"Christian Rock" ????......what about Christian Bach?

My band Torman Maxt has been around since 1994. Between the three albums we have released we have received over one hundred reviews and have pretty much ‘heard it all.’ The internet has offered many opportunities for music fans to become electronically published reviewers.

Now anyone who is in a band, from the smallest of upstarts to the majors, can empathize with me when it comes to being a target for criticism. Nobody escapes it. Nobody.

The moment a band puts their music ‘out there’, any realistic person has to be prepared for the complete range of opinions that will come along. Some that are very astute and some that are downright idiotic. Some opinions speak your praises while others describe why you are so bad! My brother, who is a huge Dream Theater fan, reads the Mike Portnoy forum all of the time and is constantly telling me about people who rag on Dream Theater on the Dream Theater site. One guy even begged Mike to never sing again on an album....on Mike’s own forum!!!

So, it is clear that we live in a faceless cyber world where people can say whatever they want to and get it published on the web whether they are qualified or not. (Hmmm…that might be true of this blog...) As a person who is quite libertarian by nature, that freedom is fine with me. (Incidentally, I have purposely used a large photo of my mug on this site to combat the ‘facelessness’ of the internet world).

As far as specific criticisms of our band and our albums, the most common ones tend to be about my voice, the production and it not being true progressive music. I even had a guy who described my voice as sounding like Geddy Lee in high school! (Actually, while I don’t think he meant it as a compliment, I found it quite humorous. I am wondering, however, if the reviewer meant before or after Geddy hit puberty)?

While nobody ever wants to hear negative criticisms about themselves (myself included), the above mentioned critiques to me are both very legitimate and acceptable. I think I have a reasonable defense for them, but nonetheless, they are acceptable to me and I take no issue with them.

However, there is one thing that keeps coming up over and over lately that gives me the feelings that range from puzzlement and confusion all the way to outright annoyance. What is driving me absolutely bonkers is this “Christian Rock” or “Christian Progressive” band label. In addition to being unfair, it is fundamentally and definitionally nonsensical.

In is nonsensical because it tells you absolutely nothing about the sound of the band. For example, the term “heavy metal” implies loud distorted guitars with driving bass and drums; “classical” usually implies traditional orchestral timbres from dead composers. Calling something “Christian” tells you nothing about the sound or style or arrangement of the music. It only tells you about the core beliefs and values of the people in the band. I’ve never heard anyone describe Rush as “Secular humanistic progressive Rock.” It seems Christians are the only ones who have their values incorporated into the description of their music.

To be tagged as a band who are Christians and write songs that reflect their core beliefs and values in their lyrics is very reasonable. But that is entirely different from calling someone a “Christian Rock” band. There are lots of assumptions with that term, and it has been my experience that in most instances the people who use it are using as a pejorative. I have talked to many music fans and reviewers and it is a common assumption that the word “Christian” before any kind of music is meant to describe a lesser quality second rate version of the real stuff. There are lots of folks who equate Christian rock with Stryper because that’s all they know about.

For those who feel that being a Christian musician who’s life is devoted to Jesus and writing music for the ‘glory of God’ makes you less of a composer or player, I suggest you fix your eyes on Johann Sebastian Bach.

As far as his impact to music today here, for example, is a passage from the 2001 edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians:

Bach, Johann Sebastian, supreme arbiter and lawgiver of music, a master comparable in greatness of stature with Aristotle in philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci in art (...). Bach's system of "equal temperament" (which is the meaning of "well-tempered" in the title Well-Tempered Clavier) postulated the division of the octave into 12 equal semitones, making it possible to transpose and to effect a modulation into any key, a process unworkable in the chaotic tuning of keyboard instruments before Bach's time.

So the next time you are enjoying your favorite guitar solo, thank Bach, a Christian, for allowing Fender to figure out where to place the frets on the guitar.

Mozart and Beethoven were among his most prominent admirers. Mozart once heard a performance of one of the Bach motets and exclaimed, 'Now, here is something one can learn from!' Beethoven was also a devotee, learning the Well-Tempered Clavier as a child and later calling Bach “the original father of harmony."

The next time you are enjoying some layered harmonized vocals by Jon Anderson or Gentle Giant, say thanks to Bach.

The last time I checked, there was no genre of music called “Christian Classical” or “Christian Baroque." So if you are a reviewer eager to slam Torman Maxt and express your feelings about us, here is a suggested list of legitimate reasons to hate us:

1. We sound too much like metal and not progressive enough.
2. The vocals are whiny and annoying.
3. The production of the album is cloudy.
4. The album is too repetitive.
5. There isn’t enough emotion in the songwriting.
6. The bass and drums are too low in the mix.
7. The bass and drums aren’t complex enough.

