship for the General Baptists Youth Convention in IL and then we drove up to South Bend and did a live taping at a show called Live At Studio B. Then we drove all night to get back here to Nashville to film for the last couple of days for a video of our song called "Gravity." We started on Tuesday and then yesterday we started like around 10 am and we got done around 7 am this morning. It was an intense filming schedule. It was awesome.

Wow. You think it's going to turn out well?

Yeah I think so, hopefully it will.

That's good. So why don't you tell me a little bit about the name of the band. I know that it is from a Choir song/album, but what does Circleslide mean? I know a lot of our readers unfortunately aren't familiar with The Choir.

exactly. Well Tim is my brother - he plays bass in the band - and we started out doing some mission trips together. One of the things we did is we used to lead worship and eventually felt that we could make a band. We started touring under the name The Gabriel Martinez Band, but a lot of people were confused and thought that was a Salsa act, so we knew we had to change the name. When we were kids listening to Christian music, our favorite band was The Choir. They had a good blend of artistry and Christian lyrics. We wanted to pay homage to those guys for leading the way and making some great music. Circleslide, the name is a metaphor for heaven. It's a song that those guys wrote about endless joy. Just a concept of a slide that doesn't need stairs, it's kind of what heaven will be like once we get there. That is where we got the name. We hope that our music pays a little bit of tribute to the bands that came before us.

I was going to say doesn't that kind of set the bar high for you guys musically?

Yeah, but that's the way we want it. If we aren't going to aim for that, then we shouldn't be trying to play music. I know that this is going to immediately try to draw comparisons to [The Choir]. That album in particular is considered one of the best albums in Christian music. I think that instead of it being a competitive thing, it's just a way to pay tribute to those guys. And hopefully, since that is what we are setting out to do - to follow that path of a high level of artistry and songwriting - we can at some point in our career reach that level in some way.

That's cool. So why not "Chase the Kangaroo," that would have been a cool band name.

(laughs)

Yeah and some people would say that that is the better album. I don't know. I think "Chase the Kangaroo" would have been tougher. We could have called ourselves "Wide-Eyed Wonder Girl" too. I don't know. I think Circleslide just had a cool ring to it. It's better than the Gabriel Martinez Band is all I can say.

It rolls off the tongue a little nicer.

I love that album, I love the whole thing. We were trying to figure out a way to cover "Consider" for one of our concerts but it fell apart. Some day we'll do some of those songs. Tim will sometimes play the bass line of "Chase the Kangeroo" in sound check and we all love that.

So what was it like working with Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong (members of The Choir) on the new album?

I guess someone passed along one of our demos to them. They heard it and heard the name and they wanted to work with us. So they set up a meeting with us. Tim and I were like kids on our first day of school. We were nervous, excited it was just really crazy. We met at this Mexican restaurant and we felt at home right there being from San Antonio, TX so I think that put us at ease. We knew how to order our food in Spanish and that was kind of cool. But I think that those guys have been generous. Immediately they started talking about what we could do and how we could collaborate and work in the studio together. Steve wrote me a really cool email after the meeting saying that they really wanted to work with us and they were honored that we had chosen that name. I think that those four songs that they produced on Uncommon Days - the album - are just my favorites, especially the last song on that album called "Son of My Soul" with a cello and it's got all the cool elements. We got to co-write with Steve Hindalong, Steve wrote some lyrics on the album and I got to sing background vocals on their last project Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen. It's been a very cool ride. It's been an amazing thing for us to meet some heroes and then become friends with them.

So you've kind of come full "Circleslide"

(laughs)

Yeah coming full "Circleslide" with those guys. Derri broke down the other day and he called me. He needed me to help him jumpstart his battery and I was thinking, "How surreal is this?" One time I drove from San Antonio to Dallas to go see these guys play at Six Flags and here I am pulling out my jumper cables to help him with his battery. So that was funny. Stuff like that happens though, it's cool.

So let's go through a history lesson. What was your musical starting point and how did you get to this point right here?

Wow, that's a great question. How did we start musically. . .? My parents. My dad was a pastor and my mom was a typical pastor's wife playing the piano at church. We would sing on the way to church and on the way home. Then my dad, being a pastor in the 70s, had a copy of Bob Dylan's, A Slow Train Coming on 8-track. That's right, my friend, 8-track. He played that, Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy, and lots of the old school Christian artists who were part of the Jesus movement. I just loved that stuff. It was one of those weird things where when I got older and became a teenager, I dusted off some of those vintage albums and would listen to them and they would blow me away. Even when I was listening to and getting into groups like U2 or Radiohead, I would still recall that great music.

