CCM: Whether before or after the hiatus, does making music feel differently before or after?

DS: The core of the band started out together in high school. The first time the drummer and I played together, he was 13 and I think I was 15. So you’re talking about guys who’ve been doing this together for a long time. We’re talking decades. Back then we were discovering our gifts and we couldn’t help but use them. We loved God so that’s just what we did.

All these years later, the motivations are very similar but they carry more weight and more identity and more understanding about gifting and the responsibility of gifting. We continue to feel that every song is God’s message to us and hopefully other people as well. We enjoy it, but we also take it seriously as a mantle of responsibility to use our arts for His glory. That just comes with age and growing older and spending so many years doing this.

We still love this just as much as when we first got together to play, but now I think we have a greater understanding of what God has given to us. It’s a real blessing. And we’re not unique. Everyone has an incredible talent or gift, even if they don’t realize it, that He wants them to use to lift up his name. We’ll just continue to do that our way.

CCM: If you’ve been together decades, is it safe to assume you’re seeing intergenerational fans?

DS: Yeah, I love it when I love into teenagers or children who are into us because their parents were into us back in the day. We are making some new fans that’ve never heard of us before, but obviously those diehards who go back with us 20+ years, a lot of them are passing the music on to their kids. I think a lot of parents do that. I was just having a conversation with a 20-year-old the other day and she asked me, ‘Have you ever heard of Keith Green?’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me? Have I ever heard of Keith Green? There’s no greater musical influence on me than Keith Green.’ So I love that a 20-year-old was asking me that, and parents are clearly passing on their favorite music to their kids. I hope Smalltown Poets can be a part of that.

CCM: What’s behind the new album title, Say Hello?

DS: When that song was born, it also just sounded like an album title. It says that we’re back or we’re still here. This is the first full-length Christmas album is quite a while. It’s not a reunion album because we’ve been together, but to a lot of people, we are reappearing. The really cool thing about this song for me, if you’re willing to dive in for Easter eggs, there are little references all throughout the song to our influences. As a matter of fact, the first few lyrics are borrowed from Keith Green. There are also references to Whiteheart and DeGarmo and Key and all kinds of others. It’s saying that those who have blazed the trail, we are singing to our savior along with them as well as with the great cloud of influences.

CCM: Do all of the band members share the same influences?

DS: We have a lot of the same influences, although some are different. I’m so influenced, as I said, by Keith Green. For another, it might be U2. We all love U2, but someone might be into it more than others. Same with Rich Mullins. When we were young, there were certain artists who had even more influence on us because they gave us advice or took us under their wing. “Say Hello” mentions someone named Jerome and that’s Jerome Olds. His kids now have a band FF5, but back then he was making music. His advice was hugely important. Also I mentioned DeGarmo and Key. Those guys helped us make our first record.

CCM: So what does a successful album release mean to you these days?

DS: I don’t even follow the numbers anymore. It used to be that back in the day we’d look at sales reports to see where we were charting and all those sorts of things. I don’t pay attention anymore. I feel it’s a success when there’s a level of engagement with listeners and when we feel in community with our listeners, friends and fans—even if it’s just on social media—to where we’re getting feedback on how a song has encouraged them. That’s super-fulfilling for me. Already just from the .mp3s that have been distributed from the new album from the prerelease, we’re already hearing some of that. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.

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