Thinking It Through With Wavorly
07-10-2007
by Kevan Breitinger

Wavorly’s Conquering the Fear of Flight came cross to me as the thinking man’s rock, so I was eager to peer into the minds behind the music.  (Speaking of the music, make sure to check out the special flash player preview at the bottom of this article).

 

CMCentral.com (Kevan Breitinger): Thanks for making the time to talk with us. I’ve been listening to the new album a lot. To me, it’s got a very unique feel to it, for some pretty obvious reasons, but I’m wondering if you feel the same way. Do you think it’s got something different going on and if so, what do you think it is?

Dave Stovall, Wavorly guitarist/vocalist: We hope that people think something’s different about it. You can’t really tell with your own music. We feel like there’s a lot of music out there that kind of sounds the same, so we strive to make great music that we love, first of all, but secondly, something that stands out. As a band, we’re really into C.S. Lewis.

Yeah, I see that.

So what we try to do with our lyrics is what he does with his literature. He makes something that says one thing on the surface, but there’s always something deeper when you walk away. We try to make our lyrics the same way, and the music the same way. Hopefully, you listen to it once, and then the next time you hear things a little differently from the first time. Maybe something going on in the background, or lyrically, there’s something deeper than you noticed the first time. Hopefully, we can get that out there (laughing).

It does come across as kind of multi-faceted, you can hear the blend of genres that you all bring to it. That’s pretty fresh about it also.

Yeah, all of us listen to our own kind of music. Like me and Matt, we listened to a lot of pop punk in college. We used to be a pop punk band, playing a lot of Blink 182, Relient K, that stuff. And there’s still some of that on the new stuff.

Yeah, like the first few tracks. Another song I really liked on the album is “Praise & Adore.” It’s interesting that you changed the title from “Some Live Without It.” What made you do that?

"It's about all the people who don't have God in their lives.  It's about putting your attention outward instead of inward."

Provident, they felt like some people wouldn’t get it.

Oh really?

I see where they’re coming from, but I like it better the other way also. That’s basically what we call it (laughing). The song’s a couple of years old. We were playing it here and there, but then we got together with Trevor from Thousand Foot Krutch and got with him on it. He gave it some structure and people started walking around the office singing “praise and adore.” It really started touching people that way, and we wanted to make it easy to remember.

Sure, that makes sense. Like you said earlier, you think one thing is happening, but you listen closely and you realize there’s more going on underneath.

A lot of people think immediately that it’s a praise and worship song, but if you really listen to the words, it’s about not thinking about yourself for a little while. It’s about all the people in the world who don’t have God in their lives; it’s about putting your attention outward instead of inward. I like it that it’s a less selfish worship song. So much of our worship music is self-oriented.

Dave, if you weren’t making music, do you have any idea what you might be doing instead?

I really don’t know. When I got to college, I thought I might want to be a computer programmer. But the first day, I realized the thing I really enjoyed about computers was email (laughing). So I changed my major that day to Liberal Arts. Before long I realized that I really don’t want to do anything other than music. My dad was my band director, and my mom taught me how to play drums, and it goes on like that: my grandfather, my brother, my cousin…. We all are musically inclined; all I’ve even known is music.

Has anybody given you some helpful spiritual advice as you stand on the brink of big things?

We’ve met some people along the way who have been like big brothers. Guys in other bands that we’ve really gotten close to, who have really helped us grow. With Will McGinniss from Audio Adrenaline, it hasn’t been like a “tell us” kind of thing, but just the way he is. Me and Matt grew up listening to Audio A and dcTalk so when Mark and Will were interested in our band, we freaked out. They’re so down to earth and Will is such a loving person by his actions. He’s taught us the way to go; in the Christian music scene he’s a celebrity but yet he’s so loving to everybody. It’s very cool.

That is cool. Dave, what are you reading right now. What’s on your bedstand?

Actually, I’m reading Gulliver’s Travels. I’ve recently started reading some of the older stuff. I’m also reading C.S. Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain.”

Oh yeah, that’s a heavy one.

The last time I was home I checked out “A Grief Observed.” A couple of weeks prior to that, I lost a really good friend of mine from high school.  And I knew Lewis had lost his wife, and wanted to know how he handled that. I knew my friend’s parents were really struggling, so I just sat down one night and read through it. It really helped me get through it, because it all felt so unreal when that happened. That happened about 6 months ago.

It’s great how an author gone for so long is able to help you today.

Yeah, he is still affecting people for the Kingdom of God.

In a sense you’re kind of partnering with him in that through your music.

Yeah, it’s like that analogy of the pebble rippling through the water. His words are still traveling through time affecting people. I flew out of California recently and sat on the plane next to a guy who was pretty out there. I’m not a preacher but we got onto the topic of literature. I told him a lot about C.S. Lewis and he seemed more interested in that than anything else I talked about. I told him to pick up “Mere Christianity.” There’s stuff in that book that still blows my mind and I’ve been a Christian for about a decade. Hopefully, he’ll pick that book up and find a real faith.

Good for you for being responsive to that opportunity.

As soon as he sat down I could tell he was a nice man, but a lot of stuff he talked about was pretty out there. I didn’t want to preach to him, but we got to talking about God in general, and it was cool just to talk with him. All I can do is pray for him. God says if we seek, we will find Him. And he was definitely seeking, so He’ll find Him somewhere down the line.

Yeah, that Scripture is really a comfort to me too in those situations. Well, I really enjoyed talking to you, Dave, as much as you dug the guy on the plane (laughing).

Cool. It was nice talking to you, too, have a great weekend.