Carthage Christian Band Fear Me Dear

Named to Top Five in National Competition

            Fear Me Dear, a Christian hard-core metal band based in Carthage, was selected as one of five bands out of 100 to compete for a national recording contract and a chance at being selected for concert dates. Kurt White, a Panola College freshman from Carthage, is one of the band’s founders.

            The opportunity developed when Nick Himel, one of the owners of Edgeline Entertainment, was forced to evacuate Houma, La. during Hurricane Gustav. His dad worked with Kurt’s dad, so when it was necessary to leave the coast because of the hurricane, White invited the Himel family to come to Carthage.

            “While they were here, Nick heard Ryan Corley and me practicing one of our songs,” explains Kurt. “He liked what he heard and asked if he could take our CD to the Edgeline committee meeting in Florida.”

            The committee listened to more than 100 bands, and picked Fear Me Dear as one of the top five. Next, the band will be featured on Edgeline’s website as the artist of the week.

            “They will leave us up for a week, and the sponsors and reviewers look at it to see if we’re worth the money to invest with us to keep moving forward,” explains Kurt.

            Fear Me Dear has been in existence only four months, so Kurt and the other band members are excited about this chance. In addition to Kurt and Ryan, other members of the band are Shawn Simonson, Cameron Stanley and Mikey Hanks.

            “Shawn and I write the lyrics and the base of the music,” explains Kurt. “Most of the time we’ll just lock ourselves in the room and work on songs from about midnight to morning. We write the music first and then put the words to the music.”

He said the completed piece of music results from the collaboration of all the band members during practice sessions.

Two of the most popular songs on the CD are “I Never Thought,” an acoustic song, and “Accursed.” Shawn and Ryan are vocalists on both.

Kurt credits his brother with getting him interested in music.

“My brother started me in music from the time I was old enough to listen and understand it,” he says. “He plays guitar and taught me for about a week. Then I just picked it up and started playing.”

Kurt started with an acoustic guitar and then got his first electric guitar when he was 16. He began playing at his church, First Baptist, and realized that he wanted to do more with the music.

“We played acoustic songs that were basically three chords. The lyrics were emotional and had a message, but you can only reach a certain number of people in a crowd with that type of music. We wanted something more complex and music that would make people think,” he says.

Fear Me Dear is a band that doesn’t limit itself to heavy metal. Kurt says the band experiments with other genres of music in an effort to reach people with the Christian message.

The band’s chance to win will depend on events over the next couple of months. A MySpace page is in the works that will serve as a showcase for the band and its music. The online site will allow visitors to review the music and make comments.

“The developers look at the MySpace reviews and comments and consider that in determining the popularity of the group,” Kurt says.

Until the MySpace site is complete, Fear Me Dear can be found by going to Google or another search engine and typing in “Fear Me Dear Kurt White.”