It's been quite the sprint lately for indie worship trio Page CXVI. About this time last year, the band put out an ambitious proposal to its fans, vowing that with adequate crowd-funding support, they'd record three records in 12 months (and a fourth with side project The Autumn Film). 

Fans responded to the tune of about $35,000, and while The Autumn Film project was scrapped, the band went on to create a trilogy of their most artful work to date: The Calendar Series, which walks listeners through key seasons in the liturgical calendar. Fans caught the first installment late last year with Advent to Christmas, and began the Lenten season just a couple months ago with Lent to Maundy Thursday.

Now, vocalist and keyboard player Latifah Phllips says the final piece of the trilogy, Good Friday to Easter, offers some of the most dichotomous and dramatic work to date, featuring the band's signature retellings of classic hymns as well as a few storytelling original tunes.

In advance of Holy Week, I talked with Phillips about the new album, her personal Good Friday discoveries, and the future of Page CXVI.

First of all, Latifah, Good Friday to Easter is just great. I really feel, I don't know, such an obvious dichotomy between the two feelings that you're trying to convey there--between sorrow and celebration. How was creating this project different than, say, Advent to Christmas and Lent to Maundy Thursday?

Well I think that, like you just kind of said, this record has I think the highest contrast. I mean with Advent to Christmas you have the feeling of the expectation and anticipation of waiting for Christ and then Christ's arrival, which kind of, like you know, has a little bit of a different feeling from the A side of the record to the B side. But this one I think has the highest contrast as far as, obviously, the death of Christ on the cross, and then the resurrection of Christ and him reigning as King, and I really try to put myself, with this record, in the position of those who really loved Jesus when he was alive, and the reality that they didn't know he was gonna rise from the dead three days later--that when He passed, there is a serious sense of grief and loss. And then that makes, you know, obviously his resurrection that much more exciting. 

I think it's hard for us because we have the whole story sitting in front of us, as far as that section of God's plan, you know? So I think it's so hard for us to think about Good Friday without wanting to jump to Easter right away. But it would be like picking up a novel and reading the last page, and then the whole thing you're reading is in the context of the ending. 

And so with this record, I worked really, really hard at not trying to emotionally or mentally jump to the ending, I really tried to stick through the sense of Good Friday, and not by the end of this...I mean, we always have seven songs on our record, since #1, and so that's why I ended up adding that song called "Three" because I just really felt like we needed a transitional piece moving from Good Friday.
 
Well, really, it's almost like a movie soundtrack. There's a very cinematic quality to it, and from the sounds of things, it really sounds a lot more like you were preparing for a role in writing this. You mentioned that you wrote "Three." How many of these songs that you've done are original versus Page CXVI's core mission of sort of taking hymns and making them accessible?

Sure, you know I actually haven't done a final count, that might be smart of me to do. I would say with these three records--the Calendar Project--I took enormous liberty in contrast to the first four records, as far as rewriting melodies and restructuring lyrics from the hymns, so that is another kind of middle step that happened in this process. Then there were so many, I felt like, plot holes in the sense that there's no hymns written on certain content, but there were certain holes in the story of the calendar for me that I felt like "Roll Away the Stone" is a perfect example, so that song is totally original; Dave and I wrote that together. 

Yeah, I love that one.

Oh, thanks! I was talking to Dave, and I was like, man, we don't have a whole lot of hymns describing the story of the women going to the tomb and discovering that Christ isn't there, and Thomas not believing Christ, and the imagery of the stone rolling away. We have a lot of songs about the resurrection, and the cross, but what about the stone? That's such beautiful imagery, and so we just read a bunch of accounts of scripture, and wrote the song. And it was just really fun, and I remember when we wrote it, we were kind of giddy like, I think this is pretty good. Hopefully people will like it.
 
You guys have cranked out three EPs--and really, longer-than-average EPs--in a pretty short amount of time. Talk about that process. That's not something that a lot of bands undertake. 

Yeah, you know Reid and Dann and I are really, I would say, geeky in the sense where, I think we're all kind of overachievers. It is a lot of work, and there were moments when I thought it was gonna just weigh me down, overwhelm me where I would just get paralyzed.

For me it's been a 15-month process since the beginning of sitting down and starting to look at hymns, pick the hymns, start to rearrange them. Then, do pre-production, get everyone in the studio, and then after the studio, it's still six more months of editing, and making sure all the arrangements are right, bringing people back in to do certain parts, and then it's mixing and mastering, and so it's really been a labor--a labor of love--but definitely a labor.

I am tired, but I feel really thankful. I feel tired in a good sense, like I really did something, it's like when you go work out and you feel really tired afterwards, there's something really gratifying about that. I think I'm creatively a bit tired, and I think we've earned ourselves a little bit of a break, which I'm looking forward to. But it was really fun, and I think there's something cool about setting some goals that you're not sure if they're attainable, and watching them get attained is pretty neat. 

And it's pretty cool that the fans made this happen, too.

