An Australian Christian Band Story MATT BAKER Matt Baker from Lessie Does shares an interesting Australian Christian band story. In 1995 the Australian Christian band scene began to grow both in the world and within the Christian community. One venue in Adelaide, South Australia called the Underground, literally grew a hundred Christian bands. The Christian music scene in Australia then progressed to achieve many state number one records. This exciting chapter of music produced the largest independent Christian band scene in the history of Australia. This Australian Christian music scene then continued to grow and become national. These bands achieved national recognition. They played at festivals, received radio play and they also toured nationally. This is an exciting book written and expressed with a band documentary writing style. The book was made and developed from real band documentary interviews. THE GLORY STORY RECORD COMPANY LESSIE DOES An Australian Christian Band Story by MATT BAKER i Lessie Does An Australian Christian Band Story by MATT BAKER THE GLORYMUSIC STORY TO THE RECORD WORLD COMPANY MTW Records ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA iii First published as the The Underground, 2012. Second edition published as Lessie Does, 2017, 2018. Published by The Glory Story Record Company. Printed by Digital Print Australia 135 Gilles St, Adelaide SA 5000. This book is dedicated to All rights reserved. The Glory Story Record Company Dear God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Praise God for His glory and power. Praise God. Amen. You can order Lessie Does – An Australian Christian Band Story from www.theglorystoryrecordcompany.com.au MY BEAUTIFUL MOTHER JENNIFER Thank you for all of your editing and love on this project. Thanks for your support Cover illustration ©2017 Cory Heneker, Digital Print Australia. and encouragement along the way. May God continue to guide you. I pray that Jesus Book layout and design by Cory Heneker, Digital Print Australia. will work through you and pour out His Spirit upon you. May people come to know Documentary book production team: Gavin Blieschke, Brenton Ragless, and love Jesus through your example and witness to Christ. Luke Baker, Jennifer Baker, Matt Baker and Pierris Kahrimanis Cinematography by Gavin Blieschke and Luke Baker. TO MY GRANDMA Band interviews conducted by Brenton Ragless, Gavin Blieschke, Luke Baker, Matt Baker and Pierris Kahrimanis. Words can never express the depth of love that you have shown to me. Documentary band interviews: Embodiment 12:14, Seraphs Coal, STR, Edison, Your continued kindness is something that uplifts me and gives me peace. Hone, the Frugals, Wone and with The Underground venue and management team Praise Jesus for His work in you. Lessie Does photography: Kunze, Darren Leach Book editing: Cory Heneker, Jennifer Baker and Matt Baker TO MY AWESOME FAMILY Author of book: Matt Baker Thank you for your continued help in my life. May Jesus bless you all. May you grow in Him each day. I pray that you may walk in the path of the Lord. All poetry and lyrics in the documentary book come from the Australian Christian band scene only TO THE FROST FAMILY Thank you for your ongoing prayers and encouragement. I know Jesus is with you, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval His Spirit continually is at work in your lives. You are of great blessing to me. system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photography, I pray that Jesus may continue to shine through you. recording, or any other – except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior permission of the publisher. TO DAD Thank you for your continued love over all these years. God bless you. The Australian Copyright Act, 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten I look forward to hearing about all of your adventures. percent of this book, whichever is greater, to be photocopied by an educational I hope you enjoy this one. institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. ©Matt Baker 2012, 2017, 2018. v This book is dedicated to Dear God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Praise God for His glory and power. Praise God. Amen. MY BEAUTIFUL MOTHER JENNIFER Thank you for all of your editing and love on this project. Thanks for your support and encouragement along the way. May God continue to guide you. I pray that Jesus will work through you and pour out His Spirit upon you. May people come to know and love Jesus through your example and witness to Christ. TO MY GRANDMA AND GRANDPA Words can never express the depth of love that you have shown to me. Your kindness is something that uplifts me and gives me peace. Praise Jesus for His work in you. TO MY AWESOME FAMILY Thank you for your continued help in my life. May Jesus bless you all. May you grow in Him each day. I pray that you may walk in the path of the Lord. TO THE FROST FAMILY Thank you for your ongoing prayers and encouragement. I know Jesus is with you, His Spirit continually is at work in your lives. You are of great blessing to me. I pray that Jesus may continue to shine through you. TO DAD Thank you for your continued love over all these years. God bless you. I look forward to hearing about all of your adventures. I hope you enjoy this one. