“Invasion” by Eisley, Tuesday, August 22, 2023

When Eisley began their career, they were the indie band that had the opportunity to open for Coldplay on the North American leg of A Rush of Blood to the Head tour. Soon, the band "became too big" for RadioU and Christian rock radio. The only problem is that Eisley came up in a time when every major label was trying to suck up indie talent, but the indie talent rarely made it to radio. Hence these bands actually didn't keep their major label deals.

YOU WON'T TAKE THE BREATH FROM THROAT. I'm sure there's a backstory to Eisley's second record, 2007's Combinations, especially regarding lead singer Sherri DuPree-Bemis. My intention today is to tread respectfully with the dating dynamics that the Christian-adjacent indie scene, particularly as it relates to two up-and-coming bands in 2007: Eisley and Paramore and how they are related. Both female-fronted bands had gained acclaim both in and out of the Christian circle. In 2007, Paramore had just released their breakthrough record Riot! and while they didn't claim to be a Christian band, they didn't deny their ties to the scene. Lead singer Haley Williams appeared on several Christian Rock records and the band even performed at the Christian Festival Purple Door. And Paramore was so well connected to other Christian Rock acts from the worship band Leeland to Relient K. Eisely, likewise was connected with a lot of Christian and Christian-adjacent bands from MUTEMATH to Aaron Sprinkle's band Fair. But it's the two bands' connections to punk that bring them to an intersection, especially when they began touring in 2004 with New Found Glory.

THE COLORLESS WORDS ARE BURNING OUR HEELS. Lead singer Sherri DuPree married New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert briefly. Sherri has talked about the divorce on many occasions, talking about how quickly the couple were engaged and how little they knew each other from the beginning to end of the relationship. Shortly after the divorce, Sherri began dating Say Anything's frontman Max Bemis, whom she married shortly after and whom she is still married to today. Chad Gilbert's next marriage, however, was with Paramore's Haley Williams. Unlike Sherri DuPree-Bemis, Williams wrote a bitter break up album aimed at her ex. Williams and Gilbert began dating in 2007 and married in 2016. They were divorced by the end of 2017 due to Gilbert's infidelity. On here divorce record Petals for Armor, the song "Dead Horse," Williams admits, "I've been the other woman first." On an episode of Lead Singer Syndrome, Dupree-Bemis talks about how here family helped her get through the divorce which happened when she was only 21, she said she threw herself into making art and creating music. "Invasion," sounds a bit like it could be a break up song, even inspired by the same man that Williams would later right about. I think that listening to "Invasion" and "Dead Horse" together paints a portrait of divorce that certainly isn't popular for evangelicals, but I think it shows us that we are not living in an ideal world. DuPree seems happy to be free and has moved on; Williams may have moved on but the betrayal--maybe because of the years invested in the relationship--feels much greater. And it's not my job to quantify the hurt these women feel. However, music is literature, and we're seeing a character sketch. And more importantly, we're looking at people and empathizing with the choices they made. 

 

Read “Invasion” by Eisley on Genius.