Interview by Vivian Hua
+ Photograph by Josh Bender.
Tagged 2009 christian bands experimental rock indie rock mewithoutyou post-hardcore
"We're not up there trying to come to your city to have church... We're trying to be a band and are expressing ourselves as artists. That's what every band does."
- Mike Weiss, mewithoutYou
It's not uncommon for bands who have undergone massive sonic shifts from album to album to find themselves shunned by their formerly loyal fanbase. MewithoutYou, though, has somehow managed to strike a fine combination that has ensured the steadfastness of their fanbase through the years. An openly Christian band that frequently tackles religious themes, mewithoutYou has also accomplished the rare feat of creating music that transcends religious and social boundaries.
On their latest album,
It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright!, mewithoutYou have departed from their post-hardcore roots, transofrming themselves into an indie folk outfit exploding with diverse instrumentation. Lyrically, the album contains slightly controversial messages and the frequent use of Arabic -- both of which render
It's All Crazy! simultaneously inviting and mysterious.
The Weiss brothers -- vocalist Aaron Weiss and guitarist Mike Weiss -- were raised in a Sufi Islamic household with a mother who had converted from Christianity and a father who had converted from Judaism. As a result, they were well-versed in multiple religions from an early age, and the influence has played a part in their lives as well as their music. The band members are indubitably Christian and believe that Jesus Christ leads the path to God; nontheless, this disc heavily explores the idea that perhaps
all of the world's religions hold significance -- that perhaps all can lead to one coming face-to-face with an ultimate truth or higher power.
"We don't really try to claim that we are the ambassadors of that truth ourselves, or that the Bible, or the Koran, or Bawa Muhaiyaddeen are. These truths just exist," expresses Mike Weiss, "and everybody sort of has a way to know them, to experience them, to live them."
The name of the disc comes from a parable in Muhaiyaddeen's book,
The Golden Words of a Sufi Sheikh, and many of his teachings are continually referenced throughout
It's All Crazy!. The Arabic track, "Allah, Allah, Allah," pays homage to Bawa's musings on seeing God in everything, including in blades of grass.
"Bawa is not considered to be a Christian by most Christian people, but he was a wise person who loved God and believed in God more than anything else. He devoted his life to trying to bring people to experience that," explains Weiss, on why the band was inspired by Muhaiyaddeen's teachings.
Muhaiyaddeen's God may or may not have technically been the same God that mewithoutYou believes in, but in the band's eyes, Muhaiyaddeen's praises are no less worthy. The idea that the power of God can be seen in every blade of grass is universal, regardless of which God one believes in. What mewithoutYou are trying to get across with
It's All Crazy! is that religions are more similar than one might initially believe, and they're taking to religion with an open-minded approach.
"Right now is sort of a period, especially in Aaron's life, where he's sort of revisiting [religion] and holding himself up to those teachings that there's no one religion that's going to be the only way to God," reveals Weiss. "If you really want to just try to follow a path to God, I don't believe you need anything beyond [Jesus Christ], but it's just the idea that you're fixed on the only way and that everybody else is just completely misguided... that is a sort of obtuse attitude that can hurt your own spirit."
In fact, one might be thrown off guard when a Christian band repeats the words, "Allah, Allah, Allah," but mewithoutYou simply doesn't believe that saying the word "Allah" takes away from their devotion to Jesus Christ. And it shouldn't be reason for their fans to be alarmed, either.
"I always imagine that if we're someone worth listening to, and [fans] see that one of the songs is written in Arabic and says "Allah" three times -- that they're listening to that song and reading the lyrics of that song from the perspective that the band that they're listening to believes in [Christianity] and is very Christian-centered," Weiss says.
After all, the lyrical content of this disc is not meant to be controversial. It simply reflects where the band members, especially lyricist Aaron Weiss, are at during this point in their lives. Mike Weiss stands firm in his opinion that those who criticize the band for their lyrical content on
It's All Crazy! need to stop and think critically, first and foremost, about themselves.
"Whenever you point a finger at somebody else, saying [he] is not a true Christian because [he] has a song called "Allah, Allah, Allah," on [his] record, you have three fingers pointing back at you. If you want to bring Christianity and Jesus into it, I don't think Jesus would ever put somebody on the chopping block for writing a song like that, honestly," Weiss states. "[The record is] meant to do nothing but glorify our Creator."
Even with their faith in Christianity, though, mewithoutYou is really just a rock band when it comes down to it.
