Brandon Rike...what can you say? Well we can start by saying that he is the lead singer of a great band—Dead Poetic. He is also a very sincere, straight-forward, and talented individual. We had the opportunity to get some face-time after the Dead Poetic show here in NYC. After slipping behind a curtain fronted booth, taking a seat...

New York City / Bowery Ballroom / 07.12.04

The first thing I'd like to mention is that I think you have some serious talent between your voice and your lyrics.

Thank you man.

Do you feel that your talent is a gift from the Lord?

Well of course yeah, I mean definitely. I think more importantly, I feel glad that I've been gifted with the potential to be able to sing this way but, I feel glad that the Lord has instilled in me a determination to improve. Because when we did the first record I had never sang before really, I really wasn't much of a singer. We did the record and the vocals came out ok but I wasn't really that happy with them. I really worked my butt off between the two records to perfect my voice and to find my voice, and once I find where its at, to try to do everything I can with it you know...So I'm still working on it, but I'm very glad that I've been able to be determined to improve it.

Do you feel within the gift that the Lord has given you some sort of responsibility or a burden in order to use it to bring people to Him?

Well I think what I feel is that with the fact that we can play music, and just the fact that I can write lyrics that are gonna be read by thousands of people — that's definetely a responsibility you can't take lightly. As far as directly, or it's not like I have an agenda behind my lyrics necessarily, I just know that I don't want to write crap, you know what I'm sayin? I want to make sure that everything that I write is straight up from the heart and very important, not just something I threw together to get the song done or anything like that.

I definitely feel a responsibility since we have so many people reading our lyrics and buying our records. I feel a responsibility to write something meaningful and write something from my heart. So in turn, when something comes from my heart as a Christian, hopefully they'll see some type of positivity in it. Well, more importantly, hopefully they will see some spirituality in it, because I can't promise positivity in all my lyrics because that's not real everyday life for me you know what I mean?

Real everyday life for a Christian isn't constantly positive, real everyday life for a Christian isn't constantly joyous, being a Christian is a hard thing and there's alot of trials and tribulations involved on a daily basis, there's alot of ups and downs — and ups and downs on every stop. So I think I'm more into being honest than necessarily positive.

You brought it up tonite during the show, out of all the songs that stick to me the strongest has been "Glass in the Trees". You said it was one of the most important songs, could you elaborate a little bit on it because it seems to have some really nice transitions in the writing, it goes from different themes and really takes you visually to different places...

It's about a friend of mine who passed away, he was drunk and he was driving extremely fast and flew off the side of the road into a couple of trees. I went to the crash site and the entire two trees that he crashed into were covered in glass, covered in windshield, so much that they actually sparkled when you saw them.

It was a really horrible car accident, but what the song goes back and forth to is me standing at the crash site about 24 hrs after it happened which sets me about 3 o'clock in the morning the day after, and I'm sitting there at the crash site and just going through everything I felt when I was standing there. I'm seeing trees, I'm seeing how it all happened, but I'm flashing back to our relationship, —me and my friend. The thing about our friendship was that we were great friends for a long time and around the time I accepted Christ I had alot of people telling me to separate from all my non-Christian friends.

Thats a real popular thing for youth pastors to tell kids. Because it's a real easy thing to say because it's like "well you know what, if a guy's not Christian, (you're telling a 13yr old) — you know what? If they're not a Christian and they're cussing, smoking and drinking, just don't hang out with them." But that's a real easy thing to say to a kid like that but I really don't think the real reality is set in to that. Because the real reality means even if they're some of the most important people that you've met in your life, even if they're some of the most loving people you've met in your life, even though they're not Christian you've gotta treat them the way Jesus would treat somebody.

Unfortunately, when I was 13 I was a little bit more naive and I listened to what alot of people had to say, and I took it to heart and therefore that lead me to separate from him even more and more. So when the time came that he passed away I realized that every opportunity I could have had to be a positive role model in his life, or to be just some type of positive influence in his life was totally gone now and I lost my chance, and you know maybe that's what it took for me to realize that's not what it's about.

So I've got alot of friends now, alot of my non-Christian friends that I treat like Jesus would treat them. I try to be a great friend to them, and you know there's people out there who are awesome people and I think alot of Christians won't even give them the time of day because they don't believe what they believe. You've got to be ready to go out and find out that most of the world doesn't agree with what you believe, but all you can do is be that positive influence, and show people the God that you know, show people a loving God.

