Q: How did it all start?

A: My last semester at Evangel University (Dec. 2000) I had an apartment
and decided to teach myself guitar and start writing lyrics.  When I
graduated, I moved back in with my parents (just South of Branson) and got
a few guys together.  We became an official 'garage band;' as we literally
practiced in an auto shop where a guy would often be welding a Jeep right
next to us as we practiced.  Long story short, we just weren't the right
blend and split up (with no hard feelings).  And a couple of months later
I bought a house in Ozark.

In 2001, some friends of mine in a band from Atlanta were in town for a
show and asked if I wanted to open for them.  I didn't have a 'band' at
the time, so Jason Poe & James Hafner (formerly of The Professional
Americans) played guitar and bass, while Brian Moody (formerly of Still
Water Rhythm) would join on the drums.  My very first show was to play a
birthday party at Lighthouse Lanes... on the lanes... beneath the black
lights.  It was great!  Afterwards we received a lot of positive feedback,
so I decided to try and build a new band.  After a handful of local shows
and various members, Brian Moody would come on full-time for drums and
Dave Martin would join full-time for bass.  And the official 'Starrfadu'
was born.

Q: Why 'Starrfadu'?  

A: 'Starrfadu' came from a girl I knew in 6th grade; whose name was 'Starr
Fedew.'  After seeing an old class photo and going through the names, I
just felt like it made a good band name.  But I liked it pronounced as one
word instead of two.  When I asked Brian and Dave what they thought, they
pretty much replied that it sounded weird, but really didn't care either
way.

Q: How did the Kleenex deal come about?

A: A guy in the creative department at JWT (New York), the ad agency who
created the ads, found our song 'Let It Out' on iTunes.  They emailed me
about licensing the song, and things just moved along from there.  It was
a much longer process than you'd probably expect, but rewarding.  The
biggest reward however, was giving a large amount of the licensing money
toward building clean water wells in Africa.  An investment that we're
still trying to continue... and by investment, I mean a future of lives
saved through clean water.

Q: I'd thought I'd heard rumors of the band breaking up, but that was before
this most recent album.  Where those rumors unfounded?

A: When Brian decided to move to Boston to get his Master's Degree in
Theology (which takes 2 years), I can see where people might have thought
that we would break up.  We had him record his remaining drum parts for
the album before he moved, so we'd still be able to move forward.  Often
people would ask me if we were going to break up... or who I was going to
replace him with.  Honestly, I didn't feel like either was going to
happen.  When we released our album ('And Yes... Our Thoughts Were
Elsewhere') at BB Kings in Nashville for a special Kleenex event with Will
Hoge, we flew him in for it.  He has since moved back, become a father,
and is taking his courses through correspondence.  He's got one class
he'll take in Boston from January to May, but when he gets back we'll
start working on a new project.

Q: How was recording with Jeremy Larson?

A: It was an honor to record with one of Springfield's most elite.  Being
with him was like hanging out with a famous rapper. It was nothing but
box-seats and the Tower Club every night... with coffee anytime we wanted
it.

All kidding aside, we've actually recorded our last two albums with Oran
Thorton (of Flick), whose an amazing guy to work and hang out with.  Due
to some scheduling conflicts towards the end of the project, we had to do
some recording with Jeremy.  He was great to work with as well, and we
have developed a very mutual sarcastic friendship.  Like Oran, he's a very
talented guy, and it was great to play with him for the filming of his DVD
at the Gilloz.

Q: Doing any record label shopping?

A: Honestly, I've never had any motivation to do that.  I enjoy writing,
recording and owning my own music. The idea of changing that from a hobby
to a job (where I'd be working for someone else) just has never had an
appeal to me.  When the Kleenex ads started airing in the UK (Jan. 07) we
were offered a record deal from EMI to release our CD 'A Narrow Road To
Silence' in March of 07.  My father has always said to shoot for a win/win
result, and since we weren't able to do so, we had to turn it down.  On a
side note, Plain White Tees took the path we would have taken, had we
accepted the deal.

Q: As a band, compared to other successful Springfield acts, you keep it
pretty low key – not a lot of shows. (Though, I think I saw you guys on a
Pepsi truck on MSU campus, right?)  And I can't recall a tour that you've
been on.  If that's correct, was it a decision to take the unconventional
route, or did it just kind of happen that way?

A: We've strived to keep things low-key.  We don't play in bars, so that's
'limited' our options for local shows.  And we've never been on an
official tour of any kind.  That's funny; I had forgotten about the Pepsi
Tour performance.  I think they found us on MySpace and asked us to play
while they were at MSU.  It was fun and they were great to work with. 
We've played to 80,000+ (for the 'I Love America' Celebration) and 6
people at The Magic Bean... in the same week.  As fun as both of them
were, I think the three of us prefer the more intimate sets.  Even
throughout the Kleenex and EMI decisions we kept asking ourselves if we
really wanted to do this, and how would affect our daily lives?  And
basically, those decisions have kept our day-to-day lives the same.  And
we enjoy it that way.

Q: How have you handled your recent cancer scare?

A: Towards the end of July I found that I had a brain tumor. 
Fortunately, it was benign.  Originally it was thought to be the size of a
golf ball, but later was sized around a small fist.  I was told that a
male in his early 30's is rare for this type of brain tumor.  From the
moment I heard, I knew God had a purpose for it, and I was ready for it;
regardless of the outcome.  A couple of weeks later my family and I drove
to Minnesota to have it removed at the Mayo Clinic.  They were able to
remove 98% of it, and the other 2% we'll continue to keep an eye on.  I
actually just had my three month follow-up MRI at Mayo and the surgeon
says everything looks great.  I'm not sure what lead me to do so, but I
have been blogging the whole experience on our MySpace page; including a
CAT Scan photo of the tumor, a short video at Mayo and a photo of my
incision with the 35 staples in my head.  Fun stuff.  It's been great
doing it though, and physically I feel great.  The prayers and
encouragement from all over the world that have come in have been amazing.
 And as I said before, I know God has a purpose for all of it.  Thanks for
asking.

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