Interview with Divide The Sea vocalist Caleb Snead

Take a healthy dose of Southern Rock, add in a generous portion of Hardcore and a decent amount of straight up metal and what you and what you end up with is Man, the debut release from Divide The Sea. This disc is an exceptional first offering from a band we are sure to be hearing more from in the near future. Vocalist Caleb Snead chatted at great length with me about the band and their debut, simply titled Man.

Now that your brand new CD titled, Man, is complete how do you feel about it? Are you satisfied with the outcome?
Caleb: Yeah… I was actually listening to it in my car riding home today and I turned to my brother, Jared our guitarist, and was like, “You know, this actually sounds pretty good!” So yeah, I think it is pretty solid. I’m proud of it.

Different groups have unique ways of writing their songs. How do you guys go about writing your music? Is it a collective effort or is it more the efforts of one particular member of the band?
Caleb: Well we all have different ideas and are all into different styles of music so a lot of the times someone will write a riff or even a whole song and then bring it to practice and we build on that. However, a lot of our best stuff has come about when we are stuck and everyone just starts playing… like all at the same time and we just kind of build off of each other. We know how to read each other well and before we know it… we have written a song; I mean all the songs will evolve over time. It sometimes takes several months to tweak a song like we like it.

The band keeps things interesting thematically. Can you talk about some of the subjects you tackle on this record?
Caleb: When we set out to write songs, we don’t want them to all focus on the same themes. Many of our songs are prayers that have come from our hearts and we are singing them to God. Those are very personal to us and are some of my favorites to play because I can focus on the meaning and it is an amazing feeling to feel like you are singing straight to God; for me it’s worship. Several others are “lessons” or “sermons” that we write to encourage and build up other Christians. In addition, some are written to non-Christians to show the love and forgiveness of Christ. We try to have a mix lyrically. We really want to show both sides of God that many times people do not look at. Like, some people do not want to think of the all powerful, judgmental God… they just dwell on the loving God. In addition, some people only think of the fire and brimstone God. So we sing about both things. We love to show the power and majesty of our all mighty God but also show His love and forgiveness.

From a lyrical perspective, what song on the album do you feel most satisfied with?
Caleb: Geez that is a hard one. I love the worshipfulness (is that a word?) of “Imperfect; Perfection” and “Glory Hallelujah.” The ends of those songs are so powerful for me. However, I love the story and structure of “In Knowing; Triumph.”

Where did the name Divide The Sea originate from and is there a special meaning to it?
Caleb: Well we wanted something that was relatively easy to remember and was kind of catchy. But, we also wanted it to represent who we are as a band. So we picked this from the story when God divides the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross. It just shows His power. Go read that story again and place yourself in the shoes of one of the Israelites. Can you imagine the intensity of that situation?

Since this is your first interview for PureGrainAudio, can you give our readers a brief introduction to the band, how it all got started, that sort of thing?
Caleb: Welp, Ben, Brett, and me played together in an old band and when that broke up, Ben really wanted to start something else so that is where the idea started. I have known Ryan since like 5th grade and he was my roommate in college so we grabbed him for bass. We had this other dude, Randall, on guitar. We wrote and recorded a three-song demo, before we had played any shows, and then we played like two local shows and immediately went on a two-week tour through the southeast. So we really tried to hit the ground running. Then Randall left and we got my brother to fill in on guitar and then we were just like, “join already dude.” We were all in school but we toured every break we got and now we are here.

Did you have a preconceived idea of what you wanted the record to sound like and what you wanted it to achieve, or did that come about naturally?
Caleb: It kinda came about naturally. We just wrote music that we liked… we mixed everything together. I think that MAN is a pretty dynamic record and it changes things a lot and keeps the listener on their toes. We like that. But when we started, we definitely had a style we wanted to go for and that was like southern metal mixed with chaotic hardcore… and stuff just evolved from there.

Man comes to us by way of Blood & Ink Records. Are you happy the way they handled the record, regarding distribution, marketing and promotion? How has the label been accommodating the band’s needs?
Caleb: Yeah they are pretty sweet dudes. We are pumped to see all the outlets that have it up. It is really cool to see it on foreign websites! But yeah, they have helped us a lot and answered a lot of questions. And they are pretty cool to hang out with… it would have been awkward if they were these really weird dudes but we got along with them.

Do you have any touring plans for the immediate future, domestic or international?
Caleb: Yup! We are gonna be as full time as possible. We are out for all of February and are booking March and April now. We are mostly sticking to the southeast to hopefully build a core regional fan base but we will be branching out. And international? Heck yeah!

The artwork quite amazing. How is it tied to the album’s title?
Caleb: Well we like to do “manly” things and we like to play with that image. So obviously, the hunting pictures make us look “manly” and we wanted the artwork to be serious in style but humorous in tone. Because we are all fun loving dudes and like to make things funny. I mean that is what it is on the surface. We actually want people to know what it means to be a “MAN” of God. People today struggle with identity issues and we believe we have the solution to that. God created man in His image so only through a relationship with God will someone find true meaning to life. This applies to women to. So we like to play up the whole “southern manly” thing but really it about humanity and their need for true masculinity and identity.

What is next for Divide The Sea?
Caleb: Well hopefully lots of tours and summer festivals! We are going until God tells us we have accomplished His goal for this band. Yo and come to our shows so we can hang out dudes!  [ END ]