My photos from Sunday night’s release show for Bluebird are now up on Flickr.

And if you’re tired of all this endless plugging, and instead want some music, well … I recorded the SPA in-the-round show last month where Eric debuted “I Will Go With You”, which he wrote for his son, Ellis:

Download audio file (20080921-epeters-i-will-go-with-you.mp3)

• Garett Buell - drums
• Todd Bragg – perc
• Cason Cooley – bass
• Gabe Scott – utilities
• Andrew Osenga – guitar
• Ben Shive – keys
• Andy Gullahorn – guitar
• Jill Phillips – vocals
• Bebo Norman – guest
• Andrew Peterson – guitar / vocals

If you follow along, that’s pretty much who was out last year.

Looks like it’s going to be a Square peg Christmas this year!

Matthew: tell us about yourself, where you come from, how you got started in music? Let some of the folks know who you are.

Matthew: Well we’re here at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA. I’m from Atlanta, well mostly from Atlanta. I grew up in Philadelphia then moved to Atlanta. Most of my growing up years were spent here. Actually the early part of my performing life was here at Eddie’s Attic, so it’s a great place to be back.

This place has sentimental value then, kinda nostalgic.

Matthew: Yeah absolutely, which is great, so yeah Atlanta is kinda mostly where I grew up and cut my teeth performing and really got into music. Again, mostly here at Eddie’s.

What are some things God’s teaching you these days?

Matthew: That’s a good question. That’s good. I would say more than anything right now, um we were just in Knoxville, I was with a good friend of mine Pete Stone, who I actually met here in Atlanta, anyway we were talking about that very thing. I would say at this point in time my biggest thing is learning to let go. Being able to trust, and surrender. That sounds very general, but its such a simple truth that is so profoundly difficult. I think it’s probably a life long struggle, or at least the process maybe. Specifically, recently I feel sort of overwhelmed with this decision to go back and do music full time. It seems to have overwhelmed me in terms of what do I do, how am I gonna provide for my wife, all these questions. God’s teaching me to rest in Him, especially in terms of identity, not depending on people’s opinions, the good, bad, and ugly. It’s just learning to know who I am and be ok with that. Being a child of God, that’s my identity.

Speaking of music, you’ve recently been involved with the Square Peg Alliance. Can you describe what that is?

Matthew: [chuckles] Ah no. I have no idea.

That’s what everybody else says.

Matthew: It’s a mystery to me. I know the premise behind it. It’s a group of friends, some closer than others in relationship, but all related to each other some how and some point in history. We’ve worked on each others’ records or played shows with each other or just live in the same neighborhood. A lot of us have known each other for years, but it’s basically friends who wanted to make an imprint or band that says, here is a community of folks that exist and do music and help promote each other.

How is that support?

Matthew: I would say more than anything, I love the fact that we wrote bios for each other, which really speaks of the fact that we know and care about each other. The bottom line is that in terms of music, we see it as an outflow of life and community together. Cause its been going on for years, but not many folks knew about us. It kinda brings that to the forefront to say here is a group of people who really believe in each other and want to push each other and make sure the person next to you is doing well in terms of advancing in their craft and in their career.

Basically a network of friends promoting each other not for personal gain.

Matthew: Yeah … taking care of each other, but basically encouraging each other to keep doing what we’re doing. If you keep on in sort of the industry standard you can get discouraged, but if you listened to your friends, it’s a different thing. There is more steam to go ahead.

Thanks for the input, Matthew.

Matthew: Yeah, thanks. We’ll talk later.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background in music, and your career now.

Chris: Hi I’m Chris. I started playing and writing songs when I was in college in the late 90’s. Somewhere in there I decided I can try and maybe do it for a living. Got out of college in 2001 and started making records and touring around and playing. That’s about it. Playing as many shows as I could.

That’s cool. It’s good to see you mature in the music sense. You are now involved with the SquarePeg Alliance right?

Chris: Yep.

What is the SPA?

Chris: Um, its really just a group of friends, we’ve all been friends for a long time and so the SPA is something that was already there. We just put a name to it. We’re all involved in each others lives and songwriting. We used to get together, a small group of us and kinda bounce song ideas off each other. Its really just kind of a support group. We’re in each others corner and trying to spread the word. We’re a community of artist, we run into each other and enjoy each others music.

Has being involved affected your song writing in way, make you want to write better? After all its gotta be encouraging to be surrounded by great singer/songwriters.

Chris: Well yeah! We get together and share songs with one another and that is always challenging. To hear what others were working on and it would encourage me to go back to the drawing board. So yeah it has encouraged me to write more.

How would you describe the camaraderie between all of you 13?

Chris: We’re all big fans of each others’ music, um some of us hang out more than others because of touring and schedules. It’s a decsent size group, but we’re all friends so it’s a great support system.

Are there any plans of touring as a group as a whole?

Chris: Not that I know of. But for example, when Andy P and Jill go out, that would be a SPA tour, or any two or three go out, that would be an SPA tour. It’s not necessarily a corporate thing.

How about a compilation album or a sampler cd?

Chris: We’re trying to figure that out now. We did a “scientific study” on SPA.net by saying, hey would you buy a record with a bunch of songs we already recorded, or one with new songs. It came back and most folks wanted new songs. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It would be easier to do songs we already recorded, but we’re rethinking that. Also an idea we’ve been tossing around is that each of us doing somebody else’s song. Like a cover record.

That is a great idea. That would be a hit.

Chris: That was Osenga’s idea. I think it would be great. I would love to do that. It would be a compilation worth buying.

What other ways are you guys planning to raise recognition about SPA?

Chris: Its really an organic place this was born, with us being friends. I think the way that its growing now is a great way to have fans of say Jeremy Casella and Derek Webb, introduce those people to like Andy Osenga and Eric Peters. Just kinda this crossing over, this big network, catering to people who really believe in the music—the fans. I think that’s the best way to grow and support it, and help us get the word out.

Especially with the dot netters.

Chris: Yeah, well thanks and see you soon.

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