"The entire time we were making Cities I couldn't stop thinking about how excited I was for the world to hear it," says producer Aaron Sprinkle (MxPx, Hawk Nelson). The world indeed. Sprinkle's recent collaboration with Winter Haven, Florida's Anberlin has resulted in one of this year's first breakout albums. As he puts it, the band "took their unstoppable approach to rock & roll to the next level," and adds, "I feel very privileged to have been a part of it."

No doubt, the gratefulness abounds, extending far beyond the five-star producer. Beyond the album's muscular artistry, there's the little fact that Cities debuted in February at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 sales chart by selling more than 33,500 copies its first week out.

Make no mistake, though, this is no overnight success story.

GODSPEED
Talking by phone just two weeks prior to the release of Cities, singer/lyricist Stephen Christian admits that, while the past five years have been full, they have flown by. "It went like a whirlwind from the beginning," he says.

"We formed Anberlin in early 2002, out of the ashes of several local bands here in the Tampa and Orlando area, and by that summer we had a contract with Tooth & Nail Records-we got signed one month after I graduated from college."

Christian graduated with a degree in psychology, which he says still comes in handy, but admits he really wanted to make music for a living. "We got together, more or less the four of us, because we really wanted to take music not only seriously, but we wanted to develop it as a career. We quit our day jobs, and headed out on the road. I set aside the idea of looking for a job to focus on music."

While Anberlin has had a bit of a revolving door in the rhythm guitar department, Christian says that working with his friends Joseph Milligan (guitar/music composer), Deon Rexroat (bass) and Nathan Young (drums) has created a surrogate family. "The four of us have been playing together so long, there's a cohesiveness on stage and off," he says. "It's been amazing; they're more than bandmates, and more like brothers."

The band earned major label interest almost immediately, but eventually settled on working with the indie alternative label known to work with artistic Christians both in and beyond the faith-based marketplace, because it seemed to trust the band's ability to create good songs from the get go.

"We went up to Matt Goldman's (Underoath, Copeland) studio in Atlanta, Georgia and had him do our demos," says Christian. "He said, 'These are good,' and sent them to a friend at Warner Brothers Records, and that spread the word to other labels. Once we got the contract offers to look at, we realized that Tooth & Nail actually gave us the better offer. A lot of the major labels were offering development contracts, so there was not much to them. Tooth & Nail offered us something better, and two of our favorite bands, The Juliana Theory and Further Seems Forever, were there, so it didn't take long before we were signed to Tooth & Nail."

Within a year of forming, they released Blueprints for the Black Market, a fun power pop album that delivers what one could expect from players who Christian explains grew up "into The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, the full '80s battery of pop and alternative influences." As the band's sound broadened and gained depth across the length of two more discs you can hear melodic growth in a singer who marks the late Jeff Buckley as his greatest musical inspiration.

THE UNDEVELOPED STORY
Now seasoned by four years of constant touring, Christian admits that they were originally signed more for their songs than for their performance. In fact, "one of the label staff came and saw us play, and called [founder/president] Brandon Ebel to tell him not to sign us. But he liked the songs enough that he didn't care what we looked like on stage at that point. He didn't care about the performance; he wanted us for the music, and I'm glad he took a risk on us. But the reason we were signed was definitely the songs."

Recalls Ebel, "I had a good feeling about Anberlin from the minute we started pursuing them. Initially, despite what some would consider an 'unpolished' live show, the band had all the key elements in place: great songs, high energy, excellent work ethic and awesome attitudes.

"As expected, their live show quickly developed, and now they are a force on stage..."

"We've come together as a live band on the road," affirms Christian as he considers the arduous tour schedule that found him and his bandmates on the road 225 nights a year. "We've been on some great tours," he says with gratitude.

Those tours have included some of the hottest bands working -- My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Story of the Year, Yellowcard and Hawthorne Heights. That exposure, combined with major radio airplay, helped the band sell more than 150,000 copies of its second album, 2005's Never Take Friendship Personal. The disc boasted two popular singles, "A Day Late" and "Paperthin Hymn" which landed substantial airplay at alternative rock radio. ("Paperthin Hymn" actually became a Top 40 hit on Billboard's Modern Rock radio charts.)


