The Words of the Cotter Family
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The Words of the Cotter Family |
Formerly known as the Lovin' Life Ministries' band, Sonic Cult performs each Sunday at Lovin' Life Ministries' services) which are broadcast to over a hundred sites around the United States. The band has also performed at numerous locations around the U.S. and abroad in South America, Europe and Asia. Their debut album "Alive," produced by Rev. In Jin Moon, was released at the beginning of 2011 and can be sampled at www.mysoniccult.com. In the following exclusive interview, band members speak about In Jin Nim's vision for Sonic Cult and their role in Lovin' Life Ministries.
Question: What is the vision for the band Sonic Cult?
Mitsuru Kubo (viola and vocals): Sonic Cult grew from In Jin Nim's vision for Lovin' Life Ministries -- the style of worship, the style of music and the overall performance for the viewers.
Joshua Cotter (keyboard and vocals): From the very beginning, I think that In Jin Nim's vision for the band was for it to be an integral part of her ministry. The vision for that ministry is to transform the culture of our church into something inspirational and cutting edge. I feel that she's taking religious worship to a new level, where new music, and music that we've listened to in the past, can reach the hearts of people around the world. From the beginning, she wanted the best quality musicians and singers to represent our True Parents, to represent our movement.
Joe Young (lead guitar, band director): This is not only valuable to interfaith work but it can also go outside the religious community. I feel that when we write songs, we want to have a message for our own church community, the Christian community, the non-Christian community and the secular world; we are trying to reach everyone eventually.
Question: What is the meaning behind the name Sonic Cult?
Ben Lorentzen (lead singer, acoustic guitar): In the religious context the word "cult," has a negative feel to it, but in the pop-culture context, it has a positive feel. You can have a cult following, which is something cool. When we were trying to put together names, we were talking about the popular band Audio- slave, and how cool that name is with the word "audio" (sound) and "slave" -- you're a slave to sound. We were tossing around ideas; we wanted a combination of two words like that. So "sonic," meaning "sound," came from "audio," and "cult" came from thinking about people, so we are people that are into sound.
Joe Young: We want to affect culture. In a recent conversation with In Jin Nim, there was a mention that "cult" is the root word for "culture." Our name is sort of a play on words. We want to be influential, to change this culture for the better. So, there are a couple of angles there.
Joshua Cotter: In Jin Nim was also thinking of changing the way the culture sees our church, whether it is on the internet or anywhere else, and to use that word "cult" as if to bury the negative connotation and let people associate it with exactly what Ben was saying -- a group of people that love life and love music. It's definitely a strategic move in that sense.
Joe Young: Yeah, it wasn't just a coincidence. There was clearly an awareness of that word having an issue.
Joshua Cotter: I think that is In Jin Nim's genius. I think she is thinking in terms of our movement, our church. What should stay the same? The basics -- True Parents, God and our relationship with Him, the Divine Principle tradition. What needs to change? As she said in her sermon last week, this is not the time to suffer; it is time to explode into the richness of the original culture that God intended. What better way than to have explosive music?
Although other people may shun the act of talking about True Parents directly, she and her brothers are out there testifying to the breaking news of who True Parents are, in such a natural and powerful way. That's how she approaches everything -- turning it around to the positive.
Question: What effect have Lovin' Life Ministries and Sonic Cult had on the church in America so far?
Mitsuru Kubo: I can say from personal experience with my peers that Lovin' Life and the music that we play has helped bridge the gap between our first and second generations because we've taken the music that those in our first generation most commonly identify with, our worship music, and taken what the second generation prefers to listen to, stuff that is popular, contemporary and on the radio, and we've put it together.
We're saying, It's okay; we can play popular music and still be worshipping God and attending True Parents.
Ben Lorentzen: When our band went to Korea to play for True Parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary, we played the rock song, "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden, at the banquet. [Laughter by the band] We started off the song and you could see the shock on people's faces, like -- What's going on? But True Father seemed to think it was really cool! He was tapping his feet; he seemed to be digging the song more than anyone else in the audience was. That was a clear visual statement to me that things have changed. And the two people that have made this change for us, I believe, were Hyo Jin Nim and In Jin Nim. Those two people have had a huge impact on the freedom to express ourselves inside a religious community.
