P.O.D.
"Alive" and Well
BY CHRISTOPHER CRAIG

On their new album Satellite, P.O.D. proves to the world that their creative brand of cross-cultural, multi-influenced hard rock not only kicks ass, but that God is also in the details. Campus Circle recently spoke with bassist Traa Daniels about the band’s latest disc and the formula for their success.

How important was it for the group to prove its musical and spiritual depth on the new album?

It was very important, man. Getting the label of a rock-rap act is very limiting to a band. And it is especially limiting to us because we have so many diverse influences. There was a time when we used to do a jazz set at coffeehouses in San Diego, because our heavy music was too loud and we just wanted to play. If you listen to P.O.D.’s earlier stuff you can hear various musical styles: jazz, rock, reggae, metal, hardcore, rap, punk. This album is the album that P.O.D. had to make. It’s not that hard to just write a riff and rap over it. To us music is much deeper than that, and that’s what we hoped to show with this record.

The video for your hit single "Alive" opens with a fatal car collision with a bus. Tell me about the making of the video for the song and its meaning.

We get a lot of treatments from various video directors, and Francis Lawrence seemed to really get the vibe of the song and what it was all about. It’s about this kid having the perfect day, he’s surfing, skating, hanging out with his friends and the girlfriend that he loves. He’s doing all the things that he loves that day and he gets in this accident. You can have everything but life can end for you in a second. The whole idea being that you can’t take life for granted.

"Youth of the Nation" is a really powerful track on the new album. Is that going to be the next single?

That’s pretty much what we are leaning toward right now. We’re going to be doing something really cool with that track. "Youth of the Nation" is very intense song for us because the Santana High School shootings happened less than a mile from our studio. We were actually on the way to rehearsal when all of that went down. We pulled into the studio and watched it all unfold on TV. It was an intense and emotional time, a real dark day. We had already been working on the song and it was kind of dark-sounding. We were thinking about the kids and the tragedy at Columbine and then after the Santana High School thing happened we worked on it and finished the song that day.

Rolling Stone recently called Satellite the most soulful hard rock record this year. How good does it feel to make music that your kids can listen to and be proud of as opposed to most of today’s aimless ranting?

It makes me feel real good man. Like I said before it all goes back to us just being true to ourselves. In spite of all the things that are going on in the world right now with bombings and things like that, it feels good to know that we have never tried to cash in on people’s grief or anything like that. Our albums have always been positive and uplifting. It makes me proud of the guys in the band that we can be as musically progressive as other bands but still maintain our integrity while doing it. I mean, my parents and my kids can listen to this record and still rock out as hard as everyone else without having to plug their ears (from the content).

Why do you think so many other bands count on gimmicks instead of heart and prefer style to substance?

Some of those guys are young and naive and don’t have enough to say, while others just lack artistic ability. If you write good music you don’t need gimmicks. One of my favorite bands is U2 and at their last concert those dudes just walked out with the lights up, put on their instruments and rocked it. .

Can you see a spiritual thirst and search for meaning among many young fans today?

I find a lot of kids are thirsting for a lot of things. A lot of kids are thirsting for love from their parents. The spiritual end of it is important too, but I think a lot of that starts with the parents and starts with being loved by your family. I find that most of the kids I see, whether it be girls who cling on to every guy they meet, or guys that try to be harder than everyone else, those kids are really just looking for love from their parents.

How did you fans get called "The Warriors?"

That term just shows the unity and friendship that we have with all of our fans. The warriors are our fans and friends that have been with us from the beginning. Kids that let us sleep on their floors and shower at their houses when we were on the road and just starting out. They are people that want to make a positive difference in the world and go against what everybody else is doing.

In an industry known for rewarding artists that create so much vapid, heartless music, how is it that P.O.D. have been so successful?

Probably the fact that we’ve just been true to ourselves. We’ve never tried to follow the industry or what other people are doing. We’ve always been the underdogs in this industry, always. We’ve never had an easy road to the top. We’ve never had an easy road to anything. People have always been against us before they’ve been for us just because they think they know what we are going to do or what we are about. So all that being said, we as a band have always had to do four times as much to get half as far as everyone else. We are happy and very grateful with what we have. Some bands may sell more units, but we don’t care about that. To us it’s about how much of a positive difference can we make with the youth of America, affecting change in people’s hearts and the way they treat each other.