MON., AUGUST 31, 2009
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eMusic Q&A: David Bazan
by J. Edward Keyes
The first time I saw Dave Bazan play live was in 1997. I was wrapping up my tenure at Philadelphia College of Bible (now Philadelphia Biblical University),and Bazan was fronting the band Pedro the Lion — which, even in its earliest days, was a controversial presence in Christian music circles. Bazan's approach to faith was unflinching, and he exposed the hypocrisy of Christianity as often as he praised its virtues — sometimes more often.
In the 12 years since then, it feels like Bazan and I have plotted a similar course. We both moved away from Christianity — first toward skepticism then to outright unbelief (Bazan identifies as an agnostic; I am an atheist). On his first solo full-length, the marvelous Curse Your Branches, Bazan deals with this conversion head-on, writing harrowing, potent songs that cut to the core of his unbelief. The writing — both the melodies and Bazan's lyrics — are masterful; it's the best record of his career and, arguably, one of the best records of the year.
After a brief performance at the eMusic offices, Bazan and I went to a local bar to discuss our shared histories, our time in Bible College and our mutual loss of faith.
So your dad was the music pastor at the church where you grew up. I wanted to talk a little about some of the positive experiences you had in church. What did it do for you as a kid, and as a teenager?
You know, I really liked it. That's one of the things about it — people often think, "Oh, you just had a bad experience with church." But that's not really the case — my experience with church was pretty positive. I was very serious about my faith. And for me, that meant a lot of thinking outside of the box. Because I knew other people who were "serious about their faith," and they were total dickheads. People who were really zealous just seemed to get it way wrong. They were really keen on, like, everybody going to Promise Keepers. And that seemed to me to not be what the deal was. So I led songs in Youth Group, I did that in college as well. Church was such a social thing, and I loved that. I read the Bible a lot, and took it at face value and tried to see what it could mean. But, you know, at the same time I was also trying to finger-fuck girls, getting BJs in my dad's office —
I would do that and then go on this days-long jag of guilt and self-hatred —
Yeah, I feel like those were my main "mess-ups," but I was somehow deluded enough where I didn't have that roller coaster thing. I was like, "Well, hey, what am I gonna do?"
So where did you go to college, exactly? I went to Philadelphia College of Bible — now Philadelphia Biblical University.
I went to an Assembly of God college called Northwest College. I was a Religion and Philosophy major. I went there specifically because I thought, "I want to be a songwriter for a living, and I think that if I get a Religion & Philosophy degree, I will be a better songwriter." I was already a fairly inquiring mind, but that really took hold when I was there. Itâs maybe even ironic that it did.
At a school like that, there are a lot of different forces at work. There are forces there that are trying to instill in kids maintenance of the status quo. And then there are some really subversive professors who are really just trying to get kids to wake up. And those, of course, are my favorite professors — these guys who were just fucking courageous men, who would have had pretty stunning academic careers other places, but they were loyal to a movement that they were hoping to help, to right the course of that ship. I don't know if some of those guys would be bummed at one of the products of their work, but —
And I guess that's what I wanted to know. What was it for you that caused this change of mind?
A biggie was the inerrancy of the Bible. I feel like at some point it dawned on me that inerrancy was a completely inappropriate assumption to make. I mean, beyond there not being evidence for inerrancy, it's the product of a cultural norm that no one has ever questioned. The Bible is still the central document of my life and informed a lot of my understanding about things, and I'll probably continue to study it for my whole life. I mean, not only is it the primary subtext of all of Western civilization, but it's the primary text for my 25, 26 years before things started to fall apart.
For more of Joe Keyes's interview with David Bazan, click here.
In the 12 years since then, it feels like Bazan and I have plotted a similar course. We both moved away from Christianity — first toward skepticism then to outright unbelief (Bazan identifies as an agnostic; I am an atheist). On his first solo full-length, the marvelous Curse Your Branches, Bazan deals with this conversion head-on, writing harrowing, potent songs that cut to the core of his unbelief. The writing — both the melodies and Bazan's lyrics — are masterful; it's the best record of his career and, arguably, one of the best records of the year.
After a brief performance at the eMusic offices, Bazan and I went to a local bar to discuss our shared histories, our time in Bible College and our mutual loss of faith.
So your dad was the music pastor at the church where you grew up. I wanted to talk a little about some of the positive experiences you had in church. What did it do for you as a kid, and as a teenager?
You know, I really liked it. That's one of the things about it — people often think, "Oh, you just had a bad experience with church." But that's not really the case — my experience with church was pretty positive. I was very serious about my faith. And for me, that meant a lot of thinking outside of the box. Because I knew other people who were "serious about their faith," and they were total dickheads. People who were really zealous just seemed to get it way wrong. They were really keen on, like, everybody going to Promise Keepers. And that seemed to me to not be what the deal was. So I led songs in Youth Group, I did that in college as well. Church was such a social thing, and I loved that. I read the Bible a lot, and took it at face value and tried to see what it could mean. But, you know, at the same time I was also trying to finger-fuck girls, getting BJs in my dad's office —
I would do that and then go on this days-long jag of guilt and self-hatred —
Yeah, I feel like those were my main "mess-ups," but I was somehow deluded enough where I didn't have that roller coaster thing. I was like, "Well, hey, what am I gonna do?"
So where did you go to college, exactly? I went to Philadelphia College of Bible — now Philadelphia Biblical University.
I went to an Assembly of God college called Northwest College. I was a Religion and Philosophy major. I went there specifically because I thought, "I want to be a songwriter for a living, and I think that if I get a Religion & Philosophy degree, I will be a better songwriter." I was already a fairly inquiring mind, but that really took hold when I was there. Itâs maybe even ironic that it did.
At a school like that, there are a lot of different forces at work. There are forces there that are trying to instill in kids maintenance of the status quo. And then there are some really subversive professors who are really just trying to get kids to wake up. And those, of course, are my favorite professors — these guys who were just fucking courageous men, who would have had pretty stunning academic careers other places, but they were loyal to a movement that they were hoping to help, to right the course of that ship. I don't know if some of those guys would be bummed at one of the products of their work, but —
And I guess that's what I wanted to know. What was it for you that caused this change of mind?
A biggie was the inerrancy of the Bible. I feel like at some point it dawned on me that inerrancy was a completely inappropriate assumption to make. I mean, beyond there not being evidence for inerrancy, it's the product of a cultural norm that no one has ever questioned. The Bible is still the central document of my life and informed a lot of my understanding about things, and I'll probably continue to study it for my whole life. I mean, not only is it the primary subtext of all of Western civilization, but it's the primary text for my 25, 26 years before things started to fall apart.
For more of Joe Keyes's interview with David Bazan, click here.
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