Suburba is an album like nothing else you will hear. Since House Of Heroes' last album, The End Is Not The End, I’ve been convinced that HOH is the top alternative band in all of Christian music. I am a long-time fan of Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, Plain White T’s, Death Cab for Cutie and Relient K. If you like those bands, get this album immediately.

House of Heroes won me over 2 years ago with “If,” “Lose Control,” “In The Valley of the Dying Sun” and “Field Of Daggers.” I have had the privilege to see the band in concert twice and heard them perform a few songs from this new album at the Creation Northeast festival. If you like what you hear on this album, don’t miss out on seeing them perform live. I haven’t seen many bands who are even better in concert at performing incredibly tight guitar riffs and singing amazing harmonies than on the studio recording. House of Heroes are the real deal.

“I like this album because we chose to write about things that we knew,” states frontman Tim Skipper on Suburba. ”We wanted it to sound very American and full of youthful energy. We kept a lot of what we loved about the last record, but we just applied it differently and I think it came out exactly the way we wanted it to. This record is about growing up in middle class suburbia. It’s about fighting for your own identity in the face of society's ideas about love, money, religion and power. It’s about having big dreams and going after them with reckless abandon, yet having to reconcile the fact that things aren't always going to go your way. And it’s about realizing, throughout all of it, that God is real and is the one constant among all the variables of life.”

“God Save The Foolish Kings” is the first single from Suburba. I got the opportunity to interview lead singer Tim Skipper about the song at Creation Northeast.

Please share the background that led the band to write the song “God Save The Foolish Kings.”

We wrote the music for the song first. We wanted to feature the song towards the beginning of the record because it’s such an upbeat song. AJ had written three versions of the chorus and each one had different lyrics. We listened to all three versions of the song, and we loved all three sets of lyrics for the chorus. So we decided to go with the hook of “God Save The Foolish Kings.” We kept writing the song and it slowly evolved into this four minute West Side Story kind of song with these two rival gangs fighting. We just wanted it to be guitar, base and drums. Then we got into the studio and our producer said that it reminded him of a Meatloaf song, like “Paradise By The Dashboard Lights,” and suggest we get a female to sing while adding a driving rock and roll piano part. As silly of a song as it is about rival gangs fighting after school, the bridge is the main message of the song. But I met God on the street tonight, And He said, "Choose your battles wisely, Or you'll never find Me." That’s the summation of the song right there.

Please tell me about any Bible verses that you think connects to the song?

1 Corinthians 1:17-19: For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

How can listeners apply that message in their walks as Christians when they listen to the song?

I go through cycles as a Christian. Sometimes I feel cynical and sarcastic and even embarrassed by other Christians. Then, I was just on tour with tobyMac and he would get asked the dumbest questions about faith or music but he would treat everyone with the utmost respect. He was totally patient and gracious with everyone. He told me how you treat people is a choice that you need to make. For me, that’s the application of "Choose your battles wisely, or you'll never find Me." Nothing productive comes out of being cynical and negative. You can choose to be positive and meet people where they are. Negativity is such a barrier to progressing forward in my spiritual walk and as a human being.

Here are the lyrics:

Midnight,
At the school
'Hind the bleachers
There's gonna be a rumble
The lions and the kings
And my baby, she cries
In her bed and she worries
And my baby, she prays
God save the kings!

Promise me you won't do anything crazy
I promise you I won't do anything, baby
Promise me
I promise you nothing!

We're outcasts only 'cause we choose to dream,
We're princes who'd rather dine with thieves,
We're honest only 'cause the truth, it cannot hide,
God save us, the foolish kings

Midnight,
At the school,
Behind the bleachers,
[Hey baby, lets go, lets go]
There's gonna be a rumble
But the cops won't be notified
[Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa]
So the lions bear their arms
But the kings gonna break the hearts of their babies tonight

We're desperate only 'cause we've none to lose,
We're lions missing half our teeth,
We're honest only 'cause the truth, it cannot hide,
God save us, the foolish kings,
God save us, the foolish kings

And we fight 'cause
We'd rather break our bones
Than brave this loneliness,
We draw blood 'cause
We're just trying to draw out some significance

But I met God on the street tonight
And He said,
"Choose your battles wisely
Or you'll never find Me"

Promise me you won't do anything crazy,
Promise me
I promise you,
I promise you one thing!

We're devils try'n to earn our angels wings,
We stumble at every turn indeed,
We're desperate chasing down the love to just survive,
God save us, the foolish kings,
[Promise me you won't do anything crazy]
God save us, the foolish kings,
[Promise me, promise me]
God save us,
God save us, the foolish kings!

I can’t get enough of this song and this album. House of Heroes can bring Gospel Truth into some of the absolutely coolest songs I’ve ever heard. The Gospel seems like foolishness to worldly wise men. The Gospel will always be foolishness to all on the road of destruction. The message of Christ, our Savior who was given a criminal’s punishment and died on our behalf, seems like foolishness to kings and rulers of nations. “To us who are being saved it is the power of God.” What a cause to celebrate our salvation and sing this song as a prayer that we need to reflect God in our actions and decisions as Christians. Only God can save the “foolish kings.”

You can watch the video here.