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"What Light Is All About is our third CDour first with Rocketownand our most telling group of songs. We wanted everything about the recording to be honest and true to the music, from the instrumentation to the artwork. ... In an age of waste and trend and endless change, we wanted to offer something that connects with the simple, changeless needs of the human heart." -Cristi Johnson
MQ: I attended an A & R session last year. One of the panel introduced himself as the guy who originally passed on Alathea. He went on to share how you started touring on the road to get your music out in front of people. During that time, did you have any mentors? Someone who may have given you guidance on the business, music, or even personal side?
Mandee: The very beginning of this process we were an independent band for six years...
Cristi: ... five years...
Mandee: ...right, five years before we signed with Rocketown. But, at the
very beginning, at the beginning of the five years when we were just first starting to do this
for fun, Rich Mullins was at our college for the summer.
Somebody told him 'you've got to hear these girls 
sing.' So, we went and we played a song for him and we ended up spending a
lot of time with him throughout that summer and it was the summer before he
passed away. One of the biggest things he said that impacted me and
still influences us today is he said 'You have to decide now what success is
for you. And if success is selling a lot of records then that's the path you
go down. If success for you is really honestly connecting with somebody and
making quality art and connecting the love of God with somebody then that's
the path you have to go down. You have to decide now what that is because
soon people are going to be telling you what success is and you have to
decide.' And for us, we may not sell the most records out of anybody around but we feel at the
end of the day when we play in a little town in Ohio...we feel
that we've been successful because we've honestly tried to communicate God's
love in the best and most artistic and creative way that we know how. That is what
we have to keep reminding ourselves of because it's easy to forget when you
feel like a failure. Rich Mullins wasn’t a long-time mentor, he just marked the beginning of much that we have had to learn.
MQ: You mentioned about the impact of music. It's been said that we've gone from an orator based society - where the speaker had the power - to a celebrity centered society. An example would be U2's Bono spreading the message about AIDs in Africa, especially in Nashville here recently. That said, what do you see the role of music being in society now - also given that technologies like the Internet have erased most geographic boundaries.
Cristi: I think music tends to shift back and forth between two...you know,
like, I think we've been on the excessive side of pop culture and icons and American Idol and all of those flashy things.
I think that it's swinging back towards music with substance. I think at different
times we've heard different things. Sometimes it just distraction when
all of these different issues are going on but I think at the end of all that
distraction we want something that's true. I think people are ready to
hear music with substance. It's always surprising. We played a youth thing
in Indianapolis and all the kids there wore dog collars and chains...
Mandee: ...and fishnet tights...
Cristi: ...and black lipstick and we were terrified. We were like, 'What do we have that they're going to care to listen to?' The amazing thing was that these wild, punky looking kids came in and they were sitting down, like in the front, and Mandee was telling stories and we were singing our little folk songs and you could have heard a pin drop. They were so engaged in what was going on. The youth minister told us the year before that they had this big rock band and the kids were all jumping around and having fun but then they'd leave and they totally weren't engaged. It was just neat to be able to offer something that was true and honest and just to see that they were hungry for that even though they were disguised in all of the...you know...
Mandee: ...I think that even throughout history art is a reflection of what's
going on in the culture and you know, all the way back to a long time ago.
Whatever is going on in art is whatever is going on in culture...even in the politics of society. I think 
that with our culture right now the question that I ask myself is what is
art reflecting about where our culture is right now? And I think that it is
indicative of us wanting everything flashy, and immediate and we don't want
to sit down and digest a song. We just want the quick thing and that's it.
And I think it's sad because I think as humans our natural rhythm and our
lives are supposed to be slow and introspective sometimes, and listening. I think that we're missing our
rhythm a lot. We forget to just go and listen to the grass grow every once in a while because
everything is so fast paced. I think that art right now is really fast paced...not just music but everything is.