Promo shot from steve’s album falling down

 – Rock, Worship And Love Handles

Chrissy Symmons talks to Nathan Evans about life in the band who recently played at Ikon.

It’s Sunday morning at Falmouth’s Baptist church and members of the congregation are greeting the return of Nathan Evans, who has come back home to Cornwall on a short weekend break from being the drummer of a band named steve.

Nathan Evans

Nathan in action at Ikon

Nathan seems surprised by all the interest and sits with his family and friends as if he had never even been in a band. He politely poses for photos and takes a real interest in wanting to talk to people about the success of his band.

Wanting to find out more about Nathan and his band, I ask him for an interview. Since only hearing the band at a gig once before, I asked him for an inside view of the group.

The band, who started six years ago in Bristol, had gone through five drummers before finally finding Nathan in 1998. He had been looking for a project for his gap year, but ended up staying with the band.

Lead Guitarist Neil, giving it up at Ikon

Pre-Nathan, the group were called ‘Bleach’ and were seen playing in a number of different venues around Bristol, Wales and Essex.

After changing their name to steve (the explanation for the name is undecided as the band allegedly change the definition at each different interview ), Neil, Rees, Lee and Nathan received a tempting offer. A representative of the company, who had been flown over by Forefront to watch them perform, was thoroughly impressed and offered to sign them to his label. Now, after having recorded their first album, ‘Falling Down’, steve are on their way to wider recognition.

Speaking to Nathan about life in a Christian band, he is very keen to point out the disadvantages of being labelled under that particular genre. “I hate being categorised as being a ‘Christian band’. We are all Christians and have a message to give. We are a band and are Christians. I think the whole ‘Christian band’ thing can confuse people, especially those who are not believers. Bands are normally categorised into a style, Rock, Jazz, Pop, Hip-Hop etc, except when it comes to Christians. When some people hear that word it can put them off, but if we were just a band, then it does not divide us from others.”

steve plays Ikon in Falmouth

If Nathan were to describe the style of his band in five words they would be “Rock, passion, worship, guitars and technology”. He explains: “We all listen to very different styles of music, which when we bring it together, creates the steve sound.” Nathan, whose influences include Beck, Radiohead, Travis, De La Soul, Elbow and “most things that groove and you can nod your head or stomp your feet to”, says that their relationships with God are the most important purpose to their lives and that the band finds inspiration for their songs from the events that they face in life with their walk with God

Nathan, who became a Christian at the age of 12, is no stranger to playing to large audiences and has many memorable experiences of performing live. “We played ‘Soul Survivor’ this summer and it was great! This place was packed. People were rocking, people were worshipping and it was just one of those great moments.”

From the left, Nathan, Rees, Neil and Lee

Steve have also seen people who have come to know Christ through their gigs. “We were involved at an event called Easter People earlier this year where about 60 people gave their lives to God. We played in Manchester at an event called Planet life last week where 30 people became Christians.” When asked if he saw the band as evangelists he replied: “evangelising isn’t just for when I am at work but in every area of my life. I think that anyone who is a Christian is called to be an evangelist. If what we believe in is so great then we should want to tell everyone about it.”

However, not all of Nathan’s gigs are remembered fondly. “We toured Denmark in February ’99 and at one gig there were hundreds of upside-down flowerpots that were used as lampshades. It was in the middle of nowhere, playing to what seemed like two families! Very strange and not at all enjoyable.”

Neil @ Ikon

So what’s next for steve? Now they have been signed to Forefront records it is inevitable that they will be spending a lot more time in America and next year they will be touring places of the USA. However they are still based in Europe and at the moment they are just doing as many concerts as possible, and of course promoting their album.

“Two of my favourite songs on the album are ‘My ever my all’ which is a song about all that God means to us and how great he is. Also a more personal song, ‘I am here’. A song we wrote when my dad died. It captures my feelings and emotions about losing him and brings hope to others that go through the same thing.

"The first song on our album ‘Zealous core’ contains the lyrics to my life right now. It talks of my passion and the race that I am running… ‘I’m still in the race, taking the pace from my zealous core, I’m still on my feet, taking the heat from my zealous core’…and so on.”

And of course my last question had to be, if steve were a real person what would he look like? To which Nathan replied, “He would be trendy, wearing sweatbands, very sexy indeed with love handles.”

You can find out more about steve from their neat website www.steverock.com