Q. Okay, first things first - I can’t let this one slip by! Why are you afraid of interviews? What is there to be afraid of?

Micah: How did I know you’d ask me that? (Laughs) Really, it’s not that I’m afraid of them, per se. It’s more that they make me nervous. I am always worried about having nothing to say or saying the wrong thing or being misquoted. I’ve had that happen before. I’d say something that I thought made perfect sense at the time, then when you read it, the quote’s been manipulated to mean something entirely different. That’s happened quite a bit, actually.

Q. So that made you apprehensive?

Micah: Somewhat. I don’t want it to sound like I hate the press, because that’s not the case. It just makes me nervous and makes me watch what I say, and that makes me worry even more about saying the right thing because I’m so on-guard about what I am saying and…does any of this make sense? (Laughs)

Q. I’m with you so far. :) But moving on…let’s start with the most obvious aspect of your life - the music. How did that whole thing happen and who’s idea was it to form a band with your family?

Micah: Well, we’d always been a really musical group. It was something we really couldn’t escape, since every living relative was an amateur something. We had every single type of musician you could imagine in the family, so it had to rub off somewhere. With me, I got a guitar when I was about thirteen, but I didn’t really pick it up until much later. Joe, my brother, ended up getting this bass - spending a whole paycheck on this bass, I might add! - and when I heard about that, I dug out my old guitar and said, ‘Hey, let’s jam!’ I knew how to play the thing - my dad taught me - but I hadn’t played it in years, so our first official sessions as a ‘band’ were really awful.

Q. So it was you and Joe originally? Where do the other two come in?

Micah: I honestly can’t remember how Adam got in on it. I think Joe must have told him, because I didn’t. But I know that after the three of us had started our little act in the pubs, Saul wanted in. He rang me and he said, ‘I heard about this and I want in.’ So that was really how it all came together in the end.

Q. Were you always the one out front? Was it ever ‘Joe and the Mullenese’ or any of the others?

Micah: It wasn’t ‘Micah and the Mullenese’ at first, actually! That came later. But the decision for me to be up front was one that Joe and I made. I still maintain to this day that it probably should be ‘Joe and the Mullenese,’ since he’s a much better singer than I am…

Q. Oh, come on. Seriously?

Micah: Seriously. I really mean that. It’s a bit frustrating at times, because people have this automatic tendency to focus on me and that’s not what any of us want. I’ve read certain things in certain publications about me being this awful tyrant that would basically shove them out of the way to obtain as much glory for myself as possible and that’s simply not true.

Q. So there are no hard feelings? No hidden animosity?

Micah: I won’t say there aren’t, but I will say that it’s always handled well and kept to a minimum.

Q. Any tales of Mullenese brawls you can share?

Micah: No. Honestly, no.

Q. None? Oh, come on.

Micah: We’re brothers. We’re going to fight. That’s a given. But honestly, it’s never been anything that’s just raged out of control. Most of the time, it’s more of a joke than anything. Once, we did this magazine cover - it wasn’t that long ago, actually - and we were standing in this alley. Well, Joe and I were up front and way, way, way, way, way back behind us, there are Adam and Saul. You couldn’t even tell which one was which they were so far back there. And you know, they ended up taking four million pictures that day, but that would be the very one that ended up on the cover. So we saw it and yes, it was a strange thing, but it ended up being pretty funny. Saul says, ‘Look at that. We look like we’re going to rob them!’ (Laughs)

Q. Let’s shift gears a bit. Let’s talk about the image and sound of the band, which has changed a great many times since the first record. Were there any specific reasons for these changes or was it just natural progression?

Micah: In some instances, it was natural progression, but in others, it was a deliberate choice. Take the shift from the first record to the second. The first record is what really catapulted us into this spotlight and then, we decided we just didn’t want to do it anymore. That didn’t make many people happy, but it was something we really had to do. We came out of the gate as pretty much…well, let’s be honest, a gimmick. It was a gimmick. The whole greaser thing, with the 50s vibe - gimmick. And you know, a gimmick can only get you so far. After a while, the novelty wears off and then what? No one knows who you are, or even remembers who you were. We wanted to ensure that we had some sort of longevity, even if that meant completely starting from scratch on our sound.

Q. What was general reaction to the second record?

Micah: A lot of people didn’t think it was the same band. In some ways, that was a great compliment, but in others it was a rather big insult. We wanted to show that we were capable of more than that whole 50s thing and show some maturity, but the message we got was people didn’t want maturity from us. They wanted me to continue to slide around on my knees and make a fool of myself and for us always to do this retro sound.

Q. The sales for your sophomore album were dismal at best, until you almost lost your life in a road accident. You’ve said in the past that you believed that saved your career. Is that true?

