Interview: The Church of Philadelphia

How long has the band been together?

Brian Tharpe : 2002. We used to play in a band called Pale. Chris (McFarland, lead singer) and I grew up playing together since we were little kids. We started officially playing when we were freshmen...we'd write stuff or whatever, but I ended up joining a band called Pale; Chris not long after followed suit. Joey had also gone to school with us a long time ago, so we were friends, and our paths crossed at the right time. He also became part of that group. We were part of Pale for...5 years.

It seems to be a recurring theme lately, a lot of indie rock going in the Americana direction. You worked with the producer who worked with the New Pornographers. How did you set up that relationship?

B:Adam Seltzer was the producer.

J: We'd been searching for a studio to record in, we knew we didn't want to record in Houston. Nothing against Houston, but we just wanted to do something different. We were at a point in our lives where we could get a game plan, save some money, and just do it. There were a few albums that we heard that we just loved. M Ward was one of th artists who recorded at this studio in Portland (Oregon).

We were piecing together our own studio at the time, we bought an old reel-to-reel machine. I did some research online, like "who uses this reel-to-reel machine?", and this studio in Portland used (it). About a year later I heard...album(s) by M Ward and New Pornographers from this same studio. We contacted them and they were super cool...very laid back, very inexpensive. We flew and recorded in Portland, and it was cheaper than it would've been in Austin. There were a lot of great records that came out of that studio. It was a lot of fun.

A lot of the Houston bands are starting to work together and take a more collective approach to try to get gigs. Which bands to y'all relate to well in Houston?

B: Right off the bat, there were several bands we were fans of, Listen Listen was one of them. One of our first shows we set up with them, and we hit it off...it seemed like family. Since then, it seems that more than any other band we ended up playing with the guys from Western Civilization, which is totally interesting. We all get along really, really great. The messages, what we're really actually saying are on two different sides of the spectrum, and we're all aware of that. It's this ironic relationship, we really have a lot of love...for those guys. We just came back from Denton with them.

What is your favorite place to play around town?

J: Probably my favorite is Walter's (On Washington). We've played Walter's more than the others....We haven't been tasered yet. Proletariat has been good; I think for our group it's important to have good sound system...otherwise it can snowball quick. There's a personal environment and a good sound situation, we've just really enjoyed playing both those places.
H: What are your goals for the band? How far do you want to go with this?

J: I think with this group, as opposed to our last group and experiences with other projects where it was like (pumps fists) "Let's go all the way to the top!", with this group it's been different we've set attainable goals for ourselves and that's really what fuels us. With projects like Portland, we put in a good amount of work to make sure we've given ourselves enough time to prepare, because by February we're going to be in Portland, Oregon.

B: It's attainable goals, definitely. We are built of the culmination of those attainable goals. And in the process, we want to be faithful with what we have in our hands. Try to make the best of it, try to keep each other accountable.

One thing we wanted to make sure not to do is get ahead of ourselves and put things in perspective, in terms of priority, with family and everything. If you're making two dollars and you can't support your wife, you might be a little out of line. If (success) were to come in our lives, I think we're open to whatever lies ahead...we're excited about it, we know that it'll be smooth transition if we take it one step at a time. Whatever happens, the sky's the limit for us. We don't put any cap on what could happen.

Are there plans for more recording? What are the current goals?

B: We want to present everything that we've put a lot of time working on. We've been focusing on getting ourselves into a good routine of playing, not too frequently, but every four to six weeks.

J: I'd rather be the band that people are like, "oh, they're actually playing a show" than "I can just see them next weekend."

B: I really think an honest answer to that would be to really tweak out and refine. Once you build a car, you have to take it out on the road and figure out what it does, and make adjustments. Right now, we're adjusting the machine and fine tuning what works for us. You don't really find it until you're in that live setting, a lot of times, where the life comes to the songs. That makes you grow exponentially as a band.

Your faith is strongly reflected in the music. Do you ever get concerned about getting pigeon-holed because of that, being labeled as a "Christian band" and the stigma associated with that? Have you ever run into that?

J: Not to our face. People with think what they think. Obviously, there is that negative aspect of "Christian" bands.

B: Honestly, I didn't know what was going to happen. That thought did cross all our minds. What's been funny is we've been probably more pigeon-holed in the Christian market as a weird band.

J: All due respect to the Christian market, but we've found more open arms in the (mainstream) market, which was a surprise.

B: I think that if you're honest about something, whatever it is you're singing about, you can tell that it's something real and something you believe, I don't think anyone's going to have an objection, even if it's contrary to something (your audience) believes. I think that they respect that it's honest, and you're not soap-boxing it or pointing your finger down at them. What we've found is that they'll receive it.

J: People respect seeing things and hearing things that are real, like when we say "I've struggled with this", people can relate to that and respect that.

B: It's been a lot of fun. Every time we walk into a new venue, it's like "how's it going to go over this time?", but we're getting less and less surprised, because everyone has been accepting and open arms.

What are you guys listening to right now?

B: I'm listening to Brian Eno's Apollo, some Swervedriver, some DJ Shadow.

J: I've been listening to Sigur Ros lately, and a little Sufjan Stevens "The Great God Bird". He can write a song about anything and it can be good. Berenstein is another one, John Rudder has another one he's put out.

Joey had to leave at this point, and we were distracted by his shiny iPhone, so that's where the interview ended. Check out The Church of Philadelphia this Sunday night at the Proletariat, with Hollywood Black, Dignan, and Buxton. Doors are at 7pm. The bands' MySpace can be found here.

---
Photo courtesy of Church of Philadelpha.