The Skies Pale in Comparison to U2, Coldplay, and Switchfoot. . .But the Sun in Rising:Wilderness of Tekoa Set to Rise (Review and Interview)

When I asked Nic DiPace, lead singer and guitarist of Wilderness of Tekoa (WOT), about the rollercoaster ride, I just meant the emotionally charged time of developing a band, getting signed to Northern Record, releasing a debut album, and then being out of the road touring. What I didn’t realize before our phone conversation was that in the last month, they had lost two of their original members two weeks before their next tour was slated to begin.

On a whim, prayer, and God’s leading, Philip Turner left his routine and traveled to Florida to begin playing drums with a band he had only heard on a few tracks. Turner took his stool, learned the songs in time, while Philip Pattison jumped from keyboard to bass guitar. The atmospherics that Pattison had brought to really develop WOT’s sound to where they wanted it were no going to have to be handled by loops and triggers.

DiPace seemed overwhelmed but also in awe about God had worked in the band’s life. After some rocky shows as the band learned how to play with that fifth electronic member of the band, DiPace said they had just played a show with End of Silence, a hard rocking punk band. WOT seemed sure that show wouldn’t go so well being that their music most quickly associated with Coldplay and U2 might not go over so well with End of Silence’s crowd. DiPace said they were even somewhat scared, intimidated by how the other guys looked.

After the show, End of Silence paid WOT a high compliment. Having seen a lot of bands on the road, WOT struck End of Silence as tight and exceeded any other band they’d seen. DiPace sees this as God’s encouragement coming through an unlikely source, making it that much sweeter.

Wilderness of Tekoa doesn’t deny the comparisons to Coldplay and U2 with their sweeping atmospherics, anthemic choruses, and guitar-centered sound. However, I also hear Switchfoot which is the other band that DiPace mentioned in their tripartite of influences. Like Switchfoot, WOT can rise up on their sound, brood and swoon, and then jump down the slide on a guitar crash.

The Skies Pale in Comparison lyrically finds the places in the heart where pain, fear, and confusion grate away at faith. Musically, what grabs my attention is the rhythmic patterns in some of the songs. Former drummer Sean Scott introduced triplet patterns and little hesitations that break up the songs. It’s on “Poetry,” a rhythm that sets up a halting pause as you enter the chorus. Then on “Slow Down the Trend (If I),” the chorus has all of these accents hitting at unexpected places. Rhythmically, “Spiders” also crawls, creeps, and drops from the ceiling, making you duck and bang to the beat.

DiPace said that now with Turner on drums, he sits more in the pocket, but still finds ways to add those accents. That will be necessary for WOT to maintain something in their style that differentiates them from the Big 3 influences. Skies also doesn’t really explore all the avenues the band has before them when it comes to letting the guitars rip up the atmospheric fog and break out with a musical version of the strong emotion in the lyrics. The potential for this comes on the dirty blues guitar riff of “Asleep.”

More than just stylistically, “Slow Down” makes me think of Bono, especially the line: “I must wake up to put on my fake leathered skin.” After the 90’s, where U2 kind of sunk into a hedonistic pattern, Bono was quoted as waking up covered by naked women and realizing this wasn’t what he wanted. Burdened by the leather suits and playing a persona he didn’t mean to be, Bono now has turned things around, and his faith seems to back on display.

That was my interpretation, which is similar to DiPace’s original inspiration which also had to do understanding who you are and who God made you to be. DiPace said, “As Christians, there’s so many times we hold ourselves to a standard of another person instead of Christ. I found myself looking down on myself for what I wasn’t doing instead of seeing Christ in me.” The song’s chorus, “If I could reach this,/I’d love like no one,” which DiPace paraphrased as, “If I was only this guy,” implying that we wish we could be as good a Christian as someone else instead of seeking Christ and seeing who He made us to be.

Of the songs on Skies, it seems that “Your Place in the Ground” has gotten the most attention, because it has some intense imagery (at least intense for Christian rock)—“Your dad, he will be home soon/While your mom is making love in the other room.”

The song came out DiPace’s experience of realizing his best friend was having an affair with another man’s wife. The friend had been good friends with the couple. All three had been Christian leaders. DiPace wrote the song “from a broken spirit. You never imagine that your best friend would be involved in this.”

The name Wilderness of Tekoa comes from 2 Chronicles 20:20, but Tekoa also is mentioned as the hometown of the prophet Amos. On “Your Place in the Ground” I see a comparison between WOT and Amos. Amos was sent to preach against the sins of God’s people; he was preaching to the choir. With “Your Place in the Ground,” WOT is also preaching to the choir. They are confronting Christians who may be complacent, comfortable, or living contrary to their faith, and the song shows just how much pain our sin can cause to others in the body of Christ.

Thanks to Wilderness of Tekoa and Northern Records for the review CD. Thank you to Nic DiPace for taking time to speak with Music Spectrum.