I specifically remember hearing POD. It was 1998, and I was working at Tattoo Records. We had just been bought by Zomba, and I was laid off on what became known as Black Monday. I was out of work for five days until Benson/Zomba brought me back. The label was being run by Jeff Moseley, who discovered Amy Grant. He had an incredible ear. He just knew what was going to hit and what wasn’t. We received a package (I think it was in a pizza box) from POD, who were independant and looking to get on with a major label. Their package was amazing. The VHS tape they included was of one their live shows, and it clearly showed how much their fans connected with them. The band was reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine. They had energy, they had power, they had … it.
While the sound was progressive, hard and moving, the lyrics were decidedly Christian. The band started back in 1992 when two friends, Marcos Curiel (guitarist) and Wuv Bernardo (drummer) decided to get together and jam. Wuv’s cousin Sonny Sandoval found Christ after seeing God in his dying mother’s eyes and joined the friends as a singer. The recent conversion echoed in Sonny’s words. After a couple of years in the garage they got a gig and set out looking for a bassist. They found Traa Daniels and released three albums on their own label, Rescue Records, selling over 40,000 copies total. They were very focused on their goal, which was to expand their live performances outward from their home base in San Diego.
In 1998 they opted to look for mainstream distribution. They were packing houses all around Southern California and beginning to generate a good deal of buzz. They sent out press kits to several labels. They were offered $100,000 by Essential Records, home to Jars of Clay who were having mainstream success with their latest record, but POD’s manager declined the offer. He felt like his band could do better. They eventually went with Atlantic, who released The Fundamental Elements of Southtown in 1999.
The Fundamental Elements of Southtown finally offered POD mainstream success. Three singles blew up on that record: “Southtown”, “Rock The Party (Off The Hook)”, and eventually “School of Hard Knocks”. It is a testament to the band’s ability to entertain that Atlantic didn’t change their Christ-centered lyrics at all, allowing phrases like “We came here to rock this jam/Spread His love is the master of plan” or “You kept me straight, When times got hard/So let me reminisce over you my God”. MTV played all three videos in heavy rotation, they joined the Ozzfest, made it on the “Little Nicky” soundtrack, all which helped the album to sell platinum.
Atlantic rushed to put out their next disc, Satellite, ironically on 9/11. The band was obviously on a roll, the nation was searching for something positive, and the CD generated “Alive” and “Youth of the Nation,” two enormous hits. Both songs spoke unabashedly of Christ’s love for humanity, and truly resonated with the listening audience weary of hate and anger. In fact, “Alive” was virtually a worship song, sung with heartfelt grace and mercy.
The band had always remained musically current, and they were a welcome alternative to fellow rockers Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Godsmack. “Alive” was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammys in 2002. Three other singles released in short order (“Boom”, “Satellite”, and “Portrait”) shot sales beyond triple platinum. Atlantic’s machine was rolling, and POD wasn’t compromising their message a bit.
Guitarist and co-founder Curiel left the band in 2003, and POD released Payable on Death with a new guitarist. The cover was deemed too occultic-looking and wasn’t sold in 85% of Christian record stores. Nevertheless, the disc spawned two more singles “Change the World” and “Will You”. The fans were upset with Curiel’s absence from the record, however, and showed it with sales of only 520,000.
After satisfying their deal on Atlantic with their fourth album Testify in 2006, POD announced that they were leaving the label. According to the band, “P.O.D. have left Atlantic Records. We’ve been proud to be Atlantic Recording Artists, but it’s not the same place anymore. For most of our stay, we were blessed by a staff that was gracious towards our vision, faith, and love of music…. resulting in more than 7-million records sold. It’s time to dream again with a new staff and we leave with grateful hearts. By the people, FOR the people.”
They released a Greatest Hits CD with Rhino Records in 2006 and continued to tour, and announced to the delight of their ardent fans (aptly dubbed “The Warriors”) that original guitarist Curiel would again be joining the band. They began the process of searching for a new label while continuing to play around the world and on several TV shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Carlos Mencia’s show.
During POD’s tenure at Atlantic, Dan Michaels and Jeff Moseley had begun building a new, artist-driven Christian label, INO Records. They had managed to pluck more than a few bands from other labels, and had strong mainstream distribution through Sony Records. It all came full circle in February of 2007 when POD announced their deal with INO, a scant nine years after Jeff mentioned to Dan and myself that the band would be huge. He wasn’t wrong.
POD released one album with Jeff and Dan, When Angels and Serpents Dance. The first single, “Addicted,” did well but never hit the mainstream charts. The band played primarily in festivals, and announced their current hiatus late in 2008.
After graduating with a degree in Music Business Marketing (yeah, I know – it’s useless outside of Nashville, LA, or NY…), I worked in the Christian music business for a number of years. You can thank me for such WELL-KNOWN bands as Broomtree, Polarboy, Jesse’s Vineyard, Common Children, Christine Glass, etc, etc, etc. All incredible artists and dear friends. I had the…ummm…honor of marketing Katy Hudson in 2000, when she was a fresh faced teen out of CA and hadn’t kissed a girl yet. We had a great sister group on there too called Aurora, and I jet-setted around with them on a big ole tour with someone that I can’t remember now. Anyway, the list goes on and on, but no one’s ever heard of any of these bands, so now I write about bands people have heard of. That’s for reading!
