Interview with Family Force 5 guitarist Chap Stique (aka Derek Mount)

Although family members have been playing together in bands for decades, Family Force 5 bring a whole new meaning to keeping it in the family. The band was formed and is led by the Olds brothers, sons to Jerome Olds, a Christian musician from the 1980s. Even though the three Olds brothers were formerly part of a boy band back in the mid 1990s, the brothers have shed pop music for some good old rock and roll. Family Force 5 has only been around a short time but in their brief existence, the band’s popularity has steadily grown to the point where they are now drawing major mainstream interest. The band is currently working on their sophomore follow up to 2006’s, Business Up Front/Party In The Back which is slated for a early 2008 release. Recently we caught up with the band’s guitar player Chap Stique (aka Derek Mount) for a little Q&A. Here’s how it went:

Just to start off, you guys are about to embark on some pretty consistent and hectic touring that will go all the way until the winter time. How does it feel to be just starting on the road for such a long stretch of time?
Chap Stique: It feels normal! The Family Force 5 has been basically touring solid for about 2 straight years. I saw a statistic that said we were on the road 300 days out of last year, which is 100% obscene! We’re total road dawgs. We love touring, meeting new people, and seeing the world, but it is nice when we can get home a little bit. Soul Glow’s got a miniature Activatur coming into the world soon, Xanadu’s got a Xana-two due in a few months, Crouton and I are both about to tie-the-olde-knot (not together), and Nadaddy’s got a lady as well. Family and friends are extraordinarily important to us, and we are trying to slow things down a bit so that we can focus more on relationships. However, we are pleased as punch to go out with Jonezetta and The Secret Handshake for the Dance Rawr Dance tour, and think it will be one of the most booty-shakin’ tours of all time. We have some very fun months ahead of us!

Family Force 5 has been around now for a few years. How did the members meet and the band ultimately form?
Chap Stique: Soul Glow Activatur, Crouton, and Fatty are all brothers, and they’ve been playing music professionally since they were about 10 years old. That’s no lie… they had a record deal when I was still pooping in diapers, and it was one of the coolest Bobby-Brown-inspired-bands you’ll ever hear! As the three brethren aged, they took interest in other types of music, and formed a band that played Crosby Stills, Nash and Young meets the Eagles kind of stuff. Soul Glow met Nadaddy in college, and asked him to join the band as a percussionist. Eventually, once that train derailed, they started playing funky stuff with a little bit of some ATL flavor. Basically, Nadaddy swapped the congas for turntables, Crouton traded his bell bottoms for a grille, Soul Glow ditched the southern drawl, and Fatty kept his large muscles. They hired a guitarist and formed Family Force 5. I was a college student/guitar teacher who played a lot of hired-gun roles around town, and used to go watch them play all the time. One of my gigs was playing at a church where Soul Glow, Fatty, and Crouton ran sound. We used to eat pot roast and grits together after services, and when they needed a guitarist; Crouton called and asked me to audition. Little did we know our little band from Atlanta would win the rock and roll championship years later.

Now the real core of the band consists of the three Olds brothers who are the sons of Jerome Olds, a Christian musician from the late ‘80s. What was it like growing up around music your whole childhood? Did you feel a lot of pressure to get into music as well?
Chap Stique: I can’t speak for the brothers Olds about their childhood, but I can say that their natural musical savvy cannot be 100% attributed to Jerome (although he’s an outstanding musician). Their mother Frieda is probably the best live sound engineer we’ve ever had, and we still fly her out to our important shows. You can tell when she’s running sound because everybody in the crowd’s eyes stick out about 3 inches further than normal. She really likes to turn up the bass. Every single member of Family Force 5 is living out his passion. I don’t think the brothers were necessarily “pressured” into becoming musicians… we all stay up at night dreaming about flashy show ideas, cool costumes, amazing gear, and new songs. It’s not like feeling pressure from your dad to be a banker or a lawyer when you really want to be an astronaut. In fact, most people tell their kids that going into music is a crazy idea, and it is! But the truth is that we’ve all had incredible parents who have supported us throughout this bizarre career choice.

Now I know you probably get asked about this a lot, but you guys were in a sort of boy band growing up back in the mid 1990s. How do you look back on this time now after you’ve formed this band and become quite successful? Is it something you’d rather leave in the past?
Chap Stique: Again, I don’t want to be responsible for putting words in the mouths of “The Brothers (that was the name of the group),” but I can tell you that they are not, in the least bit, embarrassed about dancing and singing in that band. And they definitely should not be. While most kids were busy renewing their subscriptions to Ranger Rick, The Brothers were touring Europe playing in front of crowds of 20,000-50,000 people. Think about it… would you rather look at pictures of elephant seals or play a rock show? In fact, I think they still get a bit of radio play. Crouton used his last royalty check to buy the special edition DVD of Milo and Otis.