When I went to the mission field, I learned to play the guitar. I was a missionary for 10 years with YWAM (Youth With a Mission) and we did a missions trip to El Salvador where we set up in the middle of the town square and started playing music. I started playing the guitar and about 70-100 people jus circled around us in the town and we were able to witness to them. One guy in particular wouldn't let me go even though the busses were pulling away to take us back. He asked me not to leave until he learned how to sing about God like [me] with love and reckless abandon. I knew that music had impacted me, but that is when I realized that I could use the music God had given me to impact somebody else. That is kind of how we got started. I started writing my own music and playing in coffee houses, just wherever I could. When you are on the mission field you feel so free to play for whoever but when you come back to the states you feel that Christian music is just for the church. I felt that I wanted to carry over that experience of being on the mission field to the states, at secular venuea as well.

And now you are on Centricity Records, which is a young label that basically has you guys and Jaime Jam and some other small band (downhere).

(laughs).

So how is the label treating you?

Oh man they are slave drivers. . .

(laughs).

Just kidding. They are treating us great. John Mays is the guy who has discovered some amazing bands in Christian music, Point of Grace, Matt Redman and I think he's got a great way of dealing with people. We just love working with the label, they treat us like family. We were doing our video shoot for "Gravity" in a park. We were dressed up like spacemen and playing soccer with these kids and we needed a dog to walk. John and his family brought his dog over and just hung out in the park. Centricity is a very cool record label. We have that same independent spirit. The indie band and the indie label is a good marriage.

Is it everything you expected it to be?

Yeah. Here's the thing: it definitely opens doors. We are going to go on tour with Salvador this fall and that probably wouldn't have happened had it not been for the label. Being on a record label kind of validates your career in a sense. At the same time, you do find yourself arguing about songs when as an independent artist, you just put whatever songs you wanted on the album. You didn't have to go through a committee, talk it out or that kind of thing. It is a little bit of give and take. It's a challenge and you do have to work hard. You can't let the label do all of the work. You can't get signed and expect that since your song is going to hit the radio that you'll be the next biggest thing. We've found that we actually have to work harder now that we are signed with the label, but that's a good thing. It is also a challenge. It challenges me to remember why I got started, why I got into Christian music. [Was it] so we could be a marketing machine or so we could share the Gospel and let people in on this awesome secret that God loves us, is caring for us and has grace available for anyone who wants to believe? All of these things force me into this place of remembering why I'm doing it.

That's very cool. You normally just hear a lot of artists who are upset about being on a label, begging for their freedom or whatever. A lot of young bands expect a label to be just a golden ticket, but it's really more of a give and take situation. . .

It's like a marriage. That's the toughest thing. I think it's great if someone is able to get free from a record label and do their own thing. I think that's awesome. I just know that when you sign with them you have to understand that there is a collaboration there. Some labels are really cool [like] Centricity. We have a song on the album called "Meteor." It's this crazy, spaced-out song that maybe other labels probably wouldn't have allowed on the album, but [Centricity] gave us that freedom. They definitely were pushing us to write better songs - three minutes songs, you know - but I appreciated that. We want to get better at what we do. We are fortunate to have a good relationship with our label, at least right now. If that changes then it changes, but right now we see it as though we are collaborating. It is such a small independent start up thing, we feel like we are charging the hill together.

Okay, I'd like to talk about the album, but first I have to ask you about your fascination with the weather.

(laughs)

It's all over in there, isn't it? I don't know man, I don't know if it is because I'm from Texas and the storms that come through there are so big or just that weather is a very visual way of identifying God's involvement with us. Whenever there is a disaster the insurance companies call it "an act of God". . .

. . .when they don't want to pay for it. . .

(laughs)

That is exactly right, they are passing the buck onto the big guy. I think that is what it is for me - ever since [I read] St. Francis of Assisi. Artists are always trying to come up with metaphors for God's greatness. Even in Psalms, the heavens are declaring the glory of God. I think that is something you just have to deal with. Storms are a constant theme in the album which is another way of saying that the days and the times that we are living in are stormy. I think we are living in troubled times, historic times. And that is the theme of the album: that God has uncommon grace for the times that we are living in and also grace to get through the sunny days and the days where you just have to go to the store and get some milk and eggs and hang out at the park or whatever. In our society we are trying to deal with war, we are trying to deal with our culture and constant change. History in the making on the news every day. We are just trying to reflect that in the songs. I think the lyrics are just a reflection of that. So "Walking in the Waves" is about a storm and Peter - how Jesus came and rescued him in the midst of that. "Weatherboy," even though you see so much stuff, God will take care of us. Like I said, that is the theme that goes on. And maybe I wanted to be a meteorologist, I have no idea.

