Greg Sostrom

basement into a songwriting bunker. Armed with an Ibanez guitar, a Fostex 8-track recorder, an Ensoniq keyboard, and an SM58, I dove headlong into music creation. I experimented with lyrics, harmonies, sounds and ideas. It wasn’t long until notebooks were filled with songs, and analog tapes had captured it all.

That next year, I was joined by Kevin Reimer(drums), and Phil Watson(bass). Kevin simply played fast, loud, and with lots of enthusiasm. Phil was a natural on bass, and could sing harmonies quite well. We pieced together 11 of my songs, and recorded a demo. Kevin had recently read a book by David Wilkerson titled “The Lonely Now”, so we adopted the book title as our band name. We printed 100 cassettes with these songs in 1986, and called it “Captive”.

In 1987, Masaki Liu joined us. He had grown up playing both violin and guitar, and helped us take our music to the next level. In 1988, we went into a “real” studio, and recorded an 8-song project titled “Original Intentions”. Musically, it was rowdy and fun. Lyrically, I addressed issues such as evangelism, prayer and spiritual growth.

Over the next two years, this line-up performed nearly 100 concerts. We played northern California venues such as The Stone (S.F.), The Omni (Oakland), and lower Sproul Plaza on the U.C. Berkeley campus. We did some touring, and shared the stage with such artists as The Choir, The Swoon, Veil of Ashes and others. One of our highlights was performing at the Cornerstone ’88 Festival in Grayslake, Illinois. We loved the experience.

In 1989, we developed different interests, and split up. I had some new songs ready to go, so I got together with some longtime friends to make music. This included Brian Wilson (drums), Phil James (guitar) and Kevin Eberle (keys). I played bass in this new lineup of The Lonely Now. We recorded a 9-song project entitled “Honest Tear”. It was released in 1990 through Refuge Music Group. Unfortunately their distributor, Spectra, went bankrupt around that time, and it hurt us and many other artists.

In 1990, I signed a record deal with Ocean Entertainment, and began working on a solo project. From 1991 to 1995, I partnered with keyboardists Rich Stevens and J. Andrew Selby to release “24 Hours to Live” (Ocean/Word), “I’ve Got a Message for You” (Ocean/Word), and “One Step Closer” (inde). These 3 full-length projects were filled with busy keyboards, layers of percussion, and quirky lyrics. The record label suggested I go with the “Greg Strange” moniker instead of Greg Sostrom. These 3 Cd’s yielded 4 top 40 Christian radio singles in the U.S., and prompted me to move to Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1996 and 1997, I began to perform solo acoustic sets. I started to write mostly funny songs, as these quickly had become crowd favorites. In 1998, I recorded “Holy Rollin Hot Rod” (inde), and also took a job as the Production Coordinator at Rocketown of Middle Tennessee. My job description at this Christian-based, teen nightclub, was to “make sure we look and sound good”. During my two years at Rocketown, I booked over 100 artists, and stayed quite busy. I also had my own recording studio in the back of the building, and was able to help bands such as Viva Voce’, The Altered and others, get their careers off the ground.

Then from 2000 to 2015, I maintained an aggressive touring schedule, averaging over 150 dates per year throughout the U.S. I established Greg Strange Ministries, and began to include a mini-sermon at the end of each performance. Wherever I traveled, I was there to simply point people to Jesus. So many wonderful things happened while on the road, that I could write a book filled with story after story of God’s guidance and provision. I also wrote and recorded many independent projects during these years, such as “Adventures in Oddity” (2001), “Real Men Play Croquet” (2002), Christmas with Mr. Strange (2005), and more. These songs can still be found on many digital music sights.

In 2016, I stopped touring full time, and began writing and recording under the Dreams and Visions band name. With input from my boys, we released some more aggressive, techno style singles including “For God so Loved”, “Keep Looking Up”, and “Fear Not”.

In 2018, I launched a new ministry called Singing Through Scripture. I began putting many of my favorite Scriptures to music in a way that, if the listener knew the song, they would know the verse. I released a full length CD in 2020 titled “Singing Through Scripture”, and another in 2021 titled “A Lamp Unto My Feet”. Through the giving away of CD’s and music downloads, we now have over 10,000 listeners in 44 different countries. It is exciting to hear from people in Hong Kong, South Africa, the Philippines, and other countries who have discovered these songs and are hearing the Word of God.

In 2023, I continue to release one new song per month. Most recently, I released “A New Command”, “The Harvest is Great”, and “I Will Lift up My Eyes”. I challenge myself every day to write a new song that is better than the last, and to sing God’s Word in a way that connects with listeners, and reaches them in a meaningful way. God has changed my life through Jesus Christ. This is something worth singing about! God bless you, and thank you for sharing my music.