A Work in Progress

The Choir men leave their lives as Kissers & Killers to soar above the clouds like a Free Flying Soul. By Brian Quincy Newcomb.

Throughout the second half of the 80s, The Choir established itself as the best-known example of the potent possibilities when talented Christians create uncompromising alternative rock. With a keen ear cocked to mainstream alternative tastes and only minor nods to the customary religious lyrical conventions, guitarist/singer Derri Daugherty and drummer/lyricist Steve Hindalong managed to rise to the head of a pack of bands who longed to speak in immediate musical language and thoughtful poetic expression. More importantly, their music tells of the complexity of human experience when encounted by God's all too amazing grace. With the success of 1990's Circle Slide on Myrrh Records, it became clear that although the Choir was one of the best selling of the alternative bands making bold artistic statements, it had hit the glass ceiling. While the band had established a name for itself, headlined at the premier Christian rock fest, Cornerstone, and sold more records than many of it's peers, The Choir was still not reaching the audience it had hoped to touch -- fans of mainstream alternative music. After a successful tour promoting that aforementioned ethereal masterpiece, The Choir turned its back on the Christian marketplace to focus on the possibility of a mainstream record deal, because said Daugherty: "I just want to hear our songs on the radio." The band recorded the eight-song indie/demo Kissers & Killers, then began playing a series of ill-fated showcases and club dates only to find that although impressed with the band's songwriting and sound, the interests of most A&R people were toward the young. At least younger than The Choir members. Still, the band's long-time fans bought up 6000 copies of K&K, and even in nightclubs they found supporters and friends that had been touched deeply by the songs and the sharing of themselves that was part and parcel of The Choir's creative process. After a while, the guys conceded, with great disappointment, and turned toward the fans that had become family. However, many of the Christian industry's doors had swung closed. Infrustration, they settled for adding some extra songs to their demos and released Speckled Bird on R.E.X. It was a point that marked an all time low for The Choir. Daugherty admits, "There were a lot of frustrating things going on at that point -- some things in our relationships to each other and some things in our individual lives -- that made things seem a lot more bleak than [they really were]. I was personally really frustrated with the R.E.X. deal. I felt like we'd failed, and I was disappointed because it felt like a big step down." Changes come, time heals, grace happens. And, The Choir is back, at least for now. The main reason the band went back into the studio to record Free Flying Soul is that they weren't satisfied with leaving things where they were on Spekled Bird. "There was so much negativity that surrounded that project," says Hindalong, "although we're real proud of a lot of the songs. Having worked through some of those things, we wanted to make a more through record that was something that we could leave our audience with." To Hindalong, Free Flying Soul "speaks to eternal hope. I think there's a freedom rooted in the assurance of what Jesus did, by dying and rising again, and because of that there's a spiritual liberty that gives us. I didn't make that clear, I think, in the Speckled Bird album. For one thing, I was real disappointed that the artist who did the cover depicted a woman with wings wearing chains. I thought the chains were much too severe, and it grew to bother me. "It's real important to know who's in the room," says Hindalong of his approach lyrically. "It's tempting to pretend you're in a smoky bar when really you're playing in a church. I realize who our audience is, and for the most part they are in the church. There's always been pressure to beat our last record. With this record we did not worry about a market -- we didn't try to write things that would cross over into a secular thing; we didn't worry about trying to be more palatable [to the church market]. Basically, we did this record for our audience. We have a pretty loyal fan base that has heard a hundred of our songs several times. It's as though we closed all the other doors and wrote a dozen more songs and played for our audience." Daugherty concurs: "We went into this album with the idea that we were going to do what we wanted to do. We just wanted to make a record that we loved, and that our audience could love."