I’m sure if one is creative, they can come up with more. But, please, I implore you, don’t use the term “Christian rock." Please, leave Jesus out of it! It is not His fault that we are such an untalented band who put out such pathetically lame albums.

Oh, and by the way, please tell as many of your friends as possible to download the free album so they can hate it, too.

Why we are giving away free downloads: Part 2

I live in Southern California, about two miles south of Huntington Beach, which is also nicknamed “Surf City, USA.” I don’t surf myself, but I have a few close friends who do. I have always been fascinated with that aspect of their life. I am constantly probing them to tell me what their motivation is and what they ultimately get out of it.

So you are probably asking yourself, what does this have to do with being a musician, or giving away free album downloads? For me, the answer is everything!

Surfers are some of the most inspirational people I have ever encountered. The reason is simple. What would motivate someone to put up with the following?

1. They get up extremely early in the morning, sometimes being in the water at 5:00 AM in order to engage in their craft.
2. They schedule their lives around specific unpredictable forces of nature (e.g. – when the surf is up).
3. They subject themselves to uncomfortable physical conditions, which includes cold, sometimes freezing water entering every orifice in their head.
4. They will participate with others in extremely close proximity, sometimes competing for the same wave, and put themselves in front of moving fiberglass projectiles.
5. It takes a great deal of time, effort and diligence to become proficient at their craft.

Surfers aren’t in it for the money. They are not in it to meet members of the opposite sex. They are not in it for status.

So what motivates a surfer to do what they do?

The answer is simple: They just love to do it! It gives them peace of mind; it is challenging, it is rewarding and they are not beholden to anyone or any system. Once again, freedom reigns supreme. It is the sheer love of the activity of surfing, and sharing that experience with other surfers in the ‘surfing community’ that compels people to surf.

For me, there is something pure and noble about the person who does something for the sheer joy of it, finding fulfillment in the process, and having great relationships and community with like minded people.

That’s the type of musician I want to be.

Why we are giving away free downloads: Part 1

Why is Torman Maxt making their new album available for free downloads? I get that question all of the time. People on the receiving end of the free download, the everyday music fans, have been generally happy about getting the album, especially one that is well done and has received some pretty good reviews. However, it is the people who are closer to the music business (other bands, managers, etc.) who aren’t as excited about the concept as I am.

Here are the top five most interesting negative comments concerning free downloads that I have gotten so far:

1. “Stop begging for fans.”
2. “Giving your music away totally cheapens your product.”
3. “You guys are no Radiohead.”
4. “People will take anything for free.”
5. “How do you expect to make any money?”

I have been thinking about this quite a bit since we first started offering the free album downloads back in December, and for me, the fundamental disconnect I have with the above comments, is that they all have a similar premise: that making a musical album is a means to an end. That presumed end is money (not to mention the fame that would go along with a successful musical career). I would be lying if I said that those things were not goals at the onset.

But as time has gone by, for me, money has ceased to be a motive for making music. This has brought incredible freedom…freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of religion.

There is a great deal more to be said about this…but I think you can see where this is heading…

My definition of "Progressive"

One of the technical definitions of ‘progressive’ is “characterized by striving for change or innovation; moving and advancing.” For me, what makes something ‘progressive’ musically is when an artist, either through composition or production, is trying to move towards new ideas and methods. Most importantly, I think ‘progressive’ should be an adjective and not a noun. Progressive as an adjective makes for artists striving for something new and interesting. Progressive as a noun seems to set up criteria for what the music should be (e.g. long songs, lots of solos, high vocals, etc). It is amazing how many people don’t consider us ‘progressive’ because our songs don't seem long enough.

I feel that Torman Maxt is progressive in the sense that it strives to advance past what standard rock and metal have done. Compositionally, I have always been motivated by the classical composers. The Baroque period is my favorite, and I have tried to incorporate various forms of counterpoint in the songwriting. I would say that the layering of the guitars and vocals is what gives us our sound.

When describing the songs of a band like Dream Theater, I see them visually as very horizontal and linear. There is great instrumentation, but not necessarily composed with an emphasis on counterpoint. I have always been fascinated by Bach’s Brandenburg concertos where there are multiple instruments playing different parts simultaneously; this sounds more vertical as there are parts ‘stacked’ on top of one another. I would describe our sound as vertical. For example, the intro on opening track on our new cd has six different guitar parts happening at the same time.