David Tosti rocked crowds from the late '90s until 2005 as the frontman of Christian punk rock, reggae, and rap band Pax217. During that run the band focused on meaningful powerful and messaged filled music that helped people transform their lives for God and escape some of the harsh realities of life.

In yesterday's profile on Tosti, he shared a bit about why the music "mattered," which was to hear stories from fans who said a certain song affected them in some way. This was always the singer's goal as lyricist of the band, to be real and leave an impact. However, he feels the label of "Christian music" did more harm than good.

"I think the idea of labeling something Christian was just a bad idea from the start," Tosti explained. "In the world we live in now, I think if we're honest, it never really helped anybody. It didn't help the people who weren't Christian. It didn't help the people who were and trying to do it."

Tosti feels Christian music is kind of birthed out of the struggle of some of the artists who make it, although often those experiences are negative. "When you look around at the music industry and the guys like myself who did do the Christian music thing for awhile, most of those people have really deep wounds - have been really just beaten up on in so many words by their own people."

He also feels Christian music gets a bad rap because it is admittedly not the best music around. Tosti explained that he was never really made fun of for being a Christian, but his music falling into that category has been a target.

"The only reason that I was ever made fun of was because the rest of the brand of Christian music was a joke," he said. "There was a lot of really cool bands out there doing really cool stuff, and then there was a ton of bands out there that were really just a bunch of garbage, and you have South Park making fun of it."

With that being said, he has no regrets being in a Christian band because they "were all Christians."

(Photo : Facebook: Pax217)

Tosti's time with Pax was a dream come true for him, but the rock star lifestyle that young musicians may dream about did not come in terms of being "rich and famous." They were famous, it was the rich part that was causing all the problems for the band as far as what they deserved.

The frontman said Christian labels at the time were giving out notoriously bad record deals and they were one of the victims of it.

He shared that he once met with a really big band's manager who wanted to work with them. Upon looking at their contract he asked, "'These guys are Christians right?'" questioning how a believer could deliver such a bad contract. "'I would love to work with you, but this is the worst record deal I've ever seen. I've never seen a band get so screwed'," the manager said.

Tosti explained at the time Christian labels were the only go to place for an act that spoke about Jesus in their music. The doors were not as open as they are now for people to have mainstream success. The labels would kind of corner the band's by saying, "'Hey, you wouldn't be able to do this with anyone else because no one in the mainstream world is gonna sign you because you're talking about Jesus'."

He said the whole thing in itself was a genius move for the people who started capitalizing on Christian music. "We're gonna make this industry that is about Jesus, but we're going to hold this over your head and say 'Hey, you're lucky to be dealing with us because no one else is'."

Tosti then asked "What if there was never a Christian music industry?" He thinks all the "crappy bands [would have] died just like the rest of the crappy bands in the world" while the good ones would get signed. As an example he pointed to Switchfoot. They are a group of solid Christians who have super mainstream success and no one gives them grief for it because they are talented and not just a gimmick.

All types of Christians want to see things in a certain way he said. Depending on what it is whether music, movies, books, or even doctrine becomes asking others to mold and act a certain way based on the audience they are trying to sell to. He compared it to when you look at old photos and wonder why you chose to wear those clothes, "What was I thinking?" At the time, the only answer available is "that's what was hot."

Again, Tosti has no regrets or ill will. "I've moved on," he said. "Hopefully we all learn to grow."

Speaking on what would make good music, he suggested going completely out of the box to create comfortable tension. "The best thing for a band is for there to be a Muslim guy, a Jewish guy, a gay guy, a Christian guy, and somebody who is agnostic. That would be the best band, the beauty in adversity."

"Some tension and connectedness...some beautiful music."

This concludes part three of our profile article of Pax217 frontman David Tosti. Check out part one where he speaks about why the band ended here. In part two Tosti spoke about the feelings behind both of his band's full length albums and some of the turmoil surrounding it. Read about that here.