How great it is to step off a plane into San Diego air! This past weekend playing at Creationfest East was exhausting, and I still feel like I’m recouping from it. Not just physically, but emotionally…Christian music festivals are a difficult place for us as a band. We find ourselves drained, confused, and discouraged. Not because of any particular promoter or brand of festival or anything. But because of some of the things that come with festivals that seem to point out how much we DON’T fit in as a band.
I often feel lost in the midst of the Christian music industry. Not only because it is a popularity rat race but because the nature of it tends to be an “industry of cool.” I borrowed that phrase from the great film ALMOST FAMOUS. To be specific about the category, it tends to be an industry of “Christian cool.” There is a stigma of what a Christian band should be. As you enter the industry, your success relies on you ability to climb the ladder of that stigma. You HAVE to conform to it to survive.
When you are a guy like me, all you do is love music. And your insides want to burst when you hear or feel a song welling up inside. The idea of fitting into the industry of cool is a far-fetched thing. I can’t bring myself to wear the outfits or say the phrases that promote me in cool world. I can’t bring myself to sell an art that isn’t totally and completely me. Even if its not as exciting as the band that wears a dark and intimidating black eye-shadow.
This morning, I wake up to hang out with my friend Pete, then work on some band business (which by the way takes up about 95% of my day) then record some drums with Spencer. I assure you that I will not be dressed like a rockstar. I will not be yelling out to the crowd, “Alright Houston Texas, let’s go!” I’ll just be having a cup of coffee and going about my day. I might be demoting myself in the music industry by doing so, but never the less its my greatest and only honest contribution to this world…being totally and completely un-cool.
3 comments:
i applaud your counter-industrial leanings and how you all as people emanate through your music rather than being plastic.
Thank you for being who you are! I am an artist in many ways, but particularly in the area of film. Thank you for inspiring me to always stay true to the passion God has placed inside of me.
yea keep it up! i think you're cool!
especially for not trying to be cool!
that makes you cooler!
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