Interview Zach Harward & Phil Chamberlain Sullivan

Line-Up: Vocals: Brooks Paschal Guitar: Tyson Shipman Bass: Zach Harward Drums: Phil Chamberlain

Cornerstone Festival 7/4/06 Interviewer: Maggie Solum

"Some of the bands that are in the Christian market don't seem to bleed over and that's sad..."

Sullivan is a fresh, new alternative rock band from North Carolina flaunting the shining badge of Tooth & Nail Records while staining their lips with barbeque sauce. After barely having any time off the road and just releasing their debut record Hey, I'm A Ghost!, the quartet stopped by the giant Christian music festival, Cornerstone, to show off their stuff to a crowd that may not have heard the likes of them before.

Maggie: Alright, so would you please introduce yourself?

Zach: My name is Zach Harward and I play bass in Sullivan.

Phil: My name is Phil Chamberlain, and I play drums. In Sullivan. (Laughs)

Maggie: A little bit after Cornerstone you guys are on the Summer Deathride Tour with Dead Poetic and Showbread; are you stoked about that? Have you ever played with them before?

Phil: Yes. (Laughs) We're all really stoked.

Zach: (Laughs) We're all so stoked. But I don't really like the name. Because I don't know what it means.

Phil: I hope it's not really a deathride for real.

Zach: I know, Summer Deathride sounds violent but we have played with Showbread many times and have contemplated permanently touring with them, but we can't.

Phil: They are so our best friends. They're not very good at basketball though. They have so many people and they can't seem to beat us once.

Maggie: You've played basketball against them?

Phil: Yeah, all the time. We demolish them in basketball.

Zach: They're really short. We don't really have a history with the Dead Poetic guys other than they used to be in Beloved, and we knew them from there.

Phil: And Monday in London.

Zach: Yeah, Monday in London.

Phil: So we know some of the guys, and we're very excited about it.

Maggie: Were you fans of, like, Beloved and the bands they were in before?

Phil: Oh, yeah, we love Beloved.

Maggie: Where did the title for your album, Hey, I'm A Ghost!; where did that come from?

Phil: Uh. It's kind of a joke. Our friend just kind of came in and started saying it one day and it was funny at the time, um, and we ended up naming the first song for the record, "Hey, I'm A Ghost!" and it kind of – it has a meaning now.

Zach: It has different meaning – I suggest that you read the lyrics and figure it out.

Phil: It started out as being a joke, and now it has a deeper meaning.

Zach: Yeah, I don't wanna ruin the surprise. So read the lyrics.

Phil: (Laughs)

Maggie: Do you guys have any other special talents besides what you do in the band?

Phil: Basketball.

Zach: I'm really good at spinning water bottles.

Phil: Yeah, Zach and I are fantastic at it actually.

Zach: I think that we're starting to get good at fencing. Even though we haven't started it yet.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Zach: So yeah, we're working on it.

Phil: What else? We can beat a lot of MegaMan video games for regular Nintendo – we did that last week and beat three of them.

Zach: I can't.

Phil: You can't.

Zach: No, I haven't done it.

Phil: Me and the other guys played some MegaMan video games.

Maggie: Do you tend to play video games on tour?

Phil: Not really. We were just kind of.. we were at home for like a week, and felt like playing some Nintendo.

Zach: I love video games, but I'm afraid of making it a part of my life so I don't play them.

Phil: Yeah.

Maggie: Ah, the fear. What's the local scene like on the east coast, where you're from?

Zach: The local scene? Of the entire east coast?

Maggie: (Laughs) No, where you're from.

Zach: Oh, okay. (Laughs) Well, where we're from – I don't want to insult Chapel Hill – but we live in Chapel Hill and we don't ever play there, it's like not our type of place to play, but North Carolina in general seems good. I'd give it a thumbs up.

Phil: Our hometown I would say is Greensborough, which is where we all grew up, kind of. Which is like 45 minutes away from where we actually live. I'd say it's pretty rad. Baton and Raleigh are both good, we have good times and good shows. Good buddies.

Maggie: So what other bands are you close with that are from your area? Did you grow up with any bands?

Phil: Obviously Underoath is one of our best buddies. Showbread, we're really close with the guys in Classic Case; they're from North Carolina, we're really good friends with them. A band called Monday in London.

Zach: Monday in London. He is Legend.

Phil: Yeah, He is Legend.

Zach: Silverstein.

Phil: Yeah, Silverstein.

Zach: Those are our good buddies. Oh – Tokyo Rose.

Phil: Bayside.

Zach: Yeah, Bayside, Punchline, and Junior Varsity.

Phil: Those are probably our top ten best buddy bands.

Zach: We could go on for a while, though.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Phil: We just try to make friends with everybody, and usually everybody we meet are pretty awesome. We usually have a really good time with all the bands we travel with and everything.

Maggie: Awesome. Hey ! (At this point Tyson sneaks behind Phil to spy before running off) (Laughs) So is this your first year playing Cornerstone?

Zach: No, it's our second year actually. We were signed, but we had not put out a record last year. We played Tooth & Nail Day last year.

Phil: This is our first time playing with a record.

Maggie: Did you see a better turn out for fans this time?

Phil: Yeah, definitely.

Zach: Not too many more people than last year.

Phil: We did Cornerstone Florida this year as well, in May, and that was a lot of fun.

Maggie: What are some differences in playing crowds like this compared to playing the regular crowds for venue shows and sets like that?

Phil: I'd say the main difference is they won't let me use my drum set. I don't know why they won't let you take an extra five minutes to do that, but they seem pretty adamant about letting you use it. Other than that..

