On a Tuesday afternoon, with the pre-winter sun beating on them, the gospel band Epistles rock to What would people do when they hear I am a Jesus freak. The song, by the American Christian band DC Talk, gets punctuated by the intermittent thrashing of drums and the occasional guitar riff. If you don’t worship Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones, you may not consider rock sacred, but Epistles, the five-member gospel band formed by Sochipem Kashak, 22, celebrate the Lord with a searing hard-rock tone.

“For us, it’s all about celebrating our faith. Gospel music has a lot of energy, but rock influences help in connecting with the youth,” says Kashak, jamming in a bustling coffee house near Delhi University. The little café on Hudson Road is their haunt, and every Thursday evening the place resounds with praises of the Lord. Evening is the best time; for during the day, Kashak teaches vocals and guitar at Delhi Public School, Dwarka, and the drummer Makleingam goes for his undergraduate classes in Delhi University.

Like the other two bands who blend rock and religion in the city — Anointed and Kingdom International — Epistles is made of Northeasterners who draw on Christian Rock, which is popular in the region, to define their sound. The quintet of Epistles bonded as teenagers singing choir songs in Ukhrul, Manipur, and soon decided to bring the chord structures and the jagged energy of Metallica and Bryan Adams to lift the soul.

Their Delhi Sundays are spent at the Methodist Church on Lodhi Road, with Makleingam on the drums, Kazam Raleng on the bass guitar, Makhokmi Raleng and Urnganing on the guitar and Kashak singing. Occasionally, they move out of church; a recent performance at Khalsa College saw the crowd cheering to the semi-alt rock Who am I. “Gospel is all about love and peace and building a better society,” says Makleingam. While their song History is about Christian conversion in Kashak’s Tangkhul tribe in Manipur, Save the Earth, sung in a progressive-rock style, dwells on environment.

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