The Christian music world was stunned during Easter week, as it was revealed that popular early 2000s pop-vocal group Plus One announced its return on various social media outlets and an updated website--and, most significantly, with new music.

In a YouTube video published Monday, April 14, three of the five founding members announced their return, with a brand-new song serving as background music. Original members Jason Perry, Nathan Walters and Gabe Combs said, "It's hard to believe a decade has passed, and though we've been away for a while, your support for Plus One has never faded. ... There are more stories to tell. And it feels like the perfect time to come together to share those with you."

The first of those "stories" comes in the form of inspirational new single "My All," available to people who sign up for Plus One's e-mail list at PlusOneOfficial.com. 

Plus One splashed onto the scene with their 2001 debut, The Promise. Boasting hits "Written On My Heart," "Last Flight Out" and "God Is In This Place," that album sold more than 500,000 copies and earned them RIAA certified Gold status. They produced two more studio albums--2002's Obvious and 2003's Exodus--before disbanding in 2004.

After 10 years of growth, other pursuits, soul-searching and spiritual development, they're back, and Nathan Walters took time to talk with NRT about the new season of music, ministry and relationships with Plus One in the band's first official interview since the announcement.

Nathan, it's so great to talk with you, and an honor. Basically, we just want to catch up and see what your life has been like. What have you been doing the last 10 years? You've founded a studio, you've had a solo album. You've had a family. You've been busy. Catch us up.

It's been great. It's been full of a lot of different kind of things, but mainly after we took our little break/I-don't-know-if-we're-going-to-break-up-or-not, but after the plus one break, somewhere in the tail end of that we decided -- we actually said let's take a six month break just to regroup and figure out what we want to do.

Nate and Gabe moved back to California and proceeded to do side projects and things like that.

They did Castledoor. I loved Castledoor.

Yeah, Castledoor. They were doing that, and I had actually, to make a long story short, signed a solo deal with Forefront Records back in the day and basically... made a single together and then just kind of moved on.

From there I was like, "What do I do?" I had all of these great songs and I'd been talking with a few different producers around town and we'd been writing and stuff together. Somewhere in there I started going, "You know what? I'm going to go for it. I'm going to finish out my record myself."

I just produced the songs myself. I wasn't really a self-proclaimed producer at all. I dabbled in it and I had the bug for it, but I went for it and did it and this was back in the Myspace days.
 
I heard your solo album back then. That was great.

Thanks. I did that and I didn't really know what I was doing on an independent level as far as marketing and stuff. I put it out, and what happened is from there a lot of friends and people I didn't know would contact me and say, "Who did this record? I love it." I was like, "I did it," and then what happened was people would say, "Will you do my record?" Next thing you know I just started doing people's records. Basically that's what I've been doing now. I have a place on Music Row.

Is that Multitone Musik?

Actually that does get a little confusing. Actually I just worked as Nathan Walters for years producing lots of bands and how Multitone Musik came about... Gabe Combs and I, we've always been talking here and there and he's updating me with what's going on in California with Nate and everything and the band, Castledoor, but somewhere in there Gabe was like, "I'm thinking about moving to Nashville."

As the excitement of reconnecting on the musical level too, I was like, "Why don't you come up to Nashville. Let's merge forces together and do a production team together!" So that's how Multitone Musik came about. Multitone Musik was Gabe and myself, our partnership together. We probably did that for about a year and a half, almost two years, but we technically stopped acting as that production team together.

What was funny was we had so much fun doing it that I think we had more fun than actually working, and so we realized that it's probably more effective for us to just produce on our own and then just work together when it makes sense. Nothing weird, just totally realized that.

So technically Multitone Musik doesn't really exist anymore, kind of, but now I just go under my name, Nathan Walters, and I've got a place on Music Row and just producing and writing and all of the above.

Who have you produced and who are you producing?

It's kind of like production/artist development. A lot of independent artists who are serious about what they're wanting to do and pursue, and like myself years ago, they have songs and they have a drive, but they kind of don't know what to do when they're serious about it. So I kind of fell into that role where helping to develop those artists and trying to find a home for that. Now that's been all over the board, Christian radio to film and TV, so that's kind of my niche there. I've been able to help artists get on different things, different cuts, stuff for shows that are on MTV, VH1, CBS, things like that.
A lot of independent artists.

