Eliot Sloan talks about the history of the band and the importance of lyrics and songwriting.
DM) It's a pleasure to meet you.
ES) Nice to meet you too.
DM) I really wanted to interview you guys after I heard the
song "I Believe" more for lyrical reasons than anything.
Even though it has a lot of pop appeal, a lot of people don't
even know what the words are about.
ES) I had a friend of mine who was a DJ and he was playing
the song in his club for a month and a half. Somebody told him
there was the word "nigger" in the song and he was
like, "NO WAY!" (laughing) I was like "Danny,
you've been playing the song for six weeks. Listen to the song!"
It's pretty bizarre.
DM) I thought it was so funny that nobody even heard the intensity
of the words.
ES) Yeah, a lot of people just hear the hook. It's amazing...
you might be in the habit of listening to lyrics, like I am,
but some people, they hear this melody, "oh, I know this
song, I believe" that's why we put them in the CD book.
We just want them to hear what we are talking about. It always
amazes when people are singing the song backwards and fronts.
It's like, "Oh man. They are listening!"
DM) What's the exact story behind "I believe"?
ES) Well, it's like... when we did that song, we were just
like... there were so many things going on in society. We just
wanted to do something positive. We just wanted to touch on a
lot of points that society seems to be having a little trouble
with as a whole. Racism was one of the things we wanted to distill
in the song. So we were like, wanted to mention something about
a relationship that I was in that people could relate to. It's
really cool because a lot of people have been really relating
to that. A lot of people have been in relationships where their
parents or their friends didn't want them seeing this other person
for whatever reason, whether it was race, religion or background,
or whatever. We just really believe that love is the answer to
this stuff. Without it trying to sound hokey or whatever that's
just the honest to good answer. I'm a witness to that. I get
along with anybody who's open minded, and who has an open heart
to things. That's the same with everybody in this band. We've
all got different backgrounds and we all agree on the same things.
This is just one of them. There doesn't have to be this much
tension out there. There really doesn't. We feel like it's very
unnecessary in a lot of situations. We just wanted to install
some hope in people and hopefully people will listen to the lyrics
and get that out of the song.
DM) Now, specifically in that song, you mention "Lisa".
Is there actually a "Lisa" out there?
ES) Yes, there really is. She was somebody I went out with
for two years actually. And it was another situation where her
dad just didn't want it to happen so bad that she just couldn't
take the pressure at the end of the relationship. At first I
was kind of bitter about the whole spilt up and everything .
It's really tough, she wants to do something with her life and
her dad's threatening to cut off her college tuition if she continues
to see me, so it's like she had a serious decision to make. Like
I said, at first, I was somewhat bitter but I understand, I guess.
I don't know. I know I probably wouldn't have done the same thing.
A lot of people would of/wouldn't of, who knows, people are different,
so I couldn't really hold that against her.
DM) What has she said to you since she heard it on the radio?
ES) Oh, I haven't heard from her.
DM) You haven't that would be an interesting meeting wouldn't
it.
ES) I wrote in the liner notes for her to call me some time
and she hasn't. I guess at this point, I don't expect her to.
That's my call out to her, because I have no idea.
DM) It says right here, "Lisa ('give me a call sometime
just to say hello, my number is still the same')" That's
pretty impressive. You have to be the first person I heard of
who put a message like that in the liner notes.
ES) Well she hasn't called yet so it didn't seem to do any
good.
DM) Well, the effort shows a lot right there.
ES) I'm the kind of person, I like to stay friends with people,
no matter what type of relationship I was involved with and I
guess I just wanted her to know that.
DM) But are you able to do that now? I know that it can be
pretty tough to talk to somebody you love and hear that they
are dating somebody else or what not.
ES) I've been able to do that pretty much. I can only think
of a hand full of people that I'm not really in touch with anymore.
Maybe because of distance or... nothing really... there's very
few relationships I've been in that have ended on such a bitter
note, that we can't speak to each other anymore. I usually try
to avoid that.
DM) There's nobody that would be tough to speak to because
they broke your heart and you don't want to see them dating anyone
else?
ES) No, but if you asked me two years ago... I'm kind of over
that right now. There's a few people that I was really close
to that I lost for whatever reason and of course it's going to
be hard initially but you get over it.
DM) Speaking of love, you also mentioned in the liner notes,
"This list could go on but we couldn't end it without giving
GOD the glory for his infinite wisdom, grace and blessing that
enabled us to play music in the first place..." Do you consider
yourself a religious man?
ES) Religious is belief, and I believe in god, and I always
believed in god. And I was always taught that god is love. So
in essence when I'm sing that in "I believe, love would
find a way" I'm really saying "God will find a way"
And a lot of people will take it like that too. It's really weird.
When you get fan mail, you never know what's going to be in that
letter. I've gotten everything from marriage proposals to invitations
to sing at the their church. From one spectrum to another. That's
probably one of the main things I learned so far, is that when
you write something as close as you are to a song, there's probably
going to be listeners who are closer to it, because it touches
them maybe a little bit more. That's what I've been finding out
lately. Which is cool with me. People take things different ways
and as long as people take them positively, that's one of our
goals.
DM) Have you ever taken up on one of those offers, you've
gotten a call on?
ES) No I haven't. (laughs) I try to respond to as much mail
as possible. A lot of it is very far from Cincinnati as possible.
As much as I'd love to meet every single soul that out music
affects, I know it's not physically possible, and from time to
time we really get a chance to respond to the mail personally,
which I really like to do.
