Guide - I'm doing good Duncan. How are you?
Duncan - Great!
Guide - It's been about a year since we talked last.
Duncan - It's been that long? No way!
Guide - Oh yeah... so what's been up with you over the past year?
Duncan - We had our second child about a month ago, so we've got two little girls now. We're just in that no sleep stage.
Guide - Last year when we talked your daughter had just turned 13 months old, so that gives you a newborn and one in the terrible two's.
Duncan - (laughs) We're just in a total double whammy now. But it's all good.
Guide - Were you in the delivery room?
Duncan - I was. It was crazy. I played a show the day before on the west coast; flew in the next day; had Madison that night; and then flew out the next morning to the next show. So it was crazy. Crazy but fun. Never a dull moment in what we do.
Guide - I understand that you guys are recording a new album.
Duncan - We are. We're just finishing up. We've got everything basically tracked and we've got five songs mixed. We've just got a couple of songs to put some vocals on and we'll be done. I think we're going to hand it in in about a week's time.
Guide - You're going to be done a little earlier than scheduled.
Duncan - We're hustling. We're trying to get it in. The release is on November 2nd and we go on tour on November 4th. So we're going at it.
Guide - The Adoration II tour will run through the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Duncan - That's right. I think it goes for about a month.
Guide - That will put you in Iowa on the day after Thanksgiving. So the question that has to be asked is this ... Is not being home with all of the leftovers a blessing or a curse?
Duncan - (laughs) A little of both! We're home on Thanksgiving day, but we fly out the next morning. It's probably a good thing that I won't be there, because I like to eat.
Guide - I remember you saying that the best part of the road was the catering.
Duncan - You know, as the years have gone by, it's gotten better and better and better. I've had more and more of a struggle to keep my girlish figure! (laughs) You know what I mean?
Guide - I understand that struggle. Truly I do. (laughs)
Duncan - You see, we're a little older now so it's a little harder to keep the pounds off.
Guide - Yeah ... you gotta stay away from all of the junk food on the road.
Duncan - You do and what's bad is that that's what seems to be most prolific on the road. They make all of these beautiful desserts and cakes and all that kind of stuff that I love, but I just can't. Once you start down that road, it's a vicious road. You know what I mean? But we're doing good. We've actually had quite a busy summer. We've been doing a lot of state and county fairs this year. It's kind of a new area for us. We've obviously been very busy over the years with all of the Christian festivals, but we're really starting to move into this other area. Quite often the biggest day of the year is when the Newsboys come and play. So that's a good thing. It's very exciting for us. You kind of think, as you get to the top of your game, that you've played every kind of show there is to play. But this is a whole new area of shows for us ... playing these fairs. I guess just about every state and every county has a fair, so I'm sure during the summer there are two or three hundred potential fairs. But that's been exciting.
Guide - Back in July ya'll appeared at Rockfest with groups like REO Speedwagon and Judas Priest.
Duncan - That's right. We weren't sure about that show. Obviously, as you know, we typically play Christian events, and we're very comfortable in that arena. I actually got online before we played and looked at the Rockfest website. There was some raunchy stuff going on! (laughs) I called up one of our managers and said "Guys, we can't do this show." But we decided, you know, we need to do this show and I'm glad we did. We had a great time. We just went up and did what we do. We didn't change anything. They want us back next year. They said that they enjoyed the show immensely and could we please come back next year. So that's a good thing.
Guide - Did you see the reaction from the other bands to your performance?
Duncan - No, we didn't because we were on kind of early. Not typical for us because we usually close, headline the show. It was like going back 15 years ago, when we first came to the states and used to get all of the opening slots. Because it was such a new thing for us, and for Rockfest, they put us on first on a Sunday morning. But people turned out. I did hear that a lot of the crews enjoyed the show.
