NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Last year,  Lau ren Daigle  returned with her first record since 2018’s blockbuster sophomore record,  Look Up Child .  Daigle’s music has been featured in movies and television shows from  Blade Runner 2049  to  Grey’s Anatomy ,  which makes the singer stand out from other artists in her genre, Contemporary Christian Music, a genre she dominated with the number-one Christian song for  sixty weeks  for the crossover hit, “ You Say .”  WE KNOW THE FUTURE’S BURNIN’ BRIGHT.  Maybe like me, you spent a part of the ‘10s backsliding from your evangelical upbringing. Don’t worry, I’m not here to tell on you. You probably stopped listening to  DC Talk  and  Michael W. Smith , and maybe became a “ Bad Christian ” with  Emery , followed  Michael Gungor ’s journey, or went full-out atheist like  Underoath . Somewhere along the way, what was playing on Christian Radio sounded like a bad version of what was popular two years ago on the pop station, only mellower. Somewhere along the way,  Hillsong

There are some general rules about music that gets consumed by Evangelical audiences in the United States. Except for the very conservative fundamentalist Christians, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) can take any genre from Doo Wop to Hip Hop, from Folk to Death Metal. As for the content, though, Christian music usually refrains from using profanity and tends to shy away from anything that is grotesque, though metal albums certainly pushed the envelope in the ‘90s and ‘00s. While releases from progressive bands on Tooth & Nail and competing record labels started including less theology in lyrics, for the most part, the theology on a CCM record was in line with the dreaded televangelist on every cable channel on Sunday mornings.  I’M STILL FUCKING CHRISTIAN. Every blanket statement I wrote in the introductory paragraph has been challenged by one band or another in the ‘90s or ‘00s Christian bookstore, and when the evangelical gatekeepers of the Christian bookstore closed in the ‘

Prior to signing with  Gotee Records  in 2009, Wichita-based band,  Abandon Kansas  garnered radio play on  RadioU  as an indie band. The band recorded with Gotee for five years before going independent, partnering with  BadChristian Music  to release their final project,  Alligator ,  an album in which lead singer Jeremy Spring talked about with the  BadChristian Podcast  as an album dealing with his personal struggles in the band/Christian band circuit, dealing with doubt, substance abuse, and depression. To some Christian music fans,  Alligator  was too profane compared to their previous works and other Christian Rock bands in the scene. To others,  Alligator  proved to be a refreshing take on authenticity which the confounds of most Christian record labels censored. After the album was released, the band planned to tour with the album, but ultimately personal issues forced Spring to cancel the tour. The band went on indefinite hiatus, but in 2019 they renamed the band to  Glass Ag

The members of Emery work hard both on their side hustles and their main gig, and sometimes it's hard to distinguish between their side hustles and their main gig. Lead singer Toby Morrell and guitarist Matt Carter started a blog with their friend Joey Svendsen , which later became The BadChristian Podcast. They started a record label, BadChristian Music and released Emery records and other artists--mostly Tooth & Nail associated bands--who shared a vision of Christian music that pushes the envelope. And while Emery only has about 172,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, the band has actually migrated their most loyal fans to their own Patreon -style music subscription service. This service used to be under the name Emeryland, but recently the band has merged its production of BadChristian Podcast and Emery's music and their work with the Labeled Podcast to one subscription-based plan under the moniker Knuckle Breakers .    MAYBE NOT TO AGREE, BUT TO PROCLAIM LOVE. I'

BadChristian started as the provocatively-titled book, Bad Christian, Great Savior , written by three friends, Pastor Joey Svenson and Emery ’s lead vocalist Toby Morrell and guitarist Matt Carter . BadChristian quickly grew into a brand--a podcast and a record label--that pushed back on the conservative, family-friendly branding of Christian entertainment that had been curated for years by Christian bookstores, radio, and other Christian media outlets. Emery began releasing their music through BadChristian. In 2018, they released their second LP on their own label, and just like Matt & Toby's edgy podcast, Eve was the most interesting conversation pieces to come out of Christian Rock that year. CALL IT TRASH, I CALL IT PEARLS.  From its controversial cover (pictured above), a nude woman on her knees showing a naked buttocks, to its lyrical content addressing alcohol and drug use, profanity, lust, divinity, and homosexuality, Eve doesn't leave listeners with definitive

I have to admit I have a love-hate relationship with this band. I've been a listener to The BadChristian Podcast since 2015, but there's something about their musical structure that I fail to resonate with most of the time. What The BadChristian Podcast did for me, though, was opened up a dialogue about faith beyond the Family Christian/Lifeway brand. I'm sure I'll talk more about this as the year goes by. I'd like to talk about a few themes that this song brings to my mind. I STAY IN MY DREAMS, BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. Reality is a theme that Matt and Toby talk about a lot on The BadChristian Podcast. How do we know that life isn't just a simulation? How do I know that I am real? How do I know that you are real? Are you just a program in the simulation? Am I?  I've spent a lot of time wondering about these things myself. We only really get one perspective in this life. And the human experience is at most 100 years out of thousands of years in ear