Interview with Shane Barnard & Shane Everett
Did you begin doing independent records while in college at Texas
A&M?
SB: It started my junior year and kinda surprised me a little bit…
I didn’t really know I was a music person and I played with a guy
named Caleb for about a year and a half and then Shane and I started playing
together. We met down there and became good friends and he had just become
a Christian, that was all right at the latter part of college.
Who are some of your musical influences?
SB: I don’t know. Well, I’d have to say that my musical influences
have been more in the last three or four years, while we were already
doing music. I love worship stuff, this is going to sound pretty cheesy
but I love Hillsongs…I wasn’t a big music listener growing
up, so I liked music and sounds and rhythms, but I didn’t buy anything.
Now, I love these guys tonight, I love Nathan & Christy Nockels of
Watermark, and Charlie Hall, David Crowder, our little circle that we
run into and play with a lot.
Do you have a certain message you try to communicate to the college
crowd?
SB: This is gonna sound like Sunday school, but…Jesus. (laughs)
That’s about it. It’s been really cool the last couple of
years because the Lord’s taking us from doing a lot of song leading
to doing a lot of college campus concert stuff where we’re walking
in our gifting which really has little to do with music and a whole lot
to do with proclaiming Him and evangelizing, telling people about his
glory and the pleasure of being in Him and living through Him. Jesus is
the message.
Do people ever get the two of you confused?
SE: Occasionally, but not a whole lot. It’s fun when we’ll
go places and they don’t know that I’m coming too.
SB: A lot of people want to call us brothers for some reason…which,
uh, we’d be pretty angry with our mom if that was the case, just
for naming us both Shane.
SE: George Foreman’s kids are all named George.
SB: They aren’t named George, though. They’re nicknamed.
SE: Oh.
What is the reason for focusing on the Psalms in your recent album?
SB: I don’t know. If you look at even the Psalms CD, five of them
are from the Psalms, and the other ones are from other places in scripture.
The Lord has taught me so much through Psalms, and probably just because
anything that shouts more of Jesus is just good. So there’s really
no in-depth answer except they’re good and God has spoken to me
through them. A couple songs I wrote to memorize the verses, never intending
them to end up on CD’s or anything.
How do you define worship?
SB: When I think of worship…I may loop around that because what
we do is services and concerts and play music. The problem with that in
itself is that I don’t read about it in the New Testament, which,
um, I read about a lot of ways to edify the body, I just don’t read
about what we do. So worship has to be defined by scripture, because you’re
not going to find it out on the road doing what we do. If I could define
worship in my season right now, it would just be drinking in and enjoying
Jesus. That would be worship to me. A scripture that’s coming to
mind is in Jeremiah when the Lord says, “My people have committed
two evils. They have forsaken the one true living God who is the fountain
of living water, and they’ve taken for themselves broken cisterns
that hold no water.” It’s talking about being satisfied with
created things rather than the Creator. In my opinion, worship is being
satisfied with the Creator. That would pan out in a lot of people by saying
it’s your lifestyle and what you do. Reading about the word “worship”
in scripture, it’s little to do with music, and it all has to do
with the heart – nothing to do with the mouth. When God confronts
Israel in Amos 5 and says, “Away from me…your gatherings and
your stringed instruments are noise to my ears. I want righteousness to
run like a river, I want obedience, I want your life and your heart to
be pure,” …so all that to say is that God is showing us to
delight and enjoy the Lord, the same way a husband would be delighted
in a wife…just honoring them and enjoying their presence.
Is there a favorite song of yours?
SB: Yeah, but it’s not on the CD right now, you’d have to
go down to about six or seven to get to the CD. I like Psalm 145, though,
it kind of says it all, that God is interested in saving people and that
He holds all pleasure in His right hand. And so that’s a great one.
I love the psalm, regardless of whether we sing it or not, it’s
just awesome.
What do you like people to go away with after your concerts?
SB: Let me preface this by saying we are scared of even coming close to
exalting ourselves and exalting music and exalting creative things. God
has not only humbled me in my own life to force me to know that, and I
scripturally know that He humbles the proud and exalts the meek It’s
always our prayer for people to leave with a huge longing to be in His
presence. So much more than buying the next CD or book, or going to the
next concert, that God would use us to be at the feet of Jesus and He’s
doing that regardless.
Do you have any difficulties with songwriting?
SB: I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it, so…just
no.
SE: We’re not really big songwriters. I’m definitely not.
It’s funny with us because music is not, like, our hobby or what
we would really do for fun. Hopefully it’s becoming more of that
but…
SB: There’s not too many times when I sit down and say what would
people like and write it or what would people dislike and not write it.
Maybe a song every three months comes out because God’s floored
me with Isaiah 55 or Isaiah 53 or Hosea 6 or John 15, you name it, and
it’s just cool. It’s more of a call to preach and evangelize
and sing songs. Going place to place and saying, “God what do you
want to say to these people?” Not to dump on any kind of writing,
because we’re trying to water that gift. Hopefully there will be
some times where – here’s my emotions and just let em rip
– and I’ve written some songs like that. The first 3-4 songs
I wrote were those songs. The theme of…I feel like my salvation’s
gone, and if I was God I would have kicked myself outta here type songs…
a lot of songs now are really the same message. Psalm 13 is David saying
that exact thing. “How long will you hide your face from me, how
long will my enemies trample over me, how long will my eyes not see you
at all, how long will my ears not hear you,” but he ends it with
hope in those times by saying, “You have been good to me.”
