“I want to bring unity back within the music scene:” Jake Luhrs and Beau Bokan give Heart Support

Vocalists Jake Luhrs of August Burns Red and Beau Bokan of Blessthefall are spending their summers headlining Warped Tour, but the frontmen have made a goal to support their fans, as well. Three years ago, Luhrs launched Heart Support, a nonprofit organization built on a foundation of faith. It is a welcoming, online community that strives to encourage and inspire those who visit it and offer a place for people to anonymously ask questions or seek further help for challenges they may be facing. Heart Support will have a Warped Tour booth full of merch where Luhrs and Bokan will regularly be present for signings and opportunities to chat. We talked to Luhrs and Bokan about the organization’s Warped Tour plans and what the future holds for Heart Support.

Interview: Rachel Campbell

What is Heart Support?
Jake Luhrs:
It’s a community for kids–basically for everybody–to discuss their struggles. Whether that’s with addictions to drugs, alcohol or porn or if they’re having relationship issues or they’re depressed, things like that. Anyone can come on to heartsupport.com and tell their story. We have a support wall with other kids to help encourage each other and uplift one another. Myself and Beau and some other guys have written blogs and done video blogs just about personal things in our hearts, encouraging words and what we hold onto as far as hope and things like that.

Why did you decide to start it?
Luhrs:
I decided to start it three years ago because being in August Burns Red, I’ve always made it a thing of mine to go to the merch table after the shows. Time and time again kids have told me they really appreciate our lyrics and our music, and it’s helped them overcome. One guy said that he was going to commit suicide, and then he listened to one of our songs called “Redemption,” and then he decided not to do that. Another guy, he was a heroin addict for a few years, and at the time I had spoken to him, he had been six months clean. He said that he woke up every morning and listened to “Composure.” With stories like that, I really felt led to start this online community to give back to all the fans and all the kids to really make a difference and try to help more now that I’m in this band. In 10 years no one is going to care about August Burns Red or Jake Luhrs, but right now people do care, and I want to do my part to impact other people’s lives in a positive way along with our music.

How did the two of you meet and begin working together through Heart Support?
Beau Bokan
: August Burns Red and Blessthefall have toured the entire universe together. I think we’ve been touring together since 2009. We always get billed on the same tours, and we’ve gone across the world together. We’ve become honestly, like, best friends. I say they’re our best friends especially in the music industry, so just touring together so much we have so much in common and hanging out all the time together. >>

Why did you specifically want to get involved with Heart Support?
Bokan
: You know what, it was pretty much for the same reason that Jake was saying. Our band, we go out to the merch table and we hang out. You just hear these amazing, heartfelt stories about how our music saved someone’s life. What Jake has gone and done, he’s gone above and beyond his call of duty and started this awesome website, and he’s really reaching out to all these kids. It’s like, I don’t have something like that I’m doing myself, and I wish I did, so I’m pouring all my help into Heart Support because I can’t do it on my own. I feel like I’ve seen him reach so many more people.

What types of things does the Heart Support booth have at Warped?
Luhrs
: We have a laptop that we have set up to show the kids the website because obviously [we want] to help answer questions and show them other things that we have for their benefit and to offer to them. We also have merchandise, a few promotional items and a couple books. I know for me personally, my faith is a big thing, so I have actual Bibles with me. We have a book on sexual assault victims. The reason I brought this with me is because I was sexually assaulted when I was a kid. I have also spoken to other people–kids who come to this site and talk about how they’ve been sexually assaulted–and this book, I read this book and it’s really, really good. It talks about the healing process and also what God believes in, what He thinks and how He can help their process as well. I want to offer that again to kids as well. We’ve got a bunch of contests that we’re doing too. Hopefully when we get a microphone, it’s kind of cool, we have this backdrop at our tent. It’s a picture of me screaming, Beau screaming and Mattie [Montgomery] from For Today screaming. We have a contest where kids can come up to the backdrop, take a picture of them being silly with the microphone and cable, do a scream pose or whatever, and then when they post it to Instagram, we pick a winner and they get a free T-shirt and giveaway bag.

Heart Support Logo | Alternative Press

How are you offering people the help they may need on Warped Tour or in general on your website?
Luhrs: As far as Warped Tour, I’m definitely making myself as available as I possibly can to talk to kids and just connect with them one-on-one. Heart Support is mostly a place for us to listen, but also to encourage. I have a team of people, and obviously no one here is a professional counselor or anything like that perse. We just have a heart to help and love others, but we do have our personal experiences that we can use to help people that come to the site. We have a question-and-answer section where kids can ask whatever question they want anonymously, and then we’ll respond to them and it will be posted publicly on the site for others to read and learn. We have a section that’s called “Challenges.” It has sections on pornography, sexual abuse and depression [There is also a section for cutting/self harm – ed. note], and if you click on those there’s scripture to help if you’re a believer in Christ. We have references and resources; we have statistics. We have books and things you can click on [and] other websites. For example, if you struggle with pornography we have [xxxchurch.com], which is a website that deals specifically with the addiction to pornography. We have a lot of things there for kids to be able to get help or seek other ways of getting it, and they can do this on their own laptops, so nobody has to know. Nobody knows that this is Jake Luhrs from whatever’s address. It’s really just a unique way of trying to help others.

What’s in store for Heart Support after Warped Tour?
Luhrs:
After Warped Tour, I know we’re going to be doing another event called iMatter Fest in Elmira, New York on September 7. August Burns Red are also going to be headlining that, and For Today are going to be playing there as well. [Heart Support] is going to have a tent there, and we’re sponsoring that festival. That’s a really cool thing. iMatter Fest was started by a guy [because] they had a high suicide rate in Elmira–I think it was 48 kids committed suicide within a year. He started this festival to bring kids together and tell them that they have worth and purpose.

Beau, how will you be involved with Heart Support after Warped Tour?
Bokan: You know, any way I can really. So far, I did a guest blog on forgiveness. I did a video blog [on relationships] with my wife. Any way I can support through social media, any sort of interviews or special Skype sessions with people from the site. I’m kind of brainstorming different ideas. I’ll be around and make myself available as well. We’ll be touring with August Burns Red for the rest of the year. We’re going to Europe with them. Jake and I will be in close contact as we usually are.

What’s your ultimate goal with Heart Support?
Bokan: I don’t know if there’s an endgame to this or an end goal, but I feel like it’s an ongoing process. I feel like there’s always going to be someone who needs help or someone who needs counseling or someone who needs to be lifted in some way, so I don’t know if it’s ever going to necessarily end or maybe be passed on at some point.

Luhrs: That’s a good question, but that’s a really big question. Honestly, for me personally, I want to bring unity back, especially within this industry and the music scene and this particular genre of music. It’s very heavy, negative and dark. It would be nice for people to just understand and know that people are out there and that we should care for one another and encourage one another. This world is a very dog-eat-dog kind of game, and our youth are important. This scene is important to me, and I’d rather it be taken over with positivity and looking out for one another than anything else. That’s one of my main goals for Heart Support to really pour into this specific demographic as far as the genre of music and our youth.