Interview with Josh Moore - Keyboard/Organist for Caedmon's Call

MBC: What is your most embarrassing moment since you've been with the band?
JM: I have a lot of them…many an embarrassing moment. One that has gotten told over and over is that while we were on the road one day I bought a new pair of really cool, nice, expensive shoes and that night we went bowling and I walked out with the bowling shoes on accident and left my brand new shoes and the bus took off and I never saw them again. They were pretty dumpy bowling shoes and they were the only shoes I had for about three months for the rest of the tour. For some reason the band got a kick out of the fact that I did it the same day I bought the shoes.

MBC: What's in your CD player right now?
JM: I'm listening to the new Elton John record, I'm still in a Radiohead phase right now, there's a couple of local Nashville bands I'm listening to; Matthew J, who is unbelievable, Rufus Wainright…I have a pretty varied taste.

MBC: Any lucky charms?
JM: A couple things I like to have in my bunk…this furry Neanderthal guy who when you play music he…I don't know I've had it in my room since I was like five - it came with me to college, goes in the bunk. Also, I hardly pull it out of my pocket during the day but I carry a picture of my girlfriend with me.

MBC: If you could be any Wizard of Oz character, who would you be?
JM: Gonna have to say, uh, wow…probably Toto - I could get really philosophical here - but I'll just say Toto…let your imagination wander.

MBC: Do you have any conspiracy theories?
JM: I believe that all politicians are robots.

MBC: How old are you?
JM: 19

MBC: And how long have you been with Caedmon's?
JM: I've been playing with them for 4 years and touring for 3. I knew who they were, listened to them a fair amount, and was aware of what they were doing. I had a lot of respect for them and decided that if I was going to play in a band that it would be someone like Caedmon's that had a good loyal fan base and played good music and didn't let a record label tell them what to do.

MBC: Your newest album has a definite shift to a worship focus…what is your definition of worship - what should it be and what should it not be?
JM: Worship is just like love in the English language - it's just one word for what has many forms. Basically, there is the act of worship which I consider to be universal - every part of life is some form of worship. Someone asked Rich Mullins one time what worship is and he said walking outside and seeing a flower and saying "What a beautiful piece of creation" is more an act of worship than putting in a worship CD in your car and singing your head off. That's more emotional and has more to do with the music.

Everything we do should be a form of worship - that's the intrinsic nature of our existence, to worship God - I should say that we glorify God and they're two distinct things. There's worship in the sense of an expression of an art form, but worship in the true sense of the word by Biblical mandate starts in the church and starts with a body of believers - it's not you sitting on your bed listening to a worship CD. We made these songs to hopefully get people into church, get (the songs) into the hymnal, get people singing them in mass gatherings and not just in the car. It's the focus of the nature of worship.

MBC: Has this change in focus been reflected in the concerts and the audience response?
JM: After the record came out we changed the gist of our show to make it more of a worship setting which was interesting and definitely changed the way people perceived the show. It made people not as focused on the spectacle or being entertained and it was great, we loved it. We had mentors and pastors and people who disciple us come out and speak for 20-30 minutes between sets. It was a wonderful concert atmosphere.

MBC: So it kind of became less of a "show"?
JM: Right, but at the same time we made it very clear that things like our concerts should not take the place of the church; it is a blessing as a body of believers to get together and do that but all the while we were stressing the importance of getting the church involved. Every day when we'd get up we'd have lunch with youth pastors and worship leaders and church leaders in the area and talk to them and say, "Here's the need; how can we help and what can we do for you," and just dialogue with them and it was a really great experience.

MBC: Do you have a favorite song?
JM: Hmmm… (grins) I like my songs the best. No, I'm joking. There's a tune on the record called Laden With Guilt - it's a reworked old hymn and when we were first talking about putting it on I was kind of hesitant because it's almost a depressing song. It's a lamentation, a confessional song, a very broken song, and I was like, "How is this a worship song?" But the more we delved into the lyrics and got further into the recording process I realized that a song like that can be the most pure and correct form of worship.

The point of worship is to separate ourselves from God; to say, "You are God and we are man." Just as much as you exemplify God's divine and wonderful attributes in worship you should magnify the depravity of man. That can be an act of worship because of the separation between God and man. So the more I listened to it, it's so wonderfully repentant and amazing and that kind of sentiment is just as much - if not more - an act of worship than some big, confident "we praise you, we exalt you" type vibe.

A guy named David Wells did a survey of 1,000 hymns vs. 1,000 modern worship choruses. 10 percent of the pronouns in the hymns were "I" and the other 90 percent were "you" or "we." In the praise choruses of the 80's and 90's, about 70 percent were "I" and the rest were "you" or "we." It's interesting to see what the focus is. This is definitely the self-help generation - how does worship help me, how does it impact me, what has God done for me - and that's what we're trying to break down.

