Biblethumping

Religion, both in thought and our physical reality, is an ever-present aspect of human culture, and its impacts are felt widely regardless of our identification with it. McKenzie Squires and I met in 2023 at Sō Percussion’s yearly summer institute. We quickly bonded over conversations about their experience growing up in an evangelical family and my upbringing as an Italian-Polish-Catholic-Middle-Eastern-Jew. These conversations included fellow member and composer Hannah Moore and composer Joshua Muetzel. After many late nights discussing the finer points of theology and how remarkable it is that these ancient texts still shape much of society, all of us felt like we needed a space to share these thoughts with the broader world. Evangelicals have a deeply complex relationship with music. With the popularity of Christian rock, metal, and rap, I was surprised by the cognitive dissonance maintained in those communities. McKenzie shared some of their favorite music from that time in their life, particularly a Christian glam metal band named Stryper. Biblethumping takes from their aesthetics and uses microtonal pipes along with equal-tempered ones, emphasizing the dissonance one must carry throughout a religious upbringing.

Recording to be released as part of folx percussion’s debut album Glimpses.