CRITICAL MASS

People often asked how Critical Mass got started. The group firmly believes God brought them all together. Dave Wang is a concert promoter and a regular columnist on the topic of Contemporary Christian music. In his day job, he is a university professor. His wife, Jodie, is a physician and a chastity speaker. Eric Kubica is also a university professor and has known the Wangs since his graduate school days. In 1997, while these three individuals were helping to promote a Christian rock concert, they met Tom and Sharon Pawelko and found out that they shared a common interest in Contemporary Christian music and, in fact, lived close to each other. Tom and Sharon are the choir directors for their parish. Tim Devine was next to join. He is currently a seminarian (who also happens to be visually impaired and is a wonderful role model!) for the Priesthood at the Companions of the Cross in Ottawa. A short time later, his brother, Matt, left a secular band to join Critical Mass. Matt is a high school religion teacher. Finally, Matthew Bierschbach also left a secular band to join Critical Mass while maintaining a sales/marketing position during the day.

The band started off doing youth Masses using Contemporary Christian music. Almost immediately, the band was engaged in a spiritual battle. All the band members were afflicted with strange and serious illnesses. These ranged from MS symptoms, lost vision, vocal nodules and, in Eric’s case, open heart surgery to replace a failing valve. Family members were also affected, including Matt Bierschbach’s brother falling into a coma and the Wang’s girl Maggie developing rare whooping cough. The band resolved to overcome these difficulties, and drew closer to the Church and her sacraments (particularly the Eucharist and Confession). In the process, God has continued to show the band members that they needed to totally abandon the world and to submit themselves to the Magisterium of the Church.

After a while, the band members felt called to begin writing music from a Catholic perspective. The Devine brothers were already seasoned songwriters, having released two albums, one of which received widespread critical acclaim. Along with the other members of the band, work began on the demo recording, "Faith Looks Up". Recorded on a shoe-string budget (around $1200), the band members were shocked to have the recording take off in sales and in rave reviews. Radio play soon happened all over Canada and parts of the US. Since that time, the CD is now distributed internationally and the song, "Body and Blood" has become a Communion song all over the world, including apparently at a mission in a remote area of Columbia. The album has received several honorable mentions at the Canadian Gospel Music Association Awards and the song "I’ll Be Fine" recently hit number 1on the Spiritual Rock charts on mp3.com! In September of 2000, Critical Mass released their second album entitled "Completely". Produced by Andrew Horrocks of the Canadian rock band, 100 Days, the new album has a tighter, more aggressive sound than "Faith Looks Up" but continues with beautiful ballads including a new Marian song. To the band members’ surprise, the album immediately garnered the Best Album of the Year at the Canadian Gospel Music Association Awards and the song "Humility" was finalist for Rock Song of the year. The band looks forward to continuing to push the artistic envelope and to create music that is relevant to today’s culture.