We were so blessed that so many people partnered with us. And we've been independent since day one, so there is no way we would have the life we have without the people that support our music, who have kind of journeyed with us, get excited about our records, so it was really fun. I think it's a really interesting way to make art...it's kind of calling back the old "patrons of art" mentality, which I really love. I love the idea of supporting an artist, but you do get something in return. It's an exchange; we're both being generous in different ways, and there's something really neat about that. 
 
So you said the band is in sort of a season of rest now obviously after basically three sprints, and then some. So what's next for you?

You know, that's a great question. It's a little bit unknown, which in some ways is a little scary but in other ways is really exciting. We've been planning out our lives six months to a year in advance for eight years, so it's kind of nice to have a little freedom.

Reid has got a side project he's working on here in Colorado. Dann's been doing software coding and programming, and really enjoying that. I, on the other hand, just really can't get away from music, and so I've been producing some other artists' records, doing a remix record for a great artist named Tracy Howe and then producing a record for another wonderful artist named Aaron Strumpel. And then I am gonna start a new side project of original music, this stuff that's been on my heart that wasn't quite appropriate for Autumn Film or Page, and I felt like it needed a new avenue.

And so I'm not writing, you know, tomorrow--because I'm definitely taking a little bit of a break--but it's something I've been thinking about doing for a while now. And I have actually a single that's gonna come out, it's a cover, in a few weeks, which is pretty exciting.

Is it from you, Latifah Phillips?

It is, it's from me. It's a new project though, it's gonna be called Modo Spira which in Greek, or actually Latin, sorry, and it means "just breathe." It's been something I've been thinking on for a few years. Because Autumn Film and Page were always our priority, I always gave it a back seat, but I definitely have ideas and dreams for it. And so I think I'm gonna take this season to maybe see what happens with that. But Dann and Reid and I, we're still looking for opportunities, when people ask us to play we're still open to doing one-offs and those kinds of things, so we're by no means closing our doors, we're just kind of slowing down a little bit.

That's cool. You know, I think... so you mentioned the remix album you're going to be doing, is Page gonna get another remix treatment, say, from Derek Webb anytime again?

You know, I don't think so. That record we did with Derek, he did a beautiful job on it. I love that record, but I think if we were to explore doing another remix record, which we haven't discussed, we'd probably want to go with somebody new and see how somebody else interprets it. Part of the reason we did that project is because our heart is to really get hymns in the hands of people, to get it in their minds, songs they can meditate on. So what was really fun about Derek doing the remix record is, it's a whole other genre. And it's another whole group of people that love electronica, so it was just another way to get hymns into another avenue. 
 
As people get into the Good Friday/Easter mindset, what do you think has been enriching to you about hymns in general? What are some things people can do this year to sort of enhance their experience?

Yeah, I mean I think what I love about hymns and getting to redo them musically... I love that they elevate our minds and our spirits, but the music also gives permission to elevate our feelings, like the emotional part of our being, in conjunction with our minds. And I think that creates a really whole worship experience, you know, because we are emotional beings and we're mindful beings, and we're made in the image of God and so obviously the Bible describes God's feelings as well as His ability to think and plan. But what I love about hymns is it brings those things together, and I think that's really powerful. 

I think that as people are heading into Good Friday and Easter only thinking, oh man I have to go to two services this weekend, or whatever it is, I would say that for me it's twofold. One, for worship leaders out there, be mindful of the content we are asking our congregations to sing together to God. It doesn't have to be our stuff, there's tons of great stuff out there. And I think a lot of people are mindful, but I think that's one way to focus as far as the congregational part of Good Friday and Easter, and then I would say individually, I know for myself, I guess I'm really meditating on the story and the experience of Christ, and like I did for the record, not trying to jump ahead. 

When you really feel the grief of Good Friday, it really does make the gratitude, the celebration and jubilation, all that kind of stuff of Easter feel so much deeper. If you haven't experienced bondage, how do you really appreciate freedom? It's an exercise I'd never done before, before making these records to be honest, and it's really given me a whole other deeper appreciation for the gospel and what Christ has done for me. And that just makes me want to respond, you know, it makes me want to respond with my life, I've been thinking about it a lot. 

So yeah, I guess that's what I would say, maybe try not to jump ahead and really put yourself in the place of the people who loved Jesus and really knew Him when He was physical and here. Because I really think that changes how tangible it feels. Yeah, that's what I would say.

How can we be praying for you?

Oh, that's great. I think for just wisdom and discernment about how to move forward in this season that's a little unknown. And then honestly, that we really, properly take rest. We're kind of bad at that because we're such workhorses. You know, you just get in the mode of go, go, going, and you know stuff with music, it just feels like sometimes if you blink, you're going to miss an opportunity, or the temptation is to say yes to everything, because it's like feast or famine with music, you know, there's no steady income. So I think really ultimately I guess that points to really trusting God in how to move forward, and trusting God that He tells us to rest, but then like really believing Him that if we rest, it's gonna be OK. I know that sounds a little crazy but it's true. So yeah, I'd say that is really important, and thank you for asking. I really appreciate it.