Local teens win contest
Winning a talent competition recently was only part of the excitement for the members of the band Reverse Trend.
The Christian rock band Reverse Trend - made up of Patrick Taylor (clockwise, from left) Brian Lam, John Mobley and Miranda Pokrzywinski - won a talent competition held by radio station WAFJ-FM (88.3). They hope to record an album soon.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
"We were just stoked to be on the radio," said lead singer Brian Lam, 18, of Evans, who is a Lakeside High graduate and a freshman at Georgia Military College.
Reverse Trend's song Run to You was the winner among eight finalists that were voted on by three Christian-radio station programmers and the listening audience for radio station WAFJ-FM (88.3).
As part of winning the competition, the band had its winning song played on the radio Nov. 5.
"I did not expect to win," said drummer John Mobley, 17, a senior at Augusta Christian Schools, who was invited to provide the song's percussion backbone only days before recording it. "I didn't even know what happened if we won."
The group - comprising Lam; Mobley; singer Miranda Pokrzywinski, 16; and guitarist Patrick Taylor, 14 - will now compete with the winner of a similar spring competition for a chance to attend the Gospel Music Association's Music in the Rockies in August.
The Christian music showcase is where many Christian artists have been discovered and signed to record contracts.
Though the details have not been completely set, the band also will be an opening act for a concert in the area.
Lam said Reverse Trend's winning song is Christian pop/rock, but he said many people during the competition said the song is in its own category.
"That was probably the biggest compliment," Lam said. "God is our No. 1 influence. Jesus Christ. We are professing him as our savior and Lord. Everything we do basically is built around that."
The song can be heard on WAFJ's Web site at www.wafj.com.
Lam and Pokrzywinski, a sophomore at Harlem High School, met while singing together in chorus at Lakeside High School.
They met Taylor, a freshman at Greenbrier High School, and Mobley at Warren Baptist Church, which they all attend. All of the members, except Lam, play in the church's Wednesday night Praise Band.
"We wrote the song in one night," Taylor said. "It was freaky (that we won). It was a blessing.''
Without a drummer at the time, Pokrzywinski, Taylor and Lam were meeting just to jam, pray and worship, Lam said, when talk of the contest arose.
A completed song was born only a few hours later.
"It all kind of came together. That is when we knew it was a song from God and totally his doing, not ours," Lam said. "It was so cool, because when we were writing the song, it was not like having a writing experience. The words were coming out. We were singing. It was more like a worship experience," Lam said.
Only days before recording the song, the group still needed a drummer.
"God worked it out to where he was going to be our drummer," Lam said of Mobley. "He makes you laugh. He wears his heart on his sleeve and shows others how to lighten up sometimes."
The band has more songs in the works, and the members say they would like to eventually go back to a studio to record an entire album.
"We are planning on staying together right now, and we're just waiting," Lam said. "This is not like a job. We're just waiting in the wings for God to give us some orders, and we'll do whatever he asks us to do."