Zach: You mean the venue itself or the crowd?

Maggie: Well, the crowd.

Zach: Oh.

Phil: (Makes face) The crowd won't let me use my drum set. (Laughs)

Maggie: (Laughs)

Zach: You know.. I wanna say.. I don't know. It is different, but I don't know what to say. A lot of people?

Phil: (Laughs) Everyone seems to be pretty excited.

Zach: They're happy in general. I'm gonna go with that; they're happy in general. More happy.

Maggie: Good choice.

Zach: More happier. Most happy.

Phil: Happiest.

Maggie: What is your reflection on the current Christian music scene? As it's growing. What is your opinion on that?

Zach: Well, I'm gonna say that is seems to be isolated a lot. Some of the bands that are in the Christian market don't seem to bleed over and that's sad. I don't know if that's their decision or not their decision, but everyone wants to be heard by a lot of markets. I just wish the bands that are good in the Christian market were more widely accepted and I'm not gonna say that's the true case for all because Underψath is a Christian metalcore band and they just came out #2 on the Billboard charts.

Phil: So obviously it's growing and doing wonderful, fantastic things. So yeah. Yes. (Laughs)

Maggie: If you had to choose between wearing a tube top all day, or a thong all day, which one would you choose?

Zach: Would we be able to wear anything over the thong or tube top?

Maggie: Nope.

Phil: Oh, definitely a tube top. Nobody wants to see us in thongs. (Laughter ensues)

Zach: Or not many.

Maggie: I think we already answered this; what's your favorite thing to do on your down time when you're touring?

Phil: Wow.

Zach: Spinning bottles mainly.

Maggie: Well, I heard you play basketball a lot.

Zach: When we can, we like to.

Phil: I really like to go swimming a lot, when it's summer time.

Zach: Is this when we're not on tour at all?

Phil: Yeah.

Zach: Um, sleep.

Phil: Sleep. Swimming. Hanging out with friends at home that you grew up with and stuff that you never get to see a lot of the time.

Zach: Being at home is vacation.

Phil: Whenever we get home, like – usually the first two or three weeks – like we were home for three straight weeks this summer for the first time in a long time, and I think it took me two weeks to even get to our apartment because I was visiting my friends and seeing all my friends and it was a good time. That's one of my favorite things to do.

Maggie: Awesome.

Zach: I like to read FourteenG.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Zach: Is that right? FourteenG.net?

Maggie: Yeah. (Laughs) Which lyric from any artist or any song defines you as a person?

Zach: Oh.

Phil: Um. That's tough. "Maneater"? (Laughs)

Zach: (Laughs) Really the first thing that comes to mind is "She Bangs" but that doesn't make any sense, so that's probably wrong. (Laughs)

Phil: That's way too hard. I dunno.

Maggie: Then do you want to go with favorite lyric? Does that come clearer?

Phil: I would say "Achilles Last Stand" by Led Zeppelin, any of those lyrics are good for me. I don't know about defining who I am as a person, I dunno.

Zach: Let me see, wait.

Phil: I think "Maneater".

Zach: Not really. The banana phone song.

Maggie: Oh my gosh! (Laughs) You know that song? Did you watch the cartoon for it?

Zach: Yeah, I've seen that.

Maggie: It was pretty scary.

Zach: Rafio's(?) a big influence because he's Canadian. Canada's the Disney Land of the North.

Phil: It is. Nobody really knows that but us, but it is.

Zach: Canada's a big influence on me.

Maggie: Why?

Phil: Because it's the Disney Land of the North.

Maggie: Why is it the Disney Land of the North?

Zach: It's another country to go to.

Phil: It's like riding amusement park rides all day and all night. All the time.

Maggie: (Stares in suspicion at Phil who returns it)

Phil: Just nod your head and say "okay".

Maggie: (Laughs) Okay, for each of you personally, who influences your style of playing?

Phil: To me, I listen to – Led Zeppelin's my favorite band of all time, since I started playing drums. Um, Nirvana. Well, I listen to all kinds of music, but those two are probably my biggest influences when it comes to playing drums.

Zach: I'm not the biggest Get Up Kids fan in the world, but I do like the Get Up Kids and I feel like I learned a lot from the Get Up Kids, even though that doesn't make any sense; but I really paid a lot of attention to that dude's bass playing and I really liked the way he played.

Maggie: Okay.

Zach: I don't even know his name. (Laughs)

Maggie: If you could be asked any question in an interview, what would you want to be asked? Anything at all?

Zach: "What would you like for dinner?" (Laughs)

Phil: (Laughs) That's what I was gonna say! "Can we buy you some barbeque?"

Maggie: (Laughs)

Zach: Is that your next question?

Maggie: Can I buy you some barbeque?

Zach: Yes.

Maggie: With five dollars?

Zach & Phil: Yes you can.

Maggie: Alright. (Laughs) Do you have any questions for me?

Phil: If you could take us out to eat for anything in this festival, what would it be?

Maggie: Barbeque!

Phil: Awesome! Good answer.

Maggie: Everybody likes barbeque here.

Zach: Yeah. Oh – is that it?

Maggie: Yeah, unless you have something to add.

(Tyson wanders over and eavesdrops the interview, Phil drags him in)

Phil: I asked her where she would like to take us out to eat. She said barbeque.

Zach: Please go to www.fourteeng.net. Also, www.sullivancares.com and www.myspace.com/sullivan.

Phil: Yes.

Maggie: Thank you!

We'd like to thank the Sullivan for their continued support and to their camp for making this entertaining interview a possibility!

Links:

Cornerstone Festival Review

www.sullivancares.com

 www.myspace.com/sullivan