#3 Prone To Wander
or, how Brian Lum got me thinking about music, faith, and it's overlap in indie rock.
My friend Brian Lum is a pharmacist, a father, and a musician. He writes and records music as All Arms Around, and will be releasing a new album, Matter, later this year. We met in church over 10 years ago when he was leading worship on my first Sunday and we bonded early over music, especially our shared love of well produced atmospheric and slightly orchestral indie rock. Brian once wrote a song so good, you didn’t realize until the 2nd or 3rd chorus it was about Costco. He grew up in a conservative household where his first record was All Together Separate’s self titled debut and the first concert he attended with his own money was a Kirk Franklin revival in college. When we met I remember his favorite band being Radiohead, but we more often talked about bands like S Carey and Sufjan Stevens.
This newsletter’s playlist is very heavy in indie rock from the mid 90s-now with occasional stylistic diversions. It is also heavy in musicians both vaguely and overtly Christian, which is not at all to suggest I’m making an argument that Radiohead or bands with connection to Justin Vernon are Christian, but they all fit together in my head.
A Mixtape Left Behind #3: Prone To Wander.
Listen to the playlist on Spotify. Youtube music coming soon hopefully.
Artist - Track
The American Analog Set - Continuous Hit Music
All Together Separate - On & On
Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong
Pinback - Prog
Minus The Bear - Hooray
mewithoutyou - Wolf Am I! (And Shadow)
John Mark McMillan - Raging Moon
Kirk Franklin - Brighter Day
serpentwithfeet - Malik
Chance The Rapper - Blessings
Page CXVI - Be Still My Soul
Sufjan Stevens - The Only Thing
S. Carey - Chrysalis
Jeremy Enigk - Sacred Fire
The Winston Jazz Routine - The Central Memorial
Sylvan Esso - Wolf
The Air on Earth - Hollow
The Notwist - One With The Freaks
Pedro The Lion - Be Thou My Vision
Unwed Sailor - Ruby’s Wishes
Anathallo - All The First Pages
Hailaker - Caffeine Rivers
DeYarmond Edison - first impression
Field Report - Marigolden
Typoon - Empire Builder
John Van Deusen - Nothing Comes Of It
Further Seems Forever - The Sound
Black Marble - Preoccupation
David Bazan - Oblivion
Jon Guerra - Citizens
Sleeping At Last - Jupiter
Nick Drake - From The Morning
Elliott Smith - Somebody That I Used To Know
Hovvdy - Blindsided
Denison Witmer - Stations
Tow’rs - Girl in Calico
Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Rosie Thomas - Since You’ve Been Around
Novo Amor - If We’re Being Honest
The Most Serene Republic - Stay Ups
Creating a playlist and an essay theme that relates back to Brian and where our relationships to music overlap became a daunting task. I have learned nothing since the last issue and bit off more concepts and ideas than I could easily condense into a digestible essay. Instead of continuing to work it out slowly, knowing I won’t really have time for several more weeks, I wanted to send out this truncated version of the newsletter. I’m fairly certain most of you subscribe primarily for the playlist anyways.
I had been thinking about the cultural phenomenon in which there are Christian musicians but also musicians who are Christians, while within the visual art world there is Thomas Kinkaide and then a universe of practicing artists, the number of which I know personally who also are practicing Christians I can count on one hand. I had wanted to write about how church worship groups were an in between space where kids who grew up in conservative households were allowed to explore their creative interests and kids who came from less conservative families were able to participate in their faith in active way; for one it was a secret rebellion and the other a sort of secret ministry. I had wanted to curiously consider why the Black church and Black pop culture seem to coexist more fluidly than the White church and White pop culture, a question I am not equipped to get anywhere near an answer to. I had a clever quip about how I’ve been comfortable spending the last decade in a predominantly Asian church because of my Catholic upbringing and how they traffic within the same themes of guilt and and shame, while maintaining a posture of “yeah, we’re Christians, but like, don’t make a big deal about it OK?”
I mostly wanted to discuss a subset of indie rock bands from the late 90s and early 2000s who had some attachment to Christianity; some of these musicians were Christians and had a very outspoken falling out with the church (Pedro the Lion/David Bazan), some were Christians and most people just didn’t know it (Sufjan Stevens), some were considered Christian even tho there wasn’t much to suggest that besides who they were friends with (Unwed Sailor), and some became Christians after their band had reached success (Sunny Day Real Estate/Jeremy Enigk). These musicians were wholly separate from the flourishing Christian punk scenes rooted in places like Southern California and Florida, largely because they were existing within the wider, secular, music scenes at the time. They played alongside and inspired multiple waves of artists who created indie rock, chamber pop, and contemporary folk. For me and many of my other friends, they provided an example that Christians can create meaningful culture and served as figures I could point to, as if to say “SEE? We’re not all bad!”, a resource I don’t feel exists often within the visual arts. It’s not surprising that a lot musicians who fall into this camp have left the faith or been significant figures within deconstruction movements. Even professed Christian artists who fit loosely within these genres and have written some of the most common songs sung in church are outspoken about negative aspects of contemporary Christian culture.
I’d still like to unpack all of these ideas, probably over multiple essays. But I also think that in matters of faith, sometimes it's ok to just leave the questions and ideas to have some space. So that's what I’m going to do for now…
I hope you’ve enjoyed this third installment of A Mixtape Left Behind.
I’d love to hear what you think
If you’re interested, come see what else I’m working on, read what I’m complaining about these days, or sign up to support this and all the other projects that keep me busy.