True Tunes: Volume 8, Number 3
Finally Plankeye ......
by John J. Thompson ...

Their third record, Commonwealth, marks Los Angeles-based Plank Eye's bid for the big time. Their modern blend of punk and power pop has hit a bull's eye in the ever growing realm of alternative music fans. Not only has it become the best seller for their label Tooth and Nail, but it has landed them a major management deal and a tour with The Newsboys. An aspect of Plank Eye that certainly hasn't hurt their rise has been their down-to-earth personalities and sincere love of God. As the following phone interview conducted with lead vocalist Scott Silletta at a show in Phoenix will confirm, these guys know how to be real without being sour-faced or whiney.

TrueTunes:How's the big Newsboys tour going?

Scott: Everything's going really good. Everybody's really nice to us, and the Newsboys are really great. It's neat to be able to come from the point that we were at, opening and playing on our own to okay crowds, to playing for huge crowds every night.

TT: So how does the music translate from the smaller realms that you're used to playing to the &emdash; I assume you're playing some pretty big halls.

Scott:Yeah, very big. Some of them are really big.

TT: So how does it feel to get up on that huge stage and play in those big halls?

Scott:I think it actually comes off a little bit better. It comes across really well, I think. It's kind of weird. The biggest stage we had played on was at Cornerstone this year, on the main stage, and that was very big, and it was really weird. Now, the thing is, the Newsboys have their set up, and the curtain comes down and covers up their stuff, and then Geoff Moore has a set up, so we basically get the edge of the stage, or if not that, we're stuck between Geoff Moore and their stuff. So we don't get much room, so it doesn't feel like we're playing on these huge stages, because we don't get very much space at all. We're lucky if we even get enough room to move around on some of the shows, just depending on the stage size. Like tonight, the stage is big so we'll have plenty of room, but some nights we're stuck between keyboards and other stuff.

TT: So tell me how Plank Eye came together.

Scott:In 1991 I got saved &emdash; September 25th, I think. I had known Adam [Ferry], our drummer, since I was fourteen &emdash; his older brother was my best friend for many years. Then I got saved and I started going to the church that Adam and Luis [Garcia, bassist] go to. Adam asked if I wanted to jam with him, and we had all been separately praying about being in a Christian band. I'd been playing in a secular band at the time. We started jamming. It was Luis and Adam and myself for the first year and a half. Then Eric Balmer [lead guitarist], was in a hardcore band out of Orange County called Outnumbered. Eric's band broke up, so we asked Eric to come play for us. We got signed to Tooth & Nail.

TT: You got signed right away, didn't you?

Scott:Yeah, like a year and a half into the band.

TT: So since then, it's been a pretty full-time type of thing for you guys, right?

Scott:Almost. In '94 we toured for a month, but we all had jobs too. We all had jobs until a couple of months ago, pretty much-- up until right before summer we all worked and led halfway normal lives. Now we're never home...

TT: There seems to be a very different vibe from Plank Eye regarding your faith than what most of the other "third wave" bands out of LA have. In a way you seem to have more in common with the earlier bands like Undercover, Altar Boys or Lifesavors than The Violet Burning or The Prayer Chain.

Scott:Well, the whole reason we started the band was because we all wanted to serve Jesus and people, and see people get ministered to or saved or whatever God was going to do. When we started the band, we were doing free concerts all the time at our church, just inviting kids from all the high schools and different places around to come to these free concerts, and we'd just share the love of God with them and say, "Hey, it's not about how good you are, it's about you, it's about your personal relationship with Jesus. And if you have drug problems, God can help you. If you want God to help, He'll change your life if you let Him, if you let God be God." We just wanted to share with people and hang out. So that's what we did. I had never really even seen any Christian bands except the Crucified, Nobody Special, LSU and Scattered Few. I really hadn't seen many Christian bands, or been in a Christian music scene. I got saved and we started the band like two months later. All I knew was that this was what I felt God calling me to do. Whether other people were doing it or not, we didn't care.

