DETRITUS

Here is their latest single.   It's a concept & lyric video, the lyrics are anti-war.

Musically this is the best track I've heard from this album so far.   
Some nice riffs and some excellent drumming.   Still not really connecting with the album though.  

Anyway here it is if you want to check it out.

I cant tell if ita ant war or not. Part of me hears it as something about the hell sokdiera go through and tey to adjuat to coming home. Havent dug into that one enough though.

Hi guys, fascinating thread. Feel I should clear one thing up though as it is my fault. I did say "It sold us a lot of records in the USA". Frankly being marketed as a "Christian Band" in the USA sold us records in the USA, fact. It was a badly phrased comment on my part in the heat of the moment (I hate interviews, I am quite a shy person off stage). I whole heartedly apologise for any offence caused. In the UK there is no real "Christian Scene" or ever has been, or an industry built around it. The whole concept of being marketed in that way was a foreign concept to us and I guess still is. The facts of the matter are we never had any contact with pure metal or R.E.X. and had no say or influence on how or to who we were sold. Also we never saw a penny, sorry dime, for a single record sold in the USA, so if our intention was to get all your money by selling Jesus we clearly were not very good at it lol. My desire as a musician has always to be in a band with my friends and to play wherever people wanted to hear us. My desire as a christian is to live under the grace of God and share the love of christ in everything I do, including music. As for the "yeah but are they a "Christian" band" I find the whole conversation quite tiring and irrelevant. I am sure the Holy Spirit is not confined by these definitions. The only money we have ever made through Detritus was through the re releases of the first two done by retroactive. We invested it all and much more of our own cash into recording and releasing Myths. We wanted to honour and thank Matt at retroactive for making it happen so we thought it only right to offer him first option on the CD and he was really happy to get involved! There was no conspiracy to trick anybody. I wrote all the lyrics except forever soldier which was Andy Bright. They capture my mood and thoughts at a specific time and as a Church Leader and an elected member of the C of E's governing body I have plenty of opportunity to get angry with some of the workings and corruption within the church. For example the lyric "Bishop's move sacrifice the pawns" relates to Bishop Peter Ball, former Bishop of Gloucester and a huge abuser (google it). I don't apologise for wanting to keep our own house in order before pointing a finger outward. I am however flawed and human and so are my lyrics, thats just the way it is. Detritus started out as a mixture of Christians and non-Christians making music together, there was a brief period where all members were but now three are. We love God and follow Jesus through the Spirit, although our opinions on what that looks like might sometimes differ here and there. We also love and want to honour our bandmates as they are just as much a part of what detritus is as me. Sorry that went on a bit longer than I meant it to. If you want to burn me at the stake for being too "woke", whatever that meant 10 years ago, thats up to you. But i am writing with a gentle smile and a prayer. God bless. Next album might be a speed metal alter caller, who knows, depends on where we are at and if it is honest or not. Shutting up now. Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for the clarification and welcome to CMR!

Mark, thanks for coming by. This is why i always hope to hear from the artist on perspective. For me that clears things up on the perspective of the album. In todays age its really hard as a Christian and I guess especially me (growing up with the other records) it was hard to hear that comment but thats the beauty of Gods Grace right.

God Bless.

What a great response! Thanks Mark!

mothy wrote:Mark, thanks for coming by. This is why i always hope to hear from the artist on perspective. For me that clears things up on the perspective of the album. In todays age its really hard as a Christian and I guess especially me (growing up with the other records) it was hard to hear that comment but thats the beauty of Gods Grace right.

God Bless.

For sure, thanks mate. Sorry again

I really appreciate the thoughts, clarifications and your attitude in doing so. I always would prefer to hear from the artist but that's rare. We get stuck on the outside looking in. Thanks for taking the time offer some insight into the band, mindset involved in the album and your current thoughts. You didn't have to be gracious but you were. Thank you for that.

Thank you, you are all very kind.

Looks like I‘ll have to give the album a few more spins after all. 

Apologies, Mark. I was harsh and judgmental toward you and the band.

Blessings, BaleMaster

BaleMaster wrote:Apologies, Mark. I was harsh and judgmental toward you and the band.  

Blessings, BaleMaster

Not at all, I would feel the same with the info you had to hand.

It's difficult coming back with an album after so many years, we knew peoples expectations would be disappointed. To us it is so Detritus because of the shared experience we have as we play, nobody else gets to experience that. Most of the songs were formed from ideas I already had, we knew they weren't classic Detritus, although when people think classic Detritus, they tend to think PD rather than IB41. PD was English school kids trying to sound like their American Heroes, which seemed to go down quite well in the international Christian scene (we knew nothing about), but got slated over here, we did get cut a bit of slack because we were kids though. If you look at IB41 if we had carried on playing together at that trajectory we would be playing acid jazz by now.
I do regret not getting a couple of faster ones on the album, there were some on the way but time constraints and getting the album on one vinyl meant they didn't make it, good start for the next one though. We all live at different ends of the country so rehearsal time is precious and rare.
It's fine not to like the music, a bunch of 40 somethings with varied music tastes are going to make a different album to teenage thrash metal exclusivists. It's Okay to disagree on Theology and politics, no-one is gonna get it all 100% right.
As long as you know we are grateful to all the people who choose to listen to our stuff old and new, those who are Christians, all faiths and none. We were happy to get adopted by the christian scene, we just didn't plan it or want to be limited to a single audience, and we didn't set out to trick or exploit anyone. I guess because I have always been unashamed and outspoken we may have been mistaken as a band trying to make it into a scene, but we were playing this stuff in mainstream pubs and clubs with the occasional christian festival, not churches and coffee houses.
I still stand by our first two albums, and if people like them they are still there, in fact remastered and available to stream, we will even give you a copy for free on our site. I also stand by and am proud of Myths, it's a miracle we could put anything together let alone something that has got quite a positive response from some quarters! Feel free to say what you like about us, i am not here to police it, just happy to answer any questions if people have them, or give an overview of my intention with the myths lyrics as i realise i have probably been a bit vague, i expect people to be able to read my mind. It's tricky listening to music, whether a band comes across as ultra Christian or not it is hard to see the colour of their heart. God Bless. Mark

