Bride - Oddities
WE SOMETIMES FORGET just what it means to be "not of this world." In the eyes of many, a Christian is a real oddball, a freak. We are oddities. God's oddities. Bride's ninth studio album, Oddities is a continuation in a long, and sometimes musically varied, ministry.
Bride's first album, Show No Mercy, was released in 1986 on Pure Metal, and was followed by Live to Die in 1988. Both records featured a shrieking Dale Thompson, some make-up, and a lot of spandex. After their third Pure Metal record, Silence is Madness, was released, came the jump to Star Song when that label purchased Pure Metal. Star Song released Best of Bride: End of the Age, which included two new tracks, "Everybody Knows My Name" and "Same ol' Sinner." These new songs completely redefined the band's sound, and set the stage for Kinetic Faith, a record that featured good commercial hard rock and metal, with the more refined vocals and quality instrumentation by which most fans identify their fanhood. Every band with any longevity to speak of, has that one album that fans consistently consider to be their best, untoppable record. For Bloodgood fans, it might be Detonation, For Petra fans, On Fire, and for lovers of King's X, it might be Gretchen Goes to Nebraska or Dogman. For many Bride fans, it's usually a toss-up between Kinetic Faith and Snakes in the Playground, though Dale himself would argue that the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Snakes album, Scarecrow Messiah, was even better. Another label switch, this time to Rugged, brought an unexpected change for fans with Drop — a sorely underrated album by all respects. Whatever the listener thought of the record, the band's live renditions of the Drop songs were simply amazing. Then came the deal with Organic, in which the band has released The Jesus Experience, and now, Oddities.
Here's the complete, uncut/unedited text gathered from the two interviews (Dale & Troy) that Brian McGovern did for the HM #74 Bride cover story.
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Dale has said that he doesn't like to talk about Bride much during interviews. Why do you think that is?
Troy -- "I think Dale would rather focus on the Gospel and promote it rather than Bride."
Dale -- "Well, there's nothing really to talk about Bride. We're just a band, and the message is much more important than who we are. I mean, that's just kind of the way I look at it. There's so much emphasis put on musicians, artists and entertainers, and, you know, all of that, that it just doesn't make any sense to talk about the messenger when the message is so much more important."
So speaking of the message... Why don't you tell me about the new record?
Dale -- "This is one of those records that there was kind of a long time in geting it together, just because of studio times, and I guess it was probably for the best. In looking back, every time that we want to do something, it may not necessarily be God's time. So I think that the delay of recording this record helped us to reorganize a little bit. And in the process, we wrote a couple other songs that were not going to be on the record, and probably dropped three or four that really didn't fit the criteria of this record. Message-wise, most of the record is pretty much scripture, you know, but once again, it's really about dying to yourself, and allowing God to work through you, understanding that you're bought with a price, and this life that we live is not our own. You know, once you give your life to Christ, then you're in total service to Him, and it's not what you desire, but it's what God desires out of you. That's kind of the overall theme of the record, even though there's songs dealing with other issues, but that's the theme that I want people to understand, is how important it is to serve God."
Dale -- "I think we have 13 songs on the record, and I believe it's balanced really well. I didn't want to alienate the Bride fans by coming out with 13 radio songs, but again, I didn't want to write radio off. I wanted to be able to give them as much fire power as we could from this record. And, of course, Organic, also, to be able to push some singles for radio. So it's a well-balanced record. We've got songs that, to me, it reminds me of something Marilyn Manson would've put on their record, and then we've got songs that sound like the Wallflowers, I think. So it's a big variety of stuff, but it's balanced out well enough to where the heavy fans won't be bummed out about it. The songwriting and lyrical content, I think, are the best that we've ever done. And I look back at things like... Snakes in the Playground was talked about a lot, you know, kind of like our pinnacle album, like King's X Faith Hope & Love, and stuff like that. it's kind of the album that you always try to top. And in the minds of the bride fans from the early 90's, we'll never top Snakes. But I think this is a better album than Snakes, and as a matter of fact, I thought Scarecrow was better than Snakes, but most people didn't."
Troy -- "I think the album is diverse. It has the heavy, the soft and the in between. I believe as time goes by, we become better song writers. Also, after we've played the same old songs about a million times, the new stuff is refreshing."
You had John Elefante and Jamie Rowe sing back up vocals on this one. How did that go?
Dale -- "I think for the radio songs, I think it's a big plus, because I've heard some of the demos that were mixed, that Tony mixed for the record company. And I think they sound really good. They did screw up once on a vocal. They didn't understand what I had sang, so they sang the wrong vocal, and when I heard it I had to call 'em and say, 'Listen guys, you sang the wrong vocal.' So they had to go back and fix that. But I think they were just having such a good time, they didn't care what they sang. But everybody knows Bride don't sing harmonies, so I don't know how we're gonna match what they do, because both of those guys can really sing. And I really fake it the whole time. What I do is just a fluke of nature, and I'm just glad it occurs when I need it to (laughter).
As you look around the current music scene, do you see anything that makes you happy? If so, what?
Troy -- "There is a lot of really good talent in the Christian music scene these days. A lot of great songs are being written."
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