Music

7 Canadian bands you didn't know were Christian

by Mark Teo

Photo: Creationmarketing.com

DC Talk, Jars of Clay, and Anberlin might masquerade as milquetoast vanilla-core, but don’t be fooled: Christian music is the most divisive stuff out there. To non-religious types, listening to God-infused music can feel obtrusive, offensive even; it can be a passable facsimile of secular music, but with a hidden (and often unwanted) message. To Christian listeners, it’s music that aligns with their values—refreshingly so, in the popular music-sphere that often lacks relatable messages—and, as with anyone, they seek art that speaks to their worldview. To critics (like GQ essayist John Jeremiah Sullivan, who wrote the definitive tome on the topic), it’s a curiosity: Innovators like Sufjan, Belle and Sebastian, or faith-in-crisis songwriter Pedro the Lion are few and far between; pundits, like Sullivan, argue that Christian music is necessarily derivative. Why? Because Christian music, he says, doesn’t exist to provide new things, as art typically does—it exists to deliver a message to the converted. At his most subtly scathing, Sullivan says that Christian music is the only genre that has “excellence-proofed” itself.

Ouch.

Sullivan’s not wrong (in fact, he might be profoundly correct) but he’s missing one point: Christian music is also hilarious, for believers and unbelievers alike. Every passing trend, no matter how minute—crabcore, black metal, heck, even drill, eventually—will be replicated in the God-o-sphere. And that makes Christian music a cultural gut-check: If God’s people are replicating a sub-genre, it’s a sure sign that it’s full-on pop-cultural phenomenon.

That, too, applies to Canadian culture. While the trend du jour in Canadian music, be it big-band orchestral rock or downtempo electronic fare, is shifting, Christian music isn’t far behind—and with it, comes musicians, regional scenes, and even full-fleshed touring circuits. Canada is a country with historical roots in Christianity—the Protestant / Catholic divide is as ever-present as the French / English binaries—and, accordingly, those religions have informed the music we create. The only problem? It isn’t always clear who’s Christian and who isn’t. So, here, seven bands you didn’t know feared God.

SHAD

While Shad isn’t usually mentioned alongside the usual Christian rap types—like LeCrae or Andy Mineo—from a secular perspective, he’s actually among the most accomplished: He’s earned to Polaris noms for 2007 The Old Prince and 2010’s TSOL. (We tailed him on tour for the latter release.) Those two LPs established him as a witty, occasionally hilarious, nice-guy rapper with a penchant for socially conscious lyrics. For those reasons alone, we love Shad, and Shad loves us back, but not as much as he loves the Nazarene Dream. Proof? “I used to want to find the love of my life, now I’m tryin’ to live a life of love,” he raps in “Keep Shining. “It’s not just a husband and wife thing. It’s something that Christ brings.”

TEEN DAZE

When you think of a teen daze, what comes to mind? A hallucinogenic fog, aided by a combination of horse tranquilizers, bath salts, and jenkem? Well, think again. Abbotsford, B.C.’s Teen Daze is a heatseeking post-chillwave producer who just happens to have a spiritual (read: Christian) grounding. Let’s review—Silent Planet, his debut EP, was inspired by a C.S. Lewis book, who, like Aristotle or Galileo, was a God-approved thinker. All of Us Together, meanwhile, is inspired by notions of utopia (cough, heaven). That, and he attended Bible college. Confused? “In the Bible,” he told Discorder, “There’s countless examples of ways that dance was a form of worship,” he said. Everybody dance now!

JUSTIN BIEBER

For those who can’t look past Justin Bieber’s frequent shirtlessness, incoherent Instagram vids, and occasional drug busts, let’s get one thing straight: the Biebs may be high on multiple substances, but the most powerful? The Lord. Bieber reportedly grew up in an evangelical family, and he hasn’t concealed his faith. “I’m here because of God’s purpose,” he told Teen Vogue earlier this year. His politics align, too, if vaguely; he told Rolling Stone that he believed homosexuality’s a choice, that he’s abstaining, and that he’s pro-life. Then, he got tattoos—the Greek letter for Christ, praying hands, and a portrait of God’s son himself. And no, we’re not talking about Nas.

BRUCE COCKBURN

Bruce Cockburn earned his first critical successes with “Wondering Where the Lions Are” and “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” but as his career has matured, he’s grown into an elder statesman of Christian music. No, really. He’s into God and swearing, he says, but not so much into born-again evangelicalism. Bruce Cockburn is a thinker, a musician, and man of subtlety; he’s Canadian music’s collective dad, and were it up to him, we’d totally learn scripture and roast some killer spider dogs at Bible camp.

NORTHCOTE

Victoria, B.C.’s Matt Goud (no, not the one you’re thinking) is a rising star on the punkadour scene—it’s easy to hear bits of Gaslight Anthem’s vocal melodies or Frank Turner’s anthemic edge in his music—but he’s also a veteran of the North American bible-music circuit. Prior to his rechristening as an anthemic folk star, he peformed in Means, a melodic hardcore act who was once signed to Facedown records—a giant Christian metal / hardcore label. Recently, though, he admitted to a crisis of faith, telling Victoria’s Times-Colonist that “I dropped out of theology school, Bible school, at 21,” Goud said. “I was a pretty devout Christian until then. A couple of friends and I expanded our reading and talked through it, and I came to the conviction that Christian religion isn’t literally true.” So, the Earth wasn’t created in 4004 B.C.? Good call.

COMEBACK KID 

Comeback Kid—one of Canada’s biggest amazing-core exports—isn’t often cited as being a Christian band; they tour with some of the genre’s biggest, are signed to Victory Records, and tend to keep explicit God references out of their lyrics. But their first LP, the giant octave chord that was Turn It Around, was cut on Facedown records, and had lyrics that hinted at struggle, faith, and perseverance, and their second album is called Wake the Dead—it’s pretty standard Christian fare. (The band will tell you those are universal topics, but like, c’mon guy.) If it all sounds like that wishy-washy, we’re-not-a-Christian-band-we’re-Christians-in-band schtick, it’s because it is. They even admitted as much. “Personally, we all love Jesus and have a relationship with him,” says Andrew Neufeld told Bandsonfire.com in 2003. Mosh 3:16!

FIGURE FOUR

This much-loved, mosh-tastic Winnipeg hardcore band—who might’ve been God’s answer to the Scott Vogel-led Buried Alive, and was Neufeld’s project prior to Comeback Kid—claims that they’re “moved on from their beliefs,” but it doesn’t change the fact that, in song, they referred to themselves as “soldiers of God” with “Christ on their side,” adding that “to my Lord and Saviour—you are and always will be.” AUX contrib, and longtime Figure Four fan, Josiah Hughes adds that “all hardcore bands are preachy, but this one preaches about God.” He’s dead on. Figure Four: The missing link between prayer circle and circle pits.

[NOTE: We erroneously listed Facedown as a subsidiary of Tooth and Nail. It is not. That’s Solid State.]