The BEC in BEC Records is short for Brandon Ebel Company and is an imprint label of Ebel’s other company, Tooth & Nail Records. Today, the label serves as the Contemporary Christian side of Ebel’s business, just as Solid State serves as the heavier music side; however, the distinction between the label imprint have not always been so defined. Case in point is Falling Up, whose career started as an explicitly Christian band but later became the creative outlet of vocalist and songwriter Jessy Ribordy to write his science fiction song lyrics. By the band’s third record, Falling Up had become much less about Christian music, and much more about abstract sci-fi landscapes, littered with Greek mythology. And after the band’s fourth album, the label and many fans had lost interest.
IN THIS MOMENT SYNCHRONIZED INSIDE. But let’s go back to the single that helped the band sell over 50,000 albums the first week of their debut Crashings’ release—“Broken Heart.” This was February of 2004. Linkin Park had redefined the rap-rock genre by mixing electronica and nu-metal. The prior year, Evanescence had released Fallen and harder music had found a spot on Top 40 radio. On the Christian side, Thousand Foot Krutch was killing it with their move to Tooth & Nail and their move away from rap-rock. Christian music could be explicitly Christian or not, and no one seemed to care either way. In fact, crossover success was seen as a pretty good thing. Groups on Tooth & Nail were finding their way onto Warped Tour and MuchMusic, MTV2, and whatever video stations that were still playing videos. Kutless was still a rock band and Jeremy Camp was a rocker with CCM appeal. And the mastermind behind this new wave of Christian Rock was Aaron Sprinkle, producing hit record after hit record. Crashings is an intense album that leaves you wondering where to categorize it, and the lead single, “Broken Heart,” is a good example of the genre-bending style of the record.
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