"Visailia, CA"
October 1998

Before the Newsboys performed their "Step Up To The Microphone" show in Visailia. I got to set down with Jeff Frankenstein (plays keyboard) and chat about the tour and new album. I hope you enjoy our chat.

Squares: How is the tour going?
Jeff: This the second week of touring. It1s good. We had a few rocky shows at first. There are a lot of things involved in the show. There is never enough time to get a tour like this ready. There are so many details and stuff. So many ideas we wanted to try. Everything you1ll see in the show tonight the band has kinda a finder on. We aren1t the kinda band that hires all these people to design our show and we just play. The show is all concepts that we1ve had in the tour bus, talking about it and dreaming it up. All the way down to the videos you1ll see playing behind the band. This is stuff that we shot ourselves, edited ourselves and everything. The show is very personal. It comes right from us. So we have been trying to work out the bugs.

Squares: What is something you actually worked on for the show?
Jeff: Sitting in on the video editing and putting together the songs for the show. There seems to be a combination of songs that works good.

Squares: What can people expect when they come out and see the Newsboys?
Jeff: Our shows are always a big priority for us. We want to make sure people get their money1s worth. We are one of the bands that like taking it to the limit. We might not play huge venues every night, but we1ll squeeze every last light and piece of production. The PA system were using tonight is the same system we used at Creation Festival in front of 70,000 people. We just want to blow people away. That1s the mentally we1ve got.

Squares: Why did you bring Teen Mania and World Vision on tour?
Jeff: We decided to bring out World Vision and Teen Mania and try to encourage our audience to get into a serving mode. Go on missions trips and do the things that Jesus told us to do. We don1t cram it down people1s throat. We just present it to them and give them the opportunity to get involved.

Squares: What is the biggest difference between "Step Up To The Microphone" and your previous works?
Jeff: This one is a lot different in a lot of ways. It was probably was the hardest to make. We built a studio in Peter1s house. We recorded and mixed the whole project in there. Musically this album is different, because it1s more consistent. In previous records you saw all the different influences of the band. Maybe you would have one song that would be kinda rock and one song this or that. This time we made a commitment not to do that and that everything was going to have a consistent sound and theme. I think that was the hardest thing to get, but I do think it was one of the most important things we accomplished. Lyrically I think it1s a lot more personal of a record. Every song we can relate to a personal story that happened to us or people we know.

Squares: On the past three projects, Steve Taylor co-produced the albums. Was it different working without him?
Jeff: Yes. In a lot of ways it was. He still came in every now and then. He1s still a good friend of ours. It was one of those things where we knew we had the tools and we work really well as a team and we could do it (make the record by themselves). Sometimes when you stick with the same formula too many times, it1s not a good thing. We felt like this is one of those things that we had to do as a team.

Squares: What is your favorite song to perform of the "Step Up To The Microphone" tour?
Jeff: I don't know. It usually depends on what the crowd digs, but right now I1m really enjoying "Always". The video tonight is actual video that we shot and I think it1s really powerful because the song really deals with broken homes. I think a lot of our fans and people I know are dealing with that problem and I really see it connect with them.

- Aaron Brinley