One Christian Band That’s Built a Strong Following

It’d likely take an act of God for a new boy band to get noticed in the era of ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys--just what the members of Plus One are counting on.

Plus One is the first successful attempt in contemporary Christian music to create a religious-based alternative to those acts tearing up the secular pop charts.

The operative word: create.

Like its secular counterparts, Nashville-based Plus One wasn’t born organically among music-loving friends, but assembled by a manager--in this case, Mitchell Solarek--through auditions.

The results so far are encouraging enough to persuade the band and its record company that they’re filling a void in pop, but not so dramatic yet to cause anyone in the ‘N Sync or Backstreet Boys camps to start looking over their shoulders.

Plus One’s debut album, “The Promise,” has sold more than 470,000 copies and remains in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Contemporary Christian album chart nearly a year after its release. The group currently is on a tour, which also includes Christian teen singers Stacie Orrico and Rachael Lampa, of mid-size arenas that stops Sunday at the 5,000-seat Bren Events Center at UC Irvine.

“My sister, who does A&R; for us, heard them at an audition, and called me from one of the auditions, held up the phone and said, ‘You’re not going to believe how these guys sing,’ ” says David Foster, the 14-time Grammy-winning producer for Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, among others. He signed Plus One in 1999 to his fledgling 143 Records label, which is distributed by Atlantic Records.

“When I found out it was a Christian group,” Foster says, “I looked at that as a plus, because entering the boy-band arena, even a year and a half ago, was tricky. ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees were doing so well then, but you could see by history repeating itself that someday they would be slowing down, and now there is something of a backlash going on,” Foster says. “Being a Christian group, they’re totally protected” by having a sizable audience pretty much to themselves.

In fact, about 75% of the group’s sales have been in Christian music and bookstores, but they’ve sold more than 100,000 copies via secular record stores. That’s far short of multimillion-selling ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys albums, but strong in the world of religious music, which accounted for almost 5% of the $14.3-billion U.S. music business last year, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

Plus One, which took home a Dove Award as best new artist last week in Nashville, hasn’t joined any big tours by secular teen pop acts, but the group has made a number of appearances on TV shows that reach beyond Christian audiences including “Touched by an Angel” and “Days of Our Lives.”

Still, Plus One faces the Hamletian dilemma: to cross over, or not to cross over?

“I’ve told the guys and Atlantic Records [executives]: ‘Let’s stay in our lane.’ We’ve filled a void,” Foster says. “If there’s any kind of natural way to cross over [to the secular mainstream], fine, but if not, I’m very happy where we are now.”

So are the five well-scrubbed members of Plus One: Nate Cole, Jeremy Mhire, Jason Perry, Gabe Combs and Nathan Walters.

“The Bible says to be in the world and not of the world,” says Houston-born singer Cole, who is 19. “We go into the world in places where most Christian groups don’t get to go, and we like to put ourselves in those positions. But there’s still that line you need to draw where you’re not supporting or encouraging something that’s not right.”

Such as?

“There’ve been some television shows we’ve been offered, but we’ve seen them and they’re very raunchy, so we stay away from that.”

Those standards include shimmering multi-part harmonies a la their secular competitors, and flashy production and choreography to keep young fans suitably entertained. The songs, one of which (“Be”) was written by Cole and Walters and four other writers, vary from overtly religious to ambiguously spiritual, yet all the material is consistently inspirational.

Especially for the youngest listeners, who are sometimes confronted with sexually suggestive lyrics or gestures that originally inspired manager Solarek to form a Christian boy band.

“My daughter was 5, and she was in the back seat singing along with a Backstreet Boys song, and I heard her singing, ‘Am I sexual?’ ” Solarek says in a separate interview. “This began with very selfish motives: I just wanted someone to put stuff out there my own family could listen to.

“But it’s been amazing to me going out on several concert dates and having father after father after father, and mother after mother after mother corner me and say, ‘Thank you so much. . . . It’s great to have a CD where we don’t have to edit every other song. It’s been a phenomenal confirmation that we’ve come up with something that truly was needed.”

If imitation is the sincerest sign of success, Plus One is being flattered by True Vibe, an even newer Christian boy band started by former 98 Degrees singer Jonathan Lippmann. True Vibe’s debut album will be released May 15.

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* Plus One, Stacie Orrico and Rachael Lampa play Sunday at Bren Events Center, Bridge Road and Mesa Drive, UC Irvine. 7 p.m. $21.50 to $25.50. (949) 824-5000.