The name Downhere comes from a song I wrote after a friend of mine died in college, and it was kind of the first time I was dealing with loss and, you know, real mortality, and it was a song of how down here on Earth, we don't have the big picture.
'Bohemian Rhapsody' is my all-time favorite.
Being compared to Freddie Mercury is something I've come to terms with. I don't know that I'll ever successfully avoid the comparisons, as much as I might want to. Why bother, though? People hear what they want to hear because it makes them feel good and gives them a momentary pause from a loss rock and roll has felt for years.
Everyone has needs, but Food for the Hungry is something that people can grasp onto as a practical way to step outside of themselves, take a risk, and give.
My mom is the piano player in my dad's church - she's also the choir director - and she's just a musician through and through.
I think people tend to cling to music when times are hard.
Of course I always knew 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions' and all those. But my real introduction to Queen the band and knowing who they were was the movie 'Wayne's World' like a lot of people in my generation.
I'm a huge mimic. That's how I learned to sing. I listened to a lot of Freddy Mercury, obviously.
My biggest influences when I was a kid - I listened to a lot of top 40 radio, so whatever the big artists were, so, like, the mid-'80s.
If the Christian community responds to our music better because maybe we gained a little more credibility in the mainstream, then it's not ideal, it's not fun, it's not sexy, but I'll take it.
I immediately recognised that Freddy's vocal chords bore an uncanny resemblance to mine - or vice-versa, I guess - and yeah, the rest is history.
I'm the worst critic about music myself. I hardly ever, ever like something the first time I listen to it.
I know how limited and how fleeting fame is, so I just try not to get excited about it, honestly.
People have been telling me for years that I sound like Freddie Mercury.
It's not like I'm pretending to be Freddie Mercury.
I always loved music - it was always in the house - and my younger brother is musical, too.
I grew up on a lot of gospel music.
I was born in '76, but I didn't get into rock until the early '90s when the grunge stuff started coming out.
I ended up taking piano lessons at a really young age, I took, like, years of piano lessons, and I always loved to sing.
Being a professional musician with Downhere for 11 years now, I feel completely at home on stage.
