Since bluesman Robert Johnson made his mythical deal with the devil in the early 1900s, Elvis scared congregations when he shook his hips on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the ’50s and John Lennon said that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus in the ’60s, rock n’ roll and religion have often found themselves at odds.
At other times, however, rock and pop musicians have used their platform to spread their Christian views. Bob Dylan famously converted from Judaism to Christianity and put out three Christian albums in the late ’70s and early ’80s. And while Motley Crue was exhorting us to “Shout at the Devil,” glam-metal band Stryper said “To Hell with the Devil” on its biggest album.
Today, Christian contemporary music takes many forms, from the soft stylings of singer/songwriter Michael W. Smith to the metalcore assault of Underoath. The sounds often have little to nothing in common, but the inspiration — and the message — is the same.
“Even if we don’t get big, we do it for one reason,” says Derek Shives, 19, who plays bass for Christian metalcore band One For The Angels. “To spread the word of God.”
One For The Angels, from Hagerstown, Md., will perform at Club Jam in Pittston on Saturday, June 13. The venue, Shives says, “is like our home away from home.” In fact, the band’s first-ever show was at Club Jam, thanks to help from A New Shade of This, a fellow Maryland-based Christian band.
If you’re expecting a warm-and-fuzzy sound from One For The Angels due to the “Christian” label, you’d probably be shocked if you heard it. The band, which recently performed with NEPA’s Motionless In White, has a similar sound: bone-crushing drums, slashing, metallic guitars and lots of screamed vocals.
“One of the things people recognize is we’re playing this heavy music, and people don’t get the perception that we’re laborers in Jesus Christ,” says Shives. “At first, they get that feeling that there’s no way they can be a Christian hardcore band.
“One good example. … I wore a ‘Suicide Silent’ T-shirt at one show. A lot of people were like, ‘There’s no way that dude’s Christian.’ Me, personally, I listen to heavy music. I don’t take the lyrics and worship them. … A lot of people take lyrics too seriously. A few of our lyrics are kind of a little on the edge, but that’s just like, it’s who we are and what we do. Even if we did have all Christian lyrics, I would feel the same way. … We’ve been questioned about our lyrics numerous times. We do believe in God, and we do worship God, even though some of our lyrics might not seem that way. We just want to keep everyone in check that we do this for God, and that’s our main thing.”
A MISSION FROM GOD
Michael Warner and Natasha Manassy founded A.W.E. — which stands for “Authentic Worship Experience” — not only to spread God’s message, but also because God told them to, Warner says. And it was shortly after he had decided to give up on his musical dreams.
“I had been doing this for many years, and I was frustrated because I wasn’t seeing any headway,” he says. “I was all set to give up. I was ready to just bury it under a rock. So I walked into the woods on a Monday and spent this time with God, praying. I told him, ‘I’m done, I’m out of it, I’m going to sell everything that I have in three or four days on the Internet, and Lord, if you don’t want me to do this, you’re going to have to stop me.’ That’s the level of frustration I reached with my craft, my art, whatever you want to call it.”
Soon after, Warner got his sign.
“Then I played in a church with a traveling preacher,” says Warner. “At the closing of our service, he picked on me. He came over and stood in front of me and said, ‘You’re the guy that was playing guitar tonight, weren’t you?’ He said, ‘Do you mind if I pray for you?’ He started asking me, ‘Do you write songs?’ He called our whole band up on the stage. He said, ‘I can’t explain this, but I feel this band needs to make a CD.’”
That day, the congregation took up a collection that yielded thousands of dollars that A.W.E. has used to begin recording its debut CD, which Warner says should be out by the end of the summer. The album doesn’t have a title yet, but it has a theme.
“We decided we would write songs about the saving blood of Christ,” A.W.E. decided after the event at the church, Warner shares. “So there are going to be two specific songs on there that deal with two takes on the issue of blood: Number one, the blood of Christ, and number two, the blood of the innocent children that has been shed in this thing called abortion.”
A.W.E. performs as the “praise band” every Sunday at High Point Church in Larksville. Last week, the band played at Back Mountain Harvest Assembly in Trucksville, and it even recently performed at a credit union gathering where “the median age was 75,” Warner says.
“We are very ambidextrous in where we are able to go,” he explains.
Other venues might be in the works for A.W.E. when the CD comes out.
“It’s very, very varied,” says Warner. “Most Christian bands, when they start and they get a CD and get a project together, the first thing they want to do is become famous and rich, and I think that is perhaps a little backward. … We are looking to become well-known and promoted, because we want to make sure we’re not missing any ministry opportunities.”
‘LIVING AS EXAMPLES’
Christian bands can be found everywhere, from large venues like Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain — where believers like Underoath and The Devil Wears Prada will play at Warped Tour on July 15 — to small churches, all-ages venues like Club Jam and festivals like Pocono PraiseFest. (PraiseFest, featuring Choose This Day, Broken Bread, Glenn Rice, Liz Collins, Diversion and Three Crosses Bare, will be held from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, on the grounds of the Pocono Mountain Bible Conference on Clifton Beach Road in Gouldsboro.)
“Just getting the word out” is the biggest challenge for One For The Angels, says Shives. “I wouldn’t say getting shows is hard, because we can usually get a good bit of shows. Just getting the word out. For example, we came out in like January, and the first week, we had like 25,000 (song) plays on MySpace. Then we took April off to record our EP, and so we kind of lost all the energy we had. So I think we’re just trying to keep it up, and MySpace is a big thing.”
The Movement, a band from Hazleton comprised of Christian members but not a “Christian band” per se, is another act raising its profile. Only together since January, The Movement is about to sign a management deal with The Pocket Knife Agency of Los Angeles, according to vocalist Brendan Gerhart, and its debut EP was produced by Jordan Schmidt, who is working with Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus on the new Motion City Soundtrack album. The band has a show at Crocodile Rock in Allentown on Thursday, June 25.
The electronic-flavored dance band used to consider itself a Christian band but changed its strategy.
“We are all Christian guys that take our faith very seriously, as individuals and as a group, but we see our music career as a profession and not an outspoken ministry,” says Gerhart. “We try to live as examples and help people on a personal level, because, for some strange reason, people trust and admire bands.
“The Christian industry puts a very low ceiling on your career, limiting your audience and your opportunities. These limitations only inhibit you from reaching and impacting more people — the people who really need it the most — with your music and your message. Our band is focused on making a career for ourselves by writing fun/dance-y music that makes people happy, but (we) enjoy the separate opportunity to affect peoples’ lives and share what we believe.”
While One For The Angels is a decidedly Christian band, it takes a similar approach, playing with bands with different beliefs and reaching diverse audiences.
“Most of our fanbase, even if they aren’t Christian, they’ll still listen to us, and they love our music,” he says. “It’s a lot of people that are just into our genre. We don’t care if people don’t believe in God. We do want to get the word out, that’s our main message. Even if they don’t believe in God, it’s good for them to come out.”
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