I think if we represent God correctly, if we show the God we really know then it's going to start appealing to people alot more because they're gonna realize how much God loves them. If this is the change that God has made in this persons life, then I want something to do with whatever that is, you know what I mean? So I think more emphasis needs to be put on loving people than separating from people.

This is totally non-relevant tonite, but in response to the Knitting Factory show, I come from the Bad Brains and Fishbone days back in California— those were my bands, and the pits I notice now, the hard ones, seem to be changing, bringing in like Capoiera and round house kicking and all that stuff, when we used to just mosh. I do see some comradery though within it, like if someone falls down somebody still picks them up. But how do you feel about that at your shows, not as a musician, but as a Christian, when you see people like that? Does it cause you to do anything?

Well that's alot of hardcore stuff and we're not really much of a hardcore band, but we see that alot, and I just think that's kids ways of having a good time, alot of them are very angry and alot of them are very violent, but I don't know man, it's always been a weird thing to me to be honest, those guys practice their moves in front of a mirror.

Yeah well, when HR the lead singer from Bad Brains split off and did his reggae shows- I was at one in Tijuana and he stopped the show a few times because people thought they were at a Bad Brains show, and he was playing reggae. So he was like look- you all are gonna have to stop or I'm gonna go off the stage, because he said you need to love each other and he was trying to get that love vibe back again with the angry crowd he had drawn for years, so it was kind of like a juxtapose thing...

Yeah man, we've stopped shows man, we've stopped in the middle of a song- there's been like fights goin on and we're like get out..because alot of people just come to be angry and I don't know man, hardcore dancing has always been one of those crazy things that I've never understood. But man if that's what kids do to get goin man then...whatever..

Hellfest: what are your thoughts on Hellfest, in the sense of what kind of decisions, what went through your head before you decided to play at Hellfest.

I think the thing about Hellfest, that makes such a question about it is just the name. But Hellfest is basically the same festival as Furnacefest, same type of festival as any hardcore festival, it so happened that they just decided to call it Hellfest. But it's just alot of good bands man, it's alot of bands that are our piers and alot of bands that we really like so that's why we've chosen to do it. Actually this year, there's a thing that says we're playing it, but we're not playing it this year, we're still gonna be on this Papa Roach tour. I think there was some miscommunication somewhere but yeah we won't be there.

You say that you like design, what areas of design? Do you design yourself?

Yeah I design all of our T-Shirts, I design T-Shirts for Under Oath, Beloved, As I Lay Dying, Project86, I'll be doing Papa Roach shirts, Instruction shirts... You know I have a big clientele of bands. I do some websites, but more importantly I concentrate on T-Shirt designs, trying to make good, classic T-Shirt designs that people buy. You know just basically that type of stuff, band artwork, so it's really my passion and it's even my passion before music, it's the thing that I just love and am passionate about. I have a design company called "Dark Collar Design" and I've been doing it for about 2 or 3 years, and I try to balance the band and that, I try to do some work on tour, but most of the time I do all of my work when I'm home.

Are you a mac man or a pc man?

A mac man of course! Of course.

[insert hi-five]

Well maybe we'll feature you on the site, and some of your work.

Sure, sure.

Do you have any advice for a young Christian artist who is trying to work with their gift?

Yeah, for a young Christian artist, that's a tough one. I would say to be ridiculously honest all the time. And to be ready for the fact that your honesty is going to be ridiculed, to be ready for the fact that your honesty is going to be very uncomfortable for people maybe, Christian and non. You're gonna have the honesty from non-Christians when you are honest about your Faith that may make them uncomfortable but you've got to be honest enough to show them that you love them, you know what I mean?

You've got to live a life the way that Jesus lived his life, you've gotta put love in front of everything, but to Christians, you're going to disappoint alot of Christians, and thats inevitable. And I wish it wasn't true, I wish I would know that every Christian was happy with what I was doing, but there's alot of people who are going to push their opinions on you and tell you this, this and this, but you've got to stay strong and live according to God's will for your life. And Gods will for your band, and just to love people, everybody you meet.

Get on the best stores you can get on, Christian or non, do whatever shows you can get because the purpose of the band is to be able to appeal to as much people as you can. Don't limit yourself to the Christian market because there's so many people who need help outside of the Christian market. So just be a positive influence to everybody and realize you're not gonna save the world but you can show them you know who God is and you can show them you know who Jesus is, you know what I'm sayin?

Yeah Brandon, we know exactly what you're saying bro...

Related

• Dark Collar Design [t-shirt geeks prepare to drool...]