While there was no shortage of good times in the studio, the challenge for this 7-year-old, four-piece outfit was to maintain a signature sound while evolving into new musical territory. Pellerin calls the record, “a big stretch,” but he promises diehard fans won’t be disappointed with the departure.
“I grew up with the ’80s pop/rock stuff like Van Halen; Adam is a pop guy, and Jordan is a punk guy. When we come together musically, it’s a collaboration of the four of us [with bassist Brian Calcara]. Because of Adam’s melodies, it still sounds like Stellar Kart,” he says.
Continues Agee: “We got together in a room, mashed earplugs in our ears and jammed out. This is where the creativity of the band comes in and makes the lyrics and melody into a song.”
While the band laid down 10 tunes for
Expect the Impossible, some tracks inevitably end up on the cutting room floor. “They were repetitive, and we didn’t want to go down a road we’d already been on,” Pellerin adds.
While the band mines new sonic landscapes on
Expect the Impossible, the lyrics also take an unexpected turn. “The [lyrics] hold more of an outside influence, as opposed to what I’m going through personally.” Agee says. “Simple” and “direct” are still the first-choice adjectives to describe Agee’s compositional style, a talent that won him accolades for co-writing the band’s rock radio smash and Dove award winning “Me and Jesus.”
“‘Me and Jesus’ was a ladder between album two and three, and without that song, I don’t think this record would be what it is,” Pellerin says. Besides legitimizing the band in the eyes of its peers and industry execs, Pellerin says more importantly, they saw lives changed. “At every show, people tell us how that song helped them through [bad circumstances]. ‘Me and Jesus’ inspired us to get to the point, because we saw what it could do,” Pellerin says.
Life on the road, most recently accompanying newsboys on the “GO Tour” for 50 dates, afforded Stellar Kart the opportunity not only to whip thousands of listeners into a frenzy with its arena anthems, but it placed the band in direct contact with their fans. Post-concert, the guys heard story after story at the merchandise table.
Agee notes the impact of these heart-to-hearts: “There is so much more available to kids—good and bad things. A lot of it has to do with relationships kids are in. Everyone’s looking for love and acceptance.” Agee, a relatively new father, has a one-year-old little girl at home. What Stellar Kart has to offer is “hope, love and companionship,” he says.
This is where these jokesters get serious. Songs like the aforementioned “Innocence” address purity from an oft-overlooked male perspective:
Everyone just tolerates what’s wrong/I’m not some empty space for rent/I want to be innocent.“We want to provide the positive way while still keeping it fun and uplifting. We want to say, ‘Here are mistakes we made back in the day. Don’t make those same mistakes,’” says Agee, “and ‘here’s a way out: Jesus loves you.’”
Lizza Connor Bowen is a singer/songwriter (lizzaconnor.com) and freelance journalist who, like Stellar Kart, loves God, great music and a good laugh (every day if possible).