ANBERLIN

10/16/08 You may remember that about a month ago I told you I'd interviewed a band called Electric Touch and saw them in concert here in L.A., and then the next day, my daughter, Aly, saw their show and said hello to the band up in San Francisco. Well this week, just about the opposite happened…ONLY BETTER!!! Last night, I had a conversation with lead singer Stephen Christian from a great band called Anberlin and saw their concert here in L.A., but the night before, Aly interviewed Stephen and saw the band's show in San Francisco! As my friend Bree pointed out to me, "Jim, I'm sure you are the ONLY person in the world that could tell this story!" So true! How blessed am I? How blessed are my girls? So, let me back up and tell you how all of this came about.

While I was exchanging emails with the band's record label in New York, trying to set up my conversation with Stephen here in L.A., I asked the publicist if she could add Aly's name to the band's guest list for the show. I should tell you that I've had several conversations with Stephen now, and Aly's been with me for at least two of them. And, Angie used to be the band's publicist before they singed a big-time record contract and moved further into the big leagues. More on Angie in a minute. So, when I told Anberlin's new publicist that Aly was a freshman Radio/TV major at SFSU and was getting involved with the campus radio station, she asked me if Aly would be interested in doing a brief "interview" with Stephen. After several email exchanges between me, Aly, me, Anberlin's publicist, Anberlin's publicist and Aly, Aly was set to do her VERY FIRST one-on-one "interview" (conversation with Stephen Christian of Anberlin!!!!)

You can only imagine Aly's excitement to have the opportunity to spend about 10 minutes on the phone speaking with the lead singer of the band she and her roommate, Cassie, were going to see in concert later that same day!! I'm soooooo proud of Aly for doing a great job preparing great questions to ask Stephen, and for having the guts to do it in the first place!! GREAT job, ALY…here's to many more in your future radio career!
So, quickly, fast forward to last night and MY turn to speak with Stephen. As I mentioned earlier, Angie used to be Anberlin's publicist and she and Stephen know each other well, so I asked Angie to join me for the interview and concert. I was scheduled to do the interview at 5:30p, just after soundcheck, so Angie could not get out of work in time, but she would meet me at my place later for the show. Well, I'm a big believer in things happening for a reason, so get this: the Avalon, where Anberlin played last night, is only 2 train stops from my house. So, when I got there for my 5:30p conversation, the tour manager said Stephen was nowhere to be found. He was gone…couldn't find him. It turned out that he'd gone home (he just moved to L.A.) with his brand new bride (he just got married) for dinner. The tour manager apologized a thousand times and asked if I could come back at 7p to speak with Stephen. I told him it was absolutely no problem because I lived so close, plus, I thought to myself, "This is perfect, now Angie will be able to join me for my chat and she'd be able to hello to Stephen. PERFECT!!!

Sure enough, Angie and I returned at 7p, Stephen met us both outside the band's tour bus, again, apologized to me A MILLION times for not being there earlier, and the three of us jumped on the bus and sat in the back "bedroom" to have our conversation. PERFECT!!! We had another great conversation about the band's new album, New Surrender, Angie and Stephen got a chance to catch up and we were ready to leave the tour bus and go inside The Avalon to see the show…….but, not until Stephen was nice enough to tell Angie to go to the band's merchandise table inside the venue and tell the guy there that he, Stephen, said to give Angie a rare vinyl (yes, VINYL) copy of New Surrender! Stephen is just that kind of guy, he's super nice and very, very talented! Anberlin rocked, as usual (4th time I've seen them) and everything worked out…PERFECT! Life is good!

Peace!