CCM: When the milestones begin to add up, does that become more challenging to protect that?
NC: It can, to be perfectly honest. You get to a point where it’s not just the five guys in the band. It becomes all of the people working around you and for you and with you. Outside of that, there are expectations of people that are listening to your music, coming to the shows, buying the records. All of that stuff plays into what we’re doing and it would be dishonest for me to say that doesn’t come into play, since it does. You can start to feel this pressure for a song like “I Can Only Imagine,” how do you follow that up? What do you do with that? [Laughs]

There were some moments early on when we didn’t know what to do. We knew that we couldn’t recreate what “I Can Only Imagine” has done, so we didn’t even try. We decided to say, “You know what, let’s write about what we’re passionate about. Let’s stay honest and if people stick with us, so be it.” So yeah, we’ve had multiple occasions over the years to feel the pressure. Some of that was self-imposed, trying to fulfill our own wants and desires over the years that wasn’t always healthy. But it’s been very character-driven over the years. At this point, we all really trust each other when things come up to ask if we’re on the right track.

CCM: Is that key to your longevity?
NC: I think so. With anything, you get a bunch of people together and you can get different egos flying around the room. It’s easy to get your feelings hurt when you don’t get your way. But we always have what we call this MercyMe filter when it comes down to songwriting. Let’s say we intended to write something rock and roll, we have done in the past, we have demos that no one will ever hear that creep up on Metallica. [Laughs] Not really, but you know what I mean. But we start writing and it all goes through this filter where it sounds like MercyMe.

We try to push the boundaries, but to be perfectly honest, the song is more important to us. I’ve had guys over the years ask me about our first few label records where we didn’t change things up a whole lot. They wanted us to be edgier, but I’d say, “That’s really just not what we do.” We’re a pop-rock band and enjoy writing songs that mean something to people. If certain instrumentation gets in the way, then we avoid that. We got some criticism early on for that sort of thing, but we just try to write important songs. I think we still feel that way.

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