DESCRIPTION When Andrew Osenga sits down with the guys from the iconic Christian rock band PFR (Joel Hanson, Patrick Andrew, and Mark Nash), it’s, in the band’s words, the first podcast they’ve ever done. The conversation starts with how the group met each other at a Minnesota summer camp and started the band, moves through a GRAMMY nomination for their debut record, a forced name change, and four records before the three of them shut the band down on their own terms. They talk about a 2001 comeback record that lost its label just as it came out, a bus that went off the road during the promo tour and a 40-city run that was canceled. Then they skip ahead to a stretch of about ten years when the three of them were never in the same place, and how a Thanksgiving 2021 text from Patrick led to a meetup at a cabin in Wisconsin. A conversation with a rabbi at Patrick’s house in Arizona, about an archery term, later helped shape the title of their new album, “Target and the Arrow.” Thought-Provoking Quotes: “I gave up having to be right and being certain a handful of years ago. I held on to that into my 50s, but I started to realize I’m holding on to a certainty that I’m not completely certain of. So I’m kind of lying to myself.” - Joel Hanson “Twenty-five years ago, we would have been the ones answering a lot of questions. Now we’re asking a lot more questions.” - Patrick Andrew “We were given a microphone and lights and a ‘go-tell-people-how-to-live.’ And that’s a huge responsibility for guys who are literally so young in any of this and just trying to figure it out.” - Joel Hanson “The environment I spent a lot of years in, if you’re asking questions, you’re the problem.” - Joel Hanson “None of us have the time we think we have to maybe do the thing. So either get ruthless about what you’re not gonna do so that you can go after that thing, or don’t.” - Joel Hanson, recounting what his friend Alan told them “It’s almost like the music that we’ve always created was just waiting for us to find each other again.” - Joel Hanson “When we’re around each other for any length of time, songs just start trying to poke out from the ground.” - Joel Hanson “This word that we’ve translated as sin, it’s like an archery term. It’s literally like missing the mark, like your trajectory isn’t right. And repentance is turn, redirect, point yourself in the trajectory that will bring life.” - Joel Hanson, recounting Alan’s teaching “We were super young. We didn’t know we could ask for things or say no.” - Mark Nash “To have male friends that I know see me and love me and are for me. And we don’t have to think exactly like each other. We don’t have to have any hive mind.” - Joel Hanson Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned: “Target and the Arrow,” the band’s new album. Earlier PFR records: “Great Lengths,” “Them,” “Disappear”The Roaring Lambs compilation“The Bookhouse Recordings”Albums recorded at Pachyderm: Nirvana’s In Utero, Live’s Throwing Copper, the Breeders’ Last Splash, and the Beavis and Butt-Head movie soundtrack.The film “That Thing You Do!”Camp ShamineauLifeWay bookstores*Watch this interview on Andrew’s YouTube channel! *All episode music is by Andrew Osenga. Guest’s Links: PFR’s YouTube PFR’s Instagram PFR’s Bandcamp Connect with Andrew: Website YouTube Substack Spotify Facebook Instagram How to Remember by Andrew Osenga Hold the Light by Andrew Osenga The Quiet Hours Book Series by Andrew Osenga Acoustic Hymns by Andrew Osenga *The Pivot is produced in conjunction with Four Eyes Media.