Every time I read about Detritus I still have one thing going around in my head.  An old friend of mine said you were related to Bromhead from Rorke's Drift.  If I remember correctly, you told me that wasn't true, but it won't leave my brain!



Anyway, I have IF41 on cassette!  That's how old I am!

Mark,
Myths might not be PD vol. 2 but even before the sudo conterversy here I liked the album musically. Luke I said earlier I was in my early teens when PD and IF41 were out and they reprrsented me at the time. Now im in my mid 40's and have 2 kids, i feel like I can appreciate records like Myths much more now. I wolod love to hear any insite on the story behind the songs that you are willing to share because I love that kinda of atuff. I am glad you stopped over here and hope you stay or at least visit once in a while.

God Bless

PD doesn’t do much for me, but IB41 was simply brilliant. I still pull it out regularly. “Masquerade” was such a great song, musically and lyrically. My favorite lyric though is in “Father To Son”: Don’t follow me; follow the One I follow. Don’t look to me; look to the One I look to. I’ve used that saying with my own kids in teaching them to follow Jesus. Such a great lyric on an album full of great lyrics. I also love “Feel”. Such emotion!

Pethead wrote:

When asked about their faith as part of the band the sentiment seemed to be "We are in a differnet place now" Also about the faith aspect of the 1st 2 albumns "Well it helped us sell alot of records in America" THat one hurt the most...

Good grief.

Everything's about money.  We all play the game.  We have no choice.  Doug Pinnick once said (and I am paraphrasing) when he was part of the christian scene he would see what went on behind the curtains and was quite disillusioned by it all, that was no different from what secular bands were up to.

strangerhoncho wrote:

Constantine wrote:

strangerhoncho wrote:

I don't think a retailer should be in the business of judging bands' faith or lackthereof, any more than I think a musician has a responsibility to write explicitly Christian lyrics if that's not who they are.  

Here's where I would disagree:

When a retailer / distributor markets a new album from an older Christian band to the Christian market, they invariably market / hype that new album as a Christian release, even if it is not.  That is probably because they know it has a built-in audience and following and why mess with a good thing, right?

When a retailer does that, that is deceptive marketing.  I see it done often.  Or the band will have a Christian member and they may market the album as Christian when it is not (e.g. the new Fierce Heart).

When a retailer does this, it is unfair to the fans of the band in their previous incarnation who might buy the album thinking they are getting something they are not.  Rather than giving potential buyers an informed choice, they are trying to hook them.

At least with the new Detritus, I will give credit to the marketers, press releases, videos, etc. because they are not trying to be deceptive in that way.  They are not presenting the new Detritus as an explicitly Christian band now, rather they are saying this is a band with a long history, the lyrics are a positive alternative to the negativity around us, etc.  

If these retailers give the right information so that people can make up their minds, that is not a problem.  But if they hide or withhold information to get sales, yes that is a problem.

Yeah, I agree with all that.  They definitely shouldn't market it as an explicitly Christian band if that's not the case or if that's not how the band wants to be marketed.  But I'm glad you recognize that they aren't doing that with Detritus.

I should also point out that there are some bands with all Christian members who don't sing explicitly about Christian themes or who don't want to be marketed as Christian bands because they honestly believe it's wrong to make money by selling Jesus.  I share that belief to some extent.  Many former Christian bands go this route because they have matured.  But I allow for individuals and for bands to do what rings true to them.  If they want to make money singing about Jesus, I don't think it's great and seems to go against Jesus' actions in the temple, but I'm not going to judge them for it.  If they don't want to make money singing about Jesus, I'm good with that too -- regardless of motivation.  I don't know what Detritus' motivations are, but given that they said the band members have differing positions now, it makes sense to keep the lyrics vague so that the music can represent the band as a whole.  I think it shows integrity, maturity, and respect for each other, while also giving us new music.Jesus

Jesus and the devil have always been good business.

Hi Mark, do you remember playing Greenbelt back in August 91? My first festival as a 14 year old and thought you were the standout band above both Seventh Angel and Galatic Cowboys. You did a thrash cover of "Help". Stryper were meant to headline that day on the "Against the Law" tour but cancelled because Michael Sweet had Pneumonia.

Anyway as you say there was no Christian metal scene in England. At least not in the same way as there was in the USA. I can only remember you and Seventh Angel in the very early 90s. Word UK in Milton Keynes wrote a review of Perpetual Defiance in their metal section. Plus I think the Guardian or the Telegraph wrote a review of your 2nd album stating you were one of the best new bands to hail from England. Anyway great days and great music, glad you are still around.