Local band promotes album with concert

Photo Courtesy of Vickie Maris BRAND NEW: Brand New Day, a contemporary Christian band that will be releasing its first CD, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday in the sanctuary of the First Christian Church, 329 N. Sixth St., Lafayette.

By Jon Gilman
Staff Writer

Vickie Maris was still in college when she gained the confidence to become a performer.

A Purdue faculty member and the lead singer in local Christian band Brand New Day, Maris was getting ready to sing with the PMO Choral Club in front of the President’s Council one afternoon.

During the rehearsal of her solo piece, Maris completely froze.

"I couldn’t sing; I couldn’t do anything. I thought for sure our director would take me out of the performance, but she had faith in me, and I went on to perform very well. I think that moment gave me a lot of personal confidence," Maris said.

Maris went on to form Brand New Day, a five-piece band that will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the First Christian Church on Sixth and North Streets, Lafayette.

The show will promote the band’s first album "For the Days Ahead," which will be on sale during the performance. The album was recorded last fall at the Purdue Christian Campus House and was mastered in North Carolina.

Brand New Day mixes the sounds of a youthful Gordon Lightfoot and a powerful Amy Grant with a theme of spirituality, drawing influences from Bebo Norman, The Corrs and The Kinks.

Maris described Brand New Day’s music as a light rock and contemporary Christian fusion.

"We like to call it transitional music because we go into many different traditional churches and play just to show them an alternative method of worship," Maris said.

The band was formed in 1999 when First Christian Church choir singers and Purdue graduates Maris, Keven Yost and Mike Bottorff decided to pursue a different form of spiritual music.

The trio started a monthly service on Sunday evenings where they would play in front of a small crowd of church members. Yost and Bottorff have since parted with the band, and Maris has recruited guitarist Scott Greason, bassist Chris Weidner, drummer Jamey Ahrens and keyboard player Debbie Johnson.

The band now performs weekly.

Maris and Greason both said that their parents provided amazing encouragement when it came to the pursuit of music. Greason said that his parents placed no restrictions on the music he listened to, which is apparent in his own style.

"The music of Brand New Day is an eclectic mix of many different things, and what I contribute is also a product of a big musical blender," Greason said.

Greason’s music career was also marred by many obstacles. As a child, he had many learning disabilities, including dyslexia and severe motor skill problems.

A doctor told Greason’s parents that Greason would have to pick up a coordination-building hobby. He chose the guitar and noticed that it helped him in his schoolwork.

"I was not expected to do anything in life, but through the persistence of my parents and through music I was able to overcome these mental barriers," Greason said.

Greason is now an engineer with Alcoa and plays the guitar in another band in addition to Brand New Day. He said he uses his music to help other people who may have their own problems.

"I want to project a message of hope and faith to a world that doesn’t have a lot of that," Greason said.

Greason cited a specific instance when a troubled student approached Maris. The student had been suffering from severe depression and told Maris the music of Brand New Day had made his mind more peaceful.

"If we can impact just one person in a positive light, then we’ve accomplished what we’re looking for," Greason said.

"God uses us as instruments," Maris added.

 

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