A WHISPER & A CLAMOR
Signing to Tooth & Nail, and creating the kind of redemptive pop that explores spiritual issues without preaching or proselytizing, has created confusion in the minds of some as to whether Anberlin is a "Christian" band. As an individual, Christian is quick to share his faith throughout our interview, but when it comes to labeling his band and his music, he grows cautious.

"I'm proud of my faith, and I'm proud to be a Christian," the singer explains, "but I don't want my faith to be used as a marketing ploy. I don't think I should put Jesus' name on a record with the idea that I could sell more, anymore than I would leave it off to sell records. I'm exuberant about Jesus Christ, but I know that there are people, whether they are in marketing or media, who are going to say, 'Ah, I can now sell this product,' 'I can finally put this on my radio station,' now that they've named Jesus. If I knew I sold a record because I exploited my Lord and Savior, that, to me, sounds sacrilegious. When you market something as a 'Christian' product, you are walking a fine line.

"Using the name of Jesus to identify and, therefore, market and sell a product comes awfully close to using the name of God in vain," Christian explains. "Still, we get hate mail from Christians who want to call us out because we played in some club 'that is best suited for a crack junkie' or play with bands that are 'demonic,' which, in our experience, has been nothing of the sort. It's hard when you get that kind of criticism from other Christian people, so my manager keeps that kind of mail away from me -- it's so disheartening. Jesus said a prophet isn't appreciated in his own hometown, and Jesus was criticized for places that He went to eat and who He ate with. If we're all the body of Christ, I know that I am the feet, and I'm going to go out and tread where other people are less likely to go. But, as a Christian, we make our music to connect with anyone who will listen, but we're not in the market as Christians, but as musicians."

LOVE SONG
Christian tells this story to drive home his point: "I went to New Orleans to help out during Mardi Gras about four years ago, and it turned out that there were a lot more homeless [people] on the streets than I had ever imagined. So we got together some sandwiches and socks and took them out to share them with some of these gutter-punks and help meet some of their most pressing needs. I asked them why they weren't Christians, and one of the kids pointed to a sign by two street-preachers with blow-horns that read 'Liars and homosexuals are going to Hell.' I was embarrassed to think that these preachers and I share the same faith -- what they were saying was not grace; it was not loving. I think a better sign would have been 'No matter who you are, or what you've done, I still love you.' That's a message that I want to be associated with."

When it comes to Christian, and apparently his bandmates, what you see is what you get. Ask Josh Head, the keyboardist for Emery, about them, and the first thing he wants to talk about is their character. "Anberlin are like brothers to me ... They're amazing people," he says right off the bat. "Their heart for people shows by the things they do, both with the band and outside of it."

Love -- the message that Christian wants "to be associated with" -- is found throughout Anberlin's new disc.

In the song, "The Unwinding Cable Car," Christian sings of "the correlation of salvation and love," and promises "with quiet words, I'll lead you in." Asked what his songs address on Cities, Christian is clear: "Life, really. On this record, I had an overall theme. It came from a quote [attributed to author Henri Nouwen] that 'solitude is the furnace of transformation.' It's an autobiography of life lessons."

And, while it's personal, Christian knows that these are common experiences. "All of us are going to go through these kinds of things at one time or another. We will know depression; we will have unanswered questions. It's a universal path that all of us will take. And I knew that going in to the record. I knew that starting out before I wrote the first lyric. I wanted to touch people's experience. I want people asking questions. I want them wondering what I meant, why I said this or that. I wanted to do something that invited people to dig deeper."

The disc closes with the song, "Fin," wherein he quotes the Epistle of James' concern for "widows and orphans," which Christian says puts our life and work in perspective. "It reminds us that our ministry to take care of the vulnerable and the weakest among us is something we're all called to do. We need to get back to love and grace and acceptance."