Meet Ben Honeycutt ( Lead vocals, guitar), Drew Garrett (Lead guitar, vocals) and Steven Howell (Bass guitar, vocals) …
Tell me about Candlefuse.
Steven – The main thing that we do is genuinely minister. We never really wanted to consider ourselves a rock band or even in Christian entertainment. We really do consider ourselves a ministry. What we do is important. It’s not about the money or the notoriety or the fame or anything that comes with this business. Ultimately, you have to deal with that at times, but the ministry is the biggest aspect of it. We always feel like no matter how small the venue or how small their budget is, we want to make ourselves available to anyone who wants to have us. The people that really need to be ministered to are not going to come pay $10 to see us play. We’re really going to have to go out and reach those people ourselves; sort of like a mission thing. So that’s what Candlefuse is about.
Let’s talk about relevance. If you don’t have a connection with your listeners, you’re not helping them. So what makes Candlefuse relevant?
Steven – Wow! That’s a really good question. I guess the biggest thing is that we all come from such diverse backgrounds and different upbringings. Ben was raised by his mom. We’ve all been through so many different things in our lives. I think that really helps us connect. One group of kids may gravitate towards me and another group may connect more with Ben or Drew. We’re not just up there on stage. The real ministry happens off stage when you’re meeting with these kids and you’re talking with them. I think that each of us has gone through things in our own lives and that’s helped equip us in different aspects. We compliment each other well. I think that we can reach a much more diverse group of kids because we’ve got something for everyone, in that aspect.
When you knew that God had made you for musical ministry, what was your unmistakable clue?
Ben – We went on a thing called the Extreme Tour, which is a tour where independent Christian bands team up with a skate team and we tour skate parks, churches and other venues. It was really cool leap of faith for us. You’re not guaranteed any money and you’re providing your own transportation. You’re basically living off of merch sales. Once we got there, we knew that it was exactly where we were supposed to be. There were a couple of bands that we automatically bonded with. We made good friendships. There was this one time at about 3 o’clock in the morning when people were coming in, one at a time, just talking, to this building we were in. It ended up turning into a worship service with us all passing around an acoustic guitar. It really let us know that it’s not about us. It’s about the kids and the people that we sing to … and it’s about Jesus.
Steven – Like Ben said, it was totally relying on faith. You may only play in front of 20 kids one night and not know if you’re going to make enough to even make it to the next venue. It was difficult in that aspect, but it was so rewarding in the end. We had a chance to hang out with some really great kids. A lot of them had never been to church, and generally didn’t know anything about God or Jesus or the religious things that we take for granted. Getting to hang out and share the Gospel is totally cool. We ended up giving away a lot of CDs because that’s what we were there for … to minister.
Ben – Our hearts were just broken for these kids. These were some really great kids and they tend to end up on the fringe of church society. These aren’t the people that churches particularly want to cater to a lot of times. It’s sort of like they want you to get cleaned up before you come in and that’s not what God says. Let Him do the cleaning. You just make sure that you present them with the Gospel and just let them know that being a Christian is not what you see out there. That’s not what genuine Christianity is about. That’s religion and we’re not about religion.
