Fresh Interviews.

AM: Congratulations on what is a great debut album. When I first saw the initial hype, I thought "not another punk pop album", however, Letters... has proven this wrong.  What do you think makes this album different from the rest?

DB: I think it comes back to God's blessing on it. That's something we've always wanted. There's a few key things that we've been blessed with. We've had Trevor McNevan, he's from Thousand Foot Krutch. He co wrote with us and he's been kinda like our mentor and took us through the whole process of a to z. And that's been an amazing blessing. And Aaron Sprinkle produced the record, he's with Tooth & Nail records, and he has such a signature sound. He's brillant with harmonies and guitars. I can't pinpoint one thing but God's had this whole concept for the album. We're just the people putting it out, we didn't come up with it.

AM: You Guys are Canadian and Trevor McNevan too, is there a resurgence in Christian music in Canada?

DB: I would say Canada as a whole is a little more quirky than America, it's a little more known for the arts. The Christian music scene is very small compared to America. I don't know it's a great country to grow up with the arts and music, painting and acting, theatre and all that kind of stuff.

AM: What was the band doing before it got a deal with Tooth & Nail?

DB: We lived in a small town in Ontario. Typically people grow up in that town, go to school, work in a factory,get married and have children and that's life as they know it. I guess we wanted more than that, perhaps something different than that, not necessarily more. We all worked coffee shops, I worked at a car wash. All these little things we did while writing and working on the side just for this band. And then one Christmas Trevor came home and noticed that his mom had put some of our newspaper clippings and demo's on his bed and he listened to them and told us that he felt God told him he had to work us and a brotherly kind of relationship developed. He then got us signed to Tooth & Nail Records.

AM: What do you like talking about through your music?

DB: It's all real things, we felt there should be no limitations when it comes to artistic perspective. And things like we've grown up with. Not all the stories are from our point of view, some are from our friends or people we've heard about in the news.

AM: You guys are becoming very popular in Australia, any chance of seeing you in Australia?

DB: I personally would love to, maybe we could come down with FRESH or something!

AM: Are you touring much?

DB: We are touring, we're currently on the road with the Diverse City World Tour with Toby Mac, Audio Adrenaline and Kutless and thats touring around the United States right now. We just finished a tour called X2005 thats with KJ-52, Falling Up, Seventh Day Slumber and then the fall is not technically planned so maybe we could swing down there and put another shrimp on the barbie. (laughs)

AM: What message do you think God is trying to communicate with today's youth generation?

DB: Wow, I think that in North America sometimes we see the world as North America and that's all there is. But something we're learning as a band is that we live in a Global World, where everything effects one another and different people have different problems. But as teens as the next generation coming up, we need to admit this is a global planet and we need to help each other out and not just live in a bubble. I hope we can make more of a difference, I think we have a great opportunity with transport and communication, we just need to open our eyes to the real problems with this world and share the love that God shared with us 2000 years ago.

Daniels Favourite Things

Fave Movie - Garden State, Dumb & Dumber, Forest Gump

Musical Influences - Thousand Foot Krutch, Coldplay & U2

Fave Food - Starting to like seafood, so fish and chips

Childhood Career Ambition - I never had a game plan, so this is very fresh to say!

Ignite.

HARDEST TIME OF MY LIFE: Hawk Nelson bassist Daniel Biro says high school in his hometown of Barrie, Ontario, was the hardest time of his life. "I felt like I was in a whole new world of cliques, older kids and strange faces," Daniel says. "Plus, my parents got divorced. I grew up in a Christian home, but everything just fell apart. High school is already so full of change, but it's harder when your family is changing too. I didn't have a place where I fit."

Looking to connect with someone, Daniel hung out with a group of guys who also felt they didn't fit in. "They weren't all bad guys, but they struggled with stuff," Daniel says. "They swore, smoked and stole a lot. I wanted to find my identity with them, but instead of being unique, I just became more like these guys." In less than a year, Daniel was arrested for stealing and sentenced to community service.

As strange as it may seem, Daniel was glad he got caught. "I remember even thinking, Yes, it's over. I don't have to do this anymore. Finally, someone caught me," he says. "I knew it was wrong when I was doing it, but I still did it. I was glad I got caught instead of escalating into more major theft."

A REMINDER: Getting arrested was a wake-up call for Daniel. He thought: What am I doing? "This got me thinking about God again," Daniel says. "I got involved with a church youth group. But I was still confused."

One thing Daniel did know was that God loved him and sent his son Jesus to die for him. "I knew that was true, but I was still struggling with life's hardships. So, after I got caught stealing, I got these small Jesus fish tattoos on my wrists. If I am sinning, this visible reminder stops me. It was a rededication. I haven't gotten any other tattoos. I don't even like tattoos, but I am glad I have these because of the reason for them."

A DAILY DECISION: As Daniel was trying to figure out his faith in Christ, he made mistakes. "I definitely wasn't perfect," he says. "I was listening to a lot of negative music and I hadn't asked God to be in control of my life."

As a high school sophomore, Daniel was kicked out of his mom's house after a big fight. For two weeks in the dead of a Canadian winter, he wandered the streets of Ontario like a homeless person and in clothes that were unfit for the weather. During this time, Daniel was shocked by the love and acceptance he received from Christians. One time, a Christian radio host he knew gave him an envelope containing $200. A note inside simply said, "Dude, get a coat."

"It floored me that someone would care for me, a messed-up kid, just because Christ cared for him and he wanted to pass it on," Daniel says. "It's funny how small things like that all brought me back to Christ. Every time I'd struggle, something small would remind me of God."

By his junior year, Daniel was making better decisions. He was working part-time and paying rent to stay with friends' families. He also started feeling more comfortable with who he was. He got more active in his church—and played more with the worship band. Soon after high school, Hawk Nelson formed. And not long after, Daniel and his Mom reunited and put the past behind them.

"Even though my high school years were the hardest of my life, I grew a lot during that time," Daniel says. "I figured out who I was but, more importantly, I learned Christianity isn't just a one-time decision. It's a daily decision."