Brian Scoggin sat down for a Q&A and Keith Charley performed and then was immediately interviewed as well during the Winter 2017 NAMM show in California. Scoggin has been the drummer for Casting Crowns for the last eight years now and talks about how he had gotten that opportunity as well as thoughts from the stage, gear he’s using, and the band’s current tour and newest album. Keith Charley is a California-based jazz guitar player preparing for the release of a ten-song solo CD and then a tour to support it – all while being an audio systems manager at Sony (for the Playstation). He talks about his influences as well as the differences being a musician now versus when he was young and starting out.
BRIAN SCOGGIN
(On getting the opportunity to take over as the Casting Crowns drummer) “It’s much like every good opportunity – it was when I actually stopped trying… I wasn’t looking for it, it just kind of fell in my lap.”
“As a musician who goes on tour and plays the same set list every night, you can get bored from the music standpoint, right? But what we have to remind ourselves of is, this is our thousandth time playing this song, but, it’s their first and these songs are special. They’re not just fun, they’re not just good beats – these songs actually are touching people’s lives and pointing them to the truth. And that’s what keeps it fresh every night.”
“We don’t feel like we’ve got it together anyway. We hope that we’re professional in how we play, but we really depend on God every night. (Lead singer) Mark (Hall) will say a lot of the same things every night, but we never walk out there going, like, ‘Let’s just do this show and get out of here.’”
“I’m not blessed with the ability to do all the fast, crazy stuff. I like to watch it, ya’ know. So I do have my heroes and they’re usually guys who are pretty groove-based.”
“Instagram’s an amazing platform. Even for you guys out there who aren’t in a band… If you’ll get you a microphone, set it up in front of your drums, and record one-minute videos, you can build a following.”
“When you stop trying God just usually does what He wants to do.”
“I tell anybody, you gotta seek first God’s kingdom and all these things will be added unto you. I mean, really, God’s going to do what God wants to do, and you don’t want anything that He’s not wanting to do in your life.”
KEITH CHARLEY
“When you’re younger you’re in groups and kids are always going, ‘Oh, it’s gotta sound like this. You gotta put that thing there.’ Ya’ know, it’s like, you just have to have the feel of the song. You don’t have to have all the parts, you don’t have to have all the exact sounds.”
“I would almost label myself finger-style solo guitarist because it really didn’t come together for me until I started studying with Martin Taylor – who’s a great, great solo guitarist – and learning how to use my fingers and just getting rid of the pick so that I could be able to do the bass line, the melodies, the parts in unison.”
“I ran, like, a little ad campaign to kind of get my page in different areas and some of the countries like, Thailand, Indonesia – ya’ know, they’re really into that stuff and all of a sudden you start getting these people that you’ve never heard of and it’s ‘Oh that’s cool, that’s cool, I like that,’ so, that’s nothing that could ever have happened in my day when I was starting.”
“Being an older guy that started so much younger, it’s so much to try to figure out and experiment with. So, (I’m) having a lot of fun doing it… but it is overwhelming, with the computer and all this stuff that you can do.”
Brian Scoggin
“Voice of Truth”
“One Step Away”
Keith Charley
“Blues for Joe”
“Whole Lotta Love Blues”