In your time together as a band, some have classified you guys as a Christian band. Do you feel this is an appropriate tag for Family Force 5? If so, why?
Chap Stique: Family Force 5 is a band made up of 5 Christians. Some of our songs are about spiritual experiences or concepts. Some of our tunes are about break-dancing and mullets. We never beat people over the heads with Bibles or accuse or condemn people, but we declare in our shows that Jesus loves everybody. Most of our shows are in clubs. Some of our shows are in churches or at Christian festivals. Our CD’s are available in Best Buy’s, but they are also available in Christian book stores. If you consider a band with these traits to be a Christian band, then we’ll gladly accept the description. If you define a band with these characteristics as a “band of Christians” rather than a “Christian band,” we have no qualms with that either.

POD brought up a great point when they asked why nobody tried to define the Beastie Boys as “Buddhist rap.” Titles don’t mean anything to Family Force 5. We are Christians, but this band is not following a traditional model followed by Christian bands. Although we respect and appreciate music that is made for the church, our hearts desire to make music that is applicable to everybody, and that strives to be relevant and fun. A lot of Christian music falls into the trap of trying to be a safe version of ____ (fill in the blank with a big-name band in the pop market). Family Force 5 is not a “Christian” version of anything… it is simply Family Force 5. I think Rob Bell said it best (forgive me for not quoting him word for word) – “The word ‘Christian’ makes an amazing noun. It is a horrible adjective.” There is a tremendous movement taking place to blur the line between what we term “Christian music” and “mainstream music.” We are honored to be a part of this change with bands like Switchfoot, Anberlin, Underoath, and Lifehouse by showing everybody that you can love Jesus Christ and still have a party… and everyone’s invited!

Your debut record Business Up Front/Party In The Back has been out now about a year and a half. Are you pleased with the reaction that the disc has received since it was released?
Chap Stique: Yes, we are continuously blown away by some of the feedback we get from fans that purchase Business Up Front/Party in the Back. We get messages on myspace daily that tell us unique and hilarious ways that our music is connecting with people’s everyday lives. For instance, several lives have been ushered into the world to the sounds of Family Force 5! We get plenty of young mothers that tell us they listened to “Drama Queen” and “Earthquake” as junior stepped out into a new life! High school pep bands have been playing “Luv Addict” at basketball games, kids are covering our songs in talent shows, people are having Bible studies based upon our lyrics, and teens are even getting into automobile accidents because they’re dancing too much to our songs (don’t worry… nothing serious)! Those kinds of stories make you realize that even if Business Up Front/Party in the Back never sold another copy, we would have provided a connection with people… and that is our job.

You also recently released a “Diamond Edition” of Business Up Front/Party In The Back this past March, 2007. What does this new edition offer that the original release does not have?
Chap Stique: The Diamond Edition has 3 new songs (3 of our favorite songs we’ve ever written), new artwork, a poster on the inside, draygons (spelling intentional), free money, free fun, a few extra years of life, world peace, and a donut.

I heard a rumor that you’re working on a remix album that will be out this fall. First of all, can you confirm this? And if so, what can we plan to expect from this remix disc?
Chap Stique: That rumor is only partially true… because it’s leaving out the coolest parts of the project! Family Force 5 is releasing a piece called the Family Force 5 Audio/Visual Club… for Humans. It is a dual-disc release: the first is a DVD with season one of our Really Real Show, which is our Spinal Tap, The Office-esque show that we air on myspace and youtube. We might have some extra goodies and perhaps even a few cartoons. The second disc will feature the best audio blogs (a podcast, radio-type of activity we do to keep our fans up to speed and entertained with tales from the road), perhaps a hip-hop track we wrote after the Diamond Edition was released, and some remixes. Basically, it will be a feast, and Family Force 5 is the appetizer, main course, and desert. And Neil Diamond is the salad.

I also heard that your next proper LP is in the works and is set to be released sometime early in 2008. Can you let us in on any details about the new record? Are you doing anything new or differently this time around compared to your debut?
Chap Stique: All I can tell you is that our sophomore release is going to be a little bit more funky and a slightly more electronic than the first one was. We’ve been listening to Parliament and Justice, and I think those sounds will be a big part of what we do next. The best way to describe our next record is that it will sound like Transformers became a rock band, invented a time machine, and went back in time to hang out with James Brown.

Aside from writing and recording your new album, what else does Family Force 5 have planned for the rest of this year?
Chap Stique: Family Force 5 will be rocking out on the Dance Rawr Dance Tour until Thanksgiving. Then, we’ll probably tour with Prince and Van Halen. Next, we’ll collab on some songs with Akon. After that we’ll don our make-up and costumes to play another KISS reunion tour. Finally, we will try to get roles in The Neverending Story 3. Other than that, we might play paintball against each other once or twice.  [ END ]