SOVEREIGN STRENGTH
1. Thanks so much for this interview! Would you please introduce yourself, where you’re from, and what you do in the band?
Thank you so much for having us, we are happy and blessed to be back at this at this stage in our lives. I am Jesse I play guitar and I am from the Antelope Valley, CA, and I’m Korey, I play bass and I’m from Bakersfield, CA from the band Sovereign Strength.
2. Yes, you’re back! I want to talk about this shortly, but I think it’s important to start at the beginning and provide readers with some context and background. What was your introduction to hardcore and heavy music, and what did your journey “down the iceberg” look like?
We all started going to shows early in like high school (whatever our parents would allow us to) then bands would play churches and I started getting introduced to bands that way and some of those shows were the wildest shows I’ve been to haha; got heavy into straight edge hardcore bands and that kinda led to the kind of bands we wanted to start like xDeathStarx, Fight Everyone, xBishopx, Represent mixed with Know The Score, Kids Like Us, Guns Up and Comeback Kid. We both had always liked nu metal from early grade school/junior high. I (Jesse) grew up tagging along with my brother to Ozzfest. So that influence came from then but yeah I (Korey) wanted heavy mosh, nu bounce, militant hate edge bands to be a part of. And never really did it until later in life. I (Korey) joined my first touring band when I was like 22 or something and had mostly positive experiences. Always stayed edge, met lots of cool people, played a lot of cool shows and was part of cool bands. That brought me to now, being in another iconic band I liked when I was a young’un.
3. When did Sovereign Strength form and who were some of your peers in the early days? Was there an explicitly Christian hardcore/metalcore scene you were a part of?
We formed in 2006, me (Jesse), our original drummer Chris, along with our singer Jordan who started out playing bass for us. We just really wanted to play shows and just be in a Christian band. There weren’t any Christian bands in the hardcore scene in our hometown, but when we started branching out we played a lot of shows in the Inland Empire, which is kind of like a 2nd home to us. We played a lot of shows and became good friends with bands like “I Am Strong” and “Die Fighting.”
4. What were some of the band’s early (pre-Mediaskare) highlights?
We started gaining traction and recognition in the IE first, so playing in Yucaipa and Redlands and starting to get people singing along to our songs and having awesome shows at places like Trilogy Theatre in Victorville, CA with bands like A Day To Remember and xDeathStarx were forever memorable. Going on our first DIY tours and getting to tour with our friends in Saving Grace and Wrench in the Works
5. In 2010, you released Reflections on Mediaskare, with The Prophecy following a year later. What led to the Mediaskare signing and what were some of the major highlights of this era?
It started when we started playing shows with Betrayal, who at the time was freshly on Mediaskare and steamrolled from there; one of my favorite memories was our CD release at home. Packing out the place we grew up seeing shows as teenagers, now we filled it out and felt like we were not just seen as just another local band but a band that our town could be proud of. Obviously doing awesome tours with For The Fallen Dreams and Scream the Prayer with some shows playing to 1000+ crowds was amazing.
6. What led to the decision to break up?
It definitely got hard money wise to survive in our situation, but personally I wanted to stop because the tour life was weighing on me spiritually. I started becoming angry with people and things that were and weren’t happening for us and I started getting into things personally that wasn’t honoring God and taking me away from my submission to Jesus so I needed to turn away.
7. What went into the decision to reactive the band at this time?
We would all talk about it from time to time when we would all hang out at one of our kid’s birthday party’s haha. It just seemed to work out at this point for all of us (Jesse/Jordan/Nelson and Derek) and for me (Jesse) on a personal note I went through a reawakening and a resubmission to Jesus recently after a very difficult time in my life and there was something I wanted to say to glorify Jesus and to worship God. It worked out perfectly that we were missing a piece that Korey has provided more than I could ever explain. This revival would not be possible without the blessing in this dude and what he has brought to the table. And I (Korey) was just immediately on board when asked for this. Felt like it was just meant to be when Jesse talked to me about it at the tattoo appointment we had. And yeah, everything just felt right.
