REVELATIONS: the gospel according to STARFLYER 59

http://www.velvetbluemusic.com/starflyer59/sf59_option.html

[REVELATIONS: the gospel according to STARFLYER

59]

!!

"

[Starflyer 59]

n Halloween night in Hesperia, California, a seasonable chill is in the air. But inside the warmth of the New Life
Chapel, a couple hundred local Christian youths have flocked to Hallelujah 97, where the faithful are set to
"celebrate the light and not the darkness" - through testimonials, skits, commemorative T-shirts and almighty rock
n roll.
In this rural town east of Los Angeles, the crowd gathered in the cavernous chapel is a mix of chatty alterna-teens and
skate rats. A giant television screen displays an endless stream of Christian rock videos blaring odes to Christ and
family values before a brief prayer leads the audience in a promise to Jesus "to have fun in you name!" Soon a pair of
hardcore punk acts take their turns on a fog-enveloped stage, stomping, bouncing and preaching to enthusiastic kids
dancing in the aisles and headbanging between the pews.
Its an explosive demonstration of youthful spirituality, which only serves to make the performance of headlining
Starflyer 59 a more compelling counterpoint. The Orange County-based trio is not much for bombast and pomp, instead
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absorbing itself in a dreamy, introspective set and pausing only for a few words mumbled by singer/songwriter Jason
Martin: "Glory to Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior."
Martin learned his meditative trade from the likes of My Bloody Valentine and other pensive British rock acts.
Throughout his set, hes hunched over his guitar, coaxing just the right amount of reverb from the instrument, while the
handful of Starflyer fans in tonights crowd gasp and squeal as the music grows ever spacier. The dizzying wash of
feedback and tremolo being created by Martin, drummer Wayne Everett and bassist Jeff Cloud suggests a band that
wouldnt have been out of place on a bill of shoegazers in some London dive circa 1991.
tanding amidst Hallelujah hangers-on scrambling for souvenirs, the 24-year-old Martin cuts a striking figure. But if
his muttonchop sideburns and black T-shirt convey a devil-may-care demeanor, it belies the warmth and openness
he expresses when discussing the mixture of rock and spirituality.
"From a Christian standpoint, you cant be ashamed of the Gospel," he says of being a Christian rocker in a secular
market. "Its not like Starflyer goes up there and preaches. But I cant just say, Oh, we cant let anyone know were
Christian. I just cant do that. Its just not right."
The tour itinerary of Starflyer 59 mixes traditional rock club dates with church events like the annual Hallelujah night,
though most are low-key appearances at community centers or warehouses which serve as outreach to guide kids away
from trouble. Club gigs and in-store performances are important, but church shows are the bands best opportunity to
sell records and build its following.
"A lot of times, when we say were going on tour, people are like, Oh, where are you playing, clubs?" Martin says,
"And were like, No, lots of churches. They kind of act like its not real, like youre playing for mannequins or
something. It gets a little frustrating, because people act like if youre in a Christian band, youre not a real band. Thats
kind of a bummer sometimes."
That puts Starflyer 59 in the precarious position of being either a Christian band struggling to make it on the indie scene,
or a band that is seen as not being Christian enough for church-based audiences. But for Martin, its not a question of
one of the other. "All gifts are from God," says Martin, whose band has released three albums on Tooth & Nail, a label
which specializes in Christian-themed rock. "I dont want to sound like God gave me this incredible talent, but whatever
talent it is, its from the Lord."
od is no longer the final taboo in rock n roll. Christian alternative acts like Jars of Clay and DC Talk have not
only crossed over into the modern rock mainstream, but even into the Top 40. And after the punk act MxPx broke
onto alternative radio and sold more than 100,000 copies of its most recent Tooth & Nail release, the band became
the subject of a bidding skirmish ultimately won by A&M, which reissued the album under its own logo.
"With MxPx, when I first listened to them, I didn'
t even know they were Christian," says Lisa Worden, music director of
the influential Los Angeles station KROQ. "That really had nothing to do with it. It'
s just that we liked the music. With
'
Flood'(by Jars of Clay), I think we did know they were a Christian band when we put them on. It doesn'
t really matter if the music fits the station, then we'
re going to play it."
That opportunity may soon put the Seattle-based Tooth & Nail in the position of doing for the Christian underground
what its neighbors Sub Pop did for grunge. After releasing MxPx to A&M, Tooth & Nail reportedly spurned offers for
other groups, including overtures by EMI for ska band the Supertones. The two companies instead joined forces behind
the B.E.C. label to pitch the Supertones and other Christian alternative bands.
The predicament for Starflyer 59 is that the band'
s early '
90s, shoegaze esthetic doesn'
t sound much like more
marketable brands of rock, Christian or otherwise. Indeed, few songs in Starflyer'
s three-album oeuvre specifically
mention anything at all - much less Christianity. The band instead follows its dreampop influences, groups which were
often more concerned with formlessness over content.
"On a lot of songs, I'
m not singing these deep things," Martin says of the spiritual element in his music. "Some songs, the

