Thousand Foot Krutch. Left to right: Nick Baumhardt, Steve Augustine, Joel Bruyere and Trevor McNevan.

ife in the rock-and-roll spotlight breeds some interesting characters. Out of all the bands you’ll meet, however, very few carry themselves like the four young men from Toronto, Canada, known as Thousand Foot Krutch. Instead of living it up or obsessing over their own music and personas, TFK remains interested in what matters most – utilizing their platform to serve students across the continent.

Not that the guys in TFK haven’t had their fair share of success. The band’s six studio albums have sold almost a half-million copies to date and they’ve earned major TV placements on shows like Smallville and ESPN broadcasts. Tours with some of rock music’s biggest names have made TFK concert favorites all over North America. Despite these accomplishments, vocalist Trevor McNevan insists his calling hasn’t changed: to be a role model and inspiration to teens everywhere.

A reason to sing

“I haven't been a Christian my entire life, but I got saved when I was in my late teens,” explains McNevan. “I was involved with a great youth group and was also involved with a lot of music in our community. I think my love for high school students and youth culture came from being a youth leader for a few years. But even more than that, there's just a lot of fun in teenage politics, if you can call it that. There's a lot of turmoil. There's a lot of overdramatic feelings and statements, and you think you know everything when you really don't know anything. You get old enough to realize that it's how you felt at the time, and then it turns funny.”

CD album cover.

He describes the teen phase of life. “You grow so much. The choices you face are awesome, learning to make your own decisions and where you're going to head. It's a big part of shaping who we become and our early life experiences. I love meeting kids in that place and impacting them.”

He adds that pop/rock music is youth-oriented and helps kids describe what they are thinking and feeling.

To properly maintain and nurture the calling of Thousand Foot Krutch, McNevan explains the interior life of the band remains as important as anything. It’s not always easy to get along in such a confined space while sleeping, eating and playing alongside the same handful of people every night. With a proper focus on what’s important, however, the members of TFK manage to stay a healthy community.

Refusing to fight

“Being in a band is like nothing else I've ever experienced in life,” says McNevan. “It really is like a marriage. It's different than a marriage, of course, because you don't have just two people. You have four or five guys. But that commitment and closeness is there. In our band, I've always been the songwriter and I'm an original member. I don't say that in a cocky way at all. I'm just saying that every band has an arrangement to it and that's just the way it's ended up. So there are usually a couple of guys in the band who are in the forefront of being in charge and then a couple of guys who are great at other things, and you work well together.”

“While every band is different, they each have their own set of politics,” he continues. “It's taken years to develop our community, and it's a really healthy community in most ways. In other ways, we're still working through stuff. It's about being in a band with brothers, since we're all guys. But we can't say certain things since we're not real brothers. Some people are more sensitive than others. We've spent years learning to be sensitive enough to each other to work well together. We know when to push buttons and when it's not worth it. There's a chemistry there that we definitely have to work at.”

Most importantly, says McNevan, the band members refuse to carry their anger with them on the road. If there are issues between them, they immediately take care of them. In this way, they’re able to keep the sun from going down on their anger (Ephesians 4:26) and enjoy the fruits of true Christian community.

“We never fight. That's one thing that we never do,” says McNevan. “We never carry any sort of animosity toward anyone, and there are no egos. We all feel so blessed to be in this band and to do the ministry that we do. I'm a firm believer in what the Bible says about doing what we need to do and then God will do the impossible. So we work hard together to get along in the band and focus on the right things. Then we trust that God will take care of the rest.”

Thousand Foot Krutch. Left to right: Steve Augustine, Trevor McNevan and Joel Bruyere.

After so much time spent looking out for the needs of others, it’s important for the members of TFK to take personal time out to recharge and refocus. The band has long realized this, as even the TFK moniker “symbolizes the point in our lives that we realize we can't make it on our own strength.” For McNevan, it’s about getting away from the tight confines of the bus or van and finding some open space to meditate on God and Scripture.

“Every night after signing autographs and meeting people, I put my headphones on and go for a walk in the city that we're in,” says McNevan. “That's a good time for me to connect with God and find some space to think and reflect. We all do our own personal devotions in our bunks instead of doing that as a group. We do devotional time with other bands on some tours, but usually we do that ourselves.”

He adds that the band members hold each other accountable for what they can. “We are blessed in this band not having to deal with some bigger issues of having someone addicted to narcotics or other drama,” he states. “Everyone here is married and happy, and we love making music and reaching out to kids. We're in a good place.”