“Raspberry Layer Cake” by Aaron Gillespie, Monday, September 27, 2021

If you picked up Out of the Badlands, you may have been expecting Aaron Gillespie's third album to be in the vein of his prior solo releases. In 2016, Gillespie had long since left his drumming/singing duties in Underoath and had put his own Southern-influenced pop-punk band, The Almost, on hiatus. His next venture was signing to BEC, the Christian imprint of Tooth & Nail Records, and releasing an original Praise & Worship record followed by another one. But as much as he tried, the rough-n-tumble persona that Gillespie is--with his heavily tattooed body and penchant for an unguarded sailor-mouth--Praise & Worship music didn't pay the bills. What did pay the bills, Gillespie found, was drumming for 4 years of stadium tours with the band Paramore. On the podcast, Where Are All My Friends, Gillespie talks about this period with Paramore as an opportunity to lay his artistic endeavors aside, which ultimately inspired his next projects. These included a reunion with Underoath, a new Almost record, songwriting for other artists, and of course, 2016's Out of the Badlands.

I WAS MADE A BASTARD SON BY AN OUTLAW FATHER WHO COLLECTED GUNS. Gillespie talked about the recording process of Out of the Badlands on The BadChristian Podcast. Badlands was born out of the artist touring as a solo musician post-faith-based career. At the time of recording, Gillespie said he still believed in the two faith-based records he recorded, but after bad experiences with the Christian Music industry, including a time when he was uninvited to a Christian Music event because the organizer heard Gillespie use bad language on a podcast. Gillespie's friend and studio partner for Badlands, Andrew Goldring, convinced Gillespie to record an album as eclectic as his live show. Out of the Badlands contains acoustic renderings of The Almost and Underoath's songs, covers Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" and U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name," and several original tracks. The songs are spare: besides the accompanying drums, lead guitars, and bass-lines, the vocals and acoustic guitar are often recorded in one take in a small room with good acoustics. A surprising amount of profanity is laced in the songs that Gillespie premieres in this offering, particularly for record buyers who had remembered the squeaky-clean lyrics of old Underoath/Almost/solo worship project days or buyers of Tooth & Nail albums which only on a rare occasion, though now getting more frequent, contained a swear word. While I had mixed feelings about this record when it came out--and still do as I'm not fully on board with releasing an album of covers and originals an calling it one's own--there is one song that takes the cake, pardon the pun, and shows what Gillespie is doing with this perhaps muddled musical experiment. 

WHEN NO ONE ELSE GIVES A DAMN. Aaron Gillespie set out to encapsulate the process of his divorce in a record, and that record is Out of the Badlands. The highlight of this divorce record is "Raspberry Layer Cake." Whatever listeners may feel about Gillespie, his Pentecostal upbringing, his leading worship on Warped Tour-to being a worship leader in CCM, his faith deconstruction as he rejoined a now cynical post-Christian Underoath, "Raspberry Layer Cake" is a piece of art. The singer uses the symbol of a cake to summarize his marriage with a woman he married too young. He also addresses the religious pushback when he decided not to be honest with the facts. Christianity has many divorced celebrities. The Christian celebrities who bounce back keep their secrets under wraps for a bit. CCM stars like Kevin Max and Jaci Velasquez and so many others that have a brief Wikipedia entry about their failed marriages, but never seemed to face the backlash. However, Amy Grant's divorce from Gary Chapman banished her in the mid-'90s; some Christian radio stations refuse to play her music until this day. Gillespie talked about being unable to make his marriage work after several counselors. The couple decided that what was best for their child was an amicable divorce than a loveless, bitter marriage. Still lines like "a lie on your wedding day" make listeners wonder if there's something else there. As the years pass since this record's release and since Gillespie's divorce and post-divorce romantic involvements, he has continued to distance himself from mainstream Christianity. Earlier this year, I talked about the rebirth of Underoath and linked to a video in which Aaron and Spencer Chamberlin discuss their change in beliefs. More and more people are slipping out the back door of the church, into the parking lot, into their cars. Some of them are taking a wistful look back as they go. Others are so hurt they make a b-line for the door. I used to believe that all the answers were found within the sacred walls of the church--walls that were only believed to be sacred. But now I see that pushed out are the divorced, the sexually shamed, the free-thinkers, the LGBTQ community, the feminists, and what's left? Radicals and the casual who don't challenge the status-quo.

https://genius.com/Aaron-gillespie-raspberry-layer-cake-lyrics

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