Turning Pages With Shane & Shane
08-28-2007
by Kevan Breitinger

My recent conversation with Shane Everett, on the eve of their latest release, Pages, covered changes of many kinds: lifestyle, writing habits, and even packing a tour bus!

 

CMCentral (Kevan Breitinger): Hey Shane, I’ve been listening to the new album and digging it. Seems pretty different in some ways from what you’ve done before, but I know you’ve gone through a lot of changes in the past couple of years. Is that where that’s coming from?

Shane Everettt: (Laughing) Yeah, we have. There’s so many factors, but we had a lot of time on this go-round, which we’ve never had before. So that had a lot to do with it. I think it’s the first time we ever got to do what we wanted to do creatively because we finally had some space to do it in, you know? (laughing). Before, every record had been crammed into a couple of weeks, just frantic and crazy and all night. This time we really tried to be intentional lyrically and musically.

Yeah, I think that comes across. It seems to me that you guys stretched out a lot on this one.

Well, thank you, thank you very much.

It seemed like you took a couple of new directions, and I know you have in your personal lives as well. I had no idea that you had started a media company, and that you had taken on a lot of management responsibilities. And I guess you did a lot less of the writing on this album?

Shane Barnard did most of the writing on this one. I have a lot of the creative process when we get into the studio, but this album is basically Shane Barnard’s journal over the last six or seven months. That’s why it seems a little bit schizophrenic, where one voice speaks of the attributes of God and how much we love Him, and a minute later the voice says I beg You to move because I don’t feel like I love you.

That’s the picture of where Pages comes from. It’s the pages in a journal of a believer who is on this journey with highs and lows, where one day we’re on Cloud Nine and another day, man, it’s everything we can do not to give up.

Yeah, I was really struck, not just by the album’s honesty, but the really raw quality of honesty. 

Yeah, I don’t know if it’s because we’re a little bit older, or if it’s just life. Life just beats you up sometimes, and I don’t know if it was even intentional until it happened, but it’s about as honest as we can be. 

I hope you don’t think I was being critical, I really dug it.

"We're very excited about this next season and what these songs say."

Well, thank you. We’re really proud of it, and excited about the record.

It contains a lot of Scripture, and I notice a lot of the new music is doing that. Do you find that as well?

We love the Word of God. We did a record called Psalms a couple years back, that was basically psalms put to music. But this one is, well, everything is based on the Word of God, and man, that’s all we got, ya know?

Amen. Shane, what’s your favorite track on the album?

Right now I love a couple of songs in particular. I love “Vision of You,” the first track. I love the message behind it, and  I love the musicality of the song. But the one that’s been hitting me the hardest lately is one that we only wrote the chorus to, “Before the Throne of God.” Right now that one is really knocking me over. The record was almost complete, and then we went to church on Sunday. And the worship leader did that song, and we were just floored. There’s a song called “Embracing Accusation” on the album, and we looked at each other and said, ‘ok, that hymn just said what we wanted to say a whole lot better. That would be a great song, let’s do that song.’ But we wanted there to be a chorus in the middle of those amazing verses just to say ‘hallelujah,’ you know?

Now we’ve been singing that song in church like crazy (laughing), just kind of screaming, it’s one of those songs, you know?  That song right now is so powerful to me.

I liked “Beg” a lot, too.

Yeah, I like that song, I really like the lyrics and I like the production on it. We had fun with that one.

Yeah, it comes across. I loved the bluesy changes in it.

Yeah, it was fun with that ragtime piano and the guitar parts in that track. We used our own band and we really got to highlight what our guys can do, just tapping into their creativity and giving them some more freedom. We all just had a blast. Like you said, it comes through.

What made you decide to include the band on this album?

Well, we’ve been playing with these guys for at least three years, and you almost become family with these people, you live on the road with them so much. We’ve got guys that are just extremely, extremely gifted musically, and we had the time this time around, so we said, ‘let’s just go in and make some music together.’ And directionally, Shane and I have some influence with our buddy Will (producer/drummer  Will Hunt)so we’d say something like, ‘OK, Taylor, our guitar player, is really good at this. Let’s try to, well ,(laughing) exploit is the wrong word, I guess use his abilities to the full’ sounds better, you know what I mean?’ (laughing).

So we really pushed the guys creatively and they really stepped up to the occasion, they knocked it outta the park. We’re so excited to see all our guys get this chance. Josh Moore from Caedmon’s Call, he did some of the organs and keys, and a guy named David Hodges, I don’t know if you’re familiar with him. He’s a strong writer, and has written and produced a lot, like for Kelly Clarkson. He played the piano parts and he’s just a phenomenal player.

He is, I mentioned him in my review because I agree, the piano parts are beautiful. So how are you feeling about going back out on the road now? I know you just had a baby not too long ago now, right?

Yeah, six months ago.  We’re excited. Olive hasn’t come out on the road with us yet, and Kelly, my wife, traditionally has been a huge part of what we do, with tour managing. So she’s coming back out and we’re bringing someone to help with the baby, but Kelly is getting back into the swing of things. It’s been kind of a transition, as she’s had a year off, so getting back into it is kind of bittersweet for her but we’re glad to have them on the road with us. Olive will have a little room in the back.

Well, you’re gonna need it. There’s a lot of paraphernalia that comes now! (laughing)I’m sure you know.

Yeah (laughing), on the bus the baby gets a whole bay. It’s amazing, like you gotta take your whole house with you.

I know, it’s a trip. Nothing’s simple anymore. I’ve really enjoyed talking with you, brother. Is there anything else in particular you want to say?

No, I think that’s great. We’re very excited about this next season and what these songs say. We kind of see ourselves as heralds of the truth of God anyway, and these songs are great tools for us to do that. Hopefully the Lord will do amazing work in this season, and transcend us so that all the work would go to His glory. I don’t want to sound all church-y, but that’s our heart.

Hey, that’s a great perspective, no apology needed. Thank you for your time, Shane.

Thank you for being a part of what we’re doing.