From now until Christmas, we're giving away our entire recorded catalogue (including our NEW Christmas EP) for... that's right... free. Go here. You won't be disappointed.

Hey guys,
We've been featured on NPR's All Songs Considered, yeah!!
Check out the article here.

Thanks to Robin Hilton and all at NPR. We are humbled.

Hey guys,

We've just been featured on Stereosubversion.com. Check out the article here.

Thanks to Scott Elingburg and all at Stereosubversion!!!

Kids and the Van (a lyrical breakdown)

It's never easy being new
Every year a different school
Mostly kids are mean and they always pick on you
When you're playing in the yard
Keeping your head down or trying hard
You know she said she'd always be there for you
But other moms don't drink their weight in vodka
Suit yourself, I'll find my own damn way through life and change
Now you're out there on the job
Going nowhere, working hard
Even when you're home you feel completely alone
It'll always be that way
Yeah, some things never change
You know she said she'd always be there for you
She said as much then, when she said, "I do," now she's gone
She took the kids and the van and the neighbor man
You always knew it'd be this way
Eating dinner on a tray
And with the TV on, entertaining no one, you stare at the wall
Making bets, it's all your fault
You know He said He'd always be there for you
When you said you were through with it all
He's not like your friends or your mom or your wife and that bum



The Champion and His Burning Flame are Christian. We believe in every word of the Apostles’ Creed. Enter, stage left… The Rest (non-essentials)! Tall and beyond reproach, dark and mysterious he walks with a swagger only Ideas of Men can own! His cape, boots and mask are merely an outward sign of the super-Man within! His draught is Fear, his vittles are Doubt and his sleep is War! He is at once controversial, loving and ruthless! He allows anger in love, doubt in belief, and mockery toward Kings! He is a prickly, dagger-thorn (figuratively and literally)! With him, the first are last and last are first! Where shall we find an answer, a hope, a challenger equal to the task? Who will drop the curtain on… The Rest!

There's a great movie with Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo called "You Can Count on Me." In this movie, Linney's character is completely narcissistic and hypocritical while her brother (Ruffalo) is caring and honest, albeit a mess. She considers herself deeply religious, he does not. In one scene, she invites her minister to talk to her brother about being a Christian. Ruffalo's character says,

"A lot of what you're saying has a real appeal to me… A lot of the stuff they told us when we were kids... But I don't want to believe something or not believe it because I might feel bad. I want to believe it because I think it's true or not..."

Profession before comprehension. Ruffalo has no time for it. Neither does The Champion. A non-Christian who has asked questions and spent time trying to understand Christ who then says 'I'm not sure I buy it,' is a step ahead of many professed "Christians."

"Kids and the Van" is multi-faceted. It is about one individual starting as a child (vs. 1), then growing into a young adult (vs. 2), ending as a middle-aged divorcee (vs. 3). Each chorus runs parallel to its respective verse:

Verse 1 - He's a kid, moving around, dealing with acceptance at school.
Chorus 1 - His mom is an alcoholic, providing little love or care.

Verse 2 - He gets a respectable job and though it has little room for growth, he's doing what he thinks he needs to do for his wife and kids.
Chorus 2 - His wife leaves him for another man. She takes the kids.

Verse 3 - He's alone and everyone in his life has let him down. He always knew it'd be this way.
(Here is possibly our most overtly Christian lyric on The French EP, and certainly the most redemptive.)
Chorus 3 - "You know He said He'd always be there for you..." 'He' is Christ. Mom let him down. Wife let him down. It's at rock bottom where he fully understands Christ's love. God's not like "his friends or his mum, or his wife and that bum."


Sometimes it takes someone living their entire lives without hope to fully comprehend Hope. This song speaks to my belief that God is there all along, waiting for the most productive time to reveal Himself to us. A time when the Truth is revealed in a real way, so that we believe it not in spite of what we have experienced, but because of what we have experienced. Much to the chagrin of the human race, this time is not always Now.

Hey friends,
We're getting close to being finished with our score for THE TIME CLOSET. We have been working really hard the last few months and are excited for everyone to see the film and hear the music. In the mean time, here's a little taste of what's to come:



The movie is set to come out this Summer, we hope you check it out.

- The Champion

The Expert has been featured as track 6 in this month's issue (Feb '09) of the Paste CD Sampler! So mosey on down to Barnes and Noble/Grimey's/Border's/Target/Davis Kidd, etc and pick up a copy. It's a good one!

We've been selected as Filter Magazine's Undiscovered Band of the Month!!!

Go here to see the full story.

Thanks to all at Filter, we're humbled.

The Champion & His Burning Flame on Vimeo

Thanks to our great friend Luke and his wonderful family for their support and commitment to The Champion and His Burning Flame!!!

Christmastime has come and gone
We sang some good old-fashioned songs
Gathered 'round the family room
Me on guitar and Mom's on flute

We filled our hearts with joy and praise
And thought about those good old days
When family was gift enough
We didn't need all this stuff

But I'm still cold
It's starting to snow
Yeah, you cannot hide those

May I please borrow your mittens?



For better or worse, my wife says I was raised in a sentimental home. While that's not the first adjective I would use, she'll get no argument from me. In my house photographs long for years past, rather than promise good years to come. To this day, I have a hard time looking at old pictures of family and friends without getting sad. I'm not sad now and I wasn't sad then. Someone explain that to me. Seriously. But I digress.

Christmastime can make a sappy romantic out of the most dried up of cynics ("Remember, George Bailey: no man is a failure who has friends"… tear). Something about figgy pudding, yams, and the Yule Tide spirit just melt our hearts. Forget that we don't know what we're singing about. We grew up with these vaguely mysterious icons guiding us into the present-giving festivities, where Grandmas become cool and giant furry socks (when hung by a nail) represent hope itself. We sang these weird songs as kids, assuming one day, like all the grown-ups, we too would know what decking halls with boughs of holly meant. What we found was that it didn't matter. This childhood sentiment needed no definition.

There are two Christmas rituals in my family, both take place on its eve. First, my grandfather always reads Luke 2:1-20, the Christmas story. Even at a young age, unable to understand many of the words from Grandad's New King James bible, the words rang true when he read them, deep and rich.

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

Pure praise for and adoration of our Creator. The very definition of Hallelujah.

The second ritual? We sing. We have these little pamphlets (circa 1800) which contain about twelve Christmas carols. Each of us (Grandmom, Grandad, Mom, Dad, two brothers, sometimes aunts, uncles, cousins, and dogs) gets to pick our favorite and then we all sing it. My brother and I play guitar. My mom plays flute.

May I Please Borrow Your Mittens? is a musical hug and I'm giving it to cold weather, hot chocolate, long lines, cold weather clothes, salvation army bells, gross eggnog, carolers, family, friends, enemies, Sufjan, Will Farrell, Peter Billingsley, Grandad Pete, Dr. Seuss, Clark W. Griswald, Charlie Brown, and everyone everywhere who actually gets the season and doesn't let the season get them.

Have a merry Christmas. Eat, laugh, cry if you want, drink if you must, but please sing. Even if you can't, it's Christmas. Even Scrooge sang on Christmas.