Slow Spin Lyrically, The Choir has strived to keep its songs honest and grounded in reality. They are intensely personal, yet not private. They speak from a specific set of experiences, however they touch a universal chord. "There's always a sense of balance," suggests Hindalong, taking an overview of The Choir's impressive body of work, "with the pendulum swinging. In some ways, Wide-Eyed Wonder' was a response to Chase the Kangaroo,' with Sad Face' and the sense of miscarriage and all that. Wide-Eyed' is this hopeful, positive statement about the possibilities, and the birth of a child. But then there's Circle Slide' and it's just this totally troubled thing again, it's not ideal anymore. "I've always tried to be very integrated, very whole-person in terms of what I was bringing to a project. When we did Kissers & Kilers, they were just eight troubled love songs. I tried to focus on that, and not worry about trying to expose something of my faith. With Free Flying Soul, we're back to a very integrated album. I offer hope, but that doesn't mean that everything is fixed." As artists, The Choir members have had difficulty with the expectation of some that they fulfill a role as evangelist or counselor or pastor. As signs of their humanity, Hindalong has chronicled the ups and downs of his experience as a married person with kids who makes a modest living as a Christian musician, perhaps to honestly for some. "Wilderness" challenges the judgemental who would "count the butts and bottles in the morning when we're gone." In "Away With the Swine" he raises the ideal of moderation, but admits that it's a difficult goal. Then he recalls a celabratory cigar shared with a friend in the song about a day in the yard with his kids, "Yellow-Haired Monkeys." "It's a disservice to pretend otherwise," says Hindalong of the band's up-front approach to its foibles and failings. "I think we're all in this together; that's beenThe Choir's premise from the start. We are not better Christians than anyone else out there. We're often expected to be the voice of the pastor, which is rediculous to expect of artists. "I've gone out of my way continually to say, `I'm troubled,'" admits Hindalong. "I have faith in the grace of Christ that saves me, but I'm not better than anyone in the audience. So, we have a song like Polar Boy,' which is about sin and sadness. We're forgiven, and there's grace, but I think that the result of disobedience to God is sadness, and Ive had some sadness in my life due to sin." Although Hindalong writes the words, Daugherty has to sing them. He says he's quite comfortable voicing these kind of sentiments, "We know wach other so well, and we share a lot of common experience. He knows how to write for how I sing, and how to translate some of the things that are going on in his life to some of the things that are going on in my life. At this point it's almost second nature, it's really easy." If you stand too close to a painting by Seurat, all you'll see are the dots and points of color that are markers of his pointillist style. The same is true of music that deals with anything as complicated as real life and the faith it takes to survive and succeed as a spiritual being. Perspective comes with a little distance. Folk who respond with a knee-jerk reaction to some of Hindalong's honesty will likely miss the moments of grace, forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance that come through the words and music.

A Sentimental Song "Sometimes recording has been a strain," admits Hindalong, "because we try hard and we care a lot. We always feel that people really had high expectations of us, there's always pressure to beat our last record. What we didn't expect going in to work on Free Flying Soul was how good a time we would have recording it and how easy it would come." Daugherty agrees. "I really enjoyed making this record. Having Tim [Chandler] come out was great. It was the most enjoyable record that I've made with this band." "That was probably the biggest difference," says Hindalong, "that Tim was there for the whole creative process. He just really inspired us, and his bass lines are so melodic, they're fundamental to a lot of the songs. After Tim left, I brought Wayne Everett out, who I'd become friends with through working with the Prayer Chain. He's a real positive spirit, and with Derri and me, he was like a tie-breaker. I think the impact of those two guys is really significant on the record and the creative process." The future is a little more vague than some of the publicity that has surrounded the band's current tour would suggest. "I hope to be writing music all my life," says Hindalong. "I don't have anything else to do. As good a time as we had doing this record, I can't imagine that we won't do another Choir record. If this record is embraced and does well commercially, we'd get right back on the bus and for sure we would do another record. The reason for talk about this being the last tour is that we just can't afford to go out and lose money. It's not like we're sick of doing this. In terms of our outlook, it's not a big miserable portrait these days." More concretely, The Choir is recording the shows if its Spring 96 tour for a live album that's likely to become available on Tattoo Records by Christmas. The band -- featuring Chanler on bass, Everett on percussion, sax/lyricon man Dan "Buckeye" Michaels, and rhythm guitar player (and Throes leader) Bill Campbell, along side Hindalong and Daugherty -- has never sounded better, they say. "People have responded very favorably to the new songs," says Daugherty. "The band sounds great, better than we ever have. We're all pretty optimistic. We usually gravitate between poles -- our cynicism and exuberant optimism -- and at this point we're leaning toward the up-side."