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lyrics don'
t mean anything; some songs, lyrics do mean something. There'
s hope for a believer that this world isn'
t
everything. So there'
s not just total gloom, which could happen a lot if we didn'
t put out hope in Christ."
Starflyer'
s 1997 release, Americana, is the band'
s most accomplished album, bolstered by a clean, clear production. As
with the band'
s earlier records, Americana adds some muscle to the ethereal noise of pasty, art-scarred Anglo outfits
like Lush and the Boo Radleys. Starflyer jolts its pretty soundscapes with gritty, dirty riffs, hinting at the rock mysticism
of early Smashing Pumpkins.
Setting guitar heroics against swirling atmospherics, the record begins with sludgy blues riffing on "The Voyager"
before working through some anthemic power chords and the brisk pop of "Everyone But Me." The effect as Martin
describes it, is that of "an American band trying to be a British band trying to be an American band.
"It'
s not like I'
m trying to sing with this hokey English accent," he adds. "I'
m just more influenced by British bands than
by American rock."
orn and bred in Southern California, Martin traces his Anglophilia at least as far back as New Order and to his first
band experience: in junior high, playing keyboards in his older brother'
s band, Two Lads. The younger Martin
picked up guitar a few years later, while continuing to play in his brother Ronnie'
s synth-pop projects. They later
collaborated in Dance House Children, the project that first caught the attention of future Tooth & Nail'
s Brandon Ebel.
Ebel ultimately signed both brothers to his new label. Jason as Starflyer 59, and Ronnie as Joy Electric, an idiosyncratic
electronic unit. Now, despite frequent line-up changes behind Martin, Starflyer is Tooth & Nail'
s longest running and
most acclaimed act.
"I initially started the label because I'
m a Christian and because I thought there were Christians creating good art,"
explains Ebel of the label he founded in 1993. "A lot of bands like Starflyer 59 come out and create music that doesn'
t
really say anything about God. But it'
s still art that'
s created by a Christian and we think that'
s a cool thing."
Meanwhile, Martin'
s new side project, Bon Voyage, had been picked up by B.E.C.,
with a debut album set for February. Bon Voyage, which includes Martin'
s wife, Julie,
on vocals, reconfigures Starflyer'
s instrumental play into sharp, radio-accessible ear
candy.
"Obviously, if we could get a pop song that could do something, that could eliminate
some of the longer hours of my life," says Martin, who still drives trucks for his father
for a living. "It'
s just something me and my wife could do together and have fun. I think
she has a cool voice. And there'
s more opportunity to happen with something like that."
That'
s about as calculating and manipulating a move as Martin seems willing to make.
Playing to Martin'
s intuition and inspiration, Starflyer 59 remains a uniquely difficult
proposition: just as Martin refuses to play down his faith to be a part of a scene that
better suits his craft and musical tastes, neither will he trade on his devotion to the Lord
for a fistful of filthy lucre.
"Obviously, I'
d like the records to get out to more kids," he says, "But Christian kids are kids, too. We just happen to be
in this situation where it'
s mainly Christians that buy it. Which is fine with me, since they'
re still people and the music is
getting out. People are people, you know?"
Arnold Pan is an Irvine California-based free-lance writer.

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