“Alive” by Hawk Nelson, Saturday, August 5, 2023

I saw Hawk Nelson in concert twice, but never as the headliner. The first time was at Cornerstone on main stage. I had never been a huge fan of the Simple Plan meets Relient K knock off band, but I thought their songs were catchy if not lyrically and conceptually immature.  At Cornerstone, it seemed like the highlight of their set was playing Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" rather than their hits from their first two records. Then in college, I saw them perform on Skillet's Alive and Awake tour. By that time, the band had released their fourth record, Live Life Loud. 

 

THE ONLY THING WE'RE MISSING IS A WHOLE NEW STATE OF MIND. Hawk Nelson represents a profitable time in Christian Rock when a band could become a brand. At least that's what I've gathered from recent episodes of  the Labeled Podcast. Bands aspired either to be Hawk Nelson or Anberlin (or Underoath, Emery, etc.). Bands particularly on Tooth & Nail Records either fell into touring clubs, bars, and Warped Tour circuits or touring churches and youth group events. And according to the (often jaded) bands from the podcast, money played a big factor those career choices. Churches often paid better than secular venues. Hawk Nelson is an interesting example of a band that straddled the line between the religious and secular markets. Hawk Nelson's crossover potential came from portraying the band The Who in the musical drama American Dreams and for writing and performing the song "Bring 'Em Out" in the Nick Drake film Yours, Mine, and Ours. Lead singer Jason Dunn hoped to pursue this direction of the band, but ultimately the other bandmates opted for what seemed like the safer route of writing ballads like "Everything You Ever Wanted," which helped land the band on large Christian festival tours.

TO SEE THE DREAMS THAT WE'VE CHASED ARE JUST A DEAD END ROAD. After three records with Tooth & Nail and two records with its subsidiary CCM label BEC Recordings, Jason Dunn felt like he couldn't fight the corporate machine that his band had become. He told Matt Carter on the Labeled Podcast that being in Hawk Nelson had made him lose his faith for years during his last years in the band and several years afterwards. He talks about drinking as he lost his voice in the decisions that the band made. After leaving Hawk Nelson, the band completely rebranded into the CCM market, signing with the Christian label Fair Trade Services, on which the band scored their biggest singles with Christian radio and moving away from the Christian Rock format. The band released music until 2018. However, in 2020, Hawk Nelson's lead singer and former lead guitarist when Dunn was the lead singer, Jon Steingard, made news when he declared on Instagram that he no longer believed in God, talking to the major exvangelical podcasts.  Both Steingard and Dunn talk about the corporate greed involved in the Christian music industry, but it seems from the interviews that the two former lead singers of Hawk Nelson have not reconciled, and it seems that Dunn blames Steingard for his involvement in the big machine of CCM. They took a band branded on the goofy, the uncool, the middle-school vibes of a youth group and essentially became a worship band like every other band that started writing music to make money. And while I was never fully into Hawk Nelson, I think they were best on the sincere tracks like today's song, "Alive," and the goofy ones like the title track "Live Life Loud." They were essentially the Emo version of boy band, and it worked until it didn't. 

Read “Alive” by Hawk Nelson on Genius.