"I don't think we're up there putting on a ministry. We're not up there trying to come to your city to have church," says Weiss. "We're trying to be a band and are expressing ourselves as artists. That's what every band does."
MewithoutYou's new direction surprisingly doesn't seem to be affecting their concert turnout or the opinions of their fans whatsoever. Their first tour since the release of
It's All Crazy! has had the band playing to sold-out, high-energy shows throughout the country, and these performances are quite different from the band's previous ones. Their new shows are full of merrymaking, and in some ways, do actually feel like a rock concert rendition of spiritual worship. An eerie hint of finality looms over the all-inclusive, joyous mentality that comes with the disc, and it almost feels like the band is giving one last party to the masses before flying off into higher places. It's a feeling that has caused the internet to stir with rumors about the band's imminent break-up, but Mike Weiss says the band has no definitive plans to move in that direction.
What fans should take note of is the idea that a band as passionate as mewithoutYou is likely to thrive on in some form, no matter what. After all, when you're able to find beauty in blades of grass, it's easy to be inspired.
what do you think?
They're gooood, but I wish there was piano... liek colin healy and the jetskis...
Cool to hear they're probably not going to break up.
"Right now is sort of a period, especially in Aaron's life, where he's sort of revisiting [religion] and holding himself up to those teachings that there's no one religion that's going to be the only way to God," reveals Weiss.
very sorry to hear that coming from mewithoutYou.
i agree with Redefine Fan 324. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." (John 14:6)
So either Jesus is the only way to the Father or He lied.
"it's just the idea that you're fixed on the only way and that everybody else is just completely misguided... that is a sort of obtuse attitude that can hurt your own spirit."
What's wrong with being fixed on the "only way"? It hasn't made me bitter towards others' beliefs, it's just given me the desire to be used by God to lead them to that "only way".
He said no one religion leads to G-d. Not Jesus isn't the Way, the Truth or the Life. We're not supposed to put our hope in a religion anyway, but in G-d alone. That being said, religion can be a beautiful way of expressing that hope in G-d. And one can do that as much in Islam as in Christianity.
Shivers,
You may not be bitter towards others' beliefs as a result of exclusivity, but others easily fall into that trap. The message here is that we, as Christians (and I believe wholeheartedly in Christ as the way), need to be receptive towards all people and realize the truth present in all religions. While I confess Christ as Lord and Savior, I must still admit the truth that is present in Islam, Christianity, and other major religions, that is, people striving towards God in loving community. Whether or not I believe that everything I encounter in those communities is "right" is beside the point. There's still a degree of truth in them.
Brandon, I understand that other faiths may reflect the presence of God, but you have to be careful when you say that other paths may lead to God.
The Greek pantheon of gods could have been considered a reflection of God, but that didn't stop Paul from telling the Athenians the truth of God in Acts 17.
I Corinthians 3:11 says: "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Like I already said, other beliefs may reflect the true and living God, but they cannot give you a personal relationship with Him. I'm not talking about specific "religions", I'm talking about accepting Jesus Christ as your savior as the only way to have forgiveness of your sins and a true connection to God.
Yea,h Jesus is the way the truth the life. Jesus is God, No one comes to God the Father but through God the son by the leading of God the spirit. It's like 1x1x1=1 (for those who think that 3 persons of a triune being should equate to 1plus1plus1=3 that's not how it is... Thanks CS Lewis) I'm super sick of all this almost Christian wishy washy junk! Read your bible peeps! It doesn't say anywhere in there that Jesus is just a way. he's the truth! Anything else (relegion/teaching) that says otherwise is false. That's not close minded it's a fact... If something is not truth than it is false. There is nothing else. Thanks for reading!
To address the debate that his Michael Weiss' quote (about there being more than one way) stirred up, you have to consider the cases in which people go their whole life not being exposed to the teachings of Jesus. God is not petty like we are, nor is he a legalist. Far be it from me to say I know the mind of God, but, simply from what I know about his character from his Word, God isn't going to judge people based on whether they came to know him through cultural American Christianity or not--rather, whether we choose to acknowledge him as Creator and pursue a relationship with him or not based on the overwhelming evidence he has given us.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." I think this is what Weiss was referring to in the second half of his controversial quote, and I would agree with him. Who are we to self-righteously say that God can only accept someone who came to know him through prototypical Christianity?
Praise God that he meets us where we are and doesn't hold us to the same standard to which we hold each other.
lovely, Gabe!