It's a pretty big deal when one of the artists behind arguably the biggest Christian record of all time—dcTalk's Jesus Freak—says that he's just as excited about his newest project as he was that one.
Newsboys frontman Michael Tait's excitement over his new band's third studio album since their latest reconfiguration reflects his belief that he, Duncan Phillips, Jeff Frankenstein and Jody Davis are making some of the best music of their lives.
That new album,
Restart, hits the music scene Sept. 10, bringing with it very personal themes of stepping out into all that God has for us. It's a theme that Newsboys certainly can appreciate as they seek greater influence in music so they can share their life-giving message.
The boys sat down with NRT to talk about the new album and their own restarts in life.
This is awesome to have all of you guys. It's really cool. It's a pleasure to meet you guys finally. This is one of my bucket list interviews here.
Duncan: Hey, thanks!
The new music is here! It seems like, just from listening to the songs and taking a look at the lyrics, it's really personal. It seems very testimonial. Anything you guys can speak to that as far as experiences that might have shaped this?
Michael: Records always come out of life experience. It comes to us all the time. How do you create songs? Where do they come from? They come from our hearts. They come from meeting people. They come from life travel, having kids or not having kids (laughs), wives, girlfriends, the list goes on, but it should be an outpouring of what's going on inside in some ways, too. The closer we get to the creator, the more creative we get. God brings these things out of us.
The record is Restart. It comes out September the 10th. We are so stoked. I've been saying this all week in interviews, radio tour, that since the dcTalk Jesus Freak record, I have not been anywhere near as close to excited about a record and the anticipation for the fans to hear it than this one. It's the bomb record.
What is it about it? Is it just the best writing, the best music?
Michael: It's the best record because what we did, back in the days of [former Newsboys frontman Peter] Furler when Furler was in it, he tried to pen a lot of the songs himself, and they're are all fine and great. But now we all share an opinion, that if a song can't come from [one of us], go outside the box. It's OK. Give us the right song.
If tobyMac writes it or my grandmother writes it, who cares? We want the best song. That allowed this record to be more…
Jeff: ...Of a team effort.
What do you need to restart in your own lives?
Duncan: I think everyone does. Where we're all at politically and financially in the world, I think a lot of people have had, at some point, a restart in their lives. I know I have on so many levels, and I think it's a good thing. Sometimes we get wrong, we get busy, we get doing this, so that's an important moment in our lives.
I think corporately as Newsboys we've had our "born again" experience so to speak, and then we've made a proclamation in believing that God is not dead. Now we've reset the computer. We've started it up and now we're restarting again. To get to that point of restart in our lives is a very good, healthy thing to do. A good, healthy place to be.
Jeff: I think one of the great things about the Gospel is that when you have the Gospel in your life and you have Jesus in your life, you're not defined by your past. People out in the world that aren't believers, they're so defined by what they have or what they've done or the shame they feel. But with this record, the theme of it is that if you know Christ, you can start again at any time and all of that stuff is completely forgotten. So hopefully the message of that comes through.
Michael: My Baptist dad was saying it's all about being washed in the blood. It's true. It's all God, it's done. Satan's job is to remind you of your past. The truth is, you were Saul, but God made you Paul. Move on brother, sister.
What do you guys still dream about? What's left? You guys have been making music a long time. You've been to a lot of places. What do you guys still dream about? What gets you excited?
Michael: I want Newsboys to reach—and I wanted this with dcTalk back in the day too, but now Newsboys is my band—I want us to reach outside of the box, outside the Church. We're constantly trying to do that. We always say if we crossover, we'll take the Cross over with us. But our goal is to reach the world, conquer the world for Christ. That is the Great Commission. But if we put too much pressure on ourselves or take it too seriously, we've lost the plot.
Meanwhile we're reaching for that next step outside the box, where people were hear a [Newsboys] song on the big pop stations, the video stations and let people see a light.
Jeff: I think there's an urgency, too, now more than ever. I think if you look at the news it's kind of freaky. Me and Jody were in the back of the bus one night and we were watching C-SPAN. We were just flipping through the channels and it was like a presidential debate between Al Gore and George Bush from like 15 years ago.
The issues that they were talking about seemed so miniscule and tiny. They were talking about wars in Bosnia, which obviously was a big thing at the time, but like when you compare how many things are going on right now and the decline in culture, people's lives, and marriages and families, it's freaky. Like, 50 percent of every kid born in the United States doesn't have a mom and dad. I feel like the urgency of the Gospel and the message, it resonates with all of us as we get older. We want as many people to hear about it as possible.
What about you Jody? You've been quiet.
Duncan: He's always quiet!
Jody: It's a good place to be; sometimes you can't get a word in. (Laughs.) I just concur with exactly what Jeff's saying. Culture and morality in our culture is on a downward swing and that doesn't lead anywhere good. Just hoping that this record, and what it is we do, can minister to that.
