Feeling Like a Dweeb

I'm odd and I don't fit in. That's one reason why I like music. Everyone else wants to dance and sing and party, and I want to play my guitar while they dance and sing and party. It works out. Bonus points if you look cool doing it.

Today I had to play the shaker.


There's not a lot to the shaker. You stand there and shake it rhythmically. OK. Actually it's the hardest instrument (besides French Horn) that I've ever played. Shaking it seamlessly is harder than it looks. Little glitches in your motion can be heard loud and clear. Plus, the sand has a slight delay to the motion, so you have to shake it a little ahead of the beat.

So, here I am... a little more than a tad over-weight... I'm standing in the middle of the stage right behind the singer and shaking my shaker. I closed my eyes so that I could concentrate, so that it might look like I'm worshipping, and so that nobody would think I was looking at the singer's butt. My wife said I looked like a dweeb.

*sigh*

When we go to watch a music performance... we really hope that they dig what they do. But when it comes down to it... we really don't care what they do or don't dig. We want them to play their music in a way that will draw us in to what they are doing. That means that we sometimes have to practice looking rockish. (I am tragically un-cool, so that's always been hard for me.)

But when I watch a band that does it... it really makes the performance come alive. Even a worship band.

Is it fake? Yes and no. On some level, we're like actors. We're portraying the song.

So... do you have to practice looking cool? How do you go about it?

Naming your Band

I have some friends forming a new band (see Greg's blog). Later that day, when I saw Greg and his brother Graham, Greg mentioned something about new name ideas. Graham said something like, "I don't care. I don't want to hear it. I just want to pick a name, and move on!"

Naming a band is fun, and it sucks. You have lots of opportunity to be creative and to cast your vision. The problem is that your best idea is "stupid" to the singer, or "doesn't make sense" to the drummer, or the bass player informs you that it's actually a slang term for a female body part. (This actually happened to me... I had no idea.)

Names are important in general. But in a band, the name is important for one and only one reason: You want to be remembered. It's OK if the name has a cool tie-in with your musical vision, or communicates something about who you are or where you're coming from — but really it comes down to the audience's memory. If they can't remember it, or spell it, or they couldn't hear it clearly when you said it... then the name hurts you.

Often times, though, the best names come from your life. Somewhat random occurances in your life that that you can encapsulate in a couple words.

When U2 was 'The Hype,' they wrestled with getting a new name. Bono walked in and was insistent that the band be called U2. I think he got the idea from the U2 spy plane. Everybody hated the name. It was stupid. (It really is a dumb name, "You, too??") Somehow, Bono got his way. And it was a good move. I remember when I was about 11, listening on the phone for upcoming concerts in the Houston area. U2 came up on the list. I had never heard of them. But the name was so silly, so dumb, that I never forgot it. It was about 3 years later that I became a huge fan of theirs.

Switchfoot - Easy to remember. Comes from a surfing term for doing an about face on the board. Relates to who the band is (surfers) and what their vision is (switchfoot ties in to repentance).

Jimmy Eat World - One of their brothers draw a picture of one of their other brothers eating the world and wrote 'JIMMY EAT WORLD' underneath. It struck them funny. It's easy to remember.

The Beatles - Why would you name a band after a bug? But it was sure easy to remember.

Radiohead - They got the name from a Talking Heads song. It's hard to forget this name. Before I ever really heard their music, I had heard of them.

A good resource after you find a few you like is to look it up and see if anyone else has used that name. You don't want to have to change your name later. That will be bad business. Good places to search:

• The US Patent and Trademark Office (search for trademarks)
  
• Google
• Myspace

Chances are, someone will be using the name somewhere. The deal-breaker is if someone in the music industry (especially a "musical performing group") is using the same name.

Good luck!

First Post

I was blogging about things related to being a rock musician and a Christian on myspace, but I've decided to move it here.... 'cos.... well.... let's just say that myspace isn't ideal. :-)

More to come........

The Band of Christians

"So, are you guys a Christian Band?" Every group of Christians who forms a rock band has to prepare for this answer. And how do you answer it? If you say "yes," then you are categorized with the likes of Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Stryper. If you say "no," you feel like you have denied Christ... like Peter on the night Jesus was betrayed. The middle-of-the-road, safe for the whole family answer these days is, "No, but we're a band of Christians." So how do you come up with a better answer?

Between 1998 and 2000 I was in a band called se7en. At the start, we had to tackle this issue. Not wanting to be filtered out... we were leaning toward the "band of Christians" answer. There was a little problem. Our artistic vision... our agenda... was to glorify Christ through our art and to use the art to make relationships that would lead them to Christ. I don't know about you, but when your end goal as a band is to serve and glorify Christ and his gospel... you are a Christian Band.

Other artists have a similar conviction. Phil Keaggy once received a Dove award for "Best Gospel Album." Of that he said, "It's always made me feel odd when I'd get a Dove Award for an instrumental album that has nothing to do with gospel. When I think of gospel music, I think of spreading the Good News with words." [1]

Mute Math has had similar wranglings. Some of the Mute Math band members were in the Christian Band Earthsuit. And when Mute Math first formed, they appeared to be in the 'Christian Band' market (viz. the song 'Peculiar People' from their 'Reset' EP. Since then, they have broken ties with the Christian Band thing, saying, "For us, we just try to keep it simple. We're obviously a band, that's really all we ever wanted to be from the very beginning without catering to any particular genre or political or religious agenda. We just want to make music with no barriers." [2]

And really, that's what it boils down to: What is your agenda as a band?