Joe Young: If you don't mind my adding to that, I think that as long as it is God-centered, as long as it is moral and kind to others, there is room for you to be excellent in different types of art forms, to enjoy different types of music and to harness the power of rock and roll, rather than reject it. I think that is another part of In Jin Nim's genius, harnessing the power of great music while tying it in gracefully to True Parents and their message.
Also, because of Sonic Cult, many bands have started up in our churches across America. It's creating a music revolution throughout the church.
Ben Lorentzen: At Lovin' Life, you see a crowd of grandparents, their kids and their grandkids, and they can all sing together on the chorus of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," or the song "God Gave Rock-and-Roll to You," by Kiss, which feels just fantastic. To play those songs, it feels as if we are bridging that gap between the generations, and that feels good.
Mitsuru Kubo: Instead of our parents trying to kick us out of bed on Sunday mornings to get us to church, it's the other way around. Kids are trying to get their parents to bring them to church in order to hear the music. I think that because young people are getting excited about church, they actually feel comfortable now inviting their friends from outside our community. It's easier to imagine inviting friends from your college; it's already happening all the time.
Joe Young: Yes, there is a confidence that comes with having a great band onstage, together with an excellent sermon from In Jin Nim. With these two things brought together, and the way they tie in together, you can feel confident to bring anyone to services and let them hear the content and be moved.
Who chooses the songs you perform at church each Sunday? Joe Young: As the band director, I like to get ideas from the band, and then we compile a suggestion list for In Jin Nim. She usually adjusts it to fit together with the sermon for that week, or gives us a whole new list that she comes up with. So, the bottom line is that every set list has to coincide with the sermon.
Mitsuru Kubo: It goes to show how much In Jin Nim has invested in the music; for her it is not separate from her sermon. It is really a package experience at church on Sunday. It's not, Okay, we'll listen to some music and then hear some words; it's completely one message. If you listen to her sermons, it's obvious that she is linking the music to her message.
Joe Young: In Jin Nim has often said in her sermons that music is prayer for Lovin' Life Ministries. So we want this to be a music ministry during Sunday Service; we want the music to have an emotional impact that prepares everyone to hear the service. We take that job seriously.
Question: What feedback have you received so far?
Joe Young: We get responses from people of just about every demographic, every age group. We have people in dozens of countries following us, including people from Africa, all over Asia, a big chunk of Japan, Norway (following Ben), and South America. And it's not just one small group like preteens, or ages thirteen through fifteen. I recently found out that many of my peers from California, including teachers and colleagues that I've worked with, are hitting the "Like" button on the Sonic Cult Facebook page. We are already crawling down a road that might reach many different kinds of people.
Joe Young: Also, recently when we were recording a Sonic Cult song, "Truth Revealed," the sound engineer, who is not in our movement, was listening to the lyrics and said, "This is something people need to hear." This was coming from someone outside our community. Even in the secular, non-religious community people feel there is of a lack of meaning in much of today's pop music. When I turn on the radio, I don't feel substance in the lyrics. I don't see the point of a lot of music now. So I think we are trying to hit mainstream in a way that brings something internal, something substantial.
Joshua Cotter: In Jin Nim has also constantly emphasized the importance of writing the songs, the intellectual property, and to me that is one of the most exciting things happening with Sonic Cult. She often refers to the Christian group, Hillsong, as a model. At the same time, she sees the limitations. Even though they can draw tens of thousands of people, they are limited to the Christian message in their words and their songs, and it limits who they can reach. So, her vision for the Lovin' Life band, which has now become Sonic Cult, is always for it to go beyond that model.
Joe Young: I agree with Josh that the strength of the band is the song writing. I have played with a lot of great musicians just by being in New York City, but for me the strength of this band from the very start was the song writing. When we first played one of Ben's songs, "Naked, Homeless and Hungry," it hit me internally. Lyrics and song writing wasn't something that I had been thinking about working on, so Ben has been sort of a mentor for me in the song writing department, as well as Josh, who has been writing great songs for a long time. I feel that that is one of our strengths. We have already written forty songs as a band.
