The oppressed songs

Irreverend James & the Critical Mass Choir spread a new word

“Idon’t tend to divulge my real name,” says Baptist, lead vocalist for gospel quartet Irreverend James. “Baptist is the stage name I’ve been using for about 10 years.” Baptist, along with the rest of the group, has a stage name within this band as well.

“We want to make it more about the ideas than the people in it,” he explains.

Baptist, aka the Profit, along with bassist John the Bassist, pianist Hereticus Monk and drummer Little Drummer Boy, perform a combination of original gospel and standards, with a twist.

“At first it was just about playing the standards. And then we started tweaking the lyrics and changing them around. Then we started writing music—that was the beautiful part for me, how eas­ily the songs wrote themselves. Now you can hardly differentiate between a standard and one of ours.”

The group, who released their first EP, The Introduction, in June, celebrates the spirit of traditional gospel, but with a contemporary message.

“[Gospel] comes from slavery, right? The only time the slaves were allowed to congregate was at church on Sunday. Today it’s more about gays being oppressed, women being oppressed, it’s a dif­ferent struggle, but what [the slaves] went through, we’re trying to apply to the modern world.”

Admittedly, his love affair with gospel has been a rocky one.

“Years ago, I was in a couple of gospel choirs, but I’m not a religious person. So people were feeling Jesus through me, but I felt like a bit of a hypocrite, like I was in a club that thought I was some­thing I wasn’t.”

Still, when John the Bassist approached him about forming a group, he knew the style of music he wanted to perform.

“I don’t know any other kind of music that has the same joy, the same vocals and the interaction between the audience and the people on stage. That’s why we often say in our shows, we are Irrev­erend James but you are the Critical Mass Choir.”

Essentially, the choir consists of audience members who know the songs.

“That’s what our show on the 24th is all about, creating this pseudo-choir where people learn some of the songs and then get into the show for free. A lot of people love to sing but don’t want to sign up for a choir because it’s too time-consuming. With us, you come in and we have some songs with parts that are really easy to learn, so just sing along.”

And while the band has a message, it’s not trying to brainwash anyone.

“Most churches are probably hoping to bring you into a dogma—we’re hoping to bring you out of it. You can remain Christian but have an open mind, be critical, don’t be stuck in one mindset. That’s why we call it the Critical Mass Choir, because it’s sort of a mass, but we want it to be critical.

“And we’re not trying to convert anyone to anything. There’s a message, but that’s secondary. It’s like when you see a really good movie; it’s entertaining, but you’re still thinking about it the next day. We want the message to hit you the next day. But when you leave the show, we want you to have a broad smile on your face because you had a fantastic church-like time.” ■

AT DIVAN ORANGE ON WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24, 5-À-7, FREE

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