Nathan Gray of BoySetsFire, I Am Heresy, Church of Satan

Joseph A. Gervasi interviews Nathan Gray of the bands BoySetsFire, I Am Heresy, and now solo work. Nathan details his experience of growing up with under the weight of fear in a Pentecostal family. Until he began to shed his Christian faith in his early thirties, Nathan found the religion he was raised with to be debilitating. Despite being the son of a Christian minister, Nathan is now a member of the Church of Satan. We talk about moving from faith to atheism/Satanism, discovering punk (not a simple prospect, considering how and where he was raised), a bit about BoySetsFire and I Am Heresy, and a whole lot about Islamic terrorism around the world. It’s Nathan’s writing about these tragedies and their perpetrators that’s alienated some of the fans of his projects and inspired others. Always thoughtful and highly-articulate, often passionate, Nathan minces no words in his approach to speaking out on the issues. In an interview that may make some listeners uncomfortable (which is never a bad thing), there is much less punk talk and much more talk of that state of living under the threat of terror and how one can rise out of that terror with words and deeds.
Nathan Gray portrait by Karen Kirchhoff
Nathan Gray portrait by Karen Kirchhoff
Nathan Gray portrait by Karen Kirchhoff
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