What's old is new. What goes around comes around. There is nothing new under the sun. All cliches, all with a bit of truth. But this isn't a bad thing. After all, the eighties gave us the Smiths, the Cure, R.E.M. and...Flock of Seagulls? "Remember those guys?" asks Fine China keyboardist Joshua Block. After seeing the "classic eighties act", the band was left wanting. "It was bad. They were all into the 90's rock. They were like,This isn't the 80's anymore, it's the 90's.' And we were,like,'Noooo...this isn't why people are here to see ya!' It was like this really raunchy rock."

You may recognize the name, since for the past few years they have been making noise in the underground.

In fact, although they are just about to release their Tooth and Nail debut, When the World Sings, they have been with the label for nearly two years. The release was initially intended for the indie label Velvet Blue. Rob Withem explains,"We recorded the whole thing for Velvet Blue.

All the programming and stuff I did with Ronnie(Martin of Joy Electric) in the spring of 1999." But the band ended up feeling dissatisfied with the album. Ronnie ended up being their lead to Tooth and Nail. "We decided we really wanted to redo it and we always wanted to work at Gene's studio in the first place...anyways, Tooth and Nail always uses them anyways." Joshua quickly mentions, almost in passing, that there was, in fact another album. Rob elaborates, "We actually had a whole album before this-but it's just so slow with the Indie thing, we just tried to throw the album away pretty much."

Fine China is heavily influence by the music of artists such as New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Kraftwerk, as well as the bands mentioned earlier. However, this isn't some eighties wannabe band, either. Or as Block puts it,"We try not to be, like, Retro. We just want to play stuff we like...good songs that you can move around to. We're influenced by the stuff, but we're not trying to be in 80's bands." Withem, the band's soft pitched lead vocalist(as well as keys and guitars) continues, "Well, that's all our favorite stuff and the real, like, pop element. Mostly just song based stuff though. That's really the bottom line. If you can write classic songs that people aren't going to think is dated." In fact, the four members have some pretty grand goals for the future of their music. "We really want to make epic, fresh kind of albums. I want it to be classic," states Rob. "And we always feel so rushed in the studio. Records you can come back to...like all of the Smiths records. You know those guys were just working on it over and over again."

Withem says that while the band has been playing the Christian scene, they've also been playing a lot of indie rock shows. At the same time,"We're all Christians, so I want to have a foot in the Christian market too. " Rob, Joshua, Thom( Walsh, the band's drummer), and Greg(Markov, Fine China's bassist) see Tooth and Nail as their opportunity to do this...and it's an opportunity they are grateful for. "I really appreciate that they took a chance on us. I mean, to be honest, our record's probably not going to dominate the charts," offers Rob humbly.