Interview with Steadfast
BY JOHN LEE

Ktown213: Steadfast, give us your 30-second intro!
Steadfast: Cue synth drum n' bass. Drop in eerie background vocals. Slowly blend in whispered subliminal messages to buy our CD. Repeat for 30 seconds. Ha ha just kidding. Simply put, we're three Korean-American guys playing rock in S.L.C. Utah.

Kt213: How did the band come about?
Steadfast: Well, we've been playing with each other on and off for years now. It started off as jamming in high school and eventually progressed into a more serious band. Steven started writing for the "Now, Always, Never Changing EP" and at one point asked the drummer (David) to jump on board. Steven and David finally got into the studio to record the EP without a bassist. The bassing on those tracks was actually done by the producer (Jon Shultz of Annex Recording). Our bassist (Won) hopped on after our EP was pretty much finished. So we've been on and off, but stayed in touch over the years.

Kt213: Tell us about your toughest obstacle as a band.
Steadfast: Our toughest obstacle as a band is probably writing. We all have such different tastes in music we tend to "clash" when we write together. Steven is your cheesy writer w/ simple lyrics, Won likes to get a little more artistic with his message, and David is your jam-out funk with some melted-cheese-on-top sort of guy. (But don't take that the wrong way, the man has chops.) Having our faith in common, we work off that; but it's not always faith that leads us to our music, although it plays the biggest part in the writing. So the biggest obstacle would have to be trying to stay open to each others' different visions and ideas.

Kt213: Tell us about Steadfast's type of music.
Steadfast: We're labeled as a Christian/Alternative/Rock band. Now, that can mean a lot of things depending on who's reading it. Steven likes to say we're Christians before the alternative rock. Alternative rock defines our style of music and Christian can define the context of our music. Emphasizing God or Christian principles is important, but we aren't trying to force him down peoples' throats. This is the age old debate of how to (or how not to) mix religion with politics, or in our case, with music/art. With the term "Christian" on our label, people tend to think that we're supposed to be perfect, or only sing praise music, and that's a big misconception. When a "Christian Artist" goes mainstream, they take a lot of heat for it. But why should they? How many Christians ONLY listen to Christian praise music? Music is art and art is an expression of the person creating it, and people are multi-dimensional. Because an artist is "Christian," his style of music shouldn't be limited to only praise. Even pastors have other hobbies besides reading and preaching the Bible. Even pastors have other things they write or speak about. In our music we want to be able to spread the Gospel and praise, but we also want to address all the other issues in our lives and express who we are. Even if we're singing about something as silly as how much we enjoy root beer floats and candy canes. In terms of our sound, most of the music right now is heavily influenced by Steven's style of writing/playing. In the future we hope to have more input from the members, and the key sound that we hope to achieve is a variety. Me'shell N'deGeocello once said in an interview that she didn't want to sound the same on every song, but she wanted to "feel" the same so that when people heard her music they would know it was her--not because her vocals were always in the same key or her bass was always eq'd to a certain distinctive tone--but because of the "feel" of her music. We want to get on stage and tear the house down, blow up speakers, jump off stage, rip into guitar solos...and then still be able to play something more intimate, something more poppy or joyous, or something more melodic. Even bust out some funk and jazz, or prog rock! All three of us have different tastes in music, so we want to keep ourselves open to new ideas and styles.

Kt213: Koreans living in Utah, what's that like?
Steadfast: Well, life is actually not as bad as some people may think. It's a cozy place. We've met people who thought Utah was all rural farmland with kids going cow-tipping for a hot Friday night out. Or people come here and are shocked that there are trees and grass, they expect to come to the Sahara. We hosted the Olympics man! Cut us some slack. Of course it's nothing like New York, for example, but then again, nowhere is. Utah still has a lot of growing and developing to do, but it's not so bad. As for being Korean and living in Utah, it's a fact that Utah is predominantly White and Mormon. You can guess what sorts of problems that may raise for us regarding ignorant people who've spent their whole lives in the bubble that is Utah. To be more band-specific, one thing that always sends people into shock is when they hear our music and then find out we're Korean. Things like that get frustrating, but hey, that's life.

Kt213: Where would you like to see the band five years from now?
Steadfast: It'd be great if we sold out stadiums and had a couple multi-platinum albums with a fan base so large and dedicated that we'd need security with us at all times, but we won't kid ourselves. We want to spread our music everywhere and get some recognition like any other band, but really we're just hoping/trying for the best and taking whatever we get. We want this to be something we can talk about later on in life and still be right back where we started: making music and having fun.

Steven Lam - Guitar/lead vocals | Won Shim - Bass | David Kim - Drums/backup vocals

Kt213: K-Town experience for any of you?
Steadfast: We actually haven't really been to K-Town except for Steven. Of course we'd like to visit! Steven: Well. I'd have to say I'm probably quite the loser. I've been to LAOMC church in K-Town. Otherwise if you saw me in K-Town it would probably be in that mall with the boba shop in the corner. Drinking a milk tea and watching the little screen with all the K-pop stars playing on it, ha ha ha. The food is amazing in K-Town, I'm a big fan of Gal-bi so if I'm not drinking a milk tea I'd be at a restaurant eating Gal-bi.

Kt213: Tell us about your upcoming projects and tour info.
Steadfast: All our info will be on our site at myspace.com/steadfast1, we're working on the "real" Steadfast website, but myspace seems to be the thing to do these days. We just finished our October shows and we're lining up November and forward. As for touring, we've been invited on a few, but have had to decline. We're working hard to make it out to California though! Most likely during a break or maybe in the summer at least. We're students so it makes it difficult to really go all out and pursue the band thing. With that said we'd like to add that this interview better draw us a crowd when we do get out there!  Just kidding!

Kt213: Who has been the biggest inspiration so far?
Steadfast: This question is a tough one because there are too many to list. God is obviously one of them, but we all have so many different mentors and heroes. Inspiration from different musicians, writers, artists, of course friends and family, etc. This would just turn into a giant thank-you section. A big part of our music comes from who we are and where we've been as people. The EP we just released was heavily influenced by Steven's struggle through faith.
That "strive" to walk deeper in faith.

Steven: If I had to name one person that inspired me the most it would be my mom. She inspired me in every aspect to keep pushing for this band.

Kt213: Well we thank you for the interview, and we wish you the best of luck!
Steadfast: Oh no, we should be thanking you--you're doing us a great favor. Thanks for all the help and support! We'll see you soon. God bless.