Back on Saturday, we pointed you at part of the interview that Eric did for Eb+Flo before they went under. He finished up the interview postings on Tuesday with some more personal things, including how he gets into writing albums:

10. How do you decide when it’s time to record a new album?

When I have enough money saved and enough good songs written.

11. I know you are typically very humble so this might be difficult for you…but when you look at your newest project, Scarce, what would you say is most important about these songs (or a certain song in particular?)

To date, it has been, hands down, the most difficult album for me to make. I was really struggling with heaps of self-doubt about whether I should even bother making Scarce, or bother spending a sizable amount of our saved money on yet another project that might or might not ever break even. At the point I’m at career-wise, I am a lucky individual to be able to fully recoup within 2 or 3 years of an album’s release. That’s a dreadfully long time, in my book, and an awfully heavy financial commitment, especially considering that I have always struggled to move product. It’s a strain to think about getting out from underneath one album only to put myself under the fiscal burden of a new one. So, I’m one of those nerdy fiscally responsible artists, what can I say?

I would add, however, that I feel Scarce is more of an honest and direct album than what I’ve made in the past. The pop-friendlier first half of the album eases, hopefully gracefully, into a more confessional tone by album’s end. It was unintentional, but I like that the songs fit together in that way. I am thankful to God for songs like “Squeeze”, “Save Something for Grace” and “Long Road”. Those are the heavierweights on the album, in my estimation. I’m indebted to Brent Milligan (producer) who really challenged me and summoned the best possible songs out of me. He refused to let me settle for mediocre demos, many of which I had already submitted, but failed to make the final cut. Brent was integral to my being able to plug away and push forward through all the doubts and warbled headspace.

Also, Kei Akiyama interviewed EP back in December, and he’s let us reprint that here. It’ll show up after the jump. [We had to make a jump or you'd not see anything else on the front page!]

K-I’m here with Eric Peters in the midst of the Behold the Lamb of God tour, and he’s taken gracious time to sit down with us for the dot net. Eric tell us about yourself, how you got involved with music, where did you get your start, just to raise some awareness.

EP-Well I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, um I picked up music late in life. My brother and my dad started learning how to play guitar together when I was in college. I kinda got jealous so that’s why I wanted to learn to play guitar.

K-What a great motive!

EP-Yeah great motive. Hardly a noble reason to learn to play an instrument. We were not really a musical family. My brother, he was really the musical guy in the family and really talented. Could pick up anything and learn to play it and all that stuff. My dad got me a guitar and thought I would try it for a couple of months and get burned out and quit, but I just stuck with it. He was surprised. So anyways, I really got hooked on guitar and early on I recall hoping to write some songs, so a couple of years after I had started playing, I was able to write my first few songs and um stuck with it. I had some encouragement from some folks and just kept at it.

K-Before we talk about your music and the Square Peg Alliance, do you have any other passions besides music that you feel people should know about you?

EP-Yeah, there just kinda geeky and dorky. I love golf. I enjoy sports to an extent. I’m not a crazed fan, but I enjoy sports. LSU football in particular. I’m also a—a lot of people don’t know that I’m an ornithologist at heart, a bird watcher. It’s been interesting being around Sandra McCracken, who’d I heard was of the same leanings, so she and I have been talking birds on the tour a little bit, so that’s been really fun.

K-Hey birds are great! Are you familiar with Allen Levi’s song where one bird is blind in the right eye, and another bird that is blind in the left eye, anyway the birds meet up and make a great team.

EP-No, but I’m not surprised he would be able to write that song. He’s a whiz!

K-What are some things God is teaching you these days?

EP-Oh man, that’s a good question. I think, well we’re expecting our first child, my wife and I. Due in January. I have a feeling I’m in for a world of hurt, we’ve been married for 9 years, I’m no spring chicken, so I’m kinda set in my ways you know. I have a feeling that’s gonna be an interesting learning curve to partake of that. It will no longer be about myself.

K-That’s a tough one.

EP-That one’s gonna be brutal I think, but hopefully it will be a good thing, and a needed thing. Being humbled is never an easy thing for anybody. Being on this tour is not exactly being humbled, but certainly is realizing that as a songwriter, I kinda hobble up in my house, write my little songs, and say ok, these are pretty good, and the I hear these guys and realize that, man they’re really, really talented. They are some of the greatest songwriters out there, so—man what else. There is so much more out there. I guess learning to accept my place in the musical world and in the songwriting world. You know you start out having big dreams and wanting to be famous and wanting big audiences and playing big shows and all that. Then when it doesn’t happen that way, there is certainly a lot of questions you ask and go through doubts and so career wise, I’m working through some of that stuff. Also being grateful for where I am, and learning to be thankful has been hard for me.

K-That’s great. You know there are always life lessons, especially with fatherhood. I can tell you that personally.

EP-Are you a dad?

K-I am, of two girls.

EP-Wow!