TT: So what do you think of the rest of the Orange County scene?

Scott:It's funny, everyone does what they want to do. It's between them and God, really. I mean, as far as we go, there's times when we feel led to preach the gospel and say whatever God has on our hearts, and there's times when we don't feel led to say anything except maybe introduce the songs. If we don't feel led by the Spirit, we don't do it. I don't just talk on-stage in front of people to please the crowd or to make someone go, "Right on, praise God!" I don't try to be a crowd-pleaser; I try to be real with people. Sometimes our songs, especially on Commonwealth, are not happy-go-lucky, lyrically, and the whole feeling of the song is more of a different feeling; I don't know how to explain it. You know, sometimes it hurts to be a Christian, it hurts to be a person, a human being. For us, I just want to be real and be vulnerable and open myself up to people and go, "Hey, you know, I sin, I fall short and I'm messed up in my walk." I don't feel worthy of God's grace, just like many other people don't. But it's not by the things I do, it's by Jesus and what He did on the cross for us. And for me, that's what I try to convey through the music I play and when I talk to people. I try to be real with them and be broken before them and be honest and say, "You're going through the same thing I just went through." Just try to be honest and relate to people. Our ministry is so much more one-on-one with people than just... We could say whatever we want on the stage and get people stoked and not go out and see them afterward, and they'd probably still think, "They were great, praise God for them." But we like going out there and talking with people and letting them ask questions and stuff. Just pour out their hearts to us, cry, pray with us, whatever.

TT: How do you think that being in a band that got busy so fast has affected your growth as a Christian?

Scott:Nobody ever asked me that, but I've been waiting for someone to ask me that forever! I'm not quite sure why God did that to me, but I know that it's what He wanted me to do. I think He did it to build my character and to help me lose a lot of myself and learn that He saved me. I didn't save me, He chose me, He predestined me to be His. He wanted me. He knew that I was going to mess up, but He wanted me anyway because He loved me. I mean, I've messed up so much, you don't even know. I'm just like anybody else. Everybody falls short, messes up, sins. Sins of the flesh, sins of the heart -- whether it's in their heart or there's an action, everybody does something and messes up and blows it. We all do it. We all mess up. But God just keeps showing me His grace, over and over again. I still don't understand why, but I just try to look forward to what God's going to do, and try to be in God's will, be reading the Word and seeking Him, just trying to be a Christian.

TT: Where do you want to see Plank Eye go in the next year or two?

Scott:Wherever God wants to take us. I don't know. There are a lot of neat things happening for us right now, and God's opening up a lot of doors. This is God's train, we're just riding it. If He told us, "You guys are done, get off the tour and go home," we would do it. If He said, "Keep going, I'm going to do this and this is what's going to happen," then we'd go along for the ride. This is completely the Lord's vessel. We're just trying to keep it surrendered to Him and just do whatever He's doing. We're not putting our hands in it; we're trying to keep our hands completely out of it and let God be God.

TT: What do you think of the boom of popularity in the industry and the church of your type of music, modern rock/alternative?

Scott:Finally! This kind of music's been popular in the secular scene for six, seven years. Christian music always seems to fall a wee bit behind the times. [laughter] We've been doing this for five years, almost. For me it's a little frustrating, because I've been playing this kind of music since eighty-something, and finally we're being accepted in the Christian industry, not just looked at as the "underground" Christian music scene. I hope it opens up doors for everyone else, so everyone else can finally come out of the underground scene closet and stop getting stuck playing for little tiny crowds or only getting to do certain things. There are so many good bands, so many good Christian bands that are so excellent and awesome! I wish that this door that God opened up for us will open up for all those guys too. There's just so much good music that's selling maybe 10,000 records. These bands are just incredible and great and they're not even getting any recognition or even getting to play good concerts. That was probably the hardest thing for me, watching a lot of other big Christian bands, pop bands, getting called "alternative" or "modern rock" and they're not. Like the Newsboys know they're a pop band. That's what they do, and they're good at it. They're so good live. It's amazing. They're just a great band, and they can play their instruments. They're rad guys and they totally love God.

