Trio's edgy mix of rock, pop and hip-hop appeals to fans who might not ordinarily embrace 'Christian rock.'

Though dc Talk might be a Christian rock band, don't call singer Kevin Max a Christian musician.

"I don't mind being looked at as a Christian, because that's what I am," said Max (born Kevin Smith). "But I don't call myself a Christian musician. I'm a musician who happens to be a Christian."

Coming from a member of a band with an album titled Jesus Freak -- a band with three Grammy Award wins for Best Rock Gospel Album -- that might sound like a cop-out. But unlike most of their peers in the Christian rock genre, the Washington, D.C.-based dc Talk purvey a radio-friendly, edgy mix of rock, pop and hip-hop that has caught the attention of listeners who might not ordinarily embrace overtly evangelical sounds.

Christian rockers dc Talk have won three Grammies for Best Rock Gospel Album. Photo by Len Peltier

The success of their latest release, Supernatural, only reinforces Max's point. The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart last September (smack dab between ghoulish rock acts Marilyn Manson and Kiss, an irony that neither escapes Max nor particularly impresses him). The album's first single, the sardonic "My Friend" (RealAudio excerpt), has found airplay success in major markets on the strength of its soaring sound and lyrics that only reveal religious undertones under close scrutiny.

" 'Christian music' to me implies that Christ has to be in every song you write," the 32-year-old Max said. "I don't necessarily feel that needs to be a part of what I do, because I like to write songs about my wife, about things I've experienced."

The band's songs can be interpreted on a number of different levels, he added. The ballad "You Consume Me" could as easily be about a lover as about God, and the anthemic "Fearless" (RealAudio excerpt) is about the fear of love and commitment to anything, Max said.

Max would rather his band -- whose other members are Toby McKeehan, 34, and Michael Tait, 32 -- be more like U2 or the Call, groups that infuse spirituality into their music, than Point of Grace, a Christian band that sings overtly "born again" lyrics.

But he also recognizes that some of the band's hard-core Christian fans -- who sent the more explicitly gospel-oriented albums Jesus Freak (1995) and Free at Last (1992) to platinum sales levels -- might see the band as selling out their faith to sell more records.

"That's the only thing I'm concerned about, that if we make a shift, people will think it's because we sold more records," Max said. "I've sold a ton of records by singing about Jesus. I'm not scared of singing about Jesus. I don't have to water it down." (As of mid-January, Supernatural had sold nearly 133,000 copies, according to SoundScan, a tracker of record sales.)

"We find our challenge to ... bring our music to places and people that wouldn't ordinarily hear it." -- Kevin Max, dc Talk singer

Adrian Pratt, a fan who runs a dc Talk website (www.ardent-enthusiast.com) from his home in Abingdon, England, said he was concerned that the band might become more secular when they signed with Virgin Records last year. But after hearing Supernatural, he says he doesn't think dc Talk will sell out.

"They may change their style of music, but I don't think they will ever drop God from their music," he said.

Pratt also said that, like most dc Talk fans, he found the band's music to be as much a selling point as its message. "My parents were playing Christian music that I really wasn't interested in, and then one day I saw a catalog of Christian music and saw a band doing 'Christian rap,' which at the time appealed to me," he said. "After listening to Free at Last, I was hooked. [It had] catchy tunes and heartfelt music."

The band always has been interested in putting its music out to "the masses," and thinks its new approach is more well-rounded without losing its religious core, Max said. "Supernatural is by far the closest to what a dc Talk record would be, because we're all writers on each song," he said.

Despite the success of "My Friend," which recently won Philadelphia radio station Y100's listener poll two weeks running (beating out such alternative radio favorites as Garbage, the Flys, Rancid and Fiona Apple), Max still sees roadblocks to dc Talk's music getting a fair shake from radio and music television.

While Marilyn Manson talks about satanism in MTV interviews, and the rock press has supported musicians such as the Beastie Boys, who've embraced Buddhism, Max said he thinks dc Talk are censored from MTV and radio because of their faith.

"That's a problem to me," he said. "If they're not going to censor other religions, they shouldn't censor Christianity."

MTV representatives did not offer a comment by press time.

Max, who cites the Beatles and Stevie Wonder as his biggest influences, still hopes dc Talk can compete with secular rock bands.

"Not a lot of Christian rock bands out there are that interesting, much less really thought-provoking," he says. "We find our challenge to break out of that box, and bring our music to places and people that wouldn't ordinarily hear it."