In advance of their brand new, debut, self-titled album, Chris Rademaker and Jodi King of Love & The Outcome shared with NewReleaseTuesday the meanings behind each of their songs. Love & The Outcome releases everywhere Christian music is sold on Tuesday, Aug. 27.

 

Chris: "This really speaks to the idea of a joyful revolution. We set out to write a song that would maybe open the album. It's a great song to wake up to, to stomp your feet to. And the idea is simple: We are God's version of himself on Earth. We have to be good to each other."

 

Jodi: "What is the outcome of love when you do it; when you love your neighbor, how does that transform your life? And how does that transform other people? It's sometimes too easy to make the objective of your faith to convert people. But we have to start by loving people. Then the Lord's spirit can do the rest." 

 

Jodi: "It's our first single, and it's basically our story over the last two years in a nutshell. God is always asking me to do things beyond my pay grade. But I just have to lean in, and He just accomplishes things that are more that I can ever imagine. That's not just the story of our careers, but with our lives. With him you can do amazing things."

 

Jodi: "This is our pop song. We've met so many people who have had miraculous encounters with God, almost a Saul-to-Paul situation that usually begins, 'I really should be dead.' When that happens, there is no other way to explain it but the Lord. That's a reminder of his power and that he is above everything. Sometimes the Lord saves us in a pretty dramatic way."

Chris: "It's the cornerstone song to the album, and it's where we began to define the identity of Love & the Outcome. Before it was Jodi's solo project, and now we wanted to make it about the two of us. It is a collaboration with Seth Mosley, and it happened very quickly. Start to finish, the seed of the idea, then writing and recording the demo took maybe three hours. We were jumping up and down in the studio after we recorded it."

Jodi: "The heartbeat of this song is to let go of what's not important and cling to what is. The day that we wrote 'The Story You're Building in Me' was the same day my parents decided to sell our family home, the house I grew up in. We were driving to our writing session and my mom sent me a message with a picture of the 'for sale' sign on the lawn. Then we walked into the studio and met Ed Cash, who proceeded to tell us that this house was brand new for him and his wife and kids; that they had just recently sold their family home as well. After exchanging stories we looked at each other and thought 'That's our song! That's what we have to write about today.'" 

 

Chris: "This past year every member of our family moved from somewhere to someplace new. It was a year of change, including our deciding to make Nashville home. It was just one of those rare writing experiences where the song is just waiting there for us to pen. The song unfolded in three hours and the work tape just had something special about it. God was definitely reminding us as we wrote that day that He will always use our journey for His good. A story is not a story without some ups and downs. When my mom passed away from cancer two years ago, we didn't know if we would continue down the path of pursuing our dream. We had cancelled a year's worth of shows to be with her and didn't know if we had the strength to pick it up again and asked that God would make it clear. Looking back now, I can see how God is using our story to remind us and others that he is using our stories to draw us closer to Him... If we'll let Him." 

 

Jodi: "This song is really about the seasons of life. Everything changes and God stays the same; 'You're my constant through change' is one of the lines. When we come off the road, we can feel how much everything has changed. My brother had a baby; I wasn't there. There's tragedy in your family; you're not there. But the Lord being with your family is one thing you can always pray for—and that can become a catalyst for getting closer to the Lord."

 

Chris: "This may be one of my favorites on the record. From a musical ear-candy point of view, it pushes a lot of buttons for me. It's a little bit retro, but there are some really cool electronic elements to it, and yet it sounds like an old Neil Young song as well."

 

Jodi: "I had been talking to my best friend on the phone and she was expecting a girl. Being pregnant is so much a matter of faith: You have to trust God and know that he's walking with you. The guys were already in the studio messing with the riff and I told them my prayer for my friend: 'Bring my mind and my heart back to you and give me peace.' So we wrote a song with a chorus that had the prayer as part of it."

 

Chris: "We wanted something to get the crowd on their feet and involved. The first line of the song is, 'I'm in a war.' It's the battle between the flesh and the spirit, and we acknowledge in the chorus that Jesus controls our hearts. It's a theme that's found throughout the record. No person is our enemy; it's more of a spiritual thing. When the prophets talk about going into battle, it's against spiritual forces."

 

Jodi: "This song really reflects our worship side: 'I just want a heart like you, Lord.' We've actually used this song as our prayer when we get to a new city: Give us your heart to pray for people, your heart to be there for people, your heart. We try to make the song personal, and we encourage people to make it their prayer as well."

 

Jodi: "When we stop and reflect on the things that will pass away, and what will last, it's a reorientation of what matters. As believers, we can't wait until we are heaven to live out his kingdom. We have to do it now. This song is based on the promise that he lives in us while we're here now." 

Jodi: "This song is about looking back and seeing the Lord carrying you through the tough situations in life: 'When I look back, I see you.' I had been listening to Stevie Nicks all morning, but I wanted something a little more whimsical sounding, a sparse kind of waving in the wind. So we started it with a picking guitar line and wrote this one on acoustic guitar."

 

Jodi: "We wanted something fun. It was our attempt at writing a non-traditional love song, and to describe what love has looked like for us. And a bright orange Gretsch guitar was played on the recording. What more do you need to say?"

Chris: "We wrote this song with Sam Mizell. When we met, we started talking our moms and how they had faced their respective illnesses. They both did it with real dignity--dying well. The first line of the chorus—'I wish it was amazing grace'—talks about the struggle of wanting to worship God through a painful situation. The song turned out so well, with a rootsy vibe, and we really identified with what it had to say."

 

Jodi: "We wanted a song that was a missing link—more of a ballad. And we'd been talking a lot about prayer on tour. We prayed through Chris' mom passing away, which was not the way we wanted things to go. Sometimes it's like a child going to a parent; you plea sometimes and you cry, but you can never stop asking. Prayer is really for us. It's a way for us to seek the relationship with God, which is what he wants. The last thing we want is a record with all the answers. We want a record where people can live in the questions, so people can meet the Lord."