Artist:Relient K
Song:Be My Escape
Album:MMHMM
Relient K is a pop punk band similar to Blink-182 except they are CCM like MxPx. But that's how CCM works. The Christian labels are looking for Christian bands that sound like popular secular bands. You probably wouldn't know that Relient K is CCM if I didn't tell you. Relient K was formed in 1998 in Canton, OH by high school classmates Matt Thiessen (lead singer), Matt Hoopes (guitar) and Brian Pittman (bass). At the time Hoopes' car was a Plymouth Reliant K. They changed the spelling so they wouldn't get sued. Relient K went through a couple of drummers before Dave Douglas joined in 2000. dc Talk guitarist Mark Lee Townsend produced their demo. His daughter was friends with the band and she went on to marry Hoopes. Townsend took the demo to dc Talk bandmate tobyMac who signed Relient K to his Gotee label. They released their debut album Relient K in 2000. At first they had a pop punk sound similar to Blink-182. They softened their sound for the next couple of albums. But they returned to form for the 2004 album MMHMM. It was around this time that Pittman left to join the Christian metal band Inhale Exhale and was replaced by John Warne. They also added guitarist Jon Schneck so Thiessen could concentrate on playing piano. Be My Escape was the first single and it reached #16 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart. The video went into heavy rotation on MTV and Relient K appeared on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. As with all Relient K songs, Be My Escape was written by Thiessen and produced by Townsend. The album was certified Gold. It's available as a budget CD. That's probably the height of Relient K's success. They last released an album in 2016 but they still tour led by Thiessen and Hoopes. At one point they were on Capitol for the secular market and then they were on Gotee's subsidiary Mono vs Stereo and Jive. They aren't on tour right now so I don't know what they are doing. They last posted on Facebook in November. Here's the video for Be My Escape by Relient K.
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