Can you tell how the band began and what you've been doing over the years?

David Zurcher: The story of Space In Your Face began in 1993. At that time we were called Undershelter and neither Sam (our singer) or Krisna (our DJ) were in. In fact we really started from Zero because not anyone of us had a personal experience of a band. The first time we got together in the rehearsal room it went so bad. We were playing a kind of Def Leppard rock 'n roll. But those days were necessary for what would come next and it’s really interesting for a band to progress together. Krisna joined Space in 1996 and Sam in 1998, and since then we’re working hard on our music. Last year (2001) just after the recording of   The True Essence Of Life, Krisna who had already played some machine stuff on the record wanted to stop playing bass guitar to become a full time DJ, so now he is DJ. I started playing bass guitar and we’re a one guitar player band.

The band is named after a record from the Galactic Cowboys. But instead of music in the vein of the Cowboys the new album The True Essence Of Life features rapcore inspired by bands such as Limp Bizkit. How has your music developed over the years?

David Zurcher: The band name Space In Your Face was adopted in..... The Netherlands, that's true. To be precise, at the Flevo Festival. The Cowboys didn’t play there but we were always listening to that tape....One night after the shows, we were watching the sky with a lot of stars that night, it was so beautiful, we reminded that verse in the Bible that says “The heaven declares...” and we said, yes that’s what we wanna do, to bring to people a little bit of that glory. We wanna bring them Space in their faces.

Okay, that's the name thing. But, back to the question, how has your music developed over the years? You started out with a Def Leppard kind of music?

David Zurcher: Yes, we started out with playing a kind of eighties hair metal, mixed with grunge influences (we were fans of the Smashing Pumpkins at the time). But when Sam joined the band we changed direction, playing a kind of rapcore/metal/crossover with a lot of groove and energy.

What are the main influences to the sound of the band and how important are these bands to your own perspective on music?

David Zurcher: We don’t have any specific influences but we are curious about what other bands are playing. We came from different musical backgrounds in the band and we really listen to all kind of stuff. We are open to different things such as rap music, trip hop or even pop rock music, but we’re playing metal – rapcore music. So you mentioned Limp Bizkit, of course we have listened to them, as we listen to Korn, but I believe we begin to have a musical identity, and that’s what is important for us. We are really impressed about what is done by P.O.D., they’re doing a breakthrough into the secular scene and they really need our prayers....

Like I said, The True Essence Of Life is the new album. There's no titlesong on the album, nor did I see a phrase with these words. So, what's the idea behind the title?

David Zurcher: In fact, most of songs on the album were written a long time before the recording of it, and the title of the album was found later, but there is a kind of concept behind the title, and the cover... We wanted to say to people that there is something more that meet the eyes. This title is for us a way of saying, that both biological and spiritual life comes from the same source, that is God. And we wanna encourage people to dig in the lyrics and find some answers to some of their questions. In fact we don’t want to appear as just another rock band, even a “christian rock band”, and we don’t either want to be just “preachers”, but we really want to be a kind of door betweeen heaven and earth, pouring out to our audiences the life of Jesus. We’re just around to allow Jesus to shine through us and to manifest the true essence of his life in our music.

Space In Your Face is from France. Your country is not exactly known for its hard music. Personally, when I think of France I think of chanssons and that sort of folkish music. How's really the scene in your country? What about other bands and chances to play live?

David Zurcher: Yes, Space In Your Face is from France. We love our country but we have to realize that metal music isn't popular in the “latin” countries. In the secular scene you can really find good bands in metal or rapcore music but most of the time these bands have no way of projecting their music out of the country. In the Christian scene, there are some good pop-rock or even rap band but that’s it. Except Day By Day from Marseille who are playing some punk rock, we are the only hard band. The Christian media accept and support us but they won’t take risks inviting us, as they say that the Christian audiences are not ready yet for such a hard music.

So you probably don't play Christian places often. How about secular venues? And how do people receive you?

David Zurcher: In secular gigs, we try to worship God while we're playing our music. It's important because we want the audience to feel that there is something different with us. We're not necessarily saying “Jesus” or “God” all the time, but we also have some clear Christian lyrics in French for French people or in English, so….we let our music do the talking. In Belfort, where we're from, most of people know that we're Christians, some of them hate us for that, but the majority has no problem with it.

Interestingly, the band has a clear Christian message. When I think of the youth of today I see their prosperity, their chances to make of their lives what they want to make of it. They don't seem to have restraints to go on. Why do you want to bring over a message to such people that seem to live happy already without religion?

David Zurcher: First of all, yes we have a christian message but we’re absolutely not into religion. That is to say that we believe in Jesus and what he can do in a life and we’re not promoting a human organisation. Especially in France, people need to understand that being a Christian has nothing in common with Catholicism, or the Pope and so on so forth… We are only five normal guys believing and living for Jesus. Our message is about having a relationship with God through Jesus and that’s it. We don’t have all the answers to all the questions but we’re here to say to people to stop thinking and seeing things the way this world or the media shows us things.   Seek Jesus and listen to your heart.

Earlier you said that you hope that people will find some answers to their questions through the lyrics of the album. What questions do you think are non christians walking around with and do you feel they still haven't found the true essence of life? What are your ideas about this?

David Zurcher: In fact, in the western world, most of people seems to have no problem, no questions, they just want to enjoy life and that's it, but when you dig a little bit you'll find out that they are scared. They don't know who they are, why they're on earth, they're afraid for death. So first we need to help them to formulate questions about themselves, their destiny and then to show them that Jesus is the way. There is too much apathy here in Europe…

 If you would look into the crystal ball of the future, what do you hope to see? What are your plans that you hope to unfold in the months to come? I mean, what about concerts? Writing songs?

David Zurcher: For the future? Maturity is the important word for us in the band for the moment. We wanna have more maturity in our relation with God, in our relations inside the band, more maturity in the communication with the audience and more maturity in our song writing. We have written some new songs and we are really happy with them, but for the moment we need to play everywhere we can. We're not a professional band, we all have jobs but we wanna play and promote our album, so if you want to invite us we're okay...

Okay, and when will the band launch its website?

David Zurcher: Soon…….