It was bound to happen: "Grunge" finds its way into the Nashville-based contemporary Christian music industry.

Hailing from Seattle, Forefront recording group Grammatrain churns out Nirvana-inflected heavy "alternative" grunge music--but with a Christian message. On tour and on their upcoming follow-up to their 1995 release Lonely House, lead guitarist/vocalist Pete Stewart gets his musical message across with Gibson guitars.

"My constant on-the-road guitar of choice has been my trusty black Studio Les Paul guitar," said Stewart, whom with brothers Dalton and Paul Roraback make up Grammatrain. "I got it when we recorded our first album, and I've always loved it ever since."

For the band's new record, currently being recorded at Ardent studios in Memphis, Stewart has rounded out his Gibson arsenal.

"I kind of wanted a little more of a vintage sounding guitar for some songs, while keeping the amps fairly modern-sounding, so I used a [ES] 335 for a lot of the record, "Stewart said. "There's no other way to get that sound than using a semi-hollow body guitar, I think. It's an instantly-recognizable sound and it's classic. I also used one of the new Gem Series Les Pauls with P-90 pickups in it, and that quickly became the star guitar of the record. There's just so much clarity and articulation with that guitar. People usually think that single coil pickups aren't as heavy as double coils, but they're an altogether different kind of heavy. They can actually be heavier because of the attack.

Stewart likes to have a lot of tonal options in the recording studio. "In addition to those, I used a Chet Atkins 12-string, an SG, a Les Paul Classic, and my trusty Studio, Stewart said. "I like to have as many [colors] of guitar sounds as possible on a record, at the same time having the common sound of quality and heaviness that Gibson guitars have."

"Heavy" is certainly a quality apparent in Stewart's sound. And while his riffage is heavily steeped in Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Sound Garden, on Lonely House he adds a unique twist by incorporating New York-style avant-garde noise guitar pyrotechnics that would even make Sonic Youth take notice.

"I think most people would call it modern hard rock," Stewart said. "We try not to really stick with one "style" or category, although most of our stuff would fit into the broad genre of what everyone calls "alternative" I suppose. We have a lot of variety in tempos, sounds, and feels. At the same time we're a pretty raw band. We're not much for layered harmonies and samples, being a three-piece band!"

Stewart says the band has more diverse influences than merely the grunge scene. "The first band that made me just freak out was the Beatles," Stewart said. "And shortly thereafter I discovered Led Zeppelin, which equally turned me on musically. Ever since I was in high school, I wanted to be in a band that was that bold, creative, and emotional in their music. I also like the Doors, Jeremy Egnick, and Larry Norman."

The obvious difference in Grammatrain's music is the message. "What we've always wanted to do in this band is make people think with our music," Stewart said. "Music is an expressional tool, but it's also an introspective tool as well. I express my feelings and my faith through music, which is probably the greatest blessing anyone can ask for, to be able to do that. My faith in God and in Christ is the single most important thing in my life, and for me, music is my ultimate vehicle for expression, so being able to express that in our albums is very fulfilling. I think we accomplish that in a way, though, that keeps from banging people over the head with our beliefs and allows for people to internalize what we sing about and examine it for themselves."

To Stewart, musical and artistic integrity is extremely important. While the band wears their Seattle roots on their sleeve, they don't want to be thought of as a Christian version of Candlebox, Stone Temple Pilots or whoever else is hot in mainstream music.

"We never set out to be the next trendy newest alternative band in Christian music," Stewart said. "The classic complaint about CCM [contemporary Christian music] has always been that it follows what's going on in mainstream music, usually about 3 years later. We've tried to be true to ourselves and come up with our own style, rather than copying anyone or trying to be something that's contrived. On the new record, we explored some of our direct influences from older bands like the Doors and the Beatles, which is something that's not commonly done in CCM. It seems like a lot of record labels listen to whatever the newest thing is on the charts and try to find a "Christian version" of that. I've always despised that mentality, because I think it makes for Christian music being fake music."

In an effort to further establish their own musical identity, Stewart and crew have imposed some high standards upon themselves in regard to their current studio project.

"You always have the pressure of knowing how important it is to make the record sound 'incredible,'" Stewart said. "In our case, our label was spending quite a bit more on this album, and we needed it to be great, so we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. However, I really look at being in the studio as being more of an opportunity than a challenge. There's so much experimenting to do and so much time to try out different ideas. It really makes a difference having someone like John [Hampton] producing, who's really into trying anything. Nothing we could come up with was too weird for him!"

At the time of this interview, the band was approximately at the midpoint of their recording. Stewart said the extra effort spent towards creativity is paying off.

"We're looking at calling this album Flying, Stewart said. "The title track is a song I wrote which is probably the most 'out there' song Grammatrain has ever done. Lyrically it's an allegory for human existence and Christ's sacrifice, but it's written with very heavy symbolism and sort of in a children's story fashion, like C.S. Lewis. Musically, it evokes some psychedelic techniques with Leslie cabinets, tape flange, and really cool sounds like that."

Juxtaposing disparate moods is another ploy the band is experimenting with on the album. "The fastest song on the record is called 'Rocketship,' and it changes time signature like crazy, but has a nursery-rhyme kind of melody on top of this heavy, insane music, so that it ends up being a really hooky song," Stewart said. "The variety on this record is what makes me totally psyched about it. There's a kind of mellower song on the album called 'Peace' that has the strongest melody I've ever written in my life, and even though the music's pretty straightforward and strummy, the chord changes are real interesting and Beatlesy, and it ended up being real beautiful. There's some straight ahead, high-energy stuff like 'Less of Me' which is kind of Zeppelin-rock sounding and another song called 'Jonah,' and some more mid-tempo heavy songs, too. There's one song called 'Pain' that's real spacious and has a real solid laid-back groove at the same time, the choruses are super-heavy and have a ton of emotion in them. We wrote a lot of these songs on tour, and that one just happened one day when we were practicing in someone's garage."

Speaking of touring, the band just got off the road with Big Tent Revival whom The Amplifier featured late last year. "The BTR tour was by far the funnest tour we've done yet," Stewart said. "We were actually pretty nervous about it, since they're quite a bit mellower than us. Since we were the opening band, we were wondering whether people were even gonna pay attention to us. But, we ended up having a great tour and a lot of Grammatrain fans showed up each night. The guys in BTR have become some of the best friends we've ever had, as well."

So what is a Grammatrain concert like? Well, like their recorded music--high energy and emotional.

"Our concerts are pretty high-energy, pretty intense," Stewart said. "I look at concerts as a chance to be much more intimate with your music, and we're a pretty raw-sounding band so it's real important to be emotionally into it, or the audience is left bored."

So why is it important to have these elements in Grammatrain's music?

I like anything that creates a vibe and has artistic integrity," Stewart said. "Music has to be emotional for me to really get into it."