Musician and comedian Gabe Koury recently launched Bow Your Eyes, Close Your Head, a podcast that talks to personalities in punk, comedy, and other alternative subcultures who were raised in (and in many cases grew apart from) strict religious backgrounds. Recent episodes have spoken to Joel Dickau of Junior Battles, tour manager Tanner Brooke, comedian John Michael Bond, Matty Cusick of Yeah Bud!, sketch comic Guled Abdi (CBC's Tallboyz II Men), Andrew "Goose" Neufeld Comeback Kid, and Toronto music personality Tim McCready. The show's billed as "a podcast about creative heathens talking about youth groups and Tooth & Nail bands… grab your devotion notes and Squad Five-0 cd's and let's go!"
Koury currently works as a music publicist in Toronto, notably booking the infamous Bovine Sex Club. He played in the Montreal punk group W!NSLOW in the early 2000s. In a statement, he elaborated on his own background, commenting:
I grew up in fairly big Italian Pentecostal Churches in Montreal, QC from birth to the ages of 22/23 years old. I found some solace in it but was also, without fail, confused and conflicted due my creative soul trying to seek truth and some relatable sustenance. This pod's goal is to explore more faiths, religions, and fellow artists' stories of navigating through life and trying to be a good person.
Here's a sample of what the chat with Comeback Kid's Andrew Newfeld has in store:
Andrew is a one of the forefathers of modern Canadian punk and hardcore. Frontmen of one of the most notoriously fast, heavy bands Comeback Kid, Andrew talks about his upbringing in a non-denominational church in Winnipeg, MB, touring both secular and Christian circuits, fear (the feeling not the band), SNFU, meeting Mike from MXPX, Mennonites, musical family and Russel Crowe movies where he's a fictional, conservative father sending his kid to conversion camp.
You can check the show out now at Spotify.