Relapse, Redemption, Reilly

For Dan Huie, the “C” word has changed his life for the better, both musically and spiritually.

“I was raised going to church, my parents took me to church every Sunday. I think at a young age, I kind of accepted the idea of Christianity and accepted it as my faith,” said Huie. “It wasn’t really until college that it became not my parents’ faith, but something I owned myself. It was something I believed in both my head and heart.”

The married father of two and 1998 North Penn graduate speaks about his life on Monday night after a hometown meal at his parent’s house in Lansdale.

Huie now resides in Lansdowne, Delaware County—often mistaken for Lansdale—with his wife of seven years, Noele, and his daughters, Evie, 2, and Suki, 8 months.

Huie and Noele play dueling violins in the Philadelphia-based Christian rock group Reilly. Band namesake John Reilly, bassist Matthew Bomberger and drummer Jordan Lenhoff make up the rest of the band.

He is in Lansdale Monday night with his family because they are making a stop on their tour to play a special show tonight.

The show is for the Christian Club at , benefitting , at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

“We were invited earlier this year by a teacher and some of her students in the Christian Club. They heard us because we play a lot of festivals and concerts throughout the year,” Huie said. “It so happens I graduated from North Penn and this is a concert at the school. We’ve never done anything like this.”

Genesis

The genesis of Reilly began in the band members’ college years through the group Campus Crusade for Christ.

“We all went to different schools, but we met at the same conferences,” Huie said. “Musicians kind of flock together.”

They started jamming together and suddenly the band was formed.

“People started asking us to play more and more, and we got these gigs,” he said. “It went from something we did for fun—jamming at parties and on the weekends—to becoming a real band.”

At the time the band formed, Huie was in his junior year at Drexel University as a biomedical engineering major.

“It wasn’t until college that I would say my faith took on a more important and vital role in my life,” he said.

When Huie went from high school senior to college freshman, he was on his own, away from his parents for the first time, and able to do whatever he wanted.

“No one was forcing me to do anything I didn’t want to do,” he said. “I started making my own decisions. And a lot of those decisions involved a lot of hurting others and myself. I found myself being selfish in the way I treated others.”

In his sophomore year, Huie saw the direct impact of the bad mistakes he made and how it affected someone close to him.

“I saw how real my ‘sins’ were. It drove me to realize how everything that I had learned growing up about Christianity—about Easter and paying for your sins—it all of a sudden was kind of more real to me than ever,” he said. “I realized I didn’t need forgiveness for the mistakes I had done.”

It made Huie realize he had more than just “head knowledge.”

“It was more of something you start living out with the change of your heart,” he said.

A point came in Huie’s senior year where two roads diverged, and Huie, he took the one more musical.

“I was good at science and math, and I said, ‘Well, my dad’s an engineer, so I might as well study engineering.’ I did it because it was supposed to make sense. But I didn’t really love it,” he said.  “At college, you figure out what you love and what you don’t love.”

He graduated Drexel and went to work as an unpaid intern for a music attorney, or entertainment lawyer, to be more accurate. Huie wanted to learn more about the business side of music.

By this time, he was well involved in the embryonic styling of Reilly.

The music side of Huie was revived through Reilly. He was in marching band and orchestra in high school, but stopped playing his violin and stopped playing in concert band in college.

“When I started jamming with the violin with John Reilly, that’s when I discovered my love for music again,” he said. “A violin can be played in a different way than just orchestra. To play rock on the violin is cool. It got me back in music.”

Exodus

While Huie found the music he loved, it was music lost on the mainstream masses.

Labeling yourself a Christian band could have its drawbacks for a band trying to make it worldwide. (It’s not like they currently have a problem: Reilly just returned from a second European stint).

“It’s easy for people to label, to categorize you in some way,” Huie said. “People want to give you a category to put you in. ‘I don’t know what to put you in. Give me a reference.’ There is unfortunately some kind of stigma that comes with Christian music that it might not be ‘as good’ or it’s ‘cheesy sounding.’ In the ‘80s, there was a lot of that; the music wasn’t as good musically or excellent or creative.”

Most peoples’ perceptions of Christian music are late night TV ads with zealots holding their hands in the air, heads tilted back, eyes closed.

