Amps for Christ

Amps For Christ (AFC) is about the combinations of many styles of music and sound from hardcore and noise to traditional musics (Folkcore and Musnik). The subjects go from war and run-away corporate capitalism to peace and the love and mercy of God. The warp in the harmonic scale, experimentation with waveforms and "beat-tones" are matters of great intrigue.

Barnes has been building stringed instruments, pre-amps and amplifiers of an experimental nature for many moons and used them while in the hardcore/noise band Man Is The Bastard (MITB) Barnes and Connell (drums of MITB) started a side band called Two Ambiguous Figures with Barnes playing sitar and Connell on the tablas. It evolved into AFC after Barnes' amicable departure from MITB in 1996. Since '92, Barnes has also been working with Wood --and sometimes Nelson-- on another side band called Bastard Noise.


Amps For Christ has strong elements of pure noise and experimental throughout. Back in 1996 Barnes met Enid Snarb who is a recording freak and preparer of Hammonds. They started recording AFC. There have been many collaborators: The beautiful Tara Tavi singing and playing Chinese instruments, Marz of Pyramids On Mars and Barnes' bro, R. , and dad, R.G. Barnes, as well as many others.

Claremont, California is home base. Barnes got his first axe at The Folk Music Center in Claremont during the brief period when it was across the street from where it is now. His mom is a folklorist and traditional ballad singer and has been very influential on his traditional side from early childhood on. Barnes' dad was into John Cage and Harry Partch and had an early jazz band for which he was songwriter, washboardist and singer for many decades. Barnes Grandma (Lita) was the organist at a church and taught piano lessons at home in San Bernardino, California. So you see some of the eclectic influences, eclectic desires and reasons for the eclectic sounds of Amps For Christ.