Popular music is about art and image. It's an age old struggle for artists to create work that is true and yet has mass appeal. Sometimes an artist must choose between the two. More often then not, the "starmaker machinery" dictates that image becomes the focal point, and art is relegated to the sidelines. I'm thinking about this as I wait in the hallway of a high school in this small Pacific Northwest town. Anvil cases and assorted gear are piled up along the walls, where posters announcing the DC Talk concert are hanging. Staring out intently from those posters are three great looking guys-Kevin, Toby, and Mike. "You can't tell me," I think to myself, "that looks don't have something to with this band's success." Notice, I say something. DC Talk is one of the most musically talented groups to hit Christian music. Still, I can't help but wonder if they have felt the "image/art" tension as they have soared, rocketlike, to the top of the charts. The guys came straggling in one by one and we head for the tour bus-their home for the next several months on the 55 city Free At Last Tour. One of the first things I do is pull out a PR glossy from an old press kit and ask them how they feel when they see it-matching clothes and dancing pose and all.

"I feel glad," wisecracks Michael, "because I don't mind spending the money that came along with that look." He's joking, of course, and yet... "I look at some of the pictures and I feel embarrassed, but quite frankly, I'm not embarrassed about the fame that came along with it." Toby qualifies, "Maybe it took that for us to be able to voice this; maybe it took that to get the crowd that we have so we are able to voice the spiritual concerns that we're voicing now. There was a path, and we believe it was ordained..." They have a good reason to believe that. To merely touch on the highlights of a banner year: They picked up a Grammy for Best Christian Rock Album...Free At Last was certified gold in just 10 months and was named Contemporary Christian Album of the Year by Billboard magazine after being at the top of the sales chart for an unprecedented 34 weeks straight...They've been nominated for six Dove Awards and seem to be everyone's favorite contemporary Christian act, inside and outside of the Christian music industry. All of this in just five years since the release of their first album. Sounds like they're on the right path, all right. One has to wonder, nonetheless, if the success of Free At Last has taken them by surprise.

Says Michael, "I had an inkling from the beginning. After we got done with it and listened to it, I had a feeling this was going to be a big one." Toby chalks it up to the fact that they've been together for long enough now, and have matured to the point that "we've learned how to put together our talents, because we're all completely different people, completely different artists. We had two albums worth of trial and error, and this record sounds like one piece of art, not like any one of us, but like all three of us." Not content to rest on the laurels of the past, Kevin says, "I really have faith that the next album will be another leap, like from Nu Thang to Free At Last, 'cause we're really moving from a pop culture to more of an alternative culture. We're maturing and our influences have changed."

That next album is in the process of being written while they tour. They're also working on a long-form video-a Rattle and Hum-type documentary, featuring thirty days on the road (including concert footage, walking tours of some of the cities they're playing, backstage at the Grammy's, etc.) They're into new album mode from June until November, and we can expect to see a release late in the year. It will be interesting to hear the change two years has wrought in the music and lives of DC Talk. Says Kevin, "We're more influenced now by groups that are not as pop-oriented, by groups that are making statements, like R.E.M. for example. I think you'll see a drastic change in the next album musically and artistically. But it will still embody those pop hooks that make pop songs so great, so easy to listen to and sing along to."

Speaking of Rattle and Hum and musical influences, and alternative culture and stuff...we sort of stumble onto Bono. Now there's a guy who has managed to make image an art form rather than making his art conform to an image. We're laughing about his lame-suited "Macphisto" character, and I comment that he never would have gotten away with that a few years ago. In a way, there's a parallel to the image-transformation DC Talk is undergoing. Toby comments, "This may be twisted way to be looking at the pop culture, but I think you earn the right..."
"...to be weird," cracks Kevin. "No, not to be weird," Toby continues, "but to really project your thoughts and your desires, your art onto the people. You earn that right." Says Kevin, "Bono is a good example. U2 used to he a very normal looking rock band. Now that they've garnered all the success, they're being influenced by 'fashion.' I think fashion is interesting. It's what made David Bowie as big as he is, but even he has a problem with keeping up artistically with fashion. When fashion exceeds artistry, then you have no longevity. I have to say, it bothered me to the point where I was sick and tired of the kids going 'your hair is so cool.' All they concerned themselves with was how we were doing our hair, so before The Tonight Show, I cut it all off. I know Toby and Mike have gone through that frustration, too..."

Toby recounts how in concert the night before, during their acoustic set, he had to tell kids to quit screaming. "It was ludicrous, because the acoustic set is so worshipful...the kids had lost the focus of what we were trying to say." Is that not an outgrowth, though, of that "poster boy" image that got them, after all, to this place?
"That [poster boy] phase was probably the time when we each were sacrificing the most of who we were as individuals for the better of the group. But now, we're starting to stretch, and we're able to be much more who we want to be as individuals than we could be three years ago," says Toby. "Looks are actually a hindrance in 1994 for musical bands." So are their good looks something to get over, so to speak? "Not to get over," says Mike, "but we can't play up on it as much. We don't want to have those perfect airbrushed shots on the album...that whole image is out the door, and we find that liberating and relaxing."

