Some might say that lately there has been a rebirth of keyboard or computer generated music, but perhaps it never fully went away, and is merely resurfacing. Despite the Kurt Cobains or Soundgardens, even given the Bon Jovis, or Poisons, regardless of the trends that music industry bigwigs hurled at the masses, electronica was always there somewhere in the background. It consistently sent out synthesized bleeps, and synchronized beats for someone to dance to. There were always underground fans of electronica before The Prodigy, and the Chemical Brothers stepped into the limelight. We were the ones playing our old Alphaville tapes, and danced around in secret every time a song by Gary Numan came on the radio. We had all the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure albums; we were delighted with the sounds that could be generated by a Moog. Yes, we knew how cool keyboard music was. And a few of us children of the ‘70s and ‘80s became musicians that continued to make use of the sweet sounds of a synth. Bands like Joy Electric, Echoing Green, and Code of Ethics bravely made their own brand of music, brought back to the mainstream consciousness from the crypts of the 1980s. And now, on the threshold of the new millennium, we have Goodnight Star.
More or less an outlet for three college buddies in their early twenties who found themselves equally fascinated with the electronica scene, Goodnight Star was born when Jesse Carrigan, George Kazaklis and Rusty Arnold met while attending Bible college and began to experiment with different keyboards and equipment. Goodnight Star makes use of such gadgets as the Roland Vs880, trax sequence program for Windows, and newly added samplers to make their own drum kits from their keyboards, like the MG1, JP8000, ATC1. In Carrigan’s own words, “We create our own sounds . . . 99% of the time [ . . . ] Loops, vocal samples, hits, scratching, and guitars [at] the bottom of our list . . . but there are no rules; no set boundaries . . .” Influences ranging from Mental Destruction, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, REM, Modeski Martin and Wood, Square Pusher, to bands like The Cure, Joy Electric, Aphex Twin, Call Box, Candyflip, Lightning Seeds, Muziq, Embodyment, Secret Swimmer, Erasure, David Matthews Band, and Miniature Blue Forum helped define their style, while giving their audience some identifiable traits. Says Carrigan, “We loved keyboards and we shared the desire to glorify Christ with our music.” As the song goes, one thing leads to another, and the band eventually found themselves signing a contract with Ronnie Martin (and Tooth & Nail subsidiary) Plastiq Musiq label. He feels that their work with Martin has been very productive. “Ronnie took a chance on us. He is respected in our eyes. Ronnie is really cool in every way. ”
As for the song writing process, Carrigan shares a few of their magical methods. “Sometimes it's a poem put into a song . . . sometimes all the music's sequenced and finished then the vocals and lyrics are written into the music . . . sometimes we'll go over the top of another's song and work together on it.” The bottom line of their approach is still to actually create songs that people can sing and remember. “Everybody’s still singing Beatles songs, mainly because they're songs, and really well written catchy songs. They'll last a lifetime. Big beat bands like Prodigy will be in pawn shops by the dozens once twenty other trend jumping techno-based bands do the same thing. All of Goodnight Star's sounds may become Cheese-bot but hopefully you can sing something and remember a lyric or something. Basically song writing is universal.”
Their music is very often filled with inspiring messages of their faith, and their mutual love of God. He continues, “Putting it simply . . . if your best friend was dying and you knew he didn't have a relationship with God and his destiny was hell . . . what would you say? ‘It was nice hanging out with you . . . you know . . . ’ You would lead him to Christ I hope . . . I don't know what's happening in people's lives when we do a show, or what someone's going through when they listen to our cd, but if there's one chance they might see God through us, it's worth it all. There is no choice. Everything you do is to glorify Christ -read The Word, it's everywhere. We're so afraid of offending the world and in turn we are the ones being converted.” The band’s foremost agenda is to “promote God as Healer and Comforter and means to salvation through Jesus Christ.” They have also chosen to focus on the program Teen Challenge, which is aimed at helping drug and alcohol addicted youth to come clean. Carrigan’s wife is a survivor of addiction, and is now a worker with the program.
Some of their other songs, like ‘Compu-Friend’ (originally titled ‘The Robot Song’ “because we would dance like robots in my dorm room”) was written for a friend as a birthday tribute, and ‘Ladylove’ was written for Carrigan’s wife, and sung at their wedding. “‘Trailer Park Love Song’ is supposed to sound horrible to make a point that music is about God, not trends. I hope it beautifully hurts people's ears. I sang it one time through with no effects to say I don't care . . . etc.”
Aside from the fans that are seriously into electronic music, and understand the techno-lingo, he seems to believe that most of the Christian music world is confused by their style of music. “Honestly Joy Electric for a long time was a stand alone for synth heads in the Christian market so we're compared to him . . . If I went up to Stavesacre and said, ‘Man you guys are so stinking exactly like Tool’ they would probably think I'm an idiot. Well, I don't play guitar or listen to Tool I should remain silent.” Carrigan contends that mainstream audiences seem to understand electronic music more so, because all the pioneering bands like Kraftwerk, or Depeche Mode were mainstream musicians. “In a nutshell [Christian audiences] stare at us.”
Given the trends in music right now, Carrigan hopes that synth/electronic music will not ever be the flavor of the month, because “Too much sugar will make you sick. We need a balanced diet.” But he feels that music with an electronic foundation is now also adding more live instruments to the sound, and vice versa. “Aphex Twin, Autechre . . . a lot of it accompanies a certain mood . . . like Garbage. Guitar-based bands are getting into loops and synth leads, noises and effects. Some of it's pretty cool. There's just so much out anymore. I’m lost in ‘what's supposed to be cool.’ I grew up playing Atari 2600 and eating cereal Saturday morning. So if that's the feeling I get across then wonderful.”
Aside from a few shows with norway and House of Wires, they have not ventured out much on the touring circuit yet. They would look forward to doing a ‘Plastiq Musiq’ tour with all their label mates, but know that is still not in the works. Future work is already beginning, with sounds aimed more at a more electronic feel, with “vocals [ . . .] up in the mix, better song structures, cool sound effects, [and] new Pac-man stickers available.”
So, Children of Atari and closet-synth lovers, take heart. There is music for you out there. No longer will you have to pretend. No longer do you have to hide your Bronski Beat album under your bed. It is okay to be different, and it is okay to like those keyboard bands. Take a deep breath, and feel confident that Goodnight Star is a blazing a trail across a dark sky of average rock bands.