Coda - Rupert Loydell: Guest posts and interview

I recently posted a series of guest posts by and an interview with Rupert Loydell which has added to the material about Jesus Rock, CCM and spirituality in rock music published here previously. The first post in this series was a listing of previous posts on these themes - click here. The second post was an interview with musician Nick Battle, click here. The third post was the interview with Rupert Loydell - click here. The fourth post was a new interview by Rupert with Nick Battle - click here. While the final post in the series was an interview by Rupert with Steve Scott - click here. 

Steve Scott is a British mixed-media artist, writer, lecturer, and performer. Upon completing art school in the mid-1970s, Steve moved to the United States at the request of a small record label and began recording songs. He now has ten albums of original work released on several small independent labels. The work ranges from rock music to more experimental poetry and spoken word, performed over electronic loop based compositions. 

I worked with Steve, through commission4mission, to organize some of the different `Run with the Fire’ art exhibitions and events held in and around London, during the Olympic summer of 2012. You can learn more about `Run With The Fire’ by clicking here, here, and here. My own dialogues with Steve can be read here, here, here, here, and here.

One of main reasons for the interview with Steve was a Kickstarter project for two unrealeased albums. Charles Normal, who oversees Solid Rock Records, explained the background to the project as follows:

'In 1977 British Poet / Songwriter Steve Scott signed a recording contract with Solid Rock Records and began recording two albums for the company. He assembled a top-notch band of well-known musicians and performers in the Christian music scene: Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Mark Heard, Tom Howard, Alex McDougall (Daniel Amos), and Jon "Wonderfingers" Linn. Both albums (Moving Pictures and Closeups) were completed, but before they could be mixed, mastered, and released, Solid Rock's distribution company Word Records got cold feet because of Scott's lyrics which touched sporadically on “crises of faith” and other legitimate questions that the faithful can occasionally have. There were moments of soul-searching buried in the albums' tracks, questions that the stalwart distribution company didn't want addressed.

The albums never got released so they sat in the Solid Rock archives for 47 years until they began to be reconsidered as the tour de force they were all along.'

The Kickstarter project was a success so the CDs will be pressed in January, and the vinyl records will be available from March. This is great news as, as Alan Thornbury has written, 'The eclecticism evidenced (reggae, delta blues, punk, ballad), the raw power of the studio band, and Scott's cognitively complex refections on the life of a follower of Jesus make the appearance of this record at long last something of a tiny miracle.' Thornbury also notes that: 'There were no easy certainties here, unlike most CCM at the time. Faith sits uncomfortably with doubt on several tracks.'

The difficult history of these two albums and the difficulties that Steve Scott faced in trying to get his music released is indicative of the twists and turns experienced by many creative musicians of faith whose music is too Christian for mainstream labels and insufficiently evangelistic or praise-based for the CCM labels. The following are stories of others who have faced similar challenges in different ways:

Jeremy Enigk: Enigk is described by Wikipedia as: 'an American singer-songwriter, vocalist and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist. He is known as a solo artist, a film score composer, and as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist of the Seattle-based bands Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft.' Natalie Jacobs notes that: 'Once known as the anguished voice of emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate, Jeremy Enigk has done a lot of growing up in public. At 21 years of age, Enigk sacrificed Sunny Day—a band on the verge of a commercial breakthrough—in favor of Christianity, announcing his religious convictions in a 1994 e-mail to friends. Enigk later rejoined his bandmates in various configurations (both in the Fire Theft and a reunited Sunny Day ...), and he issued an ornate, orchestral-pop solo album, Return Of The Frog Queen, in 1996.' The Masquerade argues that the latter album 'was an indisputable innovation in the world of ‘90s indie rock, rewriting a litany of unwritten rules about sound, subject matter, and solo identity for lead singers of successful bands.' Enigk has said of his approach: 'You’ve got to speak it from the heart, if you truly have this relationship or feeling, you know—tell the truth. A lot of the lyrics are always just the same praising. There’s nothing wrong with praising, but I have no problem wrestling with God. Or wrestling with the idea of God. I think it’s good to doubt. I think it’s good to look at the other side of that, as opposed to doing the formula, just doing it to make yourself look like you love God. And that’s really only to impress your fellow Christians, you know?'

