ANAHEIM, CA (ANS) — The O.C. (Orange County) Supertones, one of the first widely successful Christian Ska bands, were first formed in the early 1990′s. Their first album “Adventures of the O.C. Supertones” was nominated for a Dove Award and their sophomore album “Supertones Strike Back” topped the Christian charts.

After a career that spanned more than a decade, it was announced in 2005 that the band was splitting up, but this summer the O.C. Supertones reunited for a 2010 Reunion Tour.

And one of those performances was back on home territory — Orange County, California — where they played on the first night of Greg Laurie’s 2010 Harvest Crusade (Friday, August 6) before a huge crowd at which Laurie preached on the topic of “Who is Jesus?”

Before they went on stage, I had the opportunity to talk with the present band members and I began with Matt “Mojo” Morginsky (born June 14, 1976 in Long Island, New York), who is the lead vocalist.

I asked him to give a brief history of the band, and he replied, “We started back in 1991 when Jason Carson, the drummer and I, met up when we were just in high school. I was a new Christian and we wanted to start a band and so from humble beginnings — in his mother’s living room — we started to put the band together.

“A couple of years later, Tony Terusa, who is Jason’s best friend, started playing the bass for us and from the core of the three of us we started to put together other members and by 1995 we finally had a good band and Tooth & Nail Records seemed to agree with that and rewarded us with a record contract because, as one of them said, ‘You guys aren’t awful anymore. Let’s go ahead and make a record.’

“And that’s when Darren “Chief” Mettler, here on the trumpet, joined and shortly after we had a couple of horn players as well. And then we hit our first tour in 1996 and our first record came out and Nathan Spencer’s older brother, Dan. came into the band as our trombone player. He is from Dallas, Texas and he just came out to the show one night, tried out. and then came on tour with us.”

The original band, as I discovered, continued to release albums until 2005, when they announced plans to break up. The band released “Unite,” a greatest hits compilation, and played their last show at Biola University in La Mirada, California on October 7, 2005.

Former members Jason Carson, Darren Mettler and Tony Terusa rejoined the band on stage for three songs. Kevin “Slim” Chen was on hand but did not play with the band. The Supertones played for 2 1/2 hours at their final show, playing close to 30 songs.

On March 11, 2008 BEC Recordings, Inc. released “The Ultimate Collection,” a greatest hits album with select songs from each of the bands studio albums, with the exception of “Revenge of the O.C. Supertones.”

I then asked Tony Terusa to explain what Ska music is?

“Ska music,” he said, “originated in Jamaica and it was kind of their answer to R&B music with a lot of horns and upbeat guitar riffs. It’s been around since the late fifties and so it’s just real good fun and it kind of fits our style pretty good.”

I then asked Jason Carson if Ska was “noisier” than Reggae.

“It sure is and has progressed a lot, so it’s not just Reggae as we have a lot of distorted guitars as well and it’s just fun and it’s really danceable.”

I then asked the trombone player, Nathan Spencer, why the band was playing at the 2010 Harvest Crusade and he replied, “The band is so ministry minded that what we do just goes along with the Harvest Crusade so we are excited for the opportunity.”

What did he expect to achieve by playing that night?

“Souls to be won into the Kingdom of God,” he said firmly.

I then turned again to Matt Morginsky and asked him what it was like to play before a huge crowd at Angel Stadium, and he replied, “This is the stadium that we grew up seeing baseball games at and so the first time we got to play here, it really spun our heads. It was amazing because Jason and I had come here to ballgames together quite a few times.

“Also, more so than that, was the fact that Greg Laurie wanted us to come and play at his event. Jason and I, when we were in high school, we would go and hear Greg Laurie preach and so now when Greg Laurie calls you come. That’s just the rule. So you put those two things together and you have a very compelling invitation.”

I then asked Matt what were the plans for the rest of the year and he revealed the backgrounds of many of the band members.

“Well we’re all involved in fulltime things,” he said. “Jason’s a fulltime youth pastor and so is Nathan. Tony is a ‘working stiff’ in corporate America and Darren is also a fulltime youth pastor, while I’m a seminary student. So we all have fulltime things that we’re are doing. So really we are just ‘weekend warriors’ right now. We’ve all got wives and children to go along with that, so our time is accounted for.”

With that, the O.C. Supertones were off to play in their favorite baseball stadium for their favorite preacher.

Special thanks to Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. Wooding is the author of some 43 books, two of the latest being From Tabloid to Truth and God’s Ambassadors in Japan.