Micah: Actually, yes. I really do think that. I don’t like thinking that, but yes, I do. The sales of Back Again spiked when that happened, so of course it seemed like a pity thing. And we started getting more recognition than before - positive recognition, I should say - because of it and it felt sort of like exploitation. And then of course, that led itself to some really nasty rumors about the whole thing being faked to sell some records, which is something that’s so unbelievable it sickens me.

Q. People said you faked it?

Micah: Not that the accident itself was faked, but that the severity of my injuries was exaggerated. They would always point out that this happened in December and I was back on the road in March, which would supposedly validate their claim that I wasn’t nearly as injured as I claimed. So then there were all these anti-Mullenese, anti-Micah things popping up about how we were using this unfortunate incident to further our own renown.

Q. Did you ever publicly address these allegations?

Micah: I didn’t see the need. It should have been obvious - if only by the scar that runs down me head! - that I’ve been nothing but honest about what happened. It was hurtful to hear that people were saying that about the accident, but not because they were basically calling me a liar. It went beyond that. I can handle it if someone wants to say I’m a liar and I’m a faker and whatever else they want to say, but I found it incredibly distasteful to hear that, because a very, very good mate of mine was killed in that accident. It wasn’t just me they were trying to defame by trivializing the whole thing and that’s what bothered me. That’s what will always bother me, but it’s something you can’t dwell on. People that say such things are sad, miserable individuals and that’s really all you can say about it.

Q. Tell us about what happened to you after the accident and before the release of Never Dim.

Micah: I know exactly what you’re alluding to and I don’t like going into too much detail about it, since it tends to be a turnoff at times. People get the wrong idea and you become this zealot. I will say that I experienced something I can’t and never will deny and it was a spiritual reawakening, so to speak.

Q. It was more than that. Your music became blatantly religious in the records after Back Again and you’ve even released an album strictly for the Christian market.

Micah: Yes, but again, it’s something that people usually take the wrong way. I’m not into telling. I’m into showing. I’ve always been that way. Don’t tell me you love me, show me. Don’t tell me you believe this, show me. That sort of thing. I’d much rather let my actions and my life speak for themselves than go into great detail about what my faith means to me. It’s more powerful that way, I think.

Q. The Lullaby record housed a lot of monster hits (including one I know you know you’ll have to talk about!), but the lead off single was a more personal song, called ‘Crucible for Silver.’ You wrote and sang this song with your daughter Jennafer. What was that like? Was it your idea or hers?

Micah: That was my idea! All mine! It was the proud parent moment. She’s always, always been musical. From the time she could talk, she’s been singing, but that was actually the first time she sat down and tried to write a song. I didn’t even know about this at first, but one morning, she showed it to me and asked if I’d set it to music for her. And we were recording Lullaby at the time, so I had the idea to put it on the record and brought her in there to sing it with me. We ended up having to scrap one of the songs slated to go on the record to fit it on there, but it was so worth it. It was the coolest experience. I’m always proud of her - I live proud of her - but that was definitely one of my proudest moments. Being in the studio and sharing that really special part of my life and her heritage with her was a great moment.

Q. Would you ever encourage her to follow in your footsteps?

Micah: Absolutely. I have, in fact, but that’s not what she wants to do with her life. She’s decided that she wants to be an actress, so that’s cool. I knew she’d end up pursuing something to do with the arts, since like me, she just can’t escape it.

Q. Speaking of something you can’t escape, here’s the inevitable question…

Micah: I like how you phrased that. It’s inevitable! (Laughs)

Q. Tell us about ‘Love Falls Down’! Were you ever expecting the sort of phenomenon it caused when it released or the fact that it made a splash in the Christian market as well as the general one?

Micah: Not at all. We weren’t expecting any of it. It just sort of happened. The song wasn’t even supposed to be on the album, really. It came thisclose to being the one we scrapped for Jenna’s song, so I’m pretty glad we didn’t cut it. It got released as a single, and we were actually surprised about that, since we thought there were other, stronger things they could have released. And then we found out the Christian stations were playing it and that just floored us. We weren’t expecting it at all. It wasn’t something we set out to do. ‘Hey, let’s write a hit today!’ It just happened.

Q. Do you feel that after the success of ‘Love Falls Down,’ you have a higher standard to live up to with your subsequent albums and singles?

Micah: In a way. It’s something that I don’t know can be topped. Maybe duplicated, but never topped. That sort of rush and that sort of frenzy are things that most people never, ever experience, so we’re so grateful to have had the opportunity. But yes, it does put some pressure on. I think pressure can be a good thing, though, depending on how you use it. You can use it for your own advantage and allow it to push you to create better things, which is what we’re doing.

Q. Where do you see yourself and your band in ten years?

Micah: It’s hard for me to even think about that, because ten years ago, I never could have imagined this for us. I’d like to think that ten years from now we’d still be right here, releasing our 470th album, but who can really say? People might decide they don’t care anymore.

Q. You might decide you don’t care anymore.

Micah: That won’t happen. I can promise that much. (Laughs) I’ll be here until I’m 300. There’s no stopping me!