Clear Blogs about all

Reggie Youngblood says you’ll find the sexually repressed Christian rock scene a great place to find sex, but it takes patience to work your mojo.

“You start by going up to someone and say, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a prayer partner,’” says the frontman of Black Kids. “It eventually gets to a point where neither of you can hold back your urges, and the climax ends up being better than any drug. It’s not a quick hookup, but it’s worth going to hell for.”

He knows of what he speaks. Before his five-piece new wave and rock hybrid assembled in Jacksonville, Fla., in early 2006 and went on to become the latest indie pop media darling, Youngblood adapted his Southern Baptist Sunday school sensibilities to a Christian rock band.

Youngblood and company soon found success after they replaced God with ’80s retro stylings, pulling influence from synthy sounds and dance rhythms set to his sometimes dour lead vocals from the likes of ABC, Morrisey, The Cure and even some hair metal on 2007 EP Wizard of Ahhs and 2008’s full-length Partie Traumatic.   

“The songs aren’t too terribly different from what we’ve done before. We’ve taken all the guilt out of our lyrics and we changed ‘Jesus” to ‘baby,’” he said. “We we’re very cognizant of what we enjoyed as children, and that stuff reigns supreme on our record. I remember buying Poison’s Open Up And Say Ahh! and the person at the counter was like, ‘This is what you want?’”

After a 2007 breakout gig at the Athens Popfest in Georgia, critics including the New York Times and Rolling Stone — who called Black Kids one of the 10 “artists to watch” this year — lustily gushed over the band. In a very short time, Black Kids have hit No. 5 on the U.K. charts, played this year’s Lollapalooza and embarked on their first long-term tour.

It’s not a question of too much too soon for the band, but they will admit they’ve already reached some of their career goals. Of course, there’s always somewhere higher you can go. “We’ve definitely already done things we’ve aspired to do, like play our dream gigs,” Youngblood said. “But I guess we could always headline one next.”