Toby admits, "The bottom line is they [good looks] served their purpose, now we feel like we have a mission, and our looks could be a hindrance at times." He continues, "It's crazy, but like Bono, once you have your platform, that's when you find out who you are as an artist. That's not true for everyone-some people are just themselves whether that sells records or not but for a pop artist, that's true. And what Bono's finding out is that he needs some help..."
So, what did they think about the...shall we say, artistic liberty Bono took during his acceptance speech at the Grammys? (If you missed it, he used that big, naughty word to tell young Americans that U2 would continue to "mess up" the mainstream.) Says Kevin, "I think he's a very passionate individual and he enjoys the spotlight. But there's something in him that always wants to push his envelope, and it seems he's really fed up with his stardom. He's at odds with himself and with his popularity." "I just think he's finding out that he doesn't have it all together," adds Toby. "As success comes, it breeds truth. He's finding out that his true self is made of flesh and he cannot control it."

"We have our problems just like he does" says Mike. "There are times when I'll swear off stage, for instance, but at the same time, I feel like we have Somebody to take our problems to, whereas it seems Bono is not depending on Him..."
Kevin, who apparently relates to Bono the most, says almost defensively, "I wouldn't want to judge what his situation is. We're all big U2 fans, and we don't want to fantasize about how they feel, but I can just tell...I think Toby's right...I don't think think he's comfortable with his spirituality. There are some lines that he's crossing." "That's what I mean," says Mike. "His fruit seems to tell me that he doesn't consult God as much as he should." Toby, in characteristic fashion, finds the middle ground. "The difference between us and U2 is that we've discovered through our system of accountability with each other, the bottom line is we MUST depend on God. We have realized because of the people around us that keep pointing us to God, that in and of ourselves we can't handle it. We can't deal with the stage, we can't deal with the success, we can't deal with the glory...we would freak. We would curse the crowd, we would not be able to love each other or the kids in the audience. That's why we keep going to God, and giving up our right to ourselves, emptying ourselves out and being filled with Him. I think some people, as success comes their way, think they can deal with it, but they can't."
I suggest that U2 being in the mainstream, can also take liberties that DC Talk, in the Christian music industry, never could. That's not what this group is about. But what Bono said, philosophically, is actually very cool. It's great that they're continually making fun of themselves and, as he says, exploding the cliches around them. We are angry at the church, too. It's out of love, though, because we don't think the church is necessarily what it should be. The thing is, we have great liberty in Christ. You have so much more liberty in the Spirit than in the flesh." "Christ did not throw out shock statements," says Toby emphatically, "therefore I know that was not Christ that was speaking through Bono..."
Responds Kevin, "I don't think He threw out shock statements maliciously, but I do think He shocked people big time...I would have to disagree with you there."
"Not through vulgarity though," retorts Toby.
"Not through vulgarity," concedes Kevin.

It's obvious that this hand is in tune with what's going on in the popular cultures. In fact, they themselves have been courted by secular labels (Atlantic and RCA among them), but have so far not felt compelled to accept the offers. It's certainly not a matter of being philosophically opposed to the idea. The crossover controversy, in part, is over art and image. As someone once said, "all art is about God." But in the Christian music industry, sometimes the "God message" is wrapped up exclusively in image (as in "I'm a Christian artist. I only sing songs about Jesus.") For others, the message is in the art itself, and that can take them into a much broader arena. This seems to be the case with DC Talk.

As the pop music critic of the Dallas Morning News put it, "Unless they're satisfied simply preaching to the already converted, Christian pop artists have to balance delivering their message with entertaining their audiences...But even if they're subtle and talented, Christian performers aren't really artists unless they transcend their specific cause. At its best, art tries to answer unanswerable questions, not really pat solutions. That's why DC Talk is such a find."
Toby reflects, "As a philosophy, we wish we weren't called a "Christian band" because that causes people to close their ears to what we're saying. We wish we could he seen as a band whose members are pursuing Christ. We want our words to fall on open ears, not people who will shut us down because we're a bunch of raving lunatic Christians-a stereotype caused by the guy behind the pulpit that preaches down to people. The name "Christian" has been hurt by "holier than thou" believers..."

Hangin' Out The DC boys win the Grammy for Best Christian Rock Album and mug in front of the camera with Jay Leno & Miss Universe.

I ask if there has been a conscious move from the "explicit" form and lyric of Nu Thang, to the softened image of Free At Last, that held such appeal for that Dallas music critic. Toby answers in his careful, honest way. "Hopefully we're not ever thinking about image. Hopefully this is just who we are-reacting off of God's leading." "And God is the ultimate image-consultant, says Kevin. "If you are living correctly with God and allowing Him to take you where He wants to take you, He is going to image you. I'm not saying that God speaks to me in my bed at night telling me what trousers to wear. But I know that this group is closer to God than it's ever been, and I think that the decisions we have made are in alignment with Him. You can get caught up in trying to look cool for kids, but if you look at Christ, He was cool but He didn't try to make Himself that way.
"He concludes, "I think we can be in a position where we're setting standards, we're forging new areas and the big music scene wants to be a part of it. That's how I see Christ. I don't see Him having to work to be a part of something. He was, and people came to Him because He was."

- Kathy Bubel is a contributing editor for RELEASE Magazine.