Tennessee based worship outfit Calling Glory has achieved grassroots influence in a way other independent artists would find enviable. Over the past eight years, the group of four musicians has built a unified rock worship sound from their experience leading worship at a variety of different churches. Now that the sound is established, the group's momentum seems unstoppable, with a solid social media following and listener base established.
 
The group's first full length effort Life and Spirit released last month. We talked with lead vocalist Dana Potvin about how they got started, their songwriting process and what he feels is the core of Calling Glory's ministry.
 
 
I'm excited to introduce people to you, although it's not like you guys are just starting out. You seem to have a pretty great following, and you've had some charting success. You guys have been together for 6 years or so?
 
Actually we've been together for close to 8 years now, but it took a few years to develop our sound and figure out exactly what we wanted to do as a band. I would say about 6 years ago we really got serious about what we were doing. We're putting our best foot forward.
 
I'm sure there are still people who have yet to hear of you guys, so we'd love to introduce you to everybody. Tell us how you got together and formed Calling Glory.
 
I served as a worship pastor for a long time and had multiple churches and multiple events and things. It kind of started out of that: a lot of worship stuff, getting together, playing with a lot of different people. I was playing in a little town called Cleveland, Tennessee, with a group of guys. Out of that we started writing songs, just in those great times of worship.
 
That's where it all started for us, just in worship. We were doing that and then decided we really liked a lot of the stuff, so why don't we put something together and see what happens? That's what we did about 8 years ago. We wrote about 4 or 5 songs and kept going from there.
 
About 5 years ago we added Logan Early, our drummer, after our original drummer stepped down and was moving on with some family stuff. That's how it really started with us. Things just seemed to pick up and get busier and busier, and here we are.
   
Were you all playing worship together at various churches when you started?
 
We did, and actually to this day we all still play at different churches. None of us go to the same church, so it's really cool how we all go to different places of worship, but we all come together. That's kind of what makes us who we are.
 
Are you still worship pastoring to some extent?
 
I am. I'm actually the director of contemporary worship at a Methodist church in Dalton, Georgia, right now, and I've been here for about a year and a half. Seventy-five percent of the world's carpet is made here.
 
You've got this whole angle of both the local church and the capital C Church too. How important is it to have both?
 
It's really important. I've noticed when we go on the road and we travel and we play to a lot of different churches and a lot of different denominations, we love ministering to the body, but at the same time I know for us individually it's important to have our own individual places of worship where we can go and say "Jesus, I love you and I'm here for you," and we're not coming as Calling Glory at that point, but we're coming as individual disciples of Jesus.
 
That's really important for me individually. I believe in the church. I love the church. I love its potential and all the things that it can do. I know for me though, it's hard to get fed when you're on the road and you're always ministering, you're always playing, you're encouraging people, but at the same time you want to go to those places where you yourself can get fed and you yourself can get encouraged and ministered to.
 
It can be a delicate balance, but I love that we have that privilege and that opportunity for us to do that as individual members of the group. It's really important.
   
Where are we at now as far as your releases? You've had a few now. It looks like you came out with your first EP back in 2009 and had another one in 2011. Did something just come out in late 2014?
 
We did. We just had one come out actually last month, and it's our first full length album. It's called Life and Spirit, and it's a little different for us. We're having some fun and exploring a little bit and trying some new things. I'm really happy with it. The songs really speak to us.
 
You've got a great sound with a lot of energy and a lot of depth. I think you balance the rock sound with acceptable worship. What do you guys like to listen to? What are some of the worship bands that really have stood out to you guys as influences?
 
We listen to so much music it seems, but I can say the ones right now that we're listening to. I'm a huge fan of All Sons and Daughters and have been wearing out their stuff. It's always on my playlist it seems like. I love it for just worship time for me. It's really, really great.
 
Of course, the Jesus Culture and Hillsong. I think everybody loves to listen to those guys, but for me right now, the best one is All Sons and Daughters.
 
It's pretty incredible to see some of these stats as far as your 70,000 Facebook fans and 10,000 followers on Instagram. You've charted on the billboard Christian charts and Christian rock charts. Have you been independent since the start pretty much?
 
Yeah, pretty much. We started out like that and then when Don't Give Up came out, that kind of caught us by surprise. It hit top 25 on billboard for us, and it came out of nowhere honestly. We talked to a lot of different people then.
 
We're still just playing as much as we can, but we've pretty much been independent from the start. We're with Suncured right now, and everything is going really good. We're really enjoying the direction that we're moving in.
 
It's pretty crazy that from a do-it-yourself kind of work ethic you guys have, you've seen so many people follow you and be interested in what you guys are doing. It's pretty cool.
 
That's the Lord Savior, and we're thankful.
 
In songwriting, what is inspiring you guys? How do you guys go about that process as far as latching onto a particular song idea and fleshing it out?
 