Josh Caterer: Caterer is described by Chicago Music Wiki as: 'The creative mastermind behind the [Smoking] Popes, Josh composed the majority of their repertoire of distinctive, pop-influenced punk-rock songs, many of which have an intensely melancholy air underneath their driving beat. Lyrics of his early songs evoke feelings of fear, failure, intense despair, purposelessness, and romantic love as a redeeming agent. His later songs are marked by a more positive outlook, and many center upon the uplifting nature of religious faith and upon the importance of examining one's spiritual path.' Caterer broke up 'the Smoking Popes, on the cusp of national stardom and chucked his rock records to find what he wanted in a newfound Christian faith.' Seven years later — 'having searched and researched his soul, started a separate Christian band called Duvall and become a father of two' — he revived the Popes, saying: 'At the time, the best way to respond to my decision to follow Christ was to quit the band. I did it with a sense of permanence. But my understanding of the faith has grown to the point where I can see how to encompass the Popes. On the one hand, I can do it without compromising my faith; on the other, I can do it without using the Popes as a platform for expressing my faith.' He has been a worship leader at several churches and his solo albums include The Light of Christ (2012) and One Step Closer to Home (2014). A recent song, “Allegiance”, was written 'really quickly, two days after the election' as Caterer explains,'I was filled with overwhelming emotions: rage and disgust, and I just had to get it out'. 'I feel like probably my own personal motivation for feeling like I need to say that has to do with the fact that people know I’m a Christian, so a lot of folks probably assume that I’m also a Republican and that I probably voted for Trump. The thought makes me sick that there would be anybody out there mistakenly assuming that I voted for this monstrosity.' As a means of providing his own personal light in the darkness, Caterer did what he knows best. 'I know that it’s possible to feel hopeless and like there’s nothing I can do, but I know there is one thing I can do: I can write a song.'

Brian Fallon: Joseph Hudak writes that: 'Fallon has carved out a career by trying to make sense of the world. With Gaslight Anthem, he sang about the mysteries of life (and cars and girls) with more than a few religious allusions tossed in. In “The ’59 Sound,” one of the band’s signatures, Fallon nods to the “Everlasting Arms” of Deuteronomy; in “I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together,” with his group the Horrible Crowes, he calls out Jesus by name; and in “Vincent,” off ... solo LP Local Honey, he writes of baptisms and the forgiveness of sin. In the hymns of Night Divine, Fallon’s Christian roots are even more overt. His version of the late-1800s hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” is hushed and reverent, while his take on “Virgin Mary Had One Son” blends elements of both Odetta’s performance and Joan Baez’s. On “O Holy Night,” a notoriously difficult song to perform, he goes all in with strained notes and a cracking voice. Intentional or not, it’s a perfect representation of human frailty and mortal limitations.' Fallon has said: 'I’m an old-school Jesus/God, very traditional guy because I was brought up Christian. But I don’t agree with a lot of Christian people and I don’t think they agree with me.'

Gene Eugene: The Christian Underground Encyclopedia entry for Eugene begins: 'Gene “Eugene” Andrusco (April 6, 1961–March 20, 2000) was a Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musician. Andrusco was best known as the leader of the funk/rock band Adam Again, a member of The Swirling Eddies (credited as Prickly Disco) and as a founding member of the roots music super-group Lost Dogs.' As 'the owner of The Green Room recording studios in Huntington Beach, California. Gene recorded and produced hundreds of albums at The Green Room including albums by the Aunt Bettys, The Choir, Daniel Amos, Michael Knott, The Waiting, Crystal Lewis, Plankeye, Starflyer 59, and others. In 1987, Eugene, Ojo Taylor and another investor formed Brainstorm Artists International (B.A.I.), which became an important label in the development of the West Coast alternative music scene.' Michael Farmer suggests that: 'Larry Norman, let’s say, invented Christian rock and was largely responsible for the way it sounded in the 1970s. Terry Taylor (of Daniel Amos and the Swirling Eddies) turned it into a genuine art form and had a hand in most of the important Christian alternative rock records of the 1980s. The man more responsible than any other for the sound of 1990s Christian alternative rock, on the other hand, is Gene Eugene.' Farmer writes that Adam Again 'were as soulful and funky as Christian rock has ever been legally allowed to be' and that 'Eugene’s powerful, sorrowful voice [was] at the center.' Eugene stated that Adam Again's music was 'very spiritual and really honest' unlike the 'sloganism and pandering' 'that’s what sells': 'Music is first for this band. The music brings the lyrics out. Images come to me as I hear the music. I’m in a writing thing this year and last where I kind of write without thinking. It’s sort of a “stream” thing. It’s really the most spiritual way for me to write. Sometimes I’ll just write then later on I’ll figure out what it means. Sometimes I won’t ever figure out what it means.'

My co-authored book ‘The Secret Chord’ is an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life written through the prism of Christian belief. Order a copy from here.

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Steve Scott - Not A Pretty Picture.