K-There is never a dull moment, certainly life changing for the better and you’re right, in that dying to self is a major part.

EP-Yeah, we’re excited. I don’t want to paint a bad picture. It will be good, just a transition you know.

K-On to music talk. It seems you have a, man just a great freedom in your songwriting to be able to relate to people because you write a lot about things that happen in everyday life, good or bad. Is that the main theme you want to get across to your audience.

EP-Yeah, um yes it is. A song doesn’t really make sense if you’re not trying to communicate with people. That’s what’s glorious about music. It’s a medium that 99.9% of humanity loves music in some form or fashion. I’ve met very few people who don’t like music. For me it always comes down to the song. You strip away the production, does the song break my heart, does it speak hope to me, you know, what is the song saying. I’m not saying that we use music as a tool or that we would attach strings to songs, lets say that we may sing in church, that we would um, use music to—I don’t know, I just have a problem with thinking with the belief system that music or a song is not good enough to stand on its own, that it has to have a sweeping gospel message of evangelization behind it.

K-Yeah, it doesn’t have to be that way.

EP-You know a song is a song. One of my favorite authors is Fredrick Beakner, he says that “a story of anyone of us is in some measure the story in all of us”. In that we all have a story to tell and as humans we want to relate to others and we want them to relate to us and like us. That’s just a natural occurrence and I’m no different. Yes I want people to understand where I’m coming from and to relate to it. After all nobody has got there act together. I think we all got stuff in life, whether it’s a bad childhood, or poor decision making. Wherever we are, whatever has happened, we all have baggage. So I think my deal is just, I’m telling my piece of a story.

K-That’s awesome! I like your songs and the way you execute them and the message behind it.
How would you describe the SPA and your involvement in it?

EP-I would describe the SPA as a group of friends, um who are all songwriters and who mutually admire one another, and so I think you take those elements and just, its just a mutual admiration society. But we all do different things, genre wise its fairly specific, but everyone’s got their own twists and turns to what they do. We all love one another’s music and um, I’m shocked that I got to be invited to be a part of it. I’ve known Andy Peterson longer than anybody else, and he’s been a constant encouragement in my life/career and so I don’t know, he’s just been a huge part of my life over many years. A guy like me to be associated with these folks, Derek and Sandra, Jill and Gullahorn, and Osenga, and Peterson is not only humbling in a day to day thing, but lends me credibility. As an independent nobody, to get music exposed takes forever, but to have Andy Peterson say, I like this person’s music, I think you’ll like it to, to me that’s pretty incredible.

K-Pretty Awsome.

EP-Yeah, I can’t put it into words. I don’t know, it feels pretty natural, the whole deal. I don’t think anything about the SAP is contrived.

K-Yeah, that’s why its so unique, but it works so well.
So have you seen any impact of the way SPA does things compared to the way things are done traditionally in the music scene. I mean the success of AP’s Christmas tour to Andy O’s involvement with Caedmon’s, surely these things don’t go unnoticed.

EP-I think being an independent artist now, you can make a living at it. The old paradigm of having to get a record deal, the record companies I think are slowly recognizing that its no longer necessary.

K-Thanks to folks like you and the rest of SPA.

EP-Man, it’s thanks to people like Caedmon’s Call, who just love good music and are willing to take, like my former band, and many other independent artists, Andy Peterson was one at the time, take folks out under their wings, on the road, to not charge them to be openers, but to take them out on the road and put them in front of their audiences and say we are always looking for music we love and you’ll love, so here’s a person’s music we love right now, so we want you to hear them and give them our stage. That’s incredible! That’s unheard of especially ten years ago when that happened to me. You’ve also got online distribution and digital stuff. The fact that the Internet exists has changed all that stuff. You can find so many ways to distribute music now, and the fact that you can record an album that’s affordable, do in your home with a buddy in their basement. You don’t have to rent out an expensive studio and still make great sounding records.

K- That’s one aspect of the SPA I love is that, you guys share each other’s gear, and record in each other’s homes.

EP-And sing on each other’s records and play on them.

K-Are you happy with your career right now?

EP-Wow, man I think I’ve been in a—being thankful for where I am doesn’t come easy to me and I’m not a very content person. To be honest, part of me is thrilled to be here with AP and company, but I’m trying to enjoy it and tell myself to enjoy it everyday with this group. I think overall, has there been disappointment in my career, yes certainly, but these guys are great encouragers and have been kind enough to ell me that they like my music, so that’s a wonderful thing. It sometimes doesn’t feel like it translates into sales, but on the other hand the fact that one person would buy my record and enjoy it , or even buy it—I should be thankful for that.

K-Well there are always ups and downs.

EP-Yeah, I’m very grateful to be able to play music, and do it for a living. That’s an amazing thing! See there goes my pride again.

K-You know, you bless people along the way, and share great stories through you songs, so thanks!

EP-Thank you man, GO SPA.NET!