‘Be Still' blurs division between mainstream and Christian music

Bill Yuhasz hopes his music will "tug at your heart strings."

And, with God in his corner, it just might. 

The 30-year-old Midland musician celebrated the release of his debut album "Be Still" on Thursday evening at Midland's Stonegate Fellowship Church.

After a year of working on and off in the home studio of album producer and longtime friend Tyler Dodds, the duo celebrated the long-anticipated release of an album that has been in various stages of planning since the two met in Yuhasz's hometown in upstate New York about a decade ago.

Yuhasz, who is a solo act performing under the band name Simplearth, said his music falls into the Christian category. But he and Dodds also said the music fits many other genres as well.

But perhaps it fits perfectly into none.

They said the dichotomy of Christian and mainstream music is misleading, because the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

"I've always said that music is music," Dodds said. "It's just what you choose to write about."

There's no set number of times that the words "God" or "Jesus" have to pop up in an album before it can be classified as Christian, the duo agreed. The label of Christian music tends to carry with it a connotation and a stereotype the two said they'd like to avoid. 

"I mean, I don't just walk around saying ‘Jesus' and ‘God,' " he said, analogizing a Christian's day-to-day life to his or her expression of faith.

Yuhasz moved to Midland about five years ago, probably at least partially because it was his friend's hometown, and started a business as a painter - and later a family as a father and husband. 

During the last year, however, the two buckled down and began working on the project in earnest with Yuhasz on the acoustic guitar and Dodds behind the scenes, working the sound mixing board - not to mention polishing the album's sound with small doses of the electric guitar and keyboard as needed.

"Be Still" certainly has a strong element of faith and ministry in it, Yuhasz said, but that element is an inherent part of the album, not a repeated theme to which attention needs to be deliberately drawn.

In other words, he said the God evident in his work is like the flour in the cake, not its icing. God is an intrinsic element in Yuhasz's life, so his presence will be abundant throughout the art.

"The lead character," Yuhasz said. "He's everything when it comes to how all this happened. He's pretty much taken front seat too," he laughed, "which is fine with me."

The two men said they worked on the album in their spare time, which means they toiled during unusual hours, namely the evenings after Yuhasz put his children to bed.

"Yeah," Yuhasz said. "A lot of late nights - 11, 12 at night. Whatever."

"It was basically after 8 p.m., after you put the kids to bed, until midnight," Dodds replied between sips of coffee. 

"Just random times," Yuhasz continued softly, as if to himself.

The bottom line is the two didn't have any particular established work schedule with the album. The creative process occurred in spurts, especially at times like "2 a.m. after something negative or something positive happens."

"It's based on the true experience, and true experiences don't come planned. They just come," Yuhasz said.

Yuhasz said he hopes the album will shine light into his listeners and "tug at their heart strings" - but not forcibly. He tried to create a product that people can listen to on their MP3 players as they stroll down the street, savoring the message and enjoying the tune.
"The idea is to walk with people throughout their life," he said. "If people can walk with it, you know, move forward with it - as long as it encourages them in their life to pursue something better."