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to all of my teaching colleges for your faith in me. I pray that God will guide you and help you to continue His work. Praise God for giving me a spiritual home. Blackwood Hills Baptist Church is a place where I can be excited about God. Thank you to all the pastors, elders, friends and congregation members for your help on my journey. Special thanks to my youth group leaders, Horizon members and their families. Your support to Lessie Does has been greatly valued and cherished. Thank you Jeremy Owen and Andrew Lang for all of your input into my life. Praise God for what He did do through Lessie Does. May you continue to bear witness to Jesus in your life each day. To everyone involved in the Underground music scene, bands, fans, management and support crew: thank you for your efforts and motivating words. Your example to me has taught me a lot about Jesus. I see Him in you. I pray that Christ will continue to be with everyone and that the Holy Spirit will lift you up and guide you always. Thanks to all of the bands that have supported the Underground and Lessie Does. A SPECIAL THANKS TO: HONE THINKTANK SERAPHS COAL edison hummel wone God So Loved the World waybackwhen Underground Management and all the bands who played at the UNDERGROUND & HAROLD FESTIVALS YOU’RE A BIG PART OF GOD’S STORY! CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE A Dream of Heaven .........................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO Beautiful Rainbow, Beautiful Mentor ..........................10 CHAPTER THREE Hardcore Kids, 1995....................................................................22 CHAPTER FOUR Waking up to the Underground, 1996 .......................34 CHAPTER FIVE Lessie Does, 1997............................................................................43 CHAPTER SIX Christian Punkers, 1997 ...........................................................53 CHAPTER SEVEN A Growing Scene, 1998 ...........................................................62 CHAPTER EIGHT Place of Harmony, 1999 ...........................................................74 CHAPTER NINE Salvation Missions, 2000 .........................................................83 CHAPTER TEN Recording Time, 2001................................................................92 CHAPTER ELEVEN Festivals ................................................................................................. 103 CHAPTER TWELVE CD Launches, 2002 ................................................................. 114 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Radio Trouble, 2003................................................................. 124 CHAPTER FOURTEEN Love and Hate, 2004 ............................................................... 134 CHAPTER FIFTEEN Mental Health and Rock’n’Roll, 2004 .................... 144 CHAPTER SIXTEEN Records and Messages, 2005 ............................................ 154 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Australian Christian Bands, 2006 ................................ 166 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Jesus Culture and a Band Movement? ..................... 176 CHAPTER NINETEEN God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Music .................... 184 vii In the pursuit of truth I found a road Worth walking down The road that led me to you In the pursuit of life I took your hand Reached out to mine Please God never let me go. Aaron Mabikafola, Long for You HOMETIME ix CHAPTER 1 A Dream of Heaven Well I know a place of harmony, where no one will act so selfishly and I can take you to this place if you just ask me. Andrew Lang, Place of Harmony LESSIE DOES When you leave this cruel world, you won’t take anything; with a snap of the fingers life will have new meaning; when you leave this cruel world what will you hope to find? Leaving the World Behind; Lessie Does HOPE TO FIND HEAVEN. I dream of a place of harmony! I dream of a I place where people will not act so selfishly. In many ways earth is a magnificent home. God’s creation is beautiful and yet at the same time it’s a difficult world for many people. So many of us live in a cruel reality! When you leave this world what will you hope to find? What are you searching for? As a child I was given a dream of eternity from God and then later in 2 LESSIETHE UNDERGROUND DOES life my band Lessie Does sang about it, we sang about a place of harmony, yet we also sang about what this world is really like. This topic of eternal life with God was simply one message that would be expressed by Lessie. God has communicated the importance of eternity to me again and again. He is helping me to focus on heaven! Lessie Does was simply one group associated with the Underground band community in the land of Oz.