Posted: 5/5/05
Musician finds niche in Christian rock band
By Joel Stottrup
Princeton native Gordy Nelson likes to play rock music with his lead guitar and sing rock tunes. But he has to have more than just the rock music.
What Nelson plays is Christian rock music and he is the lead guitar player in the Twin Cities band, Idiedaily (pronounced I die daily).
Star Tribune music columnist Chris Riemenschneider has described the band as having the "muscle and hipness to play any rock bar in town," and compared front man Troy Hillstrom to rock singer Dave Pirner.
The band has gotten a lot of exposure lately because of a deal in which Idiedaily's music fills a CD that is being marketed for $1 apiece at Target stores.
Nelson, a 1990 graduate of Princeton High School, had various jobs before his present day job and his night and weekend job as a member of Idiedaily.
After high school he worked for about six years in a cardboard box factory in Brooklyn Park and then worked at Hoffman Engineering for three, doing janitor work and other jobs there. In the last four years he has been working as an inspector of voice and data sound systems at A.T.S. & R. in Golden Valley.
Nelson's music experience in high school was singing in the choir and playing the bass drum in the marching band for two years. He got his first guitar at age nine or 10 from his grandmother, but remembers getting discouraged right away.
Later, when a bunch of friends wanted to start playing guitar, he tried it again and did so on an electric guitar. Toward the end of his senior year in high school he began learning how to play as part of a small informal band.
He took guitar lessons while getting his two-year degree from Anoka-Ramsey Community College.
Nelson considered going on to the University of Minnesota, Duluth but says it didn't work out financially. He married wife Michelle in 1995 and he and some friends got a four-member rock band together called Cavity that played a style of music called grunge rock.
"It was my first real stab at writing songs," he said. "It was real hit and miss. Some songs you really like and others, you bite your tongue and can't wait to get them done."
Nelson said he learned a lot from his experience in that band which included Princeton natives Todd Faulhaber, John Massey and Patrick Edmonds. The band played for two years. One of the places it played was the Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis.
Nelson next played in a band called Walk, a band started with coworkers at the box factory in Brooklyn Park. Nelson found that it was more challenging than the previous band and recalled thinking of himself as the band's "weak link."
"I was really pushing myself and the bass player said that the only way to get better is to play with people who are better," he said.
Nelson was contributing to the lyrics for the music in this new band. After 2 1/2 years the band broke up and Nelson took time off from being in a band for two years.
He got into the band, One Good Man, in 1999, a modern rock-type band that at one time had five members. The band lasted five years during which the band tried to get into some clubs and bars. It made two trips to Kansas City, Mo., where it traded a few shows, opening for friends.
One of the guitarists in the band had been listening to a radio show called Yeshua's Line in which two Jewish guys were teaching Christianity, Nelson recalled. From that the guitarists e-mailed the people in the show and out of that, One Good Man was asked to take part in a compilation CD called "Unsung Heroes. The CD was distributed to college radio stations across the United States.
The band submitted what it thought was its best song and had to pay a fee to do it. But all the contributors of music kept the rights to their submissions in case someone wanted to use the music. A singer named Debra Soule had her song picked up by a major singer, said Nelson.
Next opportunity
Nelson becoming part of the Idiedaily band came from the band's lead singer, Troy Hillstrom, in February last year. Nelson remembers Hillstrom starting off by asking Nelson if he knew of a bass player and Nelson "rattled off a list of names."
Hillstrom changed the course of the conversation, Nelson said, by saying that he "didn't want just anybody" in his band, but wanted Nelson to join the band to fill in for awhile. Nelson recalled Hillstrom saying: "I like our personality. You are easy to work with and I know you can do the things we need you to do."
Nelson, who had worked together with Hillstrom on some music in the past, accepted the invitation, though his wife at first was not so sure he should. But Nelson also realized that the chemistry among the members of the band he was with, One Good Man, was changing and this would be the time to make the change.
One of the singers in One Good Man was having knee surgery and the bass player had left so the band was "fragmenting," said Nelson, who added that he felt God was guiding him to the new band opportunity as he prayed about what to do.
Other people "might think I copped out," he said about leaving One Good Man. But he also felt like the members of Idiedaily were "living the way I want to live," he said.
Nelson, meanwhile, was thinking about the difficulty he would have keeping up his end with the very talented musicians in Idiedaily.
The old expression that "iron sharpens iron" could mean he would only get better doing this, he said, explaining that once again playing with high caliber players would help him improve.
Nelson officially became a permanent member, and not just a fill-in player, a year ago with Idiedaily.
The name Idiedaily, according to Nelson, comes from the apostle Paul when he says that a person must die daily to form a closer relationship with god.
The $1 CD at Target that has Idiedaily's music on it is part of a program in which 24 different musical groups are featured, each one on a different CD. Nelson said that Idiedaily is the only Christian rock band among the 24 groups.
Nelson said last week the Idiedaily CD has been sold out in some of the Target stores and he is even more buoyed by some of the fan mail he has seen e-mailed to the group.
"It really keeps our heads in check in how we perceive ourselves," Nelson said about the fan mail, such as the letter from a woman who said her son Vincent ėreally grows in the Lord listening to Christian music and is really connected to your songs.'
"That e-mail hit us all that how our music is making an impact. We are responsible for what we say and what we compose on stage or off stage, in the shower or in the car or whatever."
It turns out that the most challenging part of being in Idiedaily for Nelson is meeting the band's schedule. One of the places the band has been playing is a tournament of bands at Club 3 in Minneapolis. When Nelson spoke last week, the band was among the top 12 contestants.
Nelson's goal is to "just want to see what God's going to do with the band." After one month in the band, Idiedaily played at a location in Kansas City, Mo. where 1,000 to 1,200 people who were working to set up a Billy Graham event there were assembled. The band played only a half hour but it was the largest crowd Nelson had played to. "It was a lot of fun," he said.
Nelson still works full time with his day job but says he would enjoy it if his whole career was just playing and singing.
"For a long time I kind of doubted my ability," he said, "and wondered, ėDoes anybody really like this?' "
He said the doubt was strong until he joined Idiedaily and now that has changed.
He said he is gratified to have even seen in the band One Good Man how one of the band members, through the band's music, got back together with an ex-girlfriend and has since married her.
Nelson, speaking about his own spirituality, said he believes his relationship with God has strengthened since he was a child.
"I know I probably wouldn't be the person I am without the gifts that God has given me," he said.
Nelson said the band is a way to connect many people with God that normally wouldn't be in church and that there are a "lot of misconceptions" about Christian rock groups in that some think they are radicals who "picket abortion clinics. We're not like that at all."
Christian rock has been a medium for brining acceptance to people with "long hair and black jackets" to connect with the Christian message, Nelson said, explaining that many who dress and look like that once weren't accepted in church if they did go there.
That's changed and one example is the Bond Slaves Christian motorcycle group that has a rally during Memorial Day weekend in Princeton, said Nelson, saying Princeton is fortunate to have that happen.
Just because a person follows Christianity doesn't mean they have to give up "riding a Harley or don't have to give up being a rock musician. I still play guitar in a rock band. God loves them."
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