There's a Christian artist named Jason Bare who's one of the artists. I kind of really launched his first single, which on the worship chart went to No. 1 for a little bit there and kind of had some movement with him. That's kind of a name. I do this stuff for Hawk Nelson, Rachael Lampa, even a solo project for a girl named Mizzy from Raze. I don't know if you remember that group back in the day. That kind of stuff.
 
It's great that throughout the years you've been able to keep connected with Gabe. Obviously there are challenges working with friends, but now you guys are able to be singing together again. How does it feel taking this on again, doing this together again?

It's really exciting, and I think a lot of it, how it came about, is interesting, too, because when Gabe and I were co-producing together more often, we would co-write a lot together with whoever we were producing, just kind of natural thing. As we were doing that one day I told Gabe, "I feel like this is fun, but I feel like I'm giving away a lot of my creative ideas, which is part of the job, but I kind of miss doing something artistically for myself and I don't know if that's in the form of another solo record or what." I said, "Gabe, why don't you and I start a side project or something just for fun?"

We were wondering what that would look like, but wondered if that was going to be weird to start another side project. I said, "Why are we doing another side project? We're Plus One. Let's do another Plus One record!" and it was kind of just said to see what Gabe's response was, and his response was, "Yeah! Actually that could be fun. Do you think the guys would do it?" I said, "Yeah."

I had been talking with Jason all these years and he seemed interested in the idea. I said, "I think the three of us for sure could do it." It was just kind of a thought. So as I was sort of actualizing all this, I called Jason to make sure, and he was open to the idea. Somewhere in there the crucial point to this whole thing was I had always been in contact with a guy named Wes Campbell.

He signed us to his InPop label during the Exodus record, and so that's really when I met him during those days. Me being here in Nashville, I'd see him at Christmas parties and industry parties and just kept in touch and I'd been talking about songwriting things and whatever, so the relationship was there. So I called him up and I was like, "Hey, Wes. We've got this idea. I don't know if you're into it or not, but I think we want to do a relaunch of Plus One and didn't know if you were interested in helping us figure that out, manage it, or whatever."

He responded and was like, "Yes, I'd love to!" That just kind of fueled our excitement when I told Jason and Gabe and we're like, "OK. Maybe we can do this." So that's kind of what started launching it and made it become reality is are we going to do this and what does it look like and things like that.
First Company Management was really helpful in that whole aspect.

In a sense it's like the way music has headed has really made it doable again as far as pop being back in vogue and whatnot, the way the culture is going. 

What about the first run Plus One, what were some of the best things, maybe the best memories and experiences that you really cherish about that first run?

That first run exploded so quickly. I didn't realize the magnitude of what was going on or certain events we were showing up at. I didn't really realize the rarity or the excitement of what it was until after the event was over sometimes. 

It was just really great. We were these Christian guys in this position where we were doing a Christian record, but we had a lot of mainstream kind of outlets and things we were a part of, which was exciting and interesting because it's just we were in great places where we were able to be ourselves and share our faith and talk to people and just kind of create some dialogue that may not happen if we were just in certain circles.

That was interesting, but I think one special memory that came to mind was there was a Christmas party once that we were invited to and it was at Carol Bayer Sager's house, the famous writer. It honestly felt like a movie because there were no microphones or anything. It was just all in someone's living room. We were kind of like the musical guests for the Christmas party, so we were singing "Silent Night." It was a living room full of maybe like 30 or 40 people, but it was people like Jack Nicholson, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, and Kevin Costner.

So we're singing these Christmas carols in this beautiful mansion in L.A. that's all done up very Christmas decorative-like and you just feel like, "I'm in a movie right now." It was just really weird. You could hear Jack Nicholson with his smoky voice. Those are some fun, exciting memories. Honestly there are tons, but that's the first one that comes to mind.
 