And then there’s Amy Grant.

“I understand all that. Bands like Switchfoot and Paramore try to shy away from it,” Huie said. “You don’t want anyone to ever get some impression before they hear your music.”

Reilly has come to the conclusion that it is a Christian band, he said.

“Because that’s what we are. We are Christian and we play in a band,” Huie said. “We are not ashamed by religion or faith by any means.”

Huie said he and his bandmates don’t write for one audience or just for churchgoers.

“We write about the reality of life, the ups and downs, and how we found hope, we found love, we found help through Jesus Christ,” he said. “Ultimately, we want people to hear our music for what it is: it does come from the perspective of someone who is a Christian, from our own experiences. It’s worth checking into if they want and that’s our deal.”

It’s not so much Reilly is shunned by mainstream radio as it is that the band hasn't yet found that slot to fill in mainstream radio.

WXPN has picked up some of the band's stuff before, and the band's tunes get played in Delaware and Lancaster. Each city has its own Christian radio station, he said, but don’t expect to hear the band on Radio 104.5 anytime soon, at least not in a normal rotation.

“The radio market is tough. The secular market is even tougher,” Huie said. “There’s only such a limited amount of new songs that stations will play. In a whole year, there will probably be about 50 new songs added for the whole year. That means you get 50 slots to get your song in there out of thousands of bands. You know a number of those slots automatically go to U2, Coldplay, The Killers, Kings of Leon.”

But Huie and Reilly have faith. After all, Justin Bieber didn’t have any radio help before he blew up.

In fact, Reilly is right in the middle of a fall tour, and the band will be going across country again. Soon, the band will be writing for its new album, with a recording date set for early 2012.

While the music industry is a tough business, at the same time it is easier and easier than ever before to be a successful musician. With the advent of the Internet and its most popular offspring, Facebook and Myspace, as well as digital downloading, it has become simpler to make it as a musician, per se.

Musicians have to be smart enough to use the marketing tools and do it on their own these days.

“There are ways in this new generation to get yourself out there. You always want to progress. There are always things to shoot for and goals to get better and for more exposure,” he said.

There are no regrets for Huie. He’s got his career locked down—both of them.

“We are full-time musicians. We play half of the year on the road, but I still hold down a sales job,” he said. “I sell medical equipment on the side.”

Huie is blessed and lucky to have a second income.

“I’m definitely content and happy with how far we’ve gotten already. I’m thankful to get to do this,” he said.

Revelation

Had Huie picked a different path in life, it may not have led him to his content success—or to Noele.

Noele was in a different band when Reilly first started, and Huie and crew would watch her band perform around the city.

“I took a liking, a curiosity toward her. ‘She’s cool, she plays violin. I play it. I’d like to show her I can play violin too.’ It was competitive and we still are to this day,” Huie said.

Huie invited Noele to jam with Reilly at the show, and soon Reilly was opening for her band.

“We jammed to ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by Bob Dylan. It was awesome,” Huie said. “There was an immediate chemistry with the two violins trading solos.”

Huie and Noele exchanged numbers, and they talked here and there. He then invited her band to play a concert with Reilly, and discovered her band broke up.

Enter Noele.

She eventually quit her architecture gig in the city to go full time with Reilly. They got married in 2005.

“We were friends for a while,” he said. “We didn’t start going out for four years into our friendship … we’ve had a couple of kids since then.”

Fast forward to Monday night, where Huie and his bandmates prepare to be the first band of its kind to perform at North Penn High School.

Huie said the event coincides with the club’s Wednesday morning “See You at the Pole” meeting, where students pray before school, for the school and country.

Huie didn’t think twice before taking the North Penn Christian Club up on its offer and return to his alma mater.

“This is my hometown. I absolutely love it,” he said. “I have a lot of pride in my school and this area.”

Having traveled around the country, Huie has experienced his share of small towns and the boredoms that come with them.

He has also seen his share of faiths, both strong and fractured.

“People say there’s nothing to do in Lansdale, but this town is not bad at all,” he said. “It’s not a major city, but there’s enough to do and enough happening to be thankful for and keep you interested.”

Reilly can be discovered at reillytheband.com

Follow the band on Twitter at @REILLYband, and check them out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/REILLYmusic.