I think for a lot of songwriters, and I know for us, it comes through different events that happen in your life and different seasons that you go through. I think a lot of times you're not trying to write a song, but it seems like out of those things comes a song. It's kind of strange how that happens.
 
The hard one is when you know you have to write a song, and it's not as much inspired as it is you're trying to find something that everybody will relate to and be encouraged as well. Those are the hard ones.
 
I love the ones where you're going through stuff and it kind of comes naturally. Those are the ones that I know really, for us, seem really easy to write, and they really come together well. Fortunately, that's been the case for us a lot lately. It seems like everybody's had a different season they've been going through lately in the band. We come together and talk about those things, and out of that come the songs that we write.
   
Do you write them all together, or are some of you the songwriters and the others are just along for the ride? How do you guys divide that up?
 
We all work them out together. I start a lot of the initial writing, and my wife helps me as well quite a bit. Then Jones Beene, our electric guitar player, we kind of woodshed it out a lot on the lyrics, and then we pitch the idea to the guys and see how they like it and see what it feels like. Then we woodshed it out from there and just develop the sound for it, decide what's going to be the best sound for that song to make the most impact with people.
 
That's how the process works for us right now.
 
As you have released your latest album and are looking ahead, is there anything that you guys have sort of collectively sensed God is calling you to as far as what the future holds?
 
Absolutely. This is something that I think from day one we wanted to do as much as possible and go as far as we can with it, as long as the Lord lets us. Being able to do this for a very long time, full time together, and traveling wherever God will have us, whether it's the United States or the nations— that's kind of where we want to take this. I know for us we're always looking ahead at what's next and what we need to do and all that, especially since we do a lot of the things ourselves.
 
We have to think about that so it's important for us to do that, but we just want to take this as far as we can as long as the Lord will let us do it.
 
For you specifically, what would you say that you're creatively called to do in terms of your creative contribution to music? What do you feel like you're called to do? What is Dana's unique thumbprint on music?
 
I know for me one of the big things, first and foremost, is I want to encourage the body of Christ, whether I can do that in the music itself or with the lyrics. There are a lot of people, even Christians, that are having a hard time. Christianity is not an easy road. Jesus never said it would be easy. He did say it would be worth it.
 
My goal is to continue to encourage Christians: don't give up. There is more to Jesus than what you are seeing right now. There's always more, so go deeper with Him in word and prayer and worship and corporate gatherings. I know for me creatively, that's one of the things that I want to try to convey.
 
There's always more of Jesus, and whether we can do that through a fun rocking song or whether we can do that through a slower song that has a lot of meaning and a lot of emotion in it, I think that's really my goal: to encourage people in worship and push people towards Jesus, however I can do that, musically or lyrically.
 
I don't want to be known as someone that just wrote good songs. Hopefully at the end of my days, I'd like to be known as someone that encouraged the body of Christ and saw a lot of people come to Jesus because of it. We're really big on storing treasure in heaven in the band, and we always remind each other of that, try to keep our priorities right. That's big for us.
 
Are the other guys near you, or are you guys in different towns?
 
I work in Dalton, but I live in Athens, Tennessee, so we're right around Chattanooga. We all live probably within 10-15 minutes of each other, which is really nice. All of our families are good friends. Our wives are good friends. As is the case with a lot of bands, we are family. Those guys are my brothers. I love them just as much as my own. We're close, and it makes it really nice.
 
For people who haven't heard it yet and are thinking about checking it out, what can people expect from the new album?
 
It's a lot of fun. There's a lot more acoustic driven stuff on there than what we've done in the past. It's kind of split up into two categories. The first half is more about life and just things that we go through and challenging people not just to be Christians, but to be in action to reach the world. There are some challenges on there.
 
Then the second half of it is a worship project. We covered a few and then wrote some.  So there's kind of two parts to it, but it's a lot of fun. If people have listened to us before, there are some different things on there that we haven't done before, so I'm really hoping people enjoy it. I know we had a lot of fun recording it. That's kind of what to expect.
 
And that's on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play?
 
Yes, we are. We should be on iTunes, Amazon, and Google.
 
How can people be praying for you as you engage your ministry?
 
We love prayers. We always covet people's prayers.
 
Always pray that we keep Jesus first. That's really easy when you're on the road, to get caught up in the business of music and just the gigs and the playing and all that, but we always want to keep Jesus first and realize why we're doing this. So just pray that the Holy Spirit will go with us and keep our priorities straight.
 
Are you going on tour soon?
 
Actually right now we're playing a lot of spot dates. We don't have any lengthy tours at the moment that we're planning on, so we do a lot of weekends and things like that. We're really focusing a lot on our local churches that we play in, but you never know. We may be hitting the road at some point soon. People can always keep in contact with us on Facebook and through Soncured.