Atheist Bands: Quiet Company

While I’m on this little journey through atheism and music, I thought it would be good to highlight some of the genuinely awesome atheist bands out there.

One of my all-time favourites is Quiet Company, partly because their journey is so compelling. Starting out as a for-all-intents Christian band in Texas, the band apparently alienated most of its fanbase when it released its 2011 album, We Are All Where We Belong. The songs use language and imagery commonly found in Christian music, however the lyrics deal very openly with a loss of faith:

“The river’s wide, that I could not swim across it, so I convinced myself I’d walked upon the waves, but I don’t want to waste my life.I wanted to feel as saved as they do, but the more I live, the harder to believe that their god above knows the first thing about love or goes along with every rule they make up.  I don’t want to waste my life, thinking about the afterlife.” – The Confessor

“Daughter, I once thought that I had angels in my room.  They were sleeping on my fan while I was dreaming of you.  And daughter, I once had such desire to believe that our lives had been planned out by an unseen deity, but you don’t have to waste your time holding on to beautiful lies.” – Set Your Monster Free

“If Jesus Christ ever reached down and touched my life, he certainly left no sign to let me know he had.  And I wouldn’t mind that he couldn’t find the time, it’s just that now my heart longs for things that probably don’t exist.  But now I think I see this for what it is.” – The Easy Confidence

“I’ll make a deal with Jesus Christ, speak just one word I can hear, prove your alive, and I’ll believe you’re here.  Well, I may as well just admit the truth.  I have rejected holier spirits than you, it’s no big deal, hallelujah.  And you could exist without it, because it stands to reason that if there’s not a god to comfort you, then there’s not a god to punish you.” – Preaching to the Choir Invisible, Part II

The lead singer, Taylor Muse, denies that Quiet Company was ever truly a Christian band, a quick look through earlier tracks easily shows that his ideas of faith and religion have changed drastically.

I think that’s one thing I really like about Quiet Company… the idea that you can grow and change; and that what you were/thought/believed doesn’t have to continue to define you.

Musically, the band has some catchy tunes that fall somewhere in between Of Monsters and Men and Ben Kweller. The songs are short and have no time for traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure, but they stick in your ear and you’ll find yourself humming them later on.

You can listen to the whole album for free (or buy it) here.