Friendly Fire

In my spare time, I enjoy jamming a bit on my electric guitar—as well as reading about others who share that interest. And as I was perusing the September issue of Guitar World recently, I came across a question-and-answer interview with Chris Rubey, lead guitar player for the popular Christian metalcore band Devil Wears Prada.

Rubey fielded questions from the magazine’s readers, two of which had to do with his religion. The first question asked whether touring with secular acts in any way undermined his faith. I found Rubey’s response pretty interesting:

It's funny: a lot of people ask me, 'Is it hard being a Christian on tour with secular bands?' And my answer is always, 'No, it's not hard.' To all the other bands on tour, we're just normal dudes who happen to pray when we go to bed. But nobody judges us or treats us weird; everybody's really respectful. The only awkwardness is from other Christians who may be like, 'How can you tour with these people?' The only judgment that I ever really seem  to get is from other Christians, which is completely ironic.

Rubey seems to be a pretty good sport about the attitudes—the friendly fire, if you will—that he’s faced from fellow believers. And while I don’t know him personally (or know that much about his band, for that matter), what he displays here indicates a level of maturity about both his faith and his chosen profession.

Here’s another example of what I consider Rubey’s thoughtfulness. Asked how he wound up playing Christian metal, he said:

We didn't start out as a Christian band; we were just all raised in Catholic families, so we were around it a lot growing up, and our favorite bands—Norma Jean, As I Lay Dying, Underoath—were Christian. That's who we looked up to. So we just wanted to be a band—a normal band, a metal band—and we didn't have a singer. It was just Dan [Williams], James [Barney] and I. And then Mike [Hranica] became our singer, and he had to start thinking about what he wanted to write lyrics about, and he was really into the idea of being a Christian band. We never thought about making it [big]; we just thought we were writing songs for our friends to mosh to at a skate park. But along with calling yourself a 'Christian band' comes the responsibility of being a good role model for your fans and putting out a positive message, and not trashing the name of anybody else that may want to play Christian-based music. So it just kind of happened. And as we've grown as a band, we learned to stand in the roles that come along with it. It's been pretty nice.

I found Rubey’s response pretty refreshing on a couple of levels. First, I didn’t catch even a hint of him trying to distance himself or his band from the “Christian” tag, as sometimes happens with prominent artists who feel uncomfortable about being put in a faith-based box. Second, and more importantly, Rubey realizes that, by articulating a Christian message in their music, they become living representatives for that message as well.  Again, there’s no “Don’t make me a role model” talk here. Quite the opposite. Rubey understands that his band’s message comes with responsibility, and it’s a responsibility the group seems willing to shoulder.

Finally, and on a bit of a side note, I think it’s worth mentioning that Christians, believe it or not, are dominating metalcore these days. The biggest names in the genre are Christian bands such as Rubey’s Devil Wears Prada and the others that he name-checked above. It might seem counterintuitive that a message of love and forgiveness could take root in such a sonically punishing style of music. But it has. Significantly, these bands aren’t playing copycat or trying to imitate the established leaders in this genre. They are the leaders.

And God seems to be using musicians like Rubey and his peers to reach out to audiences and bands who might otherwise not have much of a chance to hear and see a Christian message and witness in action.

So even though the secular acts Chris Rubey rubs shoulders with might raise an eyebrow or two, it seems to me he’s exactly the kind of guy to be where he is, to be doing what he’s doing—never mind if some of his critics don’t always understand.