Article by Mike Wilson. All photos by Jeremiah Hyde
Since early 2007, the members of Churches Burn have been tearing up the Columbus rock-and-roll scene with excessive energy, hard hitting and precise drums, and an overlay of tortuous moans and groans. Drawing from Columbus’ proud punk rock history as well as both the personal and political sides of drug addiction, band members Brian Carnahan, Alyssa Osborne, and Adam Boehm have collectively created an “evil drug sound” that is unlike anything else going on in our creatively diverse and not easily impressable city.
The members of Churches Burn insist that they couldn’t exist outside of Columbus, primarily due to artistic climate, convenient geography, and the seemingly endless well of inspiration provided by our fair city’s troublesome quarrel with heroin addiction. Churches Burn, however, is far from stagnant. Its musicians have been hard at work, independently recording and releasing five albums, all available for free download, with a split record with France’s Pledge of Cain on the way. Churches Burn is regularly featured at local haunts Carabar, Skylab, as well as countless house shows, representing the sub-scene that they have inarguably helped bring to the national level.The band members have also acquired and earned a slew of horror tour stories that only those in a band familiar with the road can muster: including, but not limited to, flying cockroaches, smelly swamps and campgrounds, disassembled sound boards, and broken down vans.
As for the present and near future, the musicians of Churches Burn are currently working on new material for their upcoming release as well as preparing to tour bothhere in the United States and in Europe. While seeming to bask in, and all the while laughing at, the troubles and hardships of being independent artists these days, the members of this ensemble also consider themselves possibly the unluckiest band in the history of unlucky bands. Yet they feel that this strife and grief only serve to fuel the fire that is Churches Burn.
