"Silver Horizon" by Trey Pearson, Sunday, August 22, 2021

Everyday Sunday was a Christian Rock band from Ohio that grew in popularity thanks to RadioU and TVU, which aired their played their independent music alongside other major Christian rock acts. The band signed to Flicker Records in 2002 before the label folded and then signed to Peter Furler's Inpop Records before going independent in 2013. The band was mostly forgotten with the countless Christian Rock bands of the early '00s, until lead singer Trey Pearson made headlines in May 2016. Pearson had recently divorced his wife of seven and half years. The couple had two children and the divorce was amicable, but Pearson came out to his wife and his family as gay. In May 2016, he came out publicly--career suicide for almost everyone hoping to stay in the Christian music industry. But with a changing music climate in which independent artists have a larger platform and with a broader LGBTQ community and allies both in and out of the church and in and out of the ex-vengelical movement, Trey Pearson makes music authentic to himself, with or without the Everyday Sunday folks.

I MADE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE/ AND I SAW YOU. Following his coming out, Trey Pearson released an EP titled Love Is Love. The EP produced three singles, including the song "Silver Horizon," for which he filmed a video. Musically, Pearson strays from the post-grunge Christian Rock sounds of Everyday Sunday in favor of '80s inspired synth-based music. Thematically, Pearson draws on his coming out experience as well as his faith on Love Is Love. Faith is still important to Trey, which can be seen in the lyrics of Love Is Love and in the single "Silver Horizon." Without the context of Pearson's life story, the song is vague and could be about a number of struggles, and the person whom Trey finds could be God or a partner. However, the music video interprets the song. At the beginning of the song, Pearson walks into a large, traditional looking church to watch a young man lip-syncing to "Silver Horizon." As the song goes on, the young man starts dancing more confidently, and the camera focuses on another young man smiling at him. The video flashes back to Pearson singing the song in his room. The climax of the video is when the boy in the congregation runs to the front of the sanctuary to kiss the singer. The congregation is shocked, but then erupts into applause, including the pastor. Pearson watches proudly from the back of the church. Of course, not all of the LGBTQ community will embrace this message. It was, after all, oppressive Evangelical Christian rock scene that kept Pearson in the closet, had him deny his sexuality, and marry a woman he could not truly love. But as churches become more and more divided on LGBTQ affirmation, Trey Pearson's video shows that churches can be places where gay people belong. 

TRYING TO BREAK THAT CHAIN/ PULLING ALL THAT WEIGHT/ WELL, IT JUST MAKES YOU STRONGER.  Sunday afternoon, Abram was sitting on the old pleather couch in Allan's apartment. The sunlight bathed the third-story apartment. His bag was packed beside him. Allan came into the room and Andrew looked up from his laptop, "What time do your roommates come back?" "Not sure. Marley usually back by dinner on Sunday. Trey gets back late, sometimes barely making it on Monday morning." "Damn. Wouldn't it be nice to have a real weekend? If we were more rested we could do our jobs better. Then there'd be no comparison between us and the non-Adventist teachers. Where are they even off to this weekend?" "Marley and Lily said something about hanging out with Ethan and Chase. I think there's a birthday party or something." "You know Chase was at my institute. When I transferred there, I replaced him. He wanted to be in Seoul, closer to his boyfriend. Well, I was teaching on of his old classes, and one of the little boys in class drew a picture of Chase and Ethan holding hands," "Are you kidding?" "No. It's disgusting. What is the institute doing hiring the unchurched? What's worse is the Adventists and non-Adventists are spending more time together. Probably Jay was probably at that birthday party. They'll be out late into the night, drinking and having a foolish time, and that's fine for people of the world--but nah, people of the church, we have to be sober-minded. Not falling trap to things of this world."

Read the lyrics on Genius.