Music is Dead Because We’ve Killed It: Punk Rock, Tattoos, and Jesus in the Alternative Music Scene

January 8, 2016: Showbread release what will be their final record, aptly titled ‘Showbread is Showdead’.

December 6, 2018: I get the opening lyrics of the aforementioned record tattooed on my leg, alongside a figure about to smash a guitar into the ground. It reads “Let’s Ruin Everything,” and has probably gotten more questions than all of my other tattoos combined.

But what’s the point? If you’re a musician and claim to pursue Christ, why get any tattoos—let alone one showing disregard for the artistic medium you claim to love? Why use the gifts God has given you to play dingy dive bar shows in a band where you eviscerate your voice and throw your instruments and bodies at everything in sight? 

My answers to these questions are simple. I grew up looking up to musicians who were covered in tattoos and it makes sense I would end up as one. I like the chaotic nature of Punk Rock and Hardcore music so a tattoo illustrating this is fitting. And that last thing? Well, it’s just damn fun.

For context, I front a band called Chasing South, and have done so for the better part of a decade. We are known mostly for two things: high energy stage shows where everything is ruined (bodies, instruments, audience members), and for being Christians. Our particular brand of Punk Rock is characterised by screaming vocals spat out as fast as I can make my mouth move accompanied by guitar riffs and drum patterns to match.

Alternative and heavy styles of music and Christianity existing together is not a new idea. So much so that the genre Christian Deathcore is an actual thing; that bands such as Underoath, August Burns Red, and Haste The Day have all graced the covers of mainstream metal publications multiple times; and record labels such as Solid State and Facedown are active and successful solely signing bands who create heavy Christian music. Underoath in particular were an extremely influential band in shaping what Metalcore started to look and sound like in the mid 2000’s, and would still be cited as a major influence by many heavy bands today regardless of faith. Several heavyweight mainstays of the genre such as Norma Jean, Demon Hunter, and the aforementioned August Burns Red have been advocates of Christianity and their alternative genre of choice for almost twenty years, touring with Christian and mainstream bands alike.

Christians notoriously have a knack for making worse versions of mainstream things—the ‘God’s Not Dead’ movies and almost any Christian pop song will prove this point. Yet these are consumed without question by the Christian populace until they are made by someone who didn’t always make exclusively Christian art. See Kanye West and Snoop Dogg’s recent albums for proof. On an infinitesimally smaller scale, here’s where Chasing South is relevant. Punk Rock, Metal and Hardcore have a common thread - they sound like (and often are) the sonic equivalent of someone giving you the middle finger. If you were to show the majority of Christian music consumers the song ‘Eclipse’ by Earth Groans, many would say that it couldn’t possibly be Christian or that there’s no point because you can’t understand the words. However when presented with the lyrics on their own, the reaction may be vastly different: 

Oh God, when did my own strides
Take precedent over your sovereignty?
When did my sights flip the scales?
When did I become more and you became less?
This mess I made is a product of self-reliance
As I try to stand on these trembling legs I lean on you
You are the only constant in this wavering world

I think just maybe this has more lyrical depth than certain songs we sing on a Sunday. ‘Depth’ by Chasing South aims to do something similar:

 This is a tempering phase that I didn’t ask for
Every day I’m struggling, and every day God I need you more
I need you more than I ever have
As deep cries to the deep, so let your love overwhelm me

For me, for my band, for Kanye West, for Earth Groans, for Snoop Dogg and countless others it isn’t about the medium.

It isn’t about how it looks.

It isn’t about how it sounds.

It’s about what it says and what that means to us.

It’s about what it might mean to even just one person out there who has never heard the name of Jesus.

I’ll close as I began by talking about Showbread, specifically by citing a track called ‘Shepherd, No Sheep’:

If I am honest, there’s part of me that hopes it makes you sick
I hope you cannot stand to hear it, or bear the thought of it
I hope tomorrow you’ll curse our name, you’ll drill it in the dirt
I hope you’ll not come back to us, I hope it always hurts

But at Your feet I admit defeat
My work is now in Your hands
If they want to hear stupid music so very bad
They can start themselves a band

~

Chris Dies is the front-person of Chasing South.