From the back of a speeding van, traversing across the country, Stellar Kart lead vocalist Adam Agee spoke with me about the band’s growth and its present giddiness.

Just having been recently signed to Word Records, Stellar Kart hit the studio swiftly to record their debut “All Gas. No Break”, a fun pop-punk album filled with loads spirituality and relevance. Ranging in ages between 20 and 23 the band is at the right age to easily identify with the “youth group” generation. Aside from being self-produced, their debut was written entirely by the band, with the exception of one interesting cover song as you’ll discover below. Word Records’ Blaine Barcus (VP of A & R) connected with Stellar Kart instantaneously. Barcus was quoted as saying, “I loved Stellar Kart from the moment I first heard them. They write melodic, hooky pop/rock songs that you can’t stop singing, and their energy onstage is contagious. The clincher, however, is Stellar Kart’s mission to impact youth culture for Christ.”

I wholeheartedly agree that the band’s clarity of message and method of delivery makes this debut very exciting. Read on below for a little insight into the band’s beginnings and a glimpse of what is to come.

The Interview

The band has a little bit of a background in youth ministry. Could you tell me more about that?

We started out as a youth group praise band about three years ago. Our youth group had about six people in it, and eventually it grew and we grew (as a band). We started doing worship for other youth groups and then some concerts and it progressed from there.

What kind of camps did you perform at?

We did a bunch of different camps and it wound up being like a tour because we would just go one week to the next going to different (youth) camps. We played a big youth evangelism conference at the beginning of the summer of 2001, and from that a bunch of youth pastors got our name and started calling. From that point on we never made an outbound phone call for a show for like two years.

How did it come about that you ended up at Word Records?

Cody, our guitar player, had a friend who was a cousin of Justin Unger from Across the Sky, and they’re on Word. So we turned our demo into him, he gave it to their A & R guy and they fell in love with it. We had a couple of other labels looking at us after the buzz began and we got to Nashville, but we stayed true to Word because they were our first contact.

With your debut album you were able to self-produce the whole thing?

We’ve been playing music for awhile, and we knew how we were going to do the songs so we just went into the studio and knocked them out. We actually recorded the same songs plus a few new ones from our demo.

You picked on Bon Jovi a bit?

The label wanted us to put a cover song on there so we came up with (Livin’ On A Prayer), we totally redid it, and everybody loved it!

The direction that Stellar Kart took with the debut album, particularly the clarity of the lyrics, seems to be going against the grain in the industry today. Much of the focus is on crossing over and getting a deal with a second label in the secular market. Bands like yourself and Kutless, who you’re touring with, seem to be sticking to music for the churched. Does the band think about this, and is this where you want to be?

This is definitely where we want to be right now. We have a real heart for youth and we think they are really going to like our style of music. Also, the music is done in a way that youth can play it for their friends who don’t go to church and they’ll still appreciate it as good music. Once they listen to it a couple more times they’ll (discover) the meaning of the songs. It’s just something cool that the kids can play for their friends. Yes, it’s definitely for the youth kids, but it’s also something for them to share with their friends who don’t go to church.

What is the band most excited about right now?

I think we’re most excited about having a real record for the first time in our lives. We just signed 1000 copies of it for internet sales, and that was the first time we got to see our CD booklet so we’re feeling like a real band. To actually see the CD’s come in and to be able to sell a real CD is going to be really cool. Also going on the tour with Kutless is going to be cool.