Question: Wow, so do you expect more CDs to come out soon?
Joe Young: Absolutely! We are working on a new one to come out this year. From now on, we want to concentrate on the band's originals, so we are compiling them and are looking to work with an award-winning producer that is interested in helping us with this next record. Right now, we are discussing which songs should go on the record. Hopefully, we will start recording it in the early fall. Although the first CD we put out, Alive, was mostly live recordings, we want this CD to be on a new level of quality. (Please visit Sonic Cult's web site, www.mysoniccult.com, to download tracks from Alive.)
Question: What are your musical backgrounds, and how did you get involved with Lovin' Life's music ministry?
Ben Lorentzen: This question plays into another large strength that our band has, which is the variety of our musical backgrounds. Mitsuru has a classical background. I come from pop rock. Joe comes from jazz. Our drummer, Sang-min, comes from jazz and pop.
I was in a band called Brent before. We had a record deal in Norway, and we had released two albums. We had three songs on the top forty hits, so that was one of my previous band's accomplishments. So with that, I have accumulated some experience.
One vision In Jin Nim has for the band comes from a term she's used, an "iPod-list band." Kids are listening to music differently now than just ten years ago, because before the iPod, the way you accessed music was through buying a CD or a vinyl LP or listening to it on the radio. But now, you can download music, and what kids are going for is music that they like, not necessarily only one band or the full album. They create their own lists made up of all different sorts of music -- it's R and B, it's rock, its pop, it could be jazz, it could be classical.
Kids are listening to music differently and there is really no one out there serving that need right now, because the music industry is so formulaic. Many bands put songs out so that the radio stations will play them, and radio stations exist to promote the commercials, which is how they make money.
They have a list of things they are looking for in pop music -- it has to be this and that to serve the purpose of getting their commercials out. But In Jin Nim wants to go beyond that. The music industry is limited because of this policy, so they put out pop acts that sound exactly the same all the time. She wants to break those borders by having a band that has no limits -- we can do intimate songs with guitar, viola, and keyboards, and then we can rock it off on the next track. Our third song could be more jazz. We have no boundaries.
Another strength this band has is that it sounds and it looks international. That will be one of the biggest selling points. Only yesterday, our new drummer joined the band. His name is Sang-min Lee, who has played with some of the best pop acts in Korea, including "Rain," a performer that many in Korea would know. He recorded with him. He toured with him, and they played in the biggest venues in Korea, America and Southeast Asia. So having players who are of mixed origins is a huge strength for this band and can be a bridge between the Western and Eastern pop culture.
Joshua Cotter: Also, In Jin Nim knew exactly what she was doing in asking Ben to come here from Norway because of his extensive experience at making it in the music world, and not theoretically; the real experience is what she's looking for. And Joe's extensive experience, even though he's young, in the jazz world, fighting his way up and making it, is a huge asset. It's a hidden thing. You wouldn't know it, but the story should be told because that's really what's driving us.
Joe Young: I practiced very hard and got to a certain level as a high school student. I remember getting letters in the mail from the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard saying that I was accepted, but I wasn't of a mind to respond to them. Instead, I just moved out to New York City from California, at the age of nineteen, to compete in the most musical city in the world. I don't know what was driving me to go that route instead of the conventional "go to school and make yourself look flashy with a degree."
Because of my experiences in New York City, it makes perfect sense to me that it would be the home base for Sonic Cult -- because it is a city of competitiveness in the extreme. That's what attracted me about the city, so I have been here for six years, just climbing through the ranks, playing at different festivals and then doing more work. At times, it was an unglorified position of humility -- nothing tests your ego more than playing for three people that don't clap after any of the songs you play.
I did actually end up going to school, but I just had too much going on to graduate. I was travelling constantly to help with other people's records. I was also very lucky to travel around the country with a couple of bands; that experience was invaluable.
Mitsuru Kubo: Just two years ago, I was finishing up my performance diploma at a conservatory. I had dreams of auditioning for the big orchestras and all the symphonies, losing some and winning some, struggling to be able to do my art.
