Originally published in Excommunication issue #2

Fusing together the passion of Fugazi, intensity of Thursday, and musicianship of At The Drive-In with their own dash of Louisville sentiment and fervor, Christiansen are taking the indie world by storm. A hard-working band, Brandon Bondehagen (guitar/vocals), Terry Campbell (drums), Brad Magers (bass), Robby Scott (guitar), and Kenny (???) have toured with bands such as Boy Sets Fire, Midtown, Elliot, Liar’s Academy. Their most recent EP, entitled Forensics Brothers and Sisters!, was released by Revelation Records last summer.

Oh my god, did you kill Kenny?
Ha ha, almost. He got fucked up really bad in our car wreck though, his hip was broken and he had three teeth knocked out!

So, what is this about a van accident in August? Is everyone okay?
Yeah everyone is cool now. Kenny has to have a hip replacement soon, but other than that everyone is alright. Oh, except for the constant fear of driving behind semis in the rain.

Can you tell me about the music scene and the people who have influenced you from your hometown? (I can’t remember exactly where that is…somewhere in Arkansas, perhaps?)
Kentucky… It’s cool, not much going on right now, though; just chillin’ and waiting for a new club to open…It use to be rad but there are no all ages clubs right now, so its pretty weak. We were into all the old hardcore bands like Endpoint and Guilt you know.

Christiansen obviously incorporates subtle — but effective — elements of jazz into their sound. Who are your favorite non-Miles Davis jazz musicians? And why did you spell it “Jhazz” in your song, “Jhazz Never Spelled So Good?” I don’t get it.
Wes Montomery, Freddie Hubbard, early Hancock, Pat Metheny, you know. It’s just a play on words — you know those cheesy wack catch phrases like, “Breakfast Never Tasted So Good.” Don’t, worry we don’t get it either.

More about jazz: where do you see Christiansen heading in the future? Leaning more towards a jazzier sound, or heading off in the direction of the indie waywards? As it stands now, I think you have a pretty good balance, but more jazz never hurt anyone. Bring on more trumpet solos, I say.
I think our newer shit will be more structured but still have the soul and grooves. More solos is always a possibility.

What are your plans for the coming year, as far as recording and touring are concerned? Are you excited about working with Revelation, and touring with “big-name” bands like Midtown and Boy Sets Fire?
We’re recording a full length in March for Rev. We’ve been on tour since July so we’re going to take some time to work on new jams. We’re going to do the SXSW Festival and then record soon after that. It was awesome touring with bands like that — the Glassjaw tours were probably our favorite.

Complete this sentence: “My favorite all-time activity outside playing music is…”
Making clothes.

Okay hotshot. Now finish this sentence: “The curved space-time theory of gravitational forces has to incorporate super symmetry, because otherwise the uncancelled vacuum energies of all the modes would curl space-time into…”
Well general relativity predicts a singularity or infinitely dense point and infinite curvature at the origin of the universe, or within a black hole. That breaks down the law of space-time being geometrically curved with gravitational mass. So would the answer be nothingness?

What is the ultimate goal for your band?
To make our weird-ass music popular to the masses.

Lastly, what is the most gratifying part of being able to perform in Christiansen?
I really like seeing people’s reactions and being appreciated by the people that we play to, whether it’s to 1,200 people or 12. Since we’re a lot different than most of the bands that we tour with it’s also good to see kids becoming more open-minded. They’ee realizing that there is life outside of the Warped Tour. Not saying that the Warped Tour is a bad thing, but kids who generally attend are exposed to one very specific type of music. We enjoy playing to diverse crowds for that very reason.