ANBERLIN - a christian band?

Many people, both fans and critics have labelled Anberlin as a christian band due to both due to their lyrics and the fact that they are signed to Tooth and Nail records who, a while ago, were a christian label and the common view stuck.

Every member is individually a christian and their faith reflects in their songs. Stephen Christian said "my faith affects every single aspect of my life, but I'm not a preacher, I am an entertainer" but they continue to say that, as a band, it should not be put in the 'Christian Rock' genre.

However their songs feature christian references in the lyrics, and they play The Parachute Music Festival and other similar christian festivals and have even appeared on christian compilation CD's and on the Gospel Music Channel.

They have also featured frequently in HM (Hard Music) magazine, originally called Heaven's Metal, a christian rock magazine, and Christian even submitted a letter openly criticizing christian rock band 'The Knights of the new Crusade' for a promotional picture that he deemed "a black mark on the face of christianity".

Nathan Young on the christian rock label - "The thing is, some bands that are trying to get out of the Christian market, they get bummed out by questions about it. I don’t really mind it, because I’m a Christian, and I’m okay talking about it. With the whole term 'Christian Band,' I don’t understand how a band can be Christian. We get the question, 'Is Anberlin a Christian band?' and it’s like, yeah, Anberlin is — as humans"

They are very open about their faith, on and off stage and there is a constant argument going on between both fans and critics. Especially on websites such as youtube.com...

ANBERLIN - The history - SaGoh 24/7

SaGoh 24/7 (Servants after God's Own Heart 24/7) was the founding of Anberlin, a Christian punk band formed by Stephen Christian (singer) and Deon Rexroat (bassist) and were then joined by Joseph Milligan and Sean Hutson (drummer).

Before Anberlin was formed, SaGoh 24/7 released two albums 'Servants after God's own Heart' (1999) and 'Then I corrupt Youth' both released on Rescue Records.

After the departure of Sean Hutson, Nathan Young was brought in as a replacement... they then decided to start a side project, a more rocky one, making the beginning of Anberlin in 2002. They pulled together all the money left over from the band and recorded 5 demos with Matt Goldman (producer) which were put on the internet, this lead to a signing with independent record label Tooth and Nail.

ANBERLIN - The artwork

'Blueprints for the Black Market' - 2003
'Never Take Friendship Personal' - 2005
'Cities' - 2007
'New Surrender' - 2008
'Dark is the Way, Light is a Place' -2010

ANBERLIN - The name

The origin of the band's name is a widely-known mystery. There are so many different stories surrounding it that no-one knows what to believe. Every interview, a different story. They took turns to make one up.

One being... Stephen Christian wanting to call his daughter Anberlin and just suggesting it... and them picking it until they found something better... another being that he was listing cities he wanted to visit in Europe and finished the list with "and Berlin" and it stuck.

The stories then got a little more interesting... "my grandfather saved a little girl from a World War II bombing and her name was Anberlin" and "i hit a dog in my car, she was called Anberlin, I did it in her honour".

As the stories got more diverse, they decided to announce the "real" origin... Stephen Christian announced that "the actual story is that when I was in College, my favourite band was Radiohead; on one of the songs off the record Kid A there is a background noise in the song 'Everything in its Right Place' sounded like Anberlin and I always thought it would be a brilliant band name"

They then added more mystery by going back on that there was no story behind it at all, that he just came up with it in practise.

So who knows...

ANBERLIN - the members

Stephen Christian - Vocals - 2002 - present

Joseph Milligan - Lead Guitar, backing vocals - 2002 - present

Deon Rexroat - Bass guitar - 2002-present

Nathan Young - Drums - 2002-present

Christian McAlhaney - Rythm guitar - 2007- present

Former

Nathan Strayer - Guitar, backing vocals - 2004- 2007

Joey Bruce - Guitar - 2002-2004

Kyle Flynn (touring member) - guitar, keyboards, backing vocals - 2008-2010

ANBERLIN

Now I've been thinking about this, how does one become an 'expert' on a band? I want to do this as one of my topics because they are the one thing i truly think are good. But that is an opinion, now, my task is to get everyone else thinking they are good... now becoming an expert means to know absolutely everything about your chosen subject, so i want to look into everything, their history, the individuals, their inspiration, everything they have ever produced, what they believe in... individual projects. Now this seems a lot to me right now, but researching into something I love does not seem that bad.

THINGS I THINK ARE GOOD...

When sitting here, in my bedroom, a bit sick of diamonds, thinking about what is good, i realize that I am a pretty cynical person, and cannot come up with anything. Then it comes to me... what is more personal than an opinion? what is more personal than a bedroom?

All I need to do is look around.

Photographs, music photography mainly is a big theme... friends, studio ghibli collection of anime films, Anberlin and my RSPCA work outfit.

And there we go.

Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki

Anberlin

Music photography

The RSPCA

Music photography is a passion of mine, Anberlin are a band who's lyrics pretty much sum up my life, Studio Ghibli is something I have been inspired by for most of my life, and The RSPCA... well, self-explanatory really.

So on we go...

THE HOPE DIAMOND

The Hope Diamond is one of the most prestigious diamonds. It is a 44-carat blue diamond owned by Louis XIV of France. It was then stolen and disappeared in the French Revolution.

It changed hands many times for two centuries, eventually falling into the hands of Henry Philip Hope, who was one of the heirs of a British banking firm called Hope&Co.

In 1909 it landed in the hands of Pierre Cartier, the founder of the Cartier jewellery empire.

Now the diamond has a history of being bad luck... the entire Hope family died penny-less, as did another one of its owners, Edward Mclean.

The cutter of the diamond committed suicide after his son stole the diamond in 1830 and an actress was shot on stage on the first time she wore the gem.

DIAMONDS IN INDUSTRY

It is not worldly known that 80% of diamonds go nowhere near jewellery... it was new to me anyway. Its density makes it perfect for industry.

They have three main uses in industry, cutting tools, as abrasives... and use in paste or powder used for grinding and polishing. It may be expensive, but its success in being used as these tools is worth the expense. It's hardness means it never wears down, it cuts in the same way for ever. The only thing it cannot be used to cut is iron, due to a heat reaction.

The main uses of diamonds in industry are -

Shaping drums for copying machines

Polygon mirrors in laser printers

Aluminium-alloy pistons in car engines

Eye glasses

Computer chips

Blades, especially for surgical use

Phonograph needles

Drill bits used in oil digging, water digging or gas digging

Diamonds can cut, grind and polish stones, ceramics, metals and concrete.

They are used in machines for turning, milling and boring plastics, metals and glass.

A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

An unpolished or inexperienced person who shows promise

Big Diamonds

Second to 'Lucy', the largest diamond ever recorded is the Cullinan diamond, found at the Premier mines in South Africa in 1905 by Frederick Wells, a mine superintendent, in the wall of a mine, thinking it was a large piece of glass. It weighed 3106 carats and was named after the mine owner Sir Thomas Cullinan. Wells was paid $10, 000 for finding the stone. It was cut into 105 seperate diamonds, the largest two being The Star of Africa, and The Lesser Star of Africa.

The Star of Africa was cut in Amsterdam by the worlds most prestigious diamond cutters, the Ascher brothers, and it took them months to decide on the right cut for the historical diamond. The story is... on the first cut, the blade broke, on the second, on splitting the diamond the way they wanted, they both fainted immediately under the pressure.

Lucy in the sky with Diamonds

In February 2004, astronomers discovered a white dwarf star that has a 3,000 kilometer wide core formed of crystallized carbon - a diamond of ten billion trillion trillion carats. They named it Lucy after The Beatles song.