DM) We were talking about God before, and I was thinking how
a lot of people say they believe in God to some variation but
from the lyrics you use it seems like he is a big part of your
life.
ES) Well, I mean, he always has been since pretty much my
adult life, and I've come to realize that he's been a part of
my life throughout my entire life. And I just don't want to fail
to recognize him. At the same time, I don't want to come off
too preachy to people, but we're just singing about what we feel.
That's who we are. We're Blessid Union of Souls. We're a union
of souls. We're very blessed to be in the position that we're
in. To be able to create music and actually have people listen
to it and make it a part of their lives. It's just one of those
things that we don't want to take for granted and I don't think
anybody in this band does.
DM) Sounds fair. That also, answers the stereotypical question,
"Where does the bands name come from?" (laughs)
ES) You know man, this all started about 6 or 7 months before
we started writing the songs for the albums. I had this name
in my head, I don't know if I heard it somewhere or if something
like that but I thought it was a cool name for band. There just
wasn't a band yet that it would fit well with. We started writing
the songs and we started seeing the direction in which the music
was taking. And I asked Jeff about it, Jeff and Joey and Eddie,
and I said, "What do you think about the name 'Blessid Union
of Souls' for this band?" and everybody loved it. It was
just a no-brainer. And I tell you, it was one of the hurdles
that we were glad we got over. You know because when you're putting
something like this together you want to come up with a name
that's kind of catchy, that's kind of cool or whatever and everybody
was really happy with it. It was a hurdle that we didn't need
to deal with. It was done, everybody liked it, so we were able
to concentrate on the songs after that.
DM) Going back to the songs, one song I was trying to get
a better idea was "End Of The World". Specifically,
the lines, "Now all you can remember are the words he used
the most, Like the "lie" in believe", the "I"
in deceive, the "her" in together, the "we"
in the weather". What does that mean?
ES) A friend of mine was going through something, and this
has happened to more than one person, where somebody gets so wrapped
up in a relationship they think there's nothing else. It's like
when somebody says believe me or trust me, it all turns all into
a lie. The word lie is in the word believe, and the word I in
deceive because she felt totally deceived. We were just touching
on it like that. Just trying to do something different with the
lyrics, while at the same time trying to get the point across.
That's the whole concept behind it. It's not the end of the world.
People say things that they mean at the time, I'm sure they truly
mean them, but people change their minds. It happens to everybody.
She just kind of got caught in it.
DM) It just stood out to me because it seemed much deeper
lyrically then any stereotypical pop song I've seen so far.
ES) I tell you what. We really concentrate on trying to write
really good songs, and not doing what everybody else is doing.
We didn't want to get seriously categorize as this or that. We
just stuck true to the music. A lot of people tell me, "I
hear a little bit of this music, and I hear a little bit of that",
and that's cool, because everybody has such wide-diverse backgrounds
you're bound to hear something in the songs, somewhere.
DM) Speaking of hearing this I've seen almost every review
saying, "The NEW Hootie and the Blowfish", which to
me seemed like "yeah, there's a black member and a white
member in the group, but that's as far as the stretch goes".
ES) Yeah, it's amazing what people write from what they see.
And you know what, I'd love to do a tour with those guys, I think
that would be a good tour. But I mean, they have a sound and
we have a sound. You hear the acoustic guitars and the big background
vocals in a lot of their stuff and a lot of our stuff. You might
hear some similarity to that, but you know what I don't mind
getting compared to those guys. I love that group.
DM) Well, I like them myself, I was just wondering if the
comparison was made more because of the looks of the people in
the group or the music itself.
ES) Yeah, you got to wonder that, if you have two pictures
of a band and both lead singers are black, it's easy for people
to read into things. I've been getting that comparison, and that's
okay, that's something we got to live with. I think when people
hear the music, they go, "Oh, okay, there's something there"
DM) So, I guess you wonder where they make that comparison
yourself.
ES) I like to think it was because of the music (laughs).
Because like I said, I hear some similarities in it. I'd like
to put the color issue. When people make such a big deal about
that, to me, music is first.
DM) With music being first, who would you compare yourselves
to? When you were starting off, and somebody said, "What
do you guys sound like?"
ES) You know what, we couldn't answer that question then.
We were just trying to write some really good songs. With the
instruments that we had, and the backgrounds that we all have,
we were just like, let's all come up with some really cool songs
and see what happens. I don't know who I would compare us to.
The comparisons we have been getting from other people are, Arrested
Development, Hootie and the Blowfish, Counting Crows, and all
kinds of stuff.
DM) Hootie and the Blowfish I could see.
ES) You can see that?
DM) The Arrested Development is stretching it at that point.
I personally was looking along the lyrics and seeing the typical
singer-songwriters, anywhere from the Elton John's to Paul Simon,
because I was concentrating on the lyrics and the content of
the songs were not exactly "Moon in June" and "She Loves You" type of songs.
ES) I tell you what, for people like yourself, who do listen
to yourself, you'll get that, for people who just hear songs
in passing, and then they'll compare you to other things.
DM) That can have a very diverse effect, the music leads you
to one angle and the lyrics lead you to another.
ES) Yeah, a whole new center on it. I think that's what you
hear, with all the backgrounds that we have... with Jeff listening
to Lynryd Skynrd and C.P. listening to Frank Zappa and Sun Ra
and Miles Davis. Throw all that into a blend, and you're going
to hear a little bit of everything.
DM) Well, we have to wrap it up, but I want to thank you for
a good interview.
ES) Thanks.