Is your agenda Christ and His gospel? Or to encourage and build up believers?
......Then you are a Christian Band. Don't be ashamed of that.

Is that still your agenda... but you want to be free to write songs about anything... without barriers?
......IMHO, you're still a Christian Band.

Is your goal to bring people into the presence of God, to experience his grace in your life?
......Then you are a Worship Band.

Is your agenda to create music for the sake of the art... whether it's a Christian theme or not... whether anyone understands it or not?
......Then you a band... and not a Christian Band. Don't be ashamed of that, either.

So, when they ask you if you're a Christian Band: say "no" with confidence... if indeed you are not a Christian Band.

If they ask you if you are a Christian... the answer is still "yes." Don't say "no" to that one.

[1] - http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2006/philkeaggy-0506.html
[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mute_Math

[Origionally posted on my Myspace on 2007-11-27]

Christmas Music Sucks

I don't want to hear Christmas music. If I hear 'Angels We Have Heard On High' one more time, somebody's gonna get it. That seemed to be the 'safe for the whole family' song for last year. They played it every hour at least once.

So, this year I set out to write and find some decent... NEW... Christmas music. I can see why rock bands don't invest much time in Christmas music: it takes a lot of time and effort to write a good song. Why 'waste' that time and effort on seasonal music? I challenge all you artists out there: write some new Christmas tunes!! Something we can use for worship, too. No more sappy, sentimental junk like 'The Christmas Shoes' and 'Mary Did You Know?'

The stuff that I've written isn't quite ready. It'll be ready next year. For this year, here's a few tunes to help de-scrooge you:

"Heaven's Got a Baby" (OC Supertones)
"The Glory of it All" (David Crowder*Band -- not actually a Christmas song, but it works as one)
"What I Want for Christmas" (Big Tent Revival)
"Who You Are" (Smalltown Poets)
"Deliver Us" (Derek Webb)
"Angels Sing" (Inhabited)
"Christmas In My Heart" (By The Tree)
"While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (Andrew Peterson)
"Christ is Come" (Big Daddy Weave)
"All Because of You" (Kate Hurley)

Got any other suggestions??

FWIW, most of the above songs are found on the 'Absolute Favorite Christmas' CD (http://www.independentbands.com/cd/absolute/absolutefavoritechristmas.html). The DC*B song is on the Remedy CD.

[Origionally posted on my Myspace on 2008-11-20]

The Praise and Worship Bar Bands

Ever been to hear live bands (like at a bar) and heard a praise and worship band? It feels a little weird, doesn't it? You're there... having a good time, possibly drinking an adult beverage. Meanwhile, the band on the stage is trying to get intimate with the Holy God.

It's akward, isn't it?

You're trying to treat their music like entertainment... like a TV or a radio playing that you can engage and ignore at will. They're trying to draw you into a special place where you can experience God -- something you're not supposed to treat like a TV. You're talking about girls or football... they're waging war on sin and calling you to holiness.

But what do you do if you are one of those bands? Where do you play so that you can get an audience for your music?

And what do you do if you want to hear those bands in a worship-py setting?

Let me be clear: I love to hear praise and worship music done in a modern rock style. It inspires me. It releases me and helps me to get into the presence of God. I'm not putting down anyone. I want to hear praise and worship music. The problem is that there's no 'system' for these bands to develop in. The bar/club scene is a good 'system' for bands out to entertain. Working your way up that system is a decent way to find good acts. But there's not any good system (that I know of) for developing and discovering praise and worship bands.

The obvious answers are to network it through churches. Having bands play on Sunday morning or at youth gatherings. The problem there is that this is a very closed forum... and few churches are willing to open up like this. Often, the only way to do this is if you are also the worship paster for the congregation or youth group. Not an easy gig to get... and not appropriate for a band who focuses on praise and worship music.

Another answer is to focus on youth rallies and events. I know of several bands that focus on this sort of thing and they do well (search myspace for The Curt Dubose Band and Sean Michael Currier).

So... what about praise and worship venues? Places where you can go and hear praise and worship music every night? ...I doubt if you could make money doing that. And that's a tough draw, too. Instead of a "have fun, hear bands" sales pitch, the sales pitch becomes: "come, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and confess your sins that you may be forgiven." (Want fries with that?)

Perhaps Christian-themed clubs could do a "Praise and Worship" night. But that would suffer from the same 'marketing' issues.

Perhaps the way to do it is to create some sort of system on the Internet. Usually, when I want to listen to P&W music, I want to be alone... with headphones. So, perhaps there's a better way to push music through online methods. And this would work well, too, because people who dig P&W music aren't exactly drawn to the bar/club scene. Problems with this idea? The RIAA, MPAA, etc. wanting to prevent any music sharing whatsoever. This can be overcome by artists sharing music through a Creative Commons license scheme.

I think online might be the way to go.

Until it exists... I'll be discovering P&W bands in the bars and clubs. For example: check out The Red Airplanes. I saw them at The Door last night. They're making a really rich and intense brand of worship music.

What do you think?

Peace,
Gabriel

[Origionally posted on my Myspace on 2007-09-08]