The Story of StorySide:B
06-12-2007
by Kevan Breitinger

My conversation with Story Side B’s Lu Rubino went past two beach-lovers rapport, into some of the deep stuff of growing in the Lord, hearing His voice, and serving Him from the stage.

 

 

CMCentral.com, Kevan Breitinger: Hey Lu, thanks for calling.

Story Side B lead vocalist/guitarist Lu Rubino: Thank you.

Hey, you know what? I’m a big St. Augustine’s lover too.

Really? Where are you from?

Another beach town, in Jersey. I’ve been listening to We Are Not Alone a lot, and liking it.

Thank you.

It strikes me as very purposeful, kind of a declarative album. Is that the case?

Absolutely. Have you heard our first record?

A bit of it.

Well, lyrically the first record came from a point where Jordan and I were spiritually individually, because we hadn’t matured very much. We didn’t have a lot of experience with other people. Having matured and now served in a ministry for close to two years, we’ve grown so much spiritually. Obviously there’s much more to grow through, but we’ve now met thousands of people. I’ve met everyone from the reformed convict, to the goody-goody I’ve-never-done-anything-wrong-in-my perfect-life believer, (laughing) and everything in between. So taking our spirituality and the way God works through us, and seeing all the struggles and common threads between those people, and having a heart to reach and encourage them, we were able to basically make the new album more about others than ourselves, you know what I mean?

Ok.

Not wanting to be totally a this-is-what-you’ve-gotta-do-with-your-life sort of thing, but from more of a standpoint that, this is what works for me, or has worked for me.

Oh yeah, that tone comes across, that you’re not so much teaching as provoking.

Right.

And I like that about it. Talking about being on the road, you guys are really hard workers, monster tour-ers, aren’t you. What’s that like?

It’s a blessing and a curse. I mean, I live in St. Augustine, and you know how beautiful it is here. I want to be here all the time. But this year I’ll probably be here for a total of three weeks (laughing). Which is a bummer, and it’s very difficult for the married guys in the band. But this is what I’ve wanted to do since I was 15 or 16.

What kind of crowd do you enjoy most, Lu?

A good crowd (laughing). Obviously we love the big crowds where everybody’s into it, singing along, but I’ve had just as much fun with a youth group of 30 kids. If everybody is into it and having fun…. We’ve definitely played for some frozen-chosen stiff crowds. (laughing) Which is OK, too, because sometimes we’ll get off stage and think, that crowd was really dead, and then we’ll go to the signing table and find that everybody really enjoyed it, so you can never tell. So in that I always try to not have an expectation and just put my best foot forward and try to always pray before we get on stage, ‘God, just shine through us. Make this not about us or our egos but help us to share your word with everyone here tonight.’

It’s such an important thing to remember that we’re only responsible for the delivery. It’s really up to Him to activate the response. If you’re faithful in the delivery you gotta leave the rest to Him, I guess.

"You have to keep on rededicating every chance you get.  Every day you have to rededicate you life to love and forgiveness."

Right, I don’t know what your story is, but I know when I was first saved, it took a few poundings to get things into my head. It wasn’t like the first time somebody said to me ‘do you know Jesus’ that I was on fire and in love with God. It just doesn’t happen that way, so even if we can provide another seed planted, it’s good.

On the other hand, we’ve done Harvest Crusades where we’ll see 130 people give their lives to Christ after a performance, so you can never tell. I never have an expectation for a crowd.

Just one for God.

Exactly.

The package that the label sent me didn’t tell me who is doing most of the writing.

Lyrically, I write about 90%. I did have some help from a good friend Aaron Rice, who has done a lot of writing with Mandisa and he wrote the TobyMac song “Made to Love,” a really talented guy. I pretty much come with the idea and he’ll help me fill in a word here and there, fill in the blanks, make it rhyme (laughing).

I was really interested in the song “I Give You Me.” It rings like a song of rededication. Was that your experience?

Absolutely, every chance I get (laughing). You can’t expect to live up, you know what I mean?

OK…..

You have to keep on rededicating every chance you get. Every day you have to rededicate your life to love and forgiveness.

OK, that’s an interesting perspective. It brings to mind the Ephesians passage where Paul tells us to keep being filled with the Spirit. Is that what you mean? Obviously you don’t mean that we’re losing our salvation everyday, you’re talking about that daily dependency.

Well, that and I think it’s easy to get caught up in that, you know, ‘did I do the dishes, did I pay this bill’… that stuff is important, obviously but the bigger picture is, if I keep my priorities first on God, everything else kind of trickles out from there.

What is it that you have that helps you to keep your focus on God as you’re out on the road so much where every day is different? What is it that most helps you, Lu?

Well, choosing my surroundings has been a big part of my life. The guys in my band are wonderful; they’re my best friends in the whole world. Our bass player (Ron McClelland) is actually an ordained pastor. He’s been to Bible college, very well versed in the Word. I’m not, because…. Well, I’m not gonna blame it on coming up Catholic, because I can read now (laughing). I didn’t go to college for that or Bible school, but I do have an innate searching heart. But with him I feel like I’ve got a textbook sitting next to me all the time, and then our drummer (Jordan Mohilowski) is, dare I say, naïve, still lives with his parents, the child that’s never done a thing wrong in his life (laughing).

The childlike faith?

Exactly, and that’s refreshing. And our guitar player Preston (Pohl), his parents have a youth ministry and he grew up in church. And on top of that we have a band pastor and we all keep each other accountable. And praying, it’s important to read and gain knowledge from the Bible but I think almost more important is seeking and trying to hear the voice of God. Trying to keep on listening and being open to His will. He’s gonna show you if you’re open to it.

That’s the big if, right?

Yeah, I try to keep it all flooding into me.

Well, Lu, thanks for your time, I really enjoyed talking with you.

Yeah, me too, thank you.