Exclusive Supervision Interview

May 2005

At 2005’s Ultimate Event at Alton Towers – held on Saturday, 14th May – there were bands from as far afield as Australia and America, but there was also some home-grown talent in the form of the four-piece Supervision, based in Liverpool in the UK. Supervision are a band to watch out for, especially as they were winners of the Ultimate Events National Battle of the Bands in 2003. We enjoyed having a chat with them in their tour van after their performance. Well, most of them. James Burch, the drummer, had to leave straight away for a flight to San Francisco. But Mark Doohan (the singer), Ian Finch (the guitarist) and James Harding (the bass player, and word-on-the-web contributor) still had lots to say to us:

There was a comment you made from stage just now about being the English representatives this evening. What do you think you as an English band have to offer that other bands don’t?

Ian: I don’t think we’ve got anything better or worse than anybody else. We’re just a different side of what God’s doing generally. We want to be the edgy, rock alternative to bands like Hundred Reasons, Audioslave, Soundgarden, that kind of whole alt rock genre that the kids just don’t have a Christian alternative for. We had a letter come in from a dad the other week. He’s delighted his teenage boys are into us. They think it’s credible. They think the new album is good. They want to listen to it alongside everything else, and that’s where we’re at.

You mentioned Hundred Reasons, Audioslave and Soundgarden. What other bands do you admire? What bands have influenced your music?

Mark: Foo Fighters. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Muse, definitely. We had a review recently that said there’s some Muse-style parts in our CD.

James: I think also Christian bands like Pillar. I really find them inspirational. And also I’ve just downloaded from iTunes some music by Skillet, and that’s really fantastic quality stuff.

Your name, Supervision – to me, that could mean “very good vision”, and it could also mean “to supervise”. Why Supervision?

James: Well, it’s purposely ambiguous. It can mean both those things and I think that’s why we chose it. First of all, God’s given us a super vision. God’s given us a vision to see kids saved and their lives impacted by our music and the things we do. But also supervision that … it’s not just about seeing kids saved although that’s really what we want to do, it’s about seeing kids discipled and brought on in their faith, becoming transformed more like Jesus, and hopefully we play a small part through our music in doing that.

Mark: Our home church pushes personal one-to-one mentoring and accountability quite a lot. We’re all in cell groups, and we hold ourselves really accountable to one another as well so we have that supervisory element in the way we want to work out our Christian life and make sure we’re under the supervision of God.

Out of writing, recording and performing, which part of the creative process do you enjoy the most?

Ian: It’s a funny thing because sometimes a song’s not really complete until you’ve performed it to someone, but obviously you’ve got to write it and record it before you get to that point, so there’s a lot of different types of joy in each section. Writing the song is often a very intimate experience. You’re putting down on a piece of paper, in the long run for other people to hear, you’re putting down personal feelings, a personal understanding of your relationship with God. And then the next stage when you’re making an arrangement, doing the recording, is just an awesome time of musical expression, different to putting your heart down on paper. And then performing to people and seeing in people’s eyes and faces that they get where you’re coming from and understand your perspective and they’re getting into the music. Like today, five or six thousand people, all with their hands up in the air going, “Yeah!” and cheering along in the choruses. That’s just awesome.

As you know – especially James, as you’ve written for us! - word-on-the-web promotes Bible reading amongst young people. What part does the Bible play, both in your personal lives and in your music?

Ian: Sometimes all you’ve got in life at any one point in time is a Bible verse that sticks in your head. Like: “I give you peace. My peace is not as the world gives, it’s a peace that passes all understanding.” “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” And a range of other things that Jesus said, or direct promises from scripture that you can just cling on to because you know that the word is the truth, and sometimes all you’ve got is the truth no matter what you’re feeling like.

Mark: It has an impact on the band as well because it’s often a Bible verse, or when you’ve heard somebody speak about something and they’ve taken a scripture from the Bible, and it’s cut deep and God’s used it to change your life, that’s what you write a song about. So it has a really big impact on what we write and how we write it, although sometimes what we write in a song might not be very eloquent or it might be a jumbled round way of personally saying something that God’s taught you.

James: In the outro of one of the songs, “Choke”, we use that verse from John’s gospel: “I am the way, the truth and the life”, and that is the crux of the whole Christian faith and that’s why that’s in there.

What’s next for Supervision?

Ian: We’ve done a 25-date tour and this is our last date and we’re having time off to chill before doing the summer festivals. We’re at Big Deal in Manchester, Audacious, New Wine, Greenbelt, I think we’re talking to Grapevine, Mersey Fest of course in our home city, Liverpool. So that’s the summer, and we’re talking to a couple of bands about maybe supporting them on tour. We’re just trying to work that through. We’ll definitely do a tour of some sort.

Mark: We’ve probably got 18 months of really getting this record out to people and playing it a lot, and along the way there’ll be some inspiration to write some new songs. You’ll probably see a new album from us in almost two years’ time.

Sounds like they’re going to be pretty busy over the coming few months. To find out if they’re going to be playing in a town near you, to download some of their music or even to watch their videos, visit their website at: www.supervisiontheband.com