MDM4M: How did you get into music?

JM:I started playing guitar at 11, and figured out how to play it on my own. That was 10 years ago. I wasn't saved until I was 17. Some of the musical influences on my playing growing up were 'The Dead Kennedy's', 'Green Day', and '311'. The band, including me, all grew up in Albany, Oregon, except Jon Micah. Our bass player (Kyle Z) is one of two people that were watching me go through a Worldly life. I was involved in drugs, and became an alcoholic. All through that time my Christian friends were inviting me to church. On my 17th birthday I got alcohol poisoning. After that I realized that I was a loser. I had hit rock bottom. I decided to go to church, thinking that I had nothing to lose. I went, and I realized for the first time that there was more to God than just knowing stories about Him. There was a Lord that had come to Earth to relate to all mankind. I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord shortly after they invited me to church. I developed in my faith, and fell away from the other non-Christian band I was involved with. Kyle and Ryan moved to college and formed 'Kutless' when they met Jon Micah. I joined the band towards the end of my senior year of high school.

MDM4M: I know that 'Kutless' tours extensively. How many shows do you perform in a year?

JM:We did 250 dates last year, all over the U.S.

MDM4M: How do you keep your spiritual perspective being on the road and away from home, and your home church for so long?

JM:We keep our 'spiritual perspective' by being dedicated personally to God and by keeping each other accountable to get in the Word daily. On tour we do tour devotionals every day at dinnertime, where usually Brad Duncan (tour manager) will share, or one of us will share, and that includes everyone on tour with us. We have a strong and loving home church back in Oregon - Aghey Creek Christian Fellowship - that is a great support for us. They care a lot about us and send us cd's of Sunday messages. Our pastor even flew out to be with us for a few days during the tour. Aghey Creek views us as a mission team from the church. We love it there. We have a very strong home church.

How did you come up with the name 'Kutless'?

JM:We chose the name 'Kutless' because we wanted to portray something we felt was the most important part of being a Christian, the fact that Jesus died for our sin. The name summarizes His awesome act. 'Kut' = the physical aspect. He bore the transgressions...by His stripes we are healed. Through his sacrifice he made us perfect: Kut-less.

What's ahead for 'Kutless' this year?

JM:The 'Sea of Faces' tour ends at the end of April. After the tour, at the beginning of May, we are taking the month off. It's for two reasons: 1) We're tired. 2) Kyle and Ryan are both getting married - we're adding to the family. We'll be resuming our tour in June at the summer festivals. We're doing a lot of cool, fun things this summer, including going to Hawaii. We've also been invited to play at the Olympics in Athens this summer. The Olympic committee has always done this. They've had Christian night events with Christian bands in the past. We're playing three different times while we're there, including playing with Moby and Lighthouse. We're boggled by it, just thinking about playing on the steps of the Acropolis. Why us?

MDM4M: Where do you see God leading you... ---> click