Yet my husband, David Hunter, had been MCing for Lovin' Life Ministries since it started. Finally, when I was done with school, I said that I should be attending service as well. After three or four months of being in the audience, watching the band play, I was thinking to myself that I wanted to be up there with them making music. Even though I am classically trained and I've never played Holy Songs or pop music, I want to be experiencing that and offering what I have, the tools I have honed over the last twenty years of my life. Even though this is not what I originally planned to do, essentially my biggest passion is to perform.
Joshua Cotter: I started my musical career at the age of eleven, playing in bands; my first group was called the Beatles Junior, and I was Paul. [Laughter] The Beatles are a huge part of my background, learning their songs by ear. Essentially this launched me into ten years of playing professionally in every possible place you can imagine. [Joshua Cotter later clarified that he and all his band members had the support of their parents, which kept them out of trouble though they performed even in bars.]
I evolved from that into jazz. When I was sixteen, I gave up the guitar because I saw one of the jazz legends on piano, so I taught myself jazz piano. Up to the time I met the church, I was totally absorbed in jazz, and just as every group always has a contract waiting, our group had a potential contract with Chick Corea as a manager at that time, back in the 1970s. However, my group broke up because of girlfriends. [Laughter] I was totally into that lifestyle up until the day I met our movement in California when I was twenty-two years old. From there, I realized that I had to offer music to God. It was my "Isaac," so to speak, so I didn't touch a piano for seven years. Yet, God gave music back to me in a unique way. For me, having this opportunity to be involved with this ministry, and in this band, is a huge humbling experience and a blessing. That's the short version of the story.
Ben Lorentzen: Yes, we have a bunch of great people in this band. The cool thing is that all the other band members clearly know we are in the Unification Church. Even Julian, our bass player.
Joe Young: I was rehearsing for a different gig with Julian recently, and the drummer asks Julian, "What have you been up to?" And he says, "Well, I've been playing for a church." The drummer asks, "What church?" And he says point blank "Unification Church." The drummer says, "Oh really, how is that?" and Julian says, "Oh, it's really cool." Then the drummer asks, "What's the Unification Church about?" I am over- hearing this conversation between these two, and Julian tells the drummer, "Oh, it's a really cool church. They are about connecting all the religions and going beyond the differences. And yeah... it's really cool. We get to play all these different styles of music. It's really awesome." He was essentially witnessing about our church to the drummer. He's not only adapted to our movement, he is also extremely comfortable with our message; it's just outstanding.
Julian has also mentioned that there is a list of people he knows who want to play with us because he has been talking about his experience so much, saying, "We get to play in this huge venue. We have these great song writers," and things like that. Now he's telling us, "All my friends want to be in Sonic Cult."
I thought that was awesome -- all these respected musicians are waiting to get the call to play in the band. That's really exciting.
Question: What are Lovin' Life's and Sonic Cult's plans for the future?
Joshua Cotter: The sky's the limit. In Jin Nim has placed no limitations on what this ministry can accomplish in reaching the world, or on what Sonic Cult can accomplish.
Our church in America is growing for the first time in decades. This is because of In Jin Nim's vision, which is being rolled out through Lovin' Life Ministries and the band. It's having an impact. Over two hundred new members have joined in the last year, and that's just a drop in the bucket. Our church is growing again, and you can't stop growth.
Ben Lorentzen: It's hard to say in particular how big this band can become. What I personally hope for is to see us be able to move many people. I would love to see, five years from now, ten bands from our community competing to be on that stage. That would give us Sundays off! [Laughter]
Joe Young: Yes, I hope the band becomes a driving force for people's individual lives. For whatever reason, we have felt the drive within us. I hope we awaken that in everyone else when we go up there and play a good song. I hope that people say,
Yeah, I can do that, too; it's achievable.
I would love to see more people from our community becoming amazing in their fields, in whatever they choose to do.
Ben Lorentzen: Our band talks about this when we write songs too. A huge message we want to put out through the lyrics in our music is about self-empowerment. You are God's son or daughter, so you can do whatever you want to do. With a good attitude, keeping the traditions that we learned from our True Parents and being sacrificial and humble, the sky is the limit. That's the powerful message that I hope to be able to get out there. To see a community that supports each other, helps each other, loves each other -- that would be fantastic. To know that we helped start that would be a blessing.