MBC: So you're bringing the focus back to God?
JM: We try to approach it with as much humility as we possibly can but it is very important to us. I'm sure in the long run our motives aren't pure at all but for the time being we feel called to do that.

MBC: Do you have any advice for students who are feeling led into music but are intimidated by the largeness of the industry?
JM: First, one must make the distinction between the ministry and the business - separation of church and state. Understand one before the other. Understand what your responsibilities as a minister or evangelist are before you start undertaking the overwhelming responsibility of trying to make it in the music business or any type of other business for that matter. They are not mutually exclusive but they don't go hand- in-hand either. Also I would say to anyone who is going to do anything for a living in ministry or evangelism (and I continually try to learn this myself) is to daily do whatever it takes to come to realize that they are nothing without Christ and nothing without the gospel. And that anything else outside of Christ is flawed and destructive. Anything of man is flawed and will ultimately lead to destruction. I think once you figure that out, you're not necessarily in for a smooth ride, but you won't be fooling yourself.

MBC: Is there any one thing that stands out that God has been teaching you lately?
JM: I've been struggling with this lately - I have to daily repent of my good deeds as well as my bad deeds because they're all just equally as helpless. It's been interesting in my pursuit of my girlfriend, what God is teaching me about His will and grace and the ability to make choices and live your life with the understanding that even though it seems like we are making decisions we're not. We are completely acting inside the will of God. That is very sobering and hard to grasp and instead of constantly worrying if I'm sinning, Sandra McCracken, Derek's wife has this amazing quote - she said that being a Christian is not about how little you sin, it's about how much you repent. As long as we have a heart for repentance and confession and are constantly seeking the hand and the face of God we are able to make our decisions and not be afraid.

MBC: Having that freedom in Christ is wonderful.
JM: It is, because we are not going to be able to understand the symmetry of how it works that our decisions are totally mandated by God but we can't sit around and spend our entire lives waiting for signs or nature. I've been reading Corinthians and Paul says to live your life. If a man wants to do it, then do it; he is not sinning, let him live his life. That is so liberating to me, instead of being crushed under legalism, it is wonderful to just be able to live your life.

MBC: Explain the story behind the name of the band.
JM: Caedmon was a monk in the seventh century and was part of an order of monks that basically would sit around the dinner table - they would be silent all day but at night they would bring out harps and lyres and sing praise songs. Well, Caedmon didn't have any musical talent so he would pass the harp or lyre. One night, I believe it was in a barn or a stable or something, he was called in a vision by God to sing and God gave him these songs and Caedmon wrote about the vision and the songs just flowing from him. Those songs are actually direct English translations of scriptures, which were only in Latin at the time so the first words of the Bible ever heard in English were through Caedmon's songs. When the band was getting together Danielle was in high school, Cliff was a freshman in college and Aaron Tate, another guy who used to be in the band, all heard about Caedmon in the same week.

MBC: Do you feel like you can relate to Caedmon in your own life?
JM: I think it's hard for us to be susceptible to the voice of God in that intense manner in the society we live. If we were able to be quiet and still our hearts all day, every day and really just spend every second of the day meditating… Monks are so in tune with their mind that they know when they wake up whether they inhale or exhale and that's totally impossible for us. If we were able to get to a place like that, we would be able to hear the voice of God more clearly. I believe that God works in subtle ways and I'm constantly looking for guidance. I think the fact that we're out here making it happen, making music is very much something that God has called us to do and will continue to bless us for as long as He thinks we have something to accomplish.

MBC: How do you stay focused creatively and personally?
JM: I don't have a really big attention span, especially from a creative standpoint. Whenever I'm home I'm in the studio producing something and that's what keeps me excited about music and creativity and life in general is doing something new every day creatively - recording something new that's never been done. Here you do the same songs every night and you can go through the motions but it's different people every night, different environments - the difficult thing is not getting lonely when you have relationships with people and you're on the road.

MBC: Where is your hometown?
JM: I live in Nashville but I'm from Houston originally.

MBC: Do you have a lot of time before/after concerts to mingle and chat with fans?
JM: We made a decision a long time ago to talk to anyone who wants to talk. We walk around after concerts and pack up our own gear so if anyone wants to stay they can just yell at us.

MBC: It's a nice change because a lot of bands are somewhat inaccessible.
JM: We wouldn't be here if that were the case because we aren't interesting enough of a live band to have pulled it off without that community and accessibility. I think people like to be able to watch a show and not see the band walk off stage and get in the bus and drive away. We'll talk to people till four o clock in the morning if necessary.
MBC: What is your favorite experience with Caedmon's Call?
JM: I've been a part of some pretty incredible things. Any time someone tells me our music has impacted, helped, or encouraged them. that's about as good as it gets. It doesn't matter if we're playing for a thousand people or ten…if anyone tells us that we've impacted them in a big way or small way that's as good as it gets for me.