Gnaw Bone plays Christian music with an 80s flair

            by Rick Fitzwell, THG Features

If you love 80s music and love the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a new rock band that might be just what you have been looking for.

Gnaw Bone, a Christian rock band dually named for the tiny Indiana town where the band’s keytarist Jake Patton hails and because “sin just seems to gnaw away at your bones until finding salvation” according to bassist Mike Williams, has just released their first album, a self-titled collection of 80s classics with the lyrics altered to praise God. 

The band felt the reason Christian rock has not been very popular with mainstream audiences is not for its religious message, but because the music artists use generally sucks.  “Most contemporary Christian music is terrible, including rock,” said lead vocalist Dan Smith, whose brother Adam is the band’s drummer, “The beats and lyrics are putrid.  I plan on being a minister someday and I can barely stomach most of it.  We wanted to put together music that really rocks, that people will like.  That is why we decided to focus on tried and true 80s classics to spread the message of Jesus.”

Gnaw Bone exhibits a wide musical range with Christian adaptations of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me, Run-DMC’s King of Rock, and ZZ Top’s Gimme All Your Lovin’.  A sample of the band’s lyrics, adapted from Gary Numan’s classic hit Cars, comes from the song God:

Here is my God
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It's the only way to live
with God

Here with my God
I can only receive
I can listen to Him
He keeps me stable for days
with God

Another song Gnaw Bone expects to be a huge hit is based on Bananarama’s Venus, titled Jesus:

God is on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Jesus was His name

CHORUS:
He's got it
Yeah, baby, He's got it
I'm your Jesus, I'm your fire
Forget your desire
Well, I'm your Jesus, I'm your fire
Forget your desire

Gnaw Bone is available in music stores nationwide.  The band will begin touring the U.S. this summer.  To check up coming tour dates, check out the band’s website at www.gnawbone.com.

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