Local band to record first full-length album, perform at
Christian music festival
– all with a positive message to spread
But despite their similarity in sound, don’t ask the four members of Chasing Truth about any Metallica songs. They haven’t heard them. Band members Nathan Padilla, Justin Young, Max Monte and Zac Monte, all Gilroy residents, primarily listen to other Christian bands. Their influences include Spoken, Skillet, Thousand Foot Crutch and August Burns Red. Secular hard rock bands such as Metallica, Pantera, Motley Crue or Korn are just vaguely familiar names to Chasing Truth.
“A lot of secular bands portray a message that isn’t really healthy and not positive,” said the band’s founder and drummer, Max Monte, 14. “We try to write stuff people can relate to or turn to. I think we try to show that no matter what’s going on in people’s lives, they don’t have to turn to drugs or alcohol. They can turn to Jesus.”
Chasing Truth songs aren’t all about praising God and Jesus, though. Some touch on a wide range of topics, including suicide, divorce and faith. A new song in the works is about Hurricane Katrina.
“Our music is about stuff that happens in everyone’s life,” said Zac, 10, who plays lead guitar.
Chasing Truth will head to music studios in Chico later this month to record their first full-length album. Though the band members are young, they’ve each had some sort of professional training in the fundamentals of music, and they write their own music and lyrics. Max said he formed the band to put the talents God gave him and his friends to good use. The band has been together for about 1 1/2 years, but the boys have known each other for about six years.
“We’re obsessed with music and we love doing this,” said Justin, 13, the bass player and backup vocalist. “When I’m at home and I’m not doing homework, I’m playing the guitar.”
Being in a Christian hard rock band and recording their music is a dream come true, said Nathan, the band’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player.
“We want to do this forever and go as big as we can,” he said.
Other band members agree they’d like to make music for a living and hope to perform with some of their favorite Christian bands, including Spoken and Under Oath. Members of Chasing Truth have already adopted staple hard rock band moves when they perform, including head banging and raising their guitars in the air above their heads as they play.
The universal content of Chasing Truth’s songs plus rhythms and melody’s that would be at home on any commercial radio station have led to the band’s success in a recent Northern California Christian band competition hosted by the Assembly of God Church in Rocklin. The band took home first place. Chasing Truth will be performing and competing at another three-day Christian music festival at Laguna Seca later this summer, with record producers and industry professionals present.
“We pretty much let them do whatever they want, as long as their music has a positive message,” said Rhonda Young, Justin’s mother. “All the parents are very supportive. I used to be against what I call ‘screaming music,’ but then I heard another hard rock band at a Christian music festival, and I saw that people in the audience really responded to that kind of music, and helped them accept the Lord. I thought anything that can do that is a good thing.”
Both Christians and non-Christians can enjoy their music, Chasing Truth members said.
“We’re not trying to shove our beliefs in people’s faces,” Max explained. “If people don’t know God, we’re not saying you’re a bad person. We’re just putting our music out there and if people want to accept God or our beliefs, then great. I think our music also helps when people have the wrong idea of Jesus. But I think everyone can get into our music.”
