By Brett Ratner

erhaps the surest way to come up with something new is to combine two old things in a creative way.

This line of thinking is the impetus behind dual-guitar assault of Bleach. Bleach is a hot new act on the Contemporary Christian music scene and participant in the "Live In Your Living Room" promotion sponsored by Epiphone. The Amplifier recently caught up with guitarist Brad Ford to talk about the band's guitar approach and how it ties in with their fresh sound.

"We have two of the most different styles you could possibly ever have," Ford said, regarding his co-ax slinger, Sam Barnhart. "Sam grew up listening to and playing a lot of punk, a lot of thrash., a lot of the hard-core, power chord stuff. No leads, not much lead at all, just real strong rhythm. I grew up listening to the Allman Brothers, Eagles, a lot of arena rock. Plus, I grew up studying a lot of theory and technique. The way it works is that we've developed to the point where he's the master of coming up with very simple one or two-string melody lines. Real simple, but really catchy little phrases. I've come to the point where I've used a lot of blues-based soloing. The way it comes up is we never end up playing the same part."

The result is music that's more stylistically-diverse than most "alternative" rock, but still has the rawness and energy.

"Our music is very simplified," Ford said. "We coined a term to describe our music as 'garage pop.' We try to concentrate on feel and vibe. We try to write songs that we enjoy listening to as much as we do playing them. We focus on melodies and just writing feel-good songs. The sounds that we use are heavy, but it's still feel-good rock and roll."

Bleach want you to feel good about their message as well. According to Ford that message is encompassed by the meaning of their moniker.

"Bleach came from a desire to have a name that number one, sounded cool," Ford said. "But for our style of music, we also wanted a name that someone could put some kind of a meaning to. There's got to be a connection. We're five guys who are pretty rough around the edges. We've seen a lot of things, been a lot of places. The focus of our music has always been more toward the spiritual side. Because of this, we went with Bleach because it connotes a cleansing, if you will... a vibe of being scrubbed. It kind of describes us and what we're about."

Bleach is also about a team effort in a creative sense. Ford says that everybody contributes to the songs and little, if any, attention is paid to traditional songwriting roles.

"It's nothing that we really think about a lot," Ford said. "We all take turns writing, musically. Matt, our drummer for example, has learned to play guitar as we go. He's actually very creative. Sometimes when I am thinking in terms of theory, like 'what chord should go here,' Matt just kind of creates a chord. He actually helps us out a lot. It's good to have someone who's not actually a guitar player to push us a little bit more to be different. Whether it's myself or Sam or Matt that comes up with a guitar riff, immediately, I think 'what can I play to go along with that that's not exactly like what he's playing."

According to Ford, the end result is music that people can somehow relate to, exemplified by their first single, "Epidermis Girl."

"We write about very daily things, things that everybody deals with, things that everybody goes through because we're not that different," Ford said. "We go through normal, day to day struggles with relationships and you name it. 'Epidermis Girl' is just about a girl who's caught up with the way she looks and her importance lies in things that deal only with aesthetics. We based the song around what we look for. We look at the inside as the most important thing. In dealing with a human being, it's important to look at the inside because that's what makes them somebody."

Now that the collective members of Bleach are "somebody" in the eyes of the Contemporary Christian music industry, the band is taking in the excitement and anticipation of their hopeful success. Their new album, Space hits the stores October 29th.

"It's very overwhelming," Ford said. "We've all been in studios before, but they were in people's garages."

Despite the fact that their careers have grown at breakneck speed, the members of Bleach try to keep things in perspective.

"There's so much going on," Ford said. "We still call ourselves a garage band because that's what we are. We try to write songs we think everybody will enjoy and someone in the industry decided to give us a shot, basically that's what it amounts to."

The various members of Bleach play Epiphone Coronets, Firebirds, Les Pauls and Epiphone basses.