What do you guys see for this next chapter? What is the Lord leading you guys towards as far as what are some things you guys still dream about?

I know when we first started talking about doing this again, it was exciting, but as we really started talking about stuff, we found that the three of us shared a lot of mindsets in common. We had 10 years or more of living life away from how we met each other and developing views on what this world's about and what we believe and what our faith is.

Coming together we had commonalities in the fact of us just kind of figuring our faith out, even after Plus One. Just as grown men going, "Why do we believe what we believe and why do we believe it?" We all have our own story of how we came to that, but the end result is that it strengthened our faith and enriched our view of really living this life for Christ and why we're doing it.

It feels like this time around it's like we're doing Plus One because it's fun and it's an outlet for music and sharing our thoughts creatively, [and] the dialogues that the three of us have had between ourselves are exciting, because it seems more purposeful this time. I think the three of us have become kind of communicators of our faith a little bit more, and if you were to hang out with us one day, you'd find yourself kind of naturally talking about some more philosophical ideas and thoughts.
That's the kind of stuff that Gabe and I talked a lot about when we were producing records. It's just a different mindset and I think that just comes with living life and getting older and having something to say versus when we were first out we were young guys. We were figuring it out. 

I guess overall it feels more purposeful.

It's pretty cool to see how you guys were put together back in the day much like many of the other vocal groups in the day were put together--through managers and the record label and whatnot. You all didn't know each other then, and it's cool to see how these relationships have lasted long-term. Talk about that for a second.

It is cool. We were all kind of picked, like you said, from our managers and record labels and different guys like that. Then we all came together to meet each other. When I met the guys was in San Francisco at this hotel that we were staying at and kind of get to know each other.

For some reason Gabe sticks out in my mind. When I first met Gabe was in a hotel that all of us kind of came together to meet each other. I remember seeing Gabe and I was like, "Who is this guy?" I thought to myself, "I don't know. These guys are cool. I just don't know if I can see myself really being great friends with them." Because I had all my own high school friends that I grew up with, at my church, and I thought I'll never know anyone as good as them, but what happened was kind of the opposite. 

I think a lot of it was because there were some crucial years that we spent together--our early twenties, and we did some unforgettable experiences that we share together, so I think that's kind of naturally bonding.

I think that's why the relationship is very close because we have some great memories and got to know each other and I think it is rare like you said. Some people have those experiences, but then they just go on, never talk to each other and life moves on, but we've always been able to keep in contact and be great friends, so I'm very thankful for that. Thank God for that. It's really a blessing.
 
Have you been surprised by the reception to this comeback?

Yeah, I have actually. It's been exciting. We were hoping for the best, hoping that people would still know who Plus One is, but at the same time we thought maybe it'd just be a slower build. Back in the day we didn't really have this kind of communication for marketing with Plus One. We had all kinds of stuff, but not the social media the way it is now, and so just to see people's response in real time is something that we've never seen before or experienced. That's kind of been really exciting and refreshing and just kind of in our mind makes us go, "OK. I guess this is the right thing to do." We felt like we heard from the Lord to come together and do this and it feels very easy. Doors are opening and it's something we're not trying to pursue. It just feels peaceful.

The new single, "My All," is great. It's going to be officially released here soon, so we're excited about that. 

I think the date is June 20th to radio.

It almost seems like it's your anthem for why you're coming back. It's like you're giving all you've got as far as creatively and musically to throw your hat back into the ring. 

That's true. 

How can we pray for you guys?

There's a lot of ways to pray. Pray as this is an experience that will be new for two guys in the band who have wives and babies now. Pray for God's blessing with that and how that kind of goes. I think that's something that kind of comes to mind as a guy like that. Definitely want to dive in and be able to tour and share the music, but I want to be the best father and husband I can too, so I think that's something to pray about.

So much has changed since then. How many kids do you have?

I just have one and she's only one. Gabe has a baby who's around one, too. He has a girl and I have a girl and they're both around the same age, so it's interesting. We're kind of going through this together. 

Thank you for taking the time, Nathan. We're so excited and we'll be talking again soon as this whole thing develops.