TT: You're answering a question before I even ask it. To all those "alternative" people who throw their nose up at anything successful &emdash; what do you want to say to them about the Newsboys?

Scott:As far as a lot of the Tooth & Nail type bands, I'm sure some people are like, "Oh, Plank Eye's selling out, they're going on a big tour with the Newsboys." And what I would say to them is, every band goes in with the intentions of playing their music and having people like it. You can get to a certain level and just get stuck there, or you can go to the next level. We haven't changed our music at all. We're doing the exact same thing we set out to do from the beginning. We're just progressing, getting better &emdash; and that's what should happen. Every record should get better and better. For us, it's not selling out. It's the next step you take to get bigger or to get to the next level and not be stuck playing little tiny clubs and little tiny churches with youth groups. If selling out is having people buy your records and like you, then I guess we're selling out. [laughter] A lot of people think Jars of Clay is "selling out," all these people are selling out. But nobody's selling out! People are buying their records &emdash; Amen! Praise God! They're going to be able to make a living and stop having to work at the Quickie Mart on the side.

TT: Which means their band's going to get better. Which means they're going to get to play music full-time, do what they love to do and do what God's called them to do, finally.

Scott:A lot of people have a weird perspective on that &emdash; "Oh, these bands are selling out." Nobody's selling out! They're playing their music. Praise God! DC Talk just got their deal with Virgin -- that's incredible! That's going to open up doors for everybody. Newsboys got their deal with Virgin, it's incredible.

TT: What about Plank Eye?

Scott:Who knows? [laughter]

TT: Nothing we can announce yet?

Scott:Oh, I have no idea. There's nothing in the works. We're on Tooth & Nail records, and we love Brandon Ebel, and we love Dave Bahnsen, and we love First Company Management. Everyone takes care of us, and they love us, and they pray for us, and they dig us. So we have no problem with what we're doing now and the blessing God's given us with this tour and all the people surrounding us who care for us. We're totally thankful. Brandon Ebel's been more than helpful to us, been more than a neat guy. Tooth And Nail got a distribution deal with Caroline Records, which is owned by Virgin. We've already sold a bunch of units to secular stores, and we're not in the Christian section, we're in the regular section. Finally! MxPx, us, Driver Eight, Morella's Forest, Joe Christmas, Ghoti Hook...there are probably nine or ten of us on the label that are being put out through Caroline, and the neat part is that we're all going in the secular section. We're not going in the Christian section, and it's not just that we're getting stuck in the store and nobody's going to know who we are, but Caroline's really pushing it and really getting it so people are going to know who we are. Putting us in listening stations and doing stuff like that. People are actually going to hear who these bands are and get to come see them and know when they're playing and it's just amaziing!

TT: Now, picture a kid coming up to you who is you, five years ago. Just got saved, in a band, and they want to know what to do. What do you tell him?

Scott:I get it every single night! And I don't mind them coming up to me and talking to me, because I like to, and it's even cooler when they come talk to us and ask to pray with us. But what I tell them is, read the word and pray together. It's important to pray together, fellowship together, enjoy each other, learn the differences of each other and how to deal with them in the right way, and just love each other. And pray. If God wants to use it, He will. If God wants to take that band and do what he's doing with us, then He will. Everybody and their mom has a band nowadays. Just about every kid I talk to says, "Oh, I have a band!" That's cool. But if God wants to use them, He will. And if they're willing to be used, He'll use them. I really just tell kids to pray, and wait. If the Lord is in it, then He's in it. I know for me, it's like, all the times I've fallen short, God still uses me and loves me. That's amazing to me. God is so good, so faithful when we're faithless!