‘Flyleaf Spreads Their Wings’ Explains How Rockers, Not Just Christian Music, Can Succeed [Review]

A new book called Flyleaf Spreads Their Wings gives an inside look into the background of the Flyleaf music band, but also explains how Christian music can thrive in today’s music world.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, the rock band Korn is half way a Christian band after the return of Brian ‘Head’ Welch. The Korn guitarist also worked with Lenny Kravitz on a movie called Holy Ghost, which they say “shows people the real Christ.”

Platinum artist Flyleaf didn’t reach star status the easy way, and Flyleaf Spreads Their Wings tells you what they did to earn a platinum disc. If your grandfather wrote a book about your rock band, you would expect it to be gushing with love. Author Carl Phelan, the grandfather of Flyleaf guitarist Jared Hartman, avoided that mistake by relying on the comments of professional music critics.

This book tells readers, and potential Christian rock bands, what impresses market drivers, including the music critics of America. Phelan tells rockers what aspects of their music to emphasize in every market. Obviously, a musician won’t stop playing their style of music to get a good review, but it’s possible to change the set list if you know what people in a particular arena like to hear. Flyleaf Spreads Their Wings provides that vital information.

Christian music is divisive to a point since some believe rock music is not edifying. Flyleaf Spreads Their Wings ignores the religious criticisms and instead focuses on what catches the eye of even the most critical music reviewers. Good reviews are dependent on the music as evidenced by Flyleaf’s bare-bones shows. They didn’t rely on pyrotechnics or fancy uniforms, just mics and instruments. Those bands who put a lot into showmanship are not bad, but music and lyrics are the key to success, never mind an awesome sound engineer like Rich Caldwell. That’s how Flyleaf went Platinum.

Most band biographers summarize the stories of people who were behind the scenes supporting a band, but Carl Phelan asked close friends and family to write about their experiences with Flyleaf members. First-hand notes, typos and all, relate very personal stories about how these musicians are really like. Carl also allows the fans to have their own voice by gleaning comments from websites devoted to Flyleaf.

The Inquisitr spoke to one of these Flyleaf fans named Charles. He once helped the band backstage and is also mentioned in the book.

“I saw Flyleaf do a show in a bad venue. Went to the sound booth after the show to ask him how he mixed that awful room and made them sound great. He told me what changes he had made for that show and we talked sound for about ten minutes. Knowledgeable, great sense of humor (he refused to say anything bad about the room’s heavy bass set-up), and he really had that touch with a board that turns a good mix into a great one. It has been so many years ago that I forgot exactly what he told me did to Lacey’s channel. If I had asked to see her channel I’m certain he would have showed me and I would not have forgotten that! I miss him and I only met Rich once.”

In the end, Flyleaf Spreads Their Wings is not a book to be appreciated by just fans of this band or Christian music, but also by musicians in general who want to know what it takes to be successful in today’s music world.