BETWEEN THE LINER NOTES
FM Static Goes Back to School
By Hannah Goodwyn
CBN.com Producer
CBN.com
– FM Static is the pop/punk side project of Thousand Foot Krutch's lead singer Trevor McNevan and drummer Steve Augustine. Dear Diary, FM Static's third album, made the Top 20 on the Billboard Christian Rock Album Chart, helping to establish the group as a solid force in Christian music -- even beyond the Christian Alternative scene.
CBNmusic.com recently talked with Trevor McNevan and guitarist Nick Baumhardt about Dear Diary, their high school experiences, and how they found God for themselves.
Hannah Goodwyn: Dear Diary was an idea you had while you were on tour with Skillet? How did it all start?
Trevor McNevan: It had been up in the air at the time whether or not when and if we were going to do another Static record. I got this idea about the story of doing more of a concept record based on a boy and the songs being his diary entries, and just got excited about that idea and it inspired the songs and the story for the record.
Hannah: Tell me about the accompany book.
Trevor: The story is actually inside the record as well, so it’s not a separate book. It’s kind of a read and listen experience. The boy in the story, he’s name is Aero. We call him Aero Static. A lot of his story pulls from stuff I remembering thinking and feeling, and going through in high school. And then some of it is fictional.
Hannah: Dear Diary is a work of fiction, but it's also based on some of what you and your friends felt growing up, correct?
Trevor: It definitely pulls from it.
Hannah: What specifically?
Trevor: I think just a lot of the questions, like it’s kind of an adventure, the story. This kid moves to a new town with his parents. They relocate and their marriage is kind of on the rocks, that wasn’t my family, so that part's more of the kind of fictional part of the story going in. It's just the idea of high school, which you can never really be prepared for high school. It’s like another whole world once you get there, whether you had a good or bad experience you’re just like, "Wow, this is so different just 1-6".
Some of its not fun. I was kind of a neutral kid growing up though. I had a pretty athletic family and I was the musician kid, so I was friends with these kids and then from growing up in that, I could relate to those kids as well. I was kind of in between the two clicks of the jocks and the musicians. In some ways, it kind of made me well-rounded. And in other ways, yeah, I don’t know... maybe there are some negative side effects too.
Nick Baumhardt: We all know what it’s like to go on your first day of school and be worried about what you’re going to say and what people think of you. But really everybody else is thinking the same thing, in hindsight. You know you realize that they’re… You know it’s like what they tell you about snakes. They’re just as scared of you as you are of them. I think high school’s the same way.
Trevor: You think nobody else feels the same way, but yeah, exactly.
Hannah: What sort of feedback have you gotten from fans?
Nick: I think Canada’s going to make “Take Me As I Am” their new national anthem. (laughs)
Trevor: Write that down.
Nick: Wait a second, am I wrong?
Trevor: That might not be factual.
Nick: Wait, that might not be factual. Don’t quote me on that. (laughs)
Trevor: Awesome.
Nick: Sorry! (laughs)
Hannah: What do you want the album to accomplish?
Trevor: It’s a pretty honest and a little bit revealing story on a personal level. As a writer, I just hope that people can relate to it in some way, shape, or form with their own life and stuff they went through, whether you’re looking back at high school and laughing, or whether it’s on a spiritual level with your faith... asking yourself those questions at some point in your life, what do I believe? What do I stand for? This story kind of covers a lot of that stuff. Some of it’s deep, some of it’s more just lighthearted, so I hope that someone can pull from that and relate to it, and be able to enjoy it as well.
Nick: We’re also hoping that it will bring about world peace and end world hunger.
Trevor: Totally, yeah! (laughs) That’s at the end of the record.
Hannah: Lofty goals.
Nick: Dare to dream, you know.
Hannah: Did you have a personal walk with God in high school?
Trevor: Yeah, I think we both did. You know, I went back and forth a little bit. I was just trying to decide how real I thought I was compared to my parents believing that and me believing it, and trying to be a good kid. So yeah, a little bit wavering, but for the most part, I think that for me is when I realized that it’s is very real and I believe that there’s a big God who loves us and has a plan for our lives. That’s when I made that decision.
Was yours in high school?
Nick: Yeah, I think you always go back and forth especially when you’ve grown up in a Christian environment. You always go to a point where you decide for yourself.
Hannah: What made you decide for yourself?
Nick: I got in trouble once, and I had to go to this thing where they made me read a bunch of Proverbs. It’s weird; somehow that kind of got through to me. The Bible says that if you ask for wisdom God will give it to you. Through that maturing process I just kind of decided.
Trevor: There were different times when I realized that it was real to me. I think even now just being able to talk to God, just like I’m talking to you, as a friend and as a father and as the big God that He is, the realization to me knowing that He is there and He’s listening and He hears me.
 Hannah Goodwyn serves as the Family and Entertainment producer CBN.com. For more articles and information, visit Hannah's bio page.
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