In 2010, husband and wife duo
Love & The Outcome sold their possessions, left their home in Canada, and began their musical journey with only each other, a dream, and faith in God. Six years later, the married couple are an established entity in the Christian music world, performing on major tours such as Winter Jam, and receiving radio airplay across Contemporary Christian Music stations nationwide.
While the Lord has blessed Jodi King and Chris Rademaker with a place to call home, an opportunity to live out their dreams, and a baby boy named Milo, the couple is overflowing with joy as they enter a new season of life pointing their listeners to the One who has blessed them.
This summer, as Love & The Outcome readied their new record,
These Are the Days, I had the opportunity to ask Jodi--and her baby, Milo, who was on tour with his parents--about the name Milo, the new album's style, and how the project coincides with a new season in the couple's lives.
So your son's name is Milo; how did you get that name?
This is funny; well, the meaning is "merciful warrior," and I wanted a name with mercy in it because I think that is Chris's best trait. But Chris's favorite comic strip in Canada had a little Milo in it, and he was a really smart, geeky kid with a pet penguin. He's the cutest little blondie, and so Chris just always loved that comic strip. So he threw it out when I was like 5 months pregnant and was like, "What about Milo?" I said, "I love it!" We didn't even have a backup. We just said, "That's it!" And his middle name is Wolf--leader of the pack.
Awesome! Well now that you've told me about the inspiration behind your baby's name, can you tell me about the inspiration behind your single, "The God I Know?"
Sure! Well for me personally, the line, "I can throw my hands up and my worries down." I feel like as a new mom, that line is pretty perfect for my life. I don't really know what I'm doing most days on the road, but it's so much fun and I'm learning to take myself a lot less seriously. And Milo helps me with that because he kind of reorients things just a little bit. Things you used to think were super important, you're just like "oh, whatever," you know? They're not really a big deal.
So that's my favorite line, and if Chris were here he would tell you, "
No strings attached when He saved my soul / I want you to know the God I know." That was his line, and that was his favorite line because I think sometimes we all try and do what we can to make the Lord love us more. And we feel like it's like climbing this ladder, and really it's completely the opposite. So we wanted a song that talked about that. It's nothing that we do. We just have to let the Lord love us. That's the essence of our salvation. So it feels really good to sing it.
Awesome! These Are The Days is the new record. What can fans expect to hear? Is it more of the same from the self-titled album?
You know, I feel like it's a really good progression into something a little more honestly us. Chris is a bass player by trade, and I play a drum and a keyboard but I grew up playing piano and singing. So we wrote the whole record with those components and filled it out around it instead of sort of making it with a full record of band tracks and then trying to pull it off on stage. So we really wanted to write everything off of the bass riff and my drum, and then I would start singing. That's how it was all composed.
I feel like the whole thing honors the whole duo that we started as. And of course we're bringing along a drummer, and he's playing a lot of tracks to fill it out which is a lot of fun.
But I think it's a little more '80s inspired. Chris grew up listening to The Police and a lot of U2, so I think you'll hear that in all the parts he wrote.
Great! Well what's one thing that you would want a listener to take away after listening to your new album?
Oh man, that the Gospel is actually good news and that's where the joy comes from. And I feel like on this record, we're in a really different place as a couple and as believers. In the first record, we were living in our car, and we were travelling across Canada on a hope and a prayer--seriously just like, "OK, Lord, get us to our next show." We sold everything we owned, and faith really looked like living on the edge. It was just that season!
And this season, we're in our first house with our first baby, onto our second album, and we just have so many miracles the Lord's done in our life. It feels like a season of celebrating that. And I think you feel that in the record. It sounds like a joyful revolution as opposed to songs about just holding on for dear life. So, I hope fans feel that.