Disciple - Without A Doubt

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"Following Jesus stings."

That matter-of-fact statement comes from Kevin Young, the bassist, vocalist and main songwriter for the Knoxville, Tenn.-based band, {{Disciple}}. The three-piece unit, which melds hardcore, metal and rap/hip-hop influences, has just released its Rugged Records debut, ==This Might Sting A Little==, a thundering tour de force of brutal rhythms, throat-shredding vocals and straight to the gut lyrics. The album's no-nonsense title perfectly captures the dramatic nature of the music. "==This Might Sting A Little== is all about serving Jesus, and there's pain and sacrifice involved," Kevin continues. "But that's what following Jesus is all about. God expects you to lay down your will. The Word is very specific about some things."

Young admits he's sometimes confused about much of what's classified as "Christian" music these days. "I don't know what Christian music is any more. I've got my own convictions and I stick by them. I'm not going to slam anybody because there's a lot of people that love God and are at a different place with God. I pray that God will raise up a new generation of ministry bands that are sold out to God and fired up about winning souls. I grew up thinking that the whole purpose of the playing music for a live audience was to try and win people to the Lord. I was young and naïve I guess. When I got more familiar with other groups and saw how people wouldn't even talk about Jesus and how half their songs weren't even about God, I didn't know what to think. To me Christian music was singing about Christ. I didn't know you could be a Christian artist and not sing about God." All three members of Disciple were raised in the church, so their zeal for spreading the gospel is a natural by-product of their upbringing.

Young and drummer Tim Barrett have actually known each other for over ten years, and formed the first version of Disciple when Kevin was a high school freshman. "We wanted to play Christian music, without a doubt," recalls Young. "I started playing the piano at age thirteen. Tim and I just started going to churches, anyplace we could find that would let us play. I also had the opportunity to play bass in a southern gospel band for awhile. I knew very little about bass and hadn't ever really performed on the instrument. I asked the guitarist in the southern gospel band to show me what notes were what. Within a week I was playing and touring with them. I look at that and see how God was preparing me for Disciple. At the end of '92, Tim and I got together again and prayed for a guitarist. About two weeks later, Brad [Noah] came along and it's been the three of us for 6½ years."

Disciple came to the attention of Warner Brothers Records, following their victory in a 1995 Knoxville Battle of the Bands. "There were winners from every style of music," explains Kevin, "and we were the rock winners. The label reps were there to see this country band, not us. But we met producer Jeff Lysyczyn, and gave him our indie CD -- he never actually heard us play. We got a call from Warner five or six months later. Then another few months went by. Finally we got together and made the ==My Daddy Can Whip Your Daddy== EP.

Not long after the release of the EP, the record company (Warner Resound) lost its distribution wing, and Kevin says the label lost interest in doing another album. "But it really didn't bother us. To be honest, the only nice thing about being on Warner Brothers was being able to say you were on Warner Brothers. There wasn't much of a relationship there. They put our album out and that was it. We went in Christian record stores all the time and never saw our albums. Stores didn't have it and didn't know how to get it."

Despite that minor setback, Disciple received critical raves from magazines such as HM, 7ball and Campus Life, and the title track of My Daddy spent several months at the top of the Pure Rock Report's Loud chart. And of course, the band continued to create a major buzz with its incendiary live show. "Playing live is all we want to do," says Kevin. "I love making albums and I hope they get to bless a lot of people. But the one-on-one thing is where it's at."

Impressed by the band's commitment to ministry, Rugged Records gave {{Disciple}} another opportunity to record with ==This Might Sting A Little==. The band's uncompromising lyrical stance is evident from the whisper to a scream attack of the album's opening track, "I Just Know." "It wasn't really written to tell people where we're at. It was written to tell people where they should be at," Kevin laughs. "It's geared to Christians who like to part ways along denominational lines practicing the gifts of the spirit, submersion versus sprinkling, wine versus grape juice. All those things are ridiculous for us to fight over, when we've got people dying every day without Jesus. Are they going to hear a bunch of 'religious Christians' fighting over these things? Or are they gonna hear 'Jesus loves you and so do we.' If you disagree that's fine. Every one should study the Word to check they validity of their own opinions. But there is no disagreement about Jesus being the way, the truth and the life. Everything else is just secondary."

Every track on ==This Might Sting A Little== is informed with such potent and powerful messages. "We're just trying to help people," emphasizes Young. "That's what's at the heart of a song like 'Worship Conspiracy,' which is really an encouragement to Christians to draw closer to God. I look at people who practice other religions, and it amazes me how sold out they are to a false ideology. Yet we've been set free from sin and given the gift of eternal life and we sleep in on Sunday morning. We find it hard to even get in an attitude of worship when we're in church. We serve the real God. We need to act like it. We need to become real about our faith. God is worthy."

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