HOI POLLOI

Rip It Up, Issue 177, 1 April 1992, Page 20

HOI POLLOI

Hoi Polloi, quietly Christian, are the local rock band with the serious American record deal. Signed to Reunion (distrubuted by the mighty Geffen) they've just embarked on a short tour of

American clubs and Christian venues to promote their self-titled debutalbum.

In the future, they expect to spend at least six months of the year in the States. They don't sound like U2 or Stryper, they're straightahead hard-drivin' rock, dominated by the gutsy, Melissa Etheridge-like vocals of lead singer Jenny Gullen. Her lyrics deal with aspects of love and spirituality that might or might not be religious in nature. But there is no getting around the fact that faith is the foundation stone of their lives. How does that equate with making rock music? Jozsef Pityus (drummer and band philosopher) speaking up in the BMG boardroom: "Traditionally Christians involved in rock has been queasy from a non-Christian point of viewwhat is this, does it work, what are they trying to do and do I like it? I think that for us the motivation for playing music isn't evangelical, although you can't divorce the two because if

anyone has a personal belief,

whether it's political or spiritual, then it's going to influence for good or bad their music. But for us the

motivation for being in a band was because we wanted to write songs and I think that because of that we do what we do from a natural

response rather than a Christian." Formed four years ago, things got cooking for Hoi Polloi when American Glenn Kaiser (of The Rez Band) saw them at a local Christian rock festival. He invited them to play the Cornerstone Festival in Chicago where they went down the proverbial storm, sold boxes of tapes and T-shirts and met up with the Reunion label people in a Nashville club. Now they've got trans-Atlantic lawyers offering them the best advice and a record company confident they can work both secular and Christian crowds in the mighty American market. Supporting Amy Grant in Australia meant Hoi Polloi played 12 shows in eight days — performing for her crowd in the Sydney Entertainment Centre and red-light rock clubs in the same night. 'Christian' and 'rock band' are three words that should not go ►

► together, but to their credit, the Hoi Polloi approach is straight-up, no preaching, no anti-abortion songs dressed up as heavy-metal. JENNY: "A song has never saved anyone and what we say is not going to save anyone, but hopefully our songs might generate questions in people's minds about issues. We just want to be provokers rather than providing the answer. No matter what people's beliefs are —from Madonna to Peter Gabriel — it's important to speak the language of your generation. If you're trying to say something you don't wrap it up in something completely irreleventto the people you want to speak to, but you have to be real. As people that have the faith we have we're not about to go out and say 'we've got it together and all you guys are shitheads and you need Jesus'." Hoi Polloi have definitely got it together career-wise. Jozsef says they were prepared to get themselves heavily in debt in order

to realise their aims. Spending six months a year in America will mean installing their young families in Nashville while the band gets out and meets n' greets. Singles sales in America stem from radio play, not video so the band will be working those reps. What will the great American public be hearing? JENNY: "Our music ranges from passionate, hard driving rock to really mellow emotional phases. When I say mellow we aim for a lot of contrast in the song and in the set as well. It can go from really driving, dynamic stuff to really sparse and atmospheric. We set out to take people on a journey musically,

create aural landscapes so people can enter into the song and maybe close their eyes and picture things because I use a lot of imagery and picture-orientated words in my songs."

There's no doubt that Hoi Polloi's chances of commercial mainstream success are subtly enhanced by the

photogenic presence of Jenny

Gullen. The world's first Christian rock pin-up? How does she reconcile the raunchier aspects of live performance with her spiritual beliefs? JENNY: "I think some women have unfortunately cheapened

themselves on stage by being deliberately sensual when they don't need to be to communicate their songs, to get audiences into it and just perform with energy and

passion. For some women it comes across very naturally as just the way they are. Others really manipulate what they do for marketing reasons and for me I think I'm willing to

trailblaze the way for women to say yes, I am a sexual being, but I'm not here to turn you on, I'm here to say this is great music, I hope you enjoy my songs.*

Hoi Polloi can see that this is their big chance and they're prepared to work their butts off, as Jozsef puts it. They consider themselves extremely

lucky, but they point out they also did the groundwork, getting into debt in order to send tapes overseas, hounding people, making sure their band got seen, refusing to wait on New Zealand label interest."

So they'll miss the greener grass of home, but admit it's exciting to tackle a new culture. Basing themselves in Nashville means they'll have access to some of the best studios, session players and engineers in the business while enjoying a smog-free environment. And if things get really lean, Jenny (who has a few awards for the genre under her belt) can always go country. DONNA YUZWALK

FUTURE RECORDINGS TRACY CHAPMAM, Matters of the Heart.

THE RHYTHM V 01.4 BEAUTIFUL SOUTH, 0898. BLACK CROWES, The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion. NEW MODEL ARMY, History. SOUL II SOUL, Just Right.