11 Questions With Hawk Nelson’s Jonathan Stiengard
Hawk Nelson’s guitarist talks about Hawk Nelson’s incredibly busy year, his personal life and the new FOX RUN album.

With the impending release of FOX RUN , the debut solo recording from Hawk Nelson guitarist Jonathan Stiengard on February 20th, YourMusicZone.com had a chance to speak with Stiengard about Hawk Nelson’s incredibly busy year, his personal life and the new FOX RUN album.

1. What are you up to?

Well, it’s been a busy year. We’ve toured with newsboys, tobyMac, Jeremy Camp and a few others… It was kind of bizarre to play for such big crowds every night, as there were as many as 16,000 people at the show on any given night. Weve been doing small 20-show tours, and a lot of festivals. The festival season this year has been pretty insane. It has involved a LOT of flying, not sleeping, and plenty of Starbucks! Somewhere in the middle of all this craziness, I’ve been working on my own record, which is actually just about ready to be released. The name of this side project is FOX RUN.

2. What has been your most memorable or inspirational gig and why?

I still think, after everything i’ve experienced in the U.S., that my favourite show each year is the Y.C. conference in Edmonton, Alberta. There’s just no crowd like a Canadian crowd, and I re-learn that every year at Y.C. Youth Groups pack out the Rexall Centre, and it’s just such a crazy atmosphere. 20,000 crazy Canadians can’t be wrong, right? haha. In addition to the amazing crowds, YC always puts us up in a beautiful hotel, and takes such good care of us.

3. What is your vital daily ritual?

I find an incredible amount of comfort in some pretty mundane things. I actually love to set up my own gear every day. Taking amps and guitars out of their cases…. plugging everything in and putting it together… tuning and adjusting guitars… I just love it. I think it’s because it’s such mindless work, that it gives me time to think. It just forces me to take some quiet time, you know? Then, when it’s all done, i can turn it up to 11 and hurt everyone’s ears!!!

4. What has been your strangest/favorite celebrity encounter?

During my first week playing with Hawk Nelson, we got to meet HeidiKlum, the famous Victoria’s Secret model. We were playing on amorning TV show in Minnesota, and she was the other guest for the day. I was more than a little shy, because we had all just driven through the night to be on the show, and I felt disgusting. She was gorgeous, by the way… Even in person, up close!

5. Why do you live where you do?

Well, the “where do you live?” question has been a little tough to answer the last few years. I am from Barrie, Ontario, Canada, and my family still lives there now. However, Hawk Nelson is mostly based out of Nashville, and I have been living in San Diego of late. It’s abit of a crazy situation, with some of my stuff in Barrie, some in Nashville, and some in San Diego. I am dating a wonderful girl from San Diego, and her family lets me crash at their house when I have time off. I love getting a break from the whole music “scene” when Ihave time off, and living in San Diego is perfect for that.

6. What do you think of when you think of Canada?

My perspective on Canada has been constantly changing over the last few years. Initially, I was excited to spend time in a country other than Canada. The United States seemed so big and exciting compared to Canada. It was the same feeling I got when I moved into Barrie from a small town. It seemed like there was so much to do, and so many exciting people and things. However, as I’ve gotten older, and life hasn’t slowed down, I’ve started to appreciate peace and quiet a bit more. I miss the small town feel that so much of Canada has, and I would LOVE to own a cottage in Northern Ontario or British Columbia at some point.

7. Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art:

Hmm… Well, I tend to gravitate to literary art instead of visual art. I get fascinated by great books and stories. I have been hung up on C.S. Lewis for years. Everyone knows him primarily for his Narnia Series, which I love, but I was far more taken with a few of his other books. The Great Divorce, one of his lesser-known works, is one of the best books I’ve read in my whole life. It deals with the whole notion of the divorce between Heaven and Hell. It was crazy for me to think that the only thing that keeps people out of Heaven is their own pride, and this book completely changed my perspective on the whole subject.

8. What have been your career highs and lows?

My family would be the first to mention that I have pretty big high and lows to begin with, and most people’s highs and lows only get more pronounced when they start touring a lot. That definitely happenned to me. I think the guys in the band would confirm that (laughs).

I would say that my career low was when we parted ways with our drummer, Matt Paige, and the whole balance of the band was thrown off. We had just finished a great tour with Audio Adrenaline and tobyMac, and now we were playing our own shows, which weren’t nearly as exciting to me. We were trying out drummers, and nobody really fit. I remember one morning when we had driven through the night, as we had done for the last few days, and we were all SO tired. We couldn’t seem to find the venue that we were supposed to play at that night. We were lost. We parked in a lot outside a pizza joint, and just sat there. None of us had the energy to care anymore. I remember Daniel just went back to bed, and everyone was just like… “Whatever, I don’t even care if we get there anymore. Let’s just go home.”

My career high probably came around the same time, however. It’s funny how often that happens. We had an opportunity to film a part in a Paramount Pictures film called “Yours, Mine, and Ours”. The movie stared Renee Russo and Dennis Quaid, and we got to play ourselves in a house party scene. The scene called for a band to play in the kitchen, and we got to play that band. We even wrote a song specifically for the movie (Bring ‘Em Out was written for this film.) We spent three days on set, and got to hang out with the rest of the cast… It was incredible!

9. What was your most memorable day job?

My most memorable day job was probably working at a Veterinary Hospital. I was a Veterinary Assistant for almost three years before I joined Hawk Nelson, and most people don’t know how close I was to actually going in that direction as a career (laughs). My job consisted of maintaining medical records, starting and finishing appointments, assisting in surgery, and performing whatever tasks my doctor needed. It was a great job. I learned tons, and the doctor i was paired with let me do a lot on my own. I still like to visit the hospital when I go back to Barrie.

10. Finish this sentence. Given the opportunity I would…

Given the opportunity I would learn to fly a plane. I thought about trying to become a pilot, but I couldn’t have pursued this as a career, because I have terrible eyesight. Another useless fact about me… I’m legally blind! I have special glasses, and super strong contacts (laughs).

11. Tell us about FOX RUN!

FOX RUN is my new sideproject. I love playing in Hawk Nelson, but I wanted an avenue to write and make music on my own as well. FOX RUN is the result of that desire. I’m releasing the FOX RUN full-length debut record through Audiophoria Recordings to Canadian Christian retailers on February 20th . Check it Out!

(Note: FOX RUN will be value priced at $9.99 and is featured this week on HearItFirst.ca together with Anberlin’s third release Cities.)

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