Coeur d’Alene rock band Black Happy returns with faith-infused music after 30-year hiatus
Music is a gift, but faith should always come first, said Jim Bruce, one of the drummers for the Inland Northwest-based band Black Happy.
Black Happy, which started in Coeur d’Alene around 1990 and released three albums before breaking up in 1995, recently got back together to play a few shows and work on new songs.
The nine-piece band recently brought its horn-backed, guitar-chugging and humorous lyrics to venues in Spokane and Seattle. Concerts featured ecstatic crowds who sang along with songs, moshed and crowd surfed.
But despite playing in the ranks of sardonic, secular bands like the Violent Femmes and 311, many of the members of Black Happy would say their music comes from a position of faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“We’re not overtly Christian in the sense that we’re necessarily quoting from a psalm or something like that in the lyrics. But … Christ is present in that framework from the guy who wrote most of the tunes,” said Bruce.
Black Happy: Faith meets music
Paul Hemenway is the band’s songwriter and lead singer. He also serves as a pastor for a Lutheran church in Oklahoma.
Hemenway started his career as a songwriter with a Christian metal band called Sacrament. Black Happy formed around 1990 when the members of Sacrament invited a few of their horn-playing friends from the North Idaho College jazz program to join them for a song.
Crowds loved it, said Bruce, and so the band started writing music to include more complicated horn pieces. The horn section became a permanent feature, and Black Happy was born.
The opening song on “Friendly Dog Salad,” Black Happy’s debut album, starts with Hemenway’s rapid paced shout, “Garlic makes my feet stink yeah!”
After the opening shout, however, the speaker starts addressing his “good friend,” who he reveals a moment later is his soul.
What follows is a humorous reckoning between the singer and his soul, who is telling them that things need to change. And when the singer tells his soul to listen to him, his soul responds, “Dog, you smell like fish.”
A rapid-fire saxophone solo rips through the middle of the song as well.
The second song, “Washcloth,” references images of Judas, houses, marriage, seeds and Jesus’s crucifixion, interspersed with the refrain “say that you will, don’t tell me that you wanna.” In the middle of the song, a speaker recites the Lord’s Prayer.
Songs continue in similar fashion, blending Christian concepts and imagery with classic rock-and-roll strategies like shout choruses and instrumental solos.
Bruce said that the band’s sound was largely formed by their musical influences, which largely included secular bands like Fishbone, Oingo Boingo and Jane’s Addiction.
“When you write a song, it’s often based on what you’re really influenced by. And so, I think from that perspective, the instrumentation, the sounds, just kind of developed, from those influences in our collective, working together on the songs, and everyone putting their own stamp into them,” Bruce said.
Although much of the band’s sound might express more secular influences, the lyrics are where the Christian ethos presents itself, said Bruce.
“The instrumentation doesn’t matter as much as what you’re going to put in your lyrical content. And when you craft the song, what’s the impetus for that song, and what’s the main message you’re getting across?” he asked.
Black Happy also wouldn’t label itself as a Christian band, since not all its members are Christian.
Unity despite differences
The differing faiths of the group doesn’t stop them from coming together as friends and building up a mutual respect, said Bruce.
“There’s definitely a mature respect for one another, and we really listen to each other’s input, and really try to make it as comfortable for everybody as possible. And so, the fact that we just love playing together is what unites us,” he explained.
However, even the Christians in the band have their theological disagreements. Bruce said that, amongst the band, disagreements occur between members that might be more dispensational, more Calvinist or more Arminian.
However, the uniting factor is their belief that “Jesus is who he says he is.”
“And there’s even though you’re going to have those theological differences, it’s like we have way more of agreement on things, of the important stuff,” he said.
For himself, Bruce said that drumming is an expression of faith. He referenced Psalm 150, which says to “praise Him with the clash of cymbals.”
“Faith is really easy until you need it. When you need faith, it becomes your food, your air and your water. It becomes everything in your life … So to me, it’s an expression of everything, and the drumming definitely comes out of that,” he said.
He said that performing can become a moment where he has to rely on faith, such as when his finger started to cramp up during one of his shows in Spokane. He said that he prayed to God for help so that he could finish the set, and that “drumming and faith were really tied together in that moment.”
Ultimately, he said that his faith stands apart as a priority in his life.
“I just believe time is short and I’d just like to say, turn to Christ and live while there’s still time,” he said.
“My faith is more important than the music and everything else. The music is a gift from God. Very blessed to be able to still be doing it at this juncture. But ultimately that’s all going to burn. And so the important thing to me is my relationship with Christ,” Bruce said.
This story was written in partnership with FāVS News, a nonprofit newsroom covering faith and values in the Inland Northwest.