British band Electralyte releases their North American debut Scratch Beneath The Surface this week. Here, in their words, are the stories behind the songs.

Again, Again

Again, Again holds a big question mark over what our Churches look like. It is inspired by a challenge my wife gave me. Having spent several years working with young people (mainly those who no-one else wants to work with) we wondered how those young people would engage with church? Would they feel comfortable – at my church? Are we going round and round, again and again? Our hope is it’s not too late for us to change…

Tall Stories

Tall Stories probably carries the simplest message of the whole album. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “This is my new story, this is my new song” The love of God, the sound of His worshippers “of love and thank yous piled high” and grace that can change the world “short term memory loss”. The message is as significant as it is simple.

Where In The World

Where In The World came out of an experience I had when I was over in the USA at a Summer Camp in the middle of nowhere. There was no mobile signal where we were and I was desperate to ring home. I decided to walk out see how close the nearest town was. I discovered that America is a pretty big place! I walked and walked; still no sign of life. Beginning to feel quite lonely this song began to form in the back of my mind. The song itself is about enjoying friends, family and a living, real relationship with our God – where we choose to enter in; heart and all.

Athens

Athens is about relationships. Our relationships with each other and our relationship with God – and all the ways those relationships cross over with each other. Specifically this song is written for my wife Chell and is about us inviting God into our relationship right from the start of our marriage.

Stardust

Stardust was written on a Eurostar train coming home from a short holiday at Disneyland. While I was there I was first struck by how similar the parade songs and Disney film songs were to a lot of church music; and it seemed to go deeper than the melodies and chord sequences too; even the ‘psuedo- spiritual’ aspects of the songs were a little too familiar to be comfortable. Stardust states a truth that we don’t believe in a fairytale God. Relationship with Jesus is not about perfected chord progressions, movie melodies, fairytale castles and fireworks. It’s about real life. “A Saviour scarred to set us free”.

Let’s Get Married

Looking for the hopeful message in Let’s Get Married is a difficult task. The song carries a sadness that is difficult to overcome. The song came out of seeing Christian friends marrying and then separating. Perhaps they married for the wrong reasons? perhaps too early in life? The phrase ‘that will save us’ is not so much about faith and belief as much as holding out a false hope in being able to hold things together in our own strength alone without God’s guidance. Again, relationships need to be held together by our God not just by flowers and milk tray.

Spiders & Flies

This song is about struggling with temptation. Temptation’s something that everyone faces; and everyone has vices unique to them. As a young Christian male there are huge struggles and temptations; every where you turn is a challenge to overcome. Spiders and Flies expresses something of the battle it often feels like when we’re tempted. The song actually leaves the subject in a painful, unresolved place. Coming face to face with our brokenness can often help to redress the balance – I think that is what this song is trying to do.

Life On Mars

This song comes from a passion for exploring the sheer awesomeness of God. Sometimes we think we’ve got life all worked out; thinking we’ve got all the answers. Whilst we can learn more and more and explore the nature of what it is to be human we’ve got to remember there will always be some mystery to life and we will never have all the answers. Our confidence in living needs to be found in our living God.

Ted Talmeer

There’s a bunch of lonely people in the world. It sounds very twee but it’s also very true. This is a song about a schoolboy, Ted Talmeer, who is desperately lonely, being bullied and really struggling to find purpose. He’s shouting out for attention and love. It’s reality that there’s tons of folk out there like our Ted – what can we do about it?

Rock Mover

Doing what we do as a band it’s easy to become full of self-importance, and whilst a bit of confidence is necessary to do the job it can easily turn into arrogance; and it’s a really difficult balance to strike. Rock Mover is about finding that balance; not beating yourself up for being larger than life and recognising the significance of what we do but recognising that if it needs to happen; if others need to be released into doing what we do and we need to stand aside then “we don’t want to hold things back”.

Paperweights And Paperdarts

This song takes a look at the damage words can do when they’re spoken without care. The song looks to ‘make things better’ with a bit of patience and kindness. Spiritual fruit? Maybe? Practically, it’s about holding your tongue when it counts and building others up with your words.

Photographs

Another song that focuses in on the mystery of God. ‘Plumbing the depths of God’ as J.I.Packer puts it. We had an unusual experience of God at work in a church when playing a gig there. We were surprised, excited and perhaps a little skeptical? This song tries to capture our reaction as well as investigate the world which we can’t see, existence beyond our grasp and striving to become closer to Gods perfection in the lives we live.

Scratch Beneath the Surface: An Overview

The songs of Scratch Beneath the Surface have come out of a worldview that constantly attempts to marry the Christian with the ‘other’ – the unusual with the usual – the counter with the mainstream. The album is full of heavenly and earthly questions, and challenge: How much should we expect to be able to understand God? What should we do about the lonely people? What should we do about everyone else? Where does God fit in my love life? And my secret life? Where does imagination finish and God begin? ...

Electralyte are standing on the shoulders of the great bands who have come before us; we hope Scratch Beneath the Surface is a further clarion call that augments the message we collectively carry. If our album helps people to wrestle with and think more about eternal conversations then we’ve succeeded.

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Scratch Beneath the Surface is available now at Christian retailers across Canada. Check out the band and the album on Electralyte’s YMZ artist page.

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