Do you ever find yourself focusing on the performance aspect rather
than worship?
SB: Most of the time when we play we have a band and our own sound system
so that puts loops into it. I don’t think those desires get in the
way of God moving, that we can thwart Him from moving, but yes. If there’s
feedback the majority of the night, it just drives me up the wall. The
guys don’t screw up usually, so that’s not an issue, but tonight
it’ll be me and a guitar and I won’t think one time about
music. I just won’t. It’s more of technical difficulty things
that get to me. A lot of the time I’m just trying to continually
ask God where to go.
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
SB: Shane wants to be a governor or a senator. (laughter) Just kidding…
SE: No I don’t! Congressman, eventually president.
SB: That was a joke. We have no idea, and to tell you the truth, we just
don’t care. (laughter) I can tell you this, God has given us a heart
for community we have a ministry family that we see quite a bit, other
than that we don’t have a whole lot of community and I think that
will grow in the next five years. I know that your question is regarding
our musical future, but we would absolutely love it to be over tomorrow.
To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have a problem…I’m
not just saying that to be weird but I wouldn’t care if the guitar
was put down. That’s not what we do in our free time. It’s
just not. It never really has been and I think that’s the cool part
of what God has done in my life. It’s all for Him and there’s
no glory that can be taken for myself at all. It just can’t be.
It would be really stupid to even try. We may be involved in the local
church a lot, we may be touring Europe, we may be making four records
a year, or no records a year. We don’t have a clue.
Any advice for young people who are interested in pursuing music?
SB: Every time we play a concert there are several of those questions…how
do you do what you do, and I know people are built differently than me,
so my response is less encouraging than they would want: don’t.
Just don’t. Jesus is so much better than music and image and bands
and Nashville. God uses that stuff. I’m not saying it’s bad.
I’ve learned some things in the last few years, and for one, God
just doesn’t need connections. So that’s encouraging for a
person in those shoes. I’ve experienced that, and in scripture…nobody,
not even Samuel thought David would be king. He just didn’t fit
the mold. He had a lot of older brothers and people who were a lot more
talented than him.
But God’s unthwarted commanded call would put him in that platform
and take it away when it was time.
Not to say that you don’t take steps…the second main lesson
is to be forced to be satisfied with him and being before him. There is
something satisfying about being before man, and if that is more satisfying,
there are all kinds of red flags that pop up. I don’t think it’s
what we do that people want to be a part of, because less than 1% of our
lives are on a stage playing songs for people. What we do is play music
and write songs, and the people who are asking that question aren’t
in front of the people yet. A lot of people have pure motives, but our
whole idea of impact is jacked because God doesn’t need us and He
never has needed us and can use someone just as powerfully as he used
me in a basement with six guys worshipping him for three hours on a Sunday
night so much more than he can use you leading worship in a football stadium.
There are a lot of people who are seeking what looks like a great lifestyle,
fun and cool. Some will take that path and God’s going to teach
and mold them like he did me and will continue to do me. He hates evil
and evil is liking that stage and those instruments more than you like
God. Evil is liking the sounds or the feelings you get from the response
from people more than you like him. He’ll do that. He’s more
interested in teaching that more than I am.
What is the origin of the ‘Spam Song?’
SB: My ‘Spam Song’ came from my only speech class that I took
in college. I gave a speech on spam and wrote a song for it. I had a big
can of spam and wrote a song about it. Somebody got that mug on the Internet
and now it’s haunting me.
What is your most embarrassing moment?
SB: It has been forever, I can’t remember. This isn’t the
most embarrassing, but one time I had to go to the bathroom in the middle
of the concert. It’s the only time I’ve ever done that. It
was really embarrassing, but I just went. It just feels weird to set your
guitar down and just walk off stage, down the aisle, go to the bathroom
and then come back while people are silent and enter. That definitely
isn’t the most embarrassing, but it was pretty embarrassing.
What is in your CD player right now?
SB: Pat Brown is in one, Sons and Daughters is in two, and a couple of
Hillsongs. I think David Crowder is in there. My brother’s album
often enters my CD player too.
If you could be any character in the Wizard of Oz, who would you
be?
SB: I would like to be Oz, rule the world!!! Just kidding, sorry. I don’t
remember this character, is it Antie Em, Uncle Em? I really like their
appearance, man. It’s humble, insignificant, but very significant.
I’d like to do a study on their lives. They raised that girl! Dorothy,
man, she’s hot. She’s a cool girl.
Do you have any lucky charms?
SB: I think I’m Golden Grahams right now. So, no I don’t have
any Lucky Charms on me right now. We could probably go get some and eat
them. I know, you probably didn’t mean the cereal, I’m sorry.
I don’t have any lucky charms.
What is your favorite conspiracy theory?
SB: Those are good questions. I’ve never and can’t even scrounge
one up. I’m an idiot though, man. Um…I’m an idiot. I
don’t know.