A fast-rising worship band out of Alabama has more gigs than their fans can keep up with. One band member makes regular appearances at a local Christian bookstore. Two others share their talents at construction jobsites. And still another couple of band members have longstanding engagements at local churches. 

And from their corners of daily life, the members of More Than This get together for shows throughout the Southeast and around the country, doing what they do every day in their routine settings: representing Jesus and showing people what passionate worship looks like. 

The band recently released their self-titled debut record, which is generating buzz for this missionally focused collective that goes far beyond their community. On the heels of the new release and their rapidly expanding mission field, frontman Josh Nichols introduces us to his band--and lets a few of the guys chime in for good measure.

What's your origin story? How did you all get together and decide playing music was something you wanted to do full-time?

Josh: Noah and I are the two founding members of the band. We were both seniors in high school when we decided we wanted to start playing at a few worship events around our city. So in January of 2012 More Than This was formed with the intent of telling anyone who would listen to us that they are more than what the world has labeled them to be. The rest is history!

What are your day jobs? What are your secret identities when you're not playing music?

Josh: The Lord has blessed us all with some amazing part-time jobs that give us the freedom to do what we love doing. Our drummer Noah currently works at a Family Christian bookstore and has started a new company called Southern Native. (It's still under wraps, so I can't disclose too much information, but be on the lookout for that name in the months to come!) Our bassist, Daniel, and our guitarist, Clayton, both work construction; our other guitarist, Payton, serves as a worship leader in Florence, and I serve on staff at Cornerstone Church in downtown Gadsden as the worship pastor.
 
We've been finding a LOT of worship bands rising up out of Alabama these days. Is there something pretty incredible happening down in the Deep South with regards to worship?

Josh: Man, you know it's crazy. Being from Alabama, we don't really think much about it. We've grown up just kind of expecting that popular Christian/worship bands were going to be from the Nashville area, because that just happens to be the case more often than not. However, we have seen an increase of worship bands coming up lately, which is super encouraging. We are living proof that God can use people from wherever to write His songs; there's nothing special about what city or state you live in. So I think people are finally starting to realize that, and it's extremely exciting to be a part of it for sure!

Your self-titled album is out, containing a mix of your own songs and covers. How did you decide which songs went on the record, and what's important to you when picking songs to perform as a band?

Josh: The songs on our record really were songs we had been waiting to share for a couple of years. With the exception of just a few songs, the majority of the record had been written a year or two prior to considering creating an album. We love stories and so we picked songs that lined up well with each other, even if the stories they were telling weren't the exact same. We chose the one cover song because it became a part of our band's message. We had seen such a great response from "All He Says" in the live environments that we knew it had to be on the record. 

As far as the songs we choose to perform as a band, we really pick songs we feel like the majority of the audience will relate to. Sets change according to each venue; we look at the dynamic of the audience we will be in front of on a certain night and we build a set specifically catered for them.

You did a cover of Aaron Gillespie's "All He Says I Am"... who are some other worship artists who inspire you?

Josh: We love bands that write honest songs. So we are inspired by artists like Andrew Peterson, John Mark McMillan, Kings Kaleidoscope, Citizens & Saints, Dustin Kensrue, and Tenth Avenue North, just to name a few.

Explain your live experience for those who haven't seen it.

Josh: Our live shows are just like anything else you'll see when you go to a Christian/worship band's concert. None of us do backflips or stage dives. However, where we believe we separate ourselves is the intimacy we have with our fans/listeners. We love interaction, we love getting instant feedback, and most of all we love sharing the personal stories behind the songs we are singing for folks. We feel like they can get a better perception of what we are singing when we do this and maybe that will increase the chance of them connecting with the songs we write. Our hope at the end of the day is that a lyric of our song will point them in the direction of Jesus and that they'll experience life change from it. 
 
Tell us something unexpected and/or interesting about each of you.

Payton: I make donuts from scratch, and sell them all over Florence. I call them Flonuts and they're a big hit!

Daniel: I used to deliver pizza and beatbox for tips.

Noah: I used to do vocals for a hardcore band, which surprises most people because I'm the quietest one in the band.

Clayton: I'm also a drummer, and I love Tori Kelly.

Josh: I'm an extremely introverted person, and so typically I tend to stay away from crowds when I don't have to be around them. However, being in a band and being a worship leader at a church makes it hard to avoid crowds for long.

Do you all go to the same church? Are you all serving in active worship ministry? Talk about that for a second.

Josh: I'm extremely blessed to not just get to play music with my best friends when we hit the road, but to also get to do ministry with them on a weekly basis in our community at Cornerstone Church. All of us except for Payton attend and serve at Cornerstone every chance we get when we are at home. 

Payton: I serve as a worship leader at The Well Church. It's a college and young adult church. We basically evolved from a college ministry so that students would be given the opportunity to really commit to something and serve in the church and community instead of being given a free pass to not go to church during the ages of 18-30 or so, which is the second most developmental part of life. 

What's your calling as best you can tell?

Josh: Our calling is to serve the Body of Christ in any and every way we can find. For us we know our strengths are obviously in music, and so we have found a beautiful balance between serving our local church and serving the larger Church with our gifting in music. 

The question everyone has been asking and really wanting to know is whether we feel more led to the "band life" or the "church life," and our best response to that question is we still haven't found a reason to separate the two! We're going to keep traveling and telling people about Jesus, and we're also going to continue coming home to a body of believers that love us and hold us accountable--and serve our communities with that family. Until we find that clear divide, we're going to keep on keeping on!
 
What's next for More Than This, and how can people be praying for you?

Josh: What's next? That's a great question, I'd love to say we have this big systematic business plan for how we are going to arrive at our destination within the next few months, but our destination is still undefined for us. As soon as we think we've figured out where we fit in within the industry, we write a song that completely disqualifies us and it takes us back to the drawing board. We know this, and we refuse to compromise who we are as artists and writers for the sake of a paycheck. We are going to keep writing songs that are meaningful to us, and believing when we play them or record them, that someone else will hear them and find comfort in something we've said. 

Pray for endurance for us! We are young and so our bodies are capable of taking the beating we put them through in order to make things happen for events. We want to do this for a long time and so endurance is all we can ask for right now. We thank you so much for your prayers and want you to know that we covet them and fully believe in their power!