In the past week, I posted a pair of interviews with groups I discovered in the FB group "Female Christian Rock and Metal (Saving Jackie four days ago, Worhol the day before yesterday). Undefeated is another band I learned about that way. You may remember my interview with Becca Sugg of Reclaim The Day? Becca and Meredith competed for an award late last year.
Both Meredith (lead vocalist/guitarist) and Chris participated in the interview. I've chosen to use green to identify Meredith (afterward referred to as MD) and red for Chris (CD).
JR: How did you get interested in music, and how did that lead to the formation of Undefeated? Who's all in the band?
MD: I (Meredith-Lead Vocals/Guitarist) have loved
music from a very young age. Our parents were huge rockers back in the day, and have a whole God-story on how they’ve been led out of the secular scene, so we grew up with only contemporary music. Nothing wrong with that, but once we discovered the guts of rock and metal, we were hooked. I was part of a youth group who didn’t have room for anyone but the
“important” people. Longggg story short, this youth group brought in a couple bands from Canada and Massachusetts for a concert. The youth group worship team was going to open for them, and their electric guitarist bailed last minute, so I was asked
to step up. This was literally like the 2nd time I’d ever touched an electric guitar, so it wasn’t great, let’s be honest. aha.
After the concert, the manager of the MA band caught up with my mom and I, and said “I felt like God told me to encourage her.” I was invited to play a couple of songs at a worship festival that he hosted. We thought the worst thing that could happen was we wouldn’t go again, so we went! That event flipped a switch for me. The festival had all kinds of music, pop, rock, reggae, jazz, screamo. But the biggest thing, these people were like me! I just felt so included, and these people just understood who I was.
A couple weeks or so later, I asked Christian (Drummer/Vocals) if he wanted to start a band, and he said “YES!” After splitting with our former bassist in 2020, we added our younger sister, Lis, to round out the now family band!
JR: I saw (and loved) your recent video Cages. What inspired the song and the video?
MD: Thank you! That was one of my favorites. We filmed it in an old broken down creamery in Boonville, NY! The sun was perfect that day, and the weird tan lines I got from the jewels/glitter on my face and arm lasted awhile, lol!
I don’t usually write songs off of personal experience, but they do tend to come around to mean something to me later. One of the main chorus lines is “Those caught up in cages, think freedom is a crime”, and that’s pretty fitting for the world state right now, is it not? I am very passionate about is the freedom that the true Christ brings, and I’ve recently just realized that a lot of my songs have that underlying theme running through them. So, the video was created around that one end scene, where Christian realized the back of the cage has been open the whole time, and he walked out free.
JR: Glancing at your Facebook page, I've noticed a variety of venues: Firestream Festival and Revival, August 15th; Guest Worship with Christian Assembly of Schulyer, September 26th; Anti-Violence and Stop The Hate Concert at Watertown, NY, October 17th. Any stand out as being a blessing, a surprise, or simply memorable?
CD: The Anti-Violence show, even though it was cold. (End of October, outside, in upstate New York = FREEZING) It was close to home and the people there were amazing! Everybody was just helpful and it ended up becoming a great time and we met great people; it was really a blessing in disguise. I thought it was going to be a hassle but I ended up having a lot of fun there.
Soulfest in New Hampshire was just memorable. I learned lots working with the stage crew there and
got to see bigger bands come through. I got to see what it takes to grow our band to the next level which was pretty cool.
JR: How have you dealt with COVID as a band?
MD: You know, we’ve just kept taking steps
where we felt like God was leading us.
JR: What are the biggest challenges you find as a band, and where do you get the most support to face those challenges from?
CD: The biggest challenges I find being part of the band is the time aspect. I go to school full time and we have to practice at least 2-3 times a week. Granted, we have been slacking in that for the past month but we are getting back into the swing of things and I have to start managing my time better, be it in school or out of school. I also like to practice a lot by myself to be able to grow as an individual musician. This allows me to become better and help progress the band to where we want to go.
I get the most support from my band mates and parents. Meredith and Lis are always encouraging and we work around each other to be able to keep the band alive and striving. Sometimes we get picky with each other but in the end we all know the direction we have to pull in and pull together. My parents also support my decisions to stick with band. They allow me to take school off to play/record or do other band things. They pushed me to really become the band mate I am today.
JR: Thank you for your time. How can we keep up with Undefeated? Any thing coming up that you'd like to let us know about? Any prayer needs? And yell if you're in Indianapolis!
MD: We loved being a part of this! So, thank YOU! :) Our website is up and running, so you can check us out there! We’re also on Facebook and Instagram. Catch our music videos on Youtube! We recently just started a TikTok, so follow us there to be a part of our shenanigans!
Anddddd we’d love to come to Indianapolis! Anyone want to host? :)
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