Yeah, and your personal myspace is something about a weatherman. . .

(laughs)

"Online Weatherboy." In all fairness that is also a tribute, a nod, to The Choir as well. They had a song called "Weathergirl" on Speckled Bird. The lyrics go "never trust the weather girl." So I switched it around and made it weatherboy.

So are we allowed to trust you or not?

(laughs)

Well, you've got to make your own mind, I can't tell you that.

Sometimes you have to listen to the weatherboy. Okay, now you can tell us about Uncommon Days (the album).

Just like with the Psalms - when you read the Psalms, there is a little part a the beginning that says "David wrote this when he was in a cave hiding out from Saul" or whatever, then it goes on. There are complaints in there, as well as love songs, prayer, and worship. That is what we hope this album is, something that people will listen to regardless of where I was at when I was writing it. No matter what we were doing when we were recording the stuff and wherever they are, [I hope] they'll feel something timeless, that they'll hear God talking to them through these songs. We are going on the road with Salvador this fall, which is exciting. We are going to have a great time and we want to see people out there on the road. We love to tour, we love to meet people and talk to people. I just hope that this album gets into the listeners' ears and it reminds them of something they like. I guess that is what I'm hoping.

Very cool. Can you tell us a bit about the lead single ("Gravity") and the video you just shot for it?

Sure, I'd love to. "Gravity" came about one day when Tim and Aaron were just doing a sound check and playing sime music that sounded ecstatic. It sounded really joyful and cool and reminded me of that feeling I had when I first became a Christian - [like] when you get your first toy as a kid. It's a feeling of joy and I remember just thinking about what it was like when I first came to know the Lord. That's what the song is about: how God's love is like being able to fly like a bird and how the world around us is kind of like gravity wanting to bring us down. The events of the world, the heartaches, the struggles with relationships and all of that [are depressing], but God's love is constant, everlasting and eternal and that is what the song is about.

Very good. So you have a fairly new drummer - Mark came on in February - how did that all come about?

Well, during the process of making the album and delaying the release, our previous drummer, Fred had to take care of some other commitments and he felt that it was his time to go. It was a sad process. So that added to the hard times for the band during this past year of just not knowing and having to audition another drummer. Mark was in LA at the time and I think he had put away his drums. He'd packed them up and said, "God I don't want to play the drums, unless it's for you." I think he was really experiencing a renewal in his life when we called him up and asked him if he wanted to play drums for Circleslide. He initially said no, planning to go join a Christian organization and just kind of give them a year of his life. We really needed a drummer [for shows], so we asked him if he could come play a couple gigs with us while he prayed about it. He did and I think he saw our heart for ministry and saw people coming up to us afterwards, saying that they were going to go to the mission field as a result of our concert. I think he saw that and that is where his heart was at too. He's only been with us since February but he already feels like family. He's playing on the album for the two songs that Pete Kipley produced. He's great man. He hits the drums so hard. I think he's going to break his hands every time he goes on the drums. That is a good thing, we like that. We like that energy.

Alright. I have a fun question before we wrap up.

All of these have been fun questions.

(laughs)

Okay, what books have you been reading lately?

The last one that I read that I loved, it's going to sound very nerdy but David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I just read that. I read Blue Like Jazz not too long ago and loved that by Don Miller. I'm a big Dostoevsky guy. I love Crime and Punishment. I love The Brothers Karamazov. I love Tolstoy. I was a missionary to Russia so I love Russian literature. On the road I'm going to get Don Quixote. We are leaving tonight. We are going to San Antonio tonight so I'm going to go buy Barnes and Noble and pick me up Don Quixote so I can read a little bit while we are traveling. I like a lot of that stuff man, but of course I'm not opposed to reading a little People magazine too every once in a while.

When you need to unwind?

Exactly. And when I need to find out what is going on with Jessica and Nick. I need to get my fix so I'll get that going too along with my Dostoevsky.

There you go. So you've go the album, a big tour coming up with Salvador. Anything else we can expect from you in the coming days?

The video is coming out. I hope that that will be a cool thing. And I know that our music doesn't fit what people expect NASCAR people to enjoy, but we've been playing for NASCAR events. We did one here in Nashville, playing to 20,000 people and that was intense! It doesn't seem that The Choir or Circleslide kind of stuff would fit but actually people loved it. We had a great time so we may be doing some more of those in the future, who knows?

Very cool. We can keep up with you at Circleslide.net and myspace.com/circleslide.