Before MercyMe rocks out with G-O-D on stage Sunday at the Convocation Center, the Texas-based quartet The Afters will take the stage in support of their sophomore album “I Wish We All Could Win.”

Weekender recently talked with lead singer and guitarist Josh Havens about “South Park,” Starbucks and the DeKalb area.

Weekender: Where are you now and what can you see?

Josh Havens: We are in Philadelphia, Pa. waiting for a shuttle at the airport to take us to our hotel.

WE: How’s the tour going?

JH: It’s been going great. We’re going around the country. East Coast, West Coast and everything in between, and it’s been great to meet new people from different parts of the country. It’s really exciting.

WE: Speaking of different parts of the country, I heard you have family in the DeKalb area.

JH: I do. I’m looking forward to the show at the Convo because I used to visit the area and I still do today whenever I visit my family in Rochelle. My dad was actually a graduate of NIU. He got his degree in music there. We would always go back to the campus whenever we visited my grandparents.

WE: The entire band met at Starbucks while working there. Do you guys reminisce every time you pass a Starbucks?

JH: Yeah, in a sense. We all met at the same Starbucks and [guitarist and vocalist] Matt [Fuqua] and I actually knew each other from high school, but we were never that close, because he was a couple of years ahead of me. We realized that we were both musicians, so we brought in our guitars to work and played on the clock and we just clicked.

WE: Your sound has been described as the Smashing Pumpkins meets Coldplay. Do you agree with that?

JH: Yes, but it’s more than that. We love the Beatles and Radiohead and Elvis Costello, so a lot of our sound comes from British rock.

WE: What was it like signing to Epic Records after selling 25,000 copies of your first album without any support from a record company?

JH: We reached as far as we could by ourselves at that point, so it seemed like the next step, which was to be with a record label. We weren’t looking to be signed necessarily and we actually had plans to make another independent album, but when the opportunity arose, it was the right people and the right circumstances and the right thing to do. When Epic got involved and wanted to do what we were doing on a much larger scale, we jumped on.

WE: Is it true Christian bands can’t receive platinum albums seeing as by Christian rock standards, album sales go gold, frankincense and myrrh?

JH: No, that’s not true. There are a lot of Christian groups that I know have gone platinum. I actually saw the “South Park” episode that you are talking about not too long ago.

WE: Care to share a good road story?

JH: A lot of places that we play are arenas that hockey teams play. We were in Trenton, N.J. and there was a Zamboni machine in the back and [bassist and vocalist] Brad [Wigg] thought it would be funny to climb up on it and take a picture. As he was climbing up, he knocked some lever and it released all the water in the machine and and it ended up flooding the backstage and it was horrible. Brad cleaned it up, even though it took him a while.

WE: Why should students come out early and see you open up for MercyMe this Sunday?

JH: Because they will enjoy the music and have a good time. We’re not a new band. We’ve been around for six years, crafting our skill and playing live shows and we have something to offer that people will enjoy.