Relient K’s constantly evolving sound

MANILA, Philippines - Relient K is one of the most durable, famous and well-loved rock bands in America that you’ve never heard of.

Surprisingly, Relient K has hundreds of loyal and dedicated fans in the Philippines who made a request to Ayala Malls to feature them in their live shows.

“We’ve received a lot of inquiries about Relient K, asking that they be invited to play live in Manila. So we contacted the band and they’ve agreed to perform here. We want to give our consumers what they’re asking for,” Ayala Land  senior division manager Maricris Bernardino told reporters at Relient K’s Makati presscon last Thursday.

Relient K is currently in town for a series of performances set for today at 4 p.m. at the Alabang Town Center’s Activity Center and at 6:30 p.m. at the Glorietta 5 Atrium. Tomorrow, Relient K will be at the Trinoma Activity Center at 6 p.m. Yesterday, the group performed before its ardent fans at the Market! Market! Activity Center.

To the unfamiliar, Relient K started as a Christian punk-rock band that built its audience by playing songs of faith for the Christian marketplace.

Formed in the late ’90s, the band has released seven albums, sold over two million records in the US, won two Dove Awards and clinched three RIAA gold-certified albums.

Relient K scored a Grammy nomination in 2003 for Best Rock Gospel album. The band has successfully crossed over to mainstream in 2004 with its album Mhmm, which debuted at No.15 on the Billboard 200. Its most successful album to date, Four Score and Seven Years Ago, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, selling 60,000 records in the first week.

Relient K released last July its seventh album Collapsible Lung and some of the popular songs in the album include Don’t Blink, If I Could Take You Home and Boomerang.

At the presscon, two of the founding members, Matthew Hoopes and Matthew Thiessen, said they were happy to be in Manila and grateful for their Filipino fans’ support.

“It’s our first time here and it’s been very great. We’re looking forward to the experience of meeting our fans here,” Hoopes told reporters at the presscon.

On their Facebook page, they said they already ate some delicious donuts in Glorietta, watched The Killers concert and ran into POD members at a toy store.

Hoopes shared to the media that Relient K was named after his beloved Plymouth Reliant K car. However, to avoid infringement over the Reliant name, the band altered the spelling.  

Asked how the band evolved over the years, Thiessen said they did a lot of experimenting on the sounds of the band, incorporating piano and drums, shifting from punk to pop and rock to pop and even adding hip-hop sounds like rap. Basically, they said they’ve combined a lot of musical genres in their music.

Hoopes and Thiessen are the only original members who remained with the band. Their new members include John Warne, Jon Schneck and Ethan Luck.

“As we got older, we’ve tried to introduce different genres to our songs. We really like pop-punk bands and we want to be like them. But as we matured, we varied our music, we introduced a lot of sounds to our songs, we basically introduced music that constantly evolves, whatever that inspires us,” Hoopes said.

On Collapsible Lung, Hoopes and Thiessen chorused that they’ve made an effort to try something new.

“There are songs in this album that we used real drums and real pianos. We were attentive to what each song needs, does it need a rhythm guitar? Does it need synthesizers? In this album, we really pushed ourselves musically. We challenged ourselves to produce something new for the fans,” Hoopes said.

For his part, Thiessen said he concentrated on being the vocalist of the band, singing freely than he normally does, allowing some mistakes but still doing his best to sing the songs.

“It was a record that surprised ourselves. We made an effort to make this album truly different and new from our past album,” said Thiessen.

Thiessen also said that for Collapsible Lung, Relient K collaborated with top songwriters in pop today: Fernando Garibay (Lady Gaga,) Ari Levine (Cee Lo Green and Bruno Mars), Evan Bogart (Beyoncé and Rihanna) and Tim Pagnotta (lead singer/writer for Sugarcult.)

Thiessen, touted by music critics as a prolific writer, has himself co-written hits for Kelly Clarkson’s Long Shot, Owl City’s Good Time with Carly Rae Jepsen and the award-winning Can I see you again from animated-film Wreck it Ralph.

“Writing a song is easy, especially if you have the formula. But what challenges us to write is music that inspires us and stimulates us, we don’t simply want to follow the formula,” said Thiessen.

Asked about their future plans and where they see Relient K’s music heading in the future, Hoopes and Thiessen said they will just go with the flow.

“I don’t think we ever planned this out and I don’t think that it will turn out the way you think it will, speaking from our experience. I don’t know where we’re gonna go. We just want to do what is inspiring to us at this time and share it to our fans and try different new things and break out of the mold,” Hoopes said.