6 Wednesday, September 8,1999
Rocking for God
By Brad Moist
Capital Times Staff Writer
This summer I was given the
opportunity of a lifetime. An oppor
tunity that I had only dreamed
about. So when I was asked to be
the tour manager for the three-piece
Hanover-based band Devoted
Molded, and I gladly accepted.
The members are Jon Shanbarger
on lead vocals and lead guitar, Josh
Young on drums, and bgv’s and
Greg Schneider on bass and bgv’s.
Their musical sound can be de
scribed as pop punk with an alter-
native garage rock influence. Lyri
cally, they are honest and real about
faith, relationships and life in gen
eral. Their songs are catchy and get
stuck in you head.
My job included traveling around
the entire country with Devoted
Molded and three other bands from
their record label, Screaming
GIANT Records, and an indepen
dent band.
The bands that we toured with
were the rap-core sounds of south
ern California-based band Rod
Laver, the ska without horns sounds
of Tasty Snax, the fast-paced punk
sounds of the Jacksonville, Fla.
based outfit of Lugnut, and the
impressive hard-core sounds of the
young Atlanta boys Luti-kriss.
The tour was called ‘TOO MPH 4
God Tour.” It began on the east
coast at the beginning of June and
ended at the end of July in
My Summer Tour with Christian
alternative band Devoted Molded
CENTERFOLD
Stevenson, Wash.
For Devoted Molded, this tour
meant their first ever national tour
and would coincide with the nation
wide release of their new album
titled “Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride” on
September 14.
The album also gave me the
opportunity to work in the studio,
on which I was assistant producer.
My duties on tour were numer
ous. I was responsible to keep
control of all the money coming in
and going out. I was also respon
sible to manage our budget and to
keep track of all the merchandise
sold.
In addition, I had to provide
technical help for their on-stage
performance and to make sure the
band was where they needed to be
when they needed to be there.
As if that weren’t enough, I also
had to make sure all directions and
show information was received,
The Capital Times
checked our e-mail and respond daily
to people who wrote us, as well as be
the final decision-maker for all as
pects regarding the band.
It seemed like a lot of work, and it
was. But in the independent music
scene, it is rare that there is even a
person like to me to go along and do
all that work. The majority of the
time the band members have to split
up all those chores.
My purpose was to take that extra
work away from them so that they
could just focus on one thing: their
music and how they ministered to the
kids watching.
Devoted Molded is a Christian
alternative band trying to stay alive in
the ever growing Christian music
scene. But don’t let the word Chris
tian make you think any less of this
band.
All photos courtesy of Brad Moist. Left:
Brad with Devoted Molded members Josh
Young, Jon Shanbarger and Greg Schneider.
Above: Josh from Luti-kriss on stage with
Devoted Molded in Los Osos, Calif.