Summer
2002 from CTV Web:
Catholic musicians combine rock, religion
Sandra Dimitrakopoulos, CTV News Staff While most
Catholics haven't heard theology expressed in a rock n' roll song, a growing
number of Catholic musicians are using rock music to express their feelings
about faith – and their fan base is slowly rising. Nick Alexander is
among the many musicians who performed for the WYD youth festival in Alexander, who
takes modern rock songs and parodies them, considers himself to be the
"Weird Al" Yankovic of the Catholic music scene. One of his most
popular parodies is Should I Stand or Should I Kneel, based on The
Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go. While this Catholic
rock musician from "Most
Catholics (at WYD) are vaguely familiar with the Catholic music scene, but I
would say most Catholics here are familiar with the Christian contemporary
music scene," Alexander said. "Most people
don't even know Catholic contemporary music exists." James O'Neill,
the lead singer of the Catholic rock band Sheep, admits the Catholic rock music scene is just starting
to open up. "It's in the
beginning stages," he said. "We're just so used to getting our
music from the Christian scene in general." The bleach-blonde
haired O'Neill, who calls his bands' type of music "Alternative
Praise", said there are lots of good Catholic rock musicians out there
who are trying to appeal to young people with positive messages. "If we're not
playing what they're listening to on the radio, they're not going to listen
to it, they're not going to have anything to do with it," he said. But it could be
difficult getting fans of the Christian music scene to tune into Catholic
rock music. Alexander said it comes down to a "cat and dog thing". "Catholics are
Christians but a lot of Christians don't think they're Catholics so there's a
lot of marginalization," he said. However, the few
pilgrims who turned out for Sheep's set at the youth festival on Friday were
quick converts. They hadn't heard of the band before they started playing,
but just minutes after Sheep's first song, they said they were now fans. "We are fans
of Sheep," yelled out Sheila O'Toole, 20, from The O'Tooles,
however, are familiar with the Catholic rock music scene and enjoy that type
of music, among many others. "I think it's
just like rock and roll … same beat, same purpose as rock, it just carries a
different message," Katie said. "It's not
music you hear on the radio a lot, but when you're at the concerts and shows
it's great, it's inspiring and everyone's really into it," Sheila said. While both
Alexander and Sheep acquired some new fans, large crowds were also drawn to
the musical style of singing and clapping offered by a group from The group of more
than 25 performers clapped to songs, played out short skits – and drew a
large ring of participants, including a group of Catholic Torontonians. "Rock isn't
the main type of music, this is more modern music than the rock,"
according to Nicole Sinclair, 17, of "The majority
of young people would listen to this type of music," said Lisa, D'Ugo,
also of While Catholic rock
music may not be mainstream yet, Alexander isn't giving up. "All we ask is
for a stage, all we ask is for people to listen and judge for themselves, I
think they'll be presently surprised," he said. While most
Catholics haven't heard theology expressed in a rock n' roll song, a growing
number of Catholic musicians are using rock music to express their feelings
about faith – and their fan base is slowly rising. Used from CTV Web; Web Page Copyright James O’Neill 2006 all rights reserved World wide |
Sheep on CHNU "If
we're not playing what they're listening to on the radio, they're not going
to listen to it, they're
not going to have anything to do with it," - James O’Neill 2002 James with Sheep at World Youth Day 2002 The First incarnation or Sheep “WT Band”
2000
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