The power of Christ compelled Make Your Exit.

Or, at least the power of a Christian venue, to be more accurate. Though the music isn’t religious, the Toronto-based experimental rockers went to such a venue to record their sophomore EP Remind Me The Reason I Came — available at Soundscapes and Criminal Records. At the behest of producer Brent Bodrug (who has worked with such Canadian luminaries as Alanis Morissette and Jacksoul), the five members spent a 10-day stint at a century-old church in Trenton, Ont. — converted into a recording studio — to cut the record.

“It was an open concept room, filled with equipment,” bassist Mike Dellios said. “He gave us an idea of the vibe and he said, ‘I insist that you stay here.’ It added to the experience.”

It proved to be a good move for an indie rock band with relatively little money. While not quoting exact figures, Dellios says the church came at rates cheaper than any studio within city limits that Make Your Exit looked at. The location’s echoing acoustics also helped play to the band strengths: airy, slow-moving ambient instrumentals backing the groups soaring vocal harmonies.

“We had the ability to stand 15 feet away from 4 condenser mikes and just belt out group vocals. We wanted a good sounding room, because we do a lot of those group harmonies and we wanted to do them all at once live, instead of tracking them one at a time,” Dellios says. “We didn’t want a really glossy, polished-sounding recording. We wanted to remain faithful to what we sound like live.”

And if you’re interested in a taste of what that’s like, you can hit the Horseshoe Tavern this Saturday at 9 p.m. for the Audio Blood & Third Estate Jingle Bell Rock, where Make Your Exit will share what is supposed to be an 8-hour concert (The Facebook event page claims it will finally end at five o’clock the next morning!) with The Balconies, Clothes Make The Man and Oh No Forest Fires.

Having your own in-house publicist doesn’t hurt, either. Make Your Exit maintains a symbiotic relationship with the fanzine-turned-music PR firm Audio Blood Media — founded and helmed by Sari Delmar. Delmar shares a warehouse office at Queen and Dufferin with Dellios and fellow MYE member Oliver Pauk (you might have seen the Eye Weekly My Place column on them last week) — both of whom sublet the space to up-and-coming artists in a number of disciplines, all of whom make up part of an artist mob known as the Akin Collective.

“We were complaining that artists needed somewhere to go,” Dellios says. “It’s quite cool.”