Tooth & Nail Records Founder Says 'There's No Such Thing as a Christian Record Label'; Explains Creating a Home for Non-CCM Artists

Tooth & Nail Records

Tooth & Nail Records founder Brandon Ebel was on the Bad Christian Podcast where he spoke about starting a "Christian" record label, the company's documentary, and shared some stories about the bands.

"For me Tooth & Nail has always been about bands that I love, it's been about music and being a Christian. I definitely want to support people that have a worldview similar to mine," Ebel said.

The goal of the label was to support Christian artists, but not necessarily be a Christian label. It was meant to put out non-Christian artists as well, but the Christian part took off on its own. Christian book stores would sell the non-Christian artist bands as well because they assumed they were by association.

"There's no such thing as a Christian label," he said. Ebel means this in terms of the label itself can not be a Christian. What makes a Christian is the people involved. However, if someone wanted to sing about their faith, they would not be signed because people were afraid of that. He said there was no real Christian label for heavy rock bands, punk, metal, hardcore, indie, etc. A lot of the music was CCM, pop, and gospel, and there was not anything that captured the other side of music fans. Ebel wanted to be a home for these people "in [their] own bubble."

"When you look at all the different denominations of Christianity, to just say you were a Christian record label and everyone was on the same page would be an impossibility."

"There was no real huge mission statement. Basically I started a label because I wanted help support artists who were Christians," said Ebel. In the beginning he would try to spread the artists to Christian bookstores and other places.

His one rule would be, the lead singer had to at least be Christian so the themes of the music would not sway away from Ebel's Christian roots.

As Ebel spoke about all the bands that have been through the label since the early '90s it seems the label functions more as a family than a business in terms of them always wanting to do what is right by the artists. Ebel holds no ill will to bands who do not resign or move on from the label. Tooth & Nail has always evolved no matter what situation they found themselves in and have even gone the indie round the last few years.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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A Tooth & Nail documentary called 'No New Kinda Story' is currently out now, and features interviews of the label becoming what it is. It chronicles the first seven or eight years of Tooth & Nail Records and how it became the well known brand it is today.

"From its start, the label seemed destined to fail. Ebel lived on five dollars a day, but his relentless belief in the music inspired him to transform Tooth & Nail from an insignificant startup to a label selling over 20,000,000 records and breaking bands like MxPx, Underoath, August Burns Red, and Anberlin. No New Kinda Story is a no-holds-barred, behind the scene look at the rise, fall, and rebirth of the iconic label," reads part of the description of the movie.

Watch the trailer for the movie below: