Genre: Pop/Rock
For fans of: Selah, Petra, Foreigner, John Elefante
Label: Curb Records

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So you think you know Todd Smith from his work with the critically-acclaimed, Dove Award-winning group Selah?

Think again.

Alive, Todd's solo debut, challenges more than a few fundamental conceptions. A significant departure from the hymns, African selections and classic songs of faith so eloquently presented by Selah, Alive rocks with intensity—both musically and lyrically—and presents Todd Smith in an entirely new light…

The first thing you need to know about Alive is that it's built on twin foundations of love— love for God and an unapologetic love of rock & roll. Growing up as the son of missionaries in a house that his grandparents built in the African Congo bush country, Todd never questioned the truth of his biblical upbringing.

Music? That was another matter entirely. "Everything we listened to had to be Christian," he remembers. "But it could not be rock—not even Christian rock. As much as I love my parents and honor how they raised me, I really struggled with that one rule!"

From the moment he had his first taste of the forbidden music—an LP of Christian rock pioneers Petra, smuggled from boarding school by his older sister Shawn and played furtively through headphones—Todd felt its power. And when he left home for that same boarding school in Kinshasa, he chased down and memorized every rock album he could find, secular as well as spiritual.

"I really took to groups like Boston, Kansas, Foreigner, Journey, Toto, and Genesis," he remembers. "But I heard everything from Madonna to Prince to the Doors to the Beatles. Bryan Adams' 'Summer of '69' was one of my favorite songs. And my roommate and I used to listen to Born in the USA every day; I loved the passion that Springsteen put into his vocals, and his lyrics were deeper than a lot of the bands of that time."

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