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Walking Out Blind — Hard Rock, Solid Message

By Staff | Jun 20, 2008

West Virginia’s Walking Out Blind combines faith and hard rock music. The band has attracted a sizeable fan base not only in the immediate area but also in several states stretching from Ohio to Georgia. They’ve opened for national acts like Disciple, Falling Up, Seventh Day Slumber and Lone Star. For more info, check out www.myspace.com/walkingoutblind. Steve Miller sat down to talk to us.

Graffiti: Where do you live?

Miller: Three of us live in Morgantown and the other two live in Reedsville.

Graffiti: What are your latest projects?

Miller: Right now we are working on a full-length album that hopefully will be out by fall.

Graffiti: When did you first feel the calling to do spiritual music?

Miller: I personally felt my call into the music ministry five years ago at a church function in Houston, Texas. The name of the function was NYC (Nazarene Youth Conference). During one of the services it just hit me. It was pretty much the most amazing time in my life.

Graffiti: Not everyone feels comfortable mixing hard rock – and its scene – with spiritual music. Tell me how you decided to mix the two and was it a challenging or difficult decision?

Miller: After experiencing such a huge change that Christ made in my life it was easy to decide to make everything about him. It’s funny how some people put limitations on Christ. We are all about pushing the religious barriers out of the way and letting the spirit really change people.  

Graffiti: With your style of music, do you feel it spreads your message further?

Miller: With our heavier style of music we can play a wide range of venues. The heavy stuff seems to be in right now and it’s really helped our ministry.     

Graffiti: How long have you been playing music?

Miller: I have been playing guitar for six years and I played trumpet in my middle school band. Some of the other guys have been playing their instruments longer.

Graffiti: How old were you when you made your first public performance?

Miller: I played the recorder at my elementary school but I was too young to remember. I was a beast!

Graffiti: What instruments do you play?

Miller: I play drums, sing and play guitar.

Graffiti: What venues in West Virginia have you played?

Miller: The Met Theater, The Monkey Bar, Marshall University, WVU and many others.

Graffiti: What were some of your biggest gigs?

Miller: Our biggest gig was opening up Fan Fest down at Marshall!  There were like 3,000-plus there!

Graffiti: Some bands aren’t into touring as far as you have. Do you like touring and traveling?

Miller: Touring is great but get ready to shell out the bucks. With gas prices as high as they are, it’s a killer. I know some bands are ready to kill each other out on tour, but it’s not so for us. We are all pretty passive. Most of the time, we are joking around trying to figure out some way of putting a line from the movie “Nacho Libre” into our conversation. That always lightens the mood!

Graffiti: How do you get those opener gigs?

Miller: Well, it has to be by God’s grace, because none of us are good looking and we normally have a odd smell! Truly, we just work hard and most of the time it comes to us. God has blessed us 100 times more than I ever had expected.

Contact Tamar at tfleishman@graffitiwv.com