PunkTV.ca exclusive interview by Dixon Christie with Stephen Christian of Anberlin at Warped Tour 2007.

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Dixon: Alright, this is Dixon Christie here from PunkTV.ca and we are once again speaking with Stephen from Anberlin. How are you?

Stephen: Hey man, I'm really good; good to see you again.

Good! Last time we caught up with you at Austin SXSW.

Yeah that was an amazing festival, so many great bands converging on one little town. It was a good time!

That was an amazing show. Have you guys have been on the road ever since that?

Pretty much non-stop. We've had 12 days off since, like, February 1st.

People might not know that you guys just got back from Japan; would you tell us about your trip?

We were out there for a month and a half, touring Japan, Australia and Singapore, and we had the time of our lives. It was so much fun. We had never been to Japan or Singapore before and I had no idea that anyone knew our stuff out there; it was tremendous just to be out there and have people sing along. It was a great time.

Singapore is an amazing place. Did you guys chew bubble gum over there?

Oh, no. I didn't want to get caned, I've heard all about that.

You can Google caning in Singapore and there is videotape of the actual caning process. You know what happens?

No. Well... I know that the bamboo shoot opens up and then it grabs your skin and rips it out. We heard all the horror stories.

You also went to Japan, which must have been really cool.

That was amazing man. Osaka and Tokyo were two of my favorite places, just beautiful cites and beautiful towns. I wish we could have spent more time there, but the majority of the tour was in Australia where we just had some tremendous shows. Actually, we brought a band from our hometown called Copeland and they loved it so it was just an amazing tour.

What else exciting has been happening? Are you guys selling lots of copies of Cities?

Yeah it's been good; not only have people been really supportive of the record, but they're also coming out to the shows. We had a really great headlining tour in February and March and brought out Bayside and Meg and Dia. We actually came up here to Canada and had some great shows, too; everyone seems to love it. Already in Calgary people are stoked to see us. I was late to the interviews here because there are just tons of people hanging out at the merch tables and we were signing autographs for at least an hour. It is so much fun and I'm really stoked to play this show today.

People should know that you guys are really approachable. Is part of the Anberlin philosophy getting out there, meeting the kids, shaking the hands and basically befriending all of the kids out there on the road that are supporting you?

We are trying to get cockier but it's not working for us; we are trying to live the rock and roll lifestyle but it just doesn't seem to work for us.

We got two questions that we ask everybody but, of course, we've asked you those already so the back up question is, and I think I already know your answer for this one but, evolution or intelligent design and why?

Oh...see, neither. I'm a micro evolutionist. It's a long story, so let's just say I'm a micro evolutionist.

Wow how long do you think the earth has been around?

Oh, billions of years.

Not 7,000 years?

No, not 7,000 years.

So dinosaurs and humans never co-existed?

Well they could have co-existed; I could see that feasibly. I just watched Jurassic Park the other day so obviously they co-existed in the movie so I can't see why that couldn't happen in reality.

Right on, that surprised me. So did the chicken just pop up out of nowhere or did the egg come out of the dinosaur?

It's just the chicken. Actually, the Cambrian era was the time where scientists still can't discover what happened because there was an evolutionary jump from the rodents to the bird. I'm a creationist to a point and if you look in there it separates it by day and so God would have said "chicken". So, check out the Cambrian era; nobody can find the missing link, let's talk about it.

Again, I am surprised by the wit and the intellect of Stephen from Anberlin. Thank you very much for doing this.

Hey, no problem man. Thank you very much.

Interview by: Dixon Christie, PunkTV.ca
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