8. How was your first show back and what’s the response been generally? What have you got lined up going forward we should be keeping an eye out for?
Awesome, felt amazing to be back up there and doing it again. It is such an honor that our friends and people that have supported us from back in the day still care enough to come out and support this band after all this time. Also that the youth of the scene found us and care enough to give us a shot, cool to see such a positive reaction!
We are playing LA with AGATG & Dr. Acula on Nov 7th.
Playing a hometown show in the Antelope Valley to raise money to fight human trafficking, some really cool stuff coming next year, and some new music coming very soon as well!
9. How great is Monsters?
As a band, amazing music and live show, really excited they are back and hope we are able to do some stuff with them in the near future.
As dudes, they are some of the funniest and most genuine guys you could tour with. We did our first full US run with them, For The Fallen Dreams, American Me and And Hell Followed With and getting to roll dice for per diems with them for a month was awesome.
10. Apropos of my last question, I’m workshopping a potential running feature called “Elite Ball Knowledge” where I ask various people from the world of heavy music to name four or five bands/artists or releases they feel are criminally underrated or under-acknowledged in some way. What would be some that come to mind for you?
I (Jesse) feel like these aren’t that unknown but when I think underrated, this fits the bill:
The Warriors-War Is Hell
You put that record on now and it still holds up after 20+ years.
Remembering Never-God Save Us
The Acacia Strain gets all the credit for the creation of this brand of metalcore, which they should get the credit they do, a bulk of the credit, but with Remembering Never, Mean Pete’s vocals are the most pissed off vocals in metalcore and need to be talked about more. (Korey) Also, Until The End is up there on top I think. Heavy, pissed, edge, made me wanna play heavy, pissed, edge music. Then had Mean Pete involved. Mean Pete Forever.
(Korey)
Reliant K. Young and goofy but to the point in the beginning, and the progression in their music career I think became very underrated, but a huge love I’ve always had, always been important to me, great songwriting, varied in sound on different albums and always resonated with me lyrically, even when I wasn’t a Christian. Love them.
Limp Bizkit. I know they’ve come back heavily but they were always underrated when I loved them and a goof band that was just a bunch of weiner jokes. But they’ve always been influential and important to me playing music.
My Ticket Home. Very underrated and don’t think given the credit it deserves. But Strangers Only is just all around creative and hits nu metal nostalgia for me. From DJ scratches (fully on guitar by the way) to just the heavy smashing drums. I love it. A non-skip for me. Other albums before that are a different genre, so not those. But yeah, Strangers Only and UnReal are bangers.
11. Okay, last question: you can save five bands’/artist’s discographies from oblivion and the rest of music disappears forever. Whose are you saving and why?
I (Jesse) wanna go with bands that have a lot of releases and consistent special releases.
The Acacia Strain.
Their full discography and range through the years speaks for itself, from the ground-breaking 3750 [to] the iconic The Dead Walk [to] great later releases like Wormwood and You Are Safe From God Here. You can’t go wrong.
Sleeping Giant
From heavy, to worship, a band that will always bring me out of mosh retirement. It’s perfection. Definitely top 3 favorite band.
Comeback Kid
From Turn it Around to Heavy Steps, they don’t miss. Personal favorites in Wake The Dead, Broadcasting and Die Knowing. Going through a singer change right when they got on top and surviving that is something that doesn’t happen
(Korey)
Morrissey/The Smiths (if I get it all lol)-Used to listen to this with my mom when I could see her when I was a kid and has always been nostalgic and comfort music to me because of that. Not to mention loving the songwriting and lyrics. But yeah, always been more than just the artist for me.
Bayside-I love a large majority of the discography and this band wasn’t a band I was really ever into until I married my wife. Then it was all I listened to. So thanks to her I got a new favorite.