Interview:

I grew up as a teenager in the 1980’s. You know, the big hair, spandex, guitar-god, and oh yeah, the “Secular Vs. Christian” days. If you were around back then, you may remember all the hoopla that was made about “backmasking”. There were many groups who were very critical of anything that sounded or looked “like the secular world”. They would say things like, “Hey, I know this group exalts Jesus, and people seem to be encouraged, and even drawn toward a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, but darn it, they have long hair” or “Their music has that rock beat!” Crazy eh? I don’t know, there could be something to it. I mean, I’m not saying it’s time to chuck your Metal CD collection, not at all! Crank it up buddy! Rock for the Rock! Bang your head for Jesus! I’m all over that. However, those critics of the late seventies and eighties were right in recognizing that music does have a spiritual dimension. Music absolutely affects our spirit. Remember the story of David playing his harp before King Saul? 1 Samuel 16:23 says “Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.” Something spiritual is definitely going on there.

God created and designed our brains, our ears, and our spirits. He created all of us in such a way that “vibrations” could enter our physical ears and have an impact on our spirit. Wow! What an awesome God we serve. So, music has a spiritual dimension and power to it. Beyond that, I truly believe that the spirit of the artist creating the music has a great impact on the overall affect it carries. This is a very subjective thing, and it is really difficult to put into words, but generally speaking; dark hearts produce dark music and vise versa. Hearts that are filled with God’s grace and love produce music that reflects God’s goodness. It is amazing to me, especially in the Metal genre that I’m most familiar with, how there are only a handful of chords and scales that most artists use. Whether they love Jesus or not, Metal artists use the same power chords, and scales to produce their music. Vocalists also use the vocal chords they have, that are neither secular or sacred, to belt out their vocal parts. There is nothing inherently good or evil about any of that. What makes the significant difference is the faith, the spirit, and the attitude out of which the music is produced. The lyrics will then reflect those things as well. So music is a powerful tool and an awesome gift of God, one that without question possesses spiritual power. My hope and prayer is that every note I play and sing will bless those who listen, and bring glory, honor, and praise to our great God.

“[God] created all of us in such a way that “vibrations” could enter our physical ears and have an impact on our spirit.”
– Pastor Brad, guitarist