If their last record was a light-in-the-darkest-places announcement that “the end is really just the beginning,” then Downhere’s latest Centricity Music release arrives as an artfully textured but heartfelt declaration that, “True progress might mean we have to go backwards.”

As students of history, Jeremy, Jason, Marc and Glenn have come to recognize and appreciate the fact that their faith is not simply their own—but that it’s part of a much larger communion of believers that stretches across cultures and thousands of years. And while we might have the privilege of bearing that torch during the short span of our own lives, they would say it’s important to recognize it’s not a torch we lit. It’s one that was passed to us by generations of faithful saints, and it’s one that we’ll soon enough be passing on to those who follow us.

That's the inspiration behind Downhere's latest album, On the Altar of Love. NRT's Bill Lurwick spoke with co-frontman Mark Martels about looking back to move forward.

The album’s called On the Altar of Love. Mark, what’s behind the title? What does it mean for you guys?

The title means going back to a time when we were discovering God for the first time, and just making the sacrifices that come with leaving the old things behind and discovering new things. It’s that spirit of discovery and excitement when you meet God for the first time. That’s a theme that goes through the album and that’s also a title track. It’s the first time we’ve ever done the title track on the album, but that’s where it came from.


Tell us about the cover art.

The artwork actually that we did was kind of fun. It was the first time that we did a dress-up photo shoot and we dressed up like old Canadian pioneers from the early 1800s. We thought that encapsulated the spirit of the album. It’s a joyful rediscovery of new things that are old.

Mark, talk about “Let Me Rediscover You.” I know you wrote that song. What did that mean for you in the writing process personally?

That is probably one of the most meaningful songs to me that I’ve written in a long time. All four of us grew up in the church. Two of us are pastor’s kids. Three of us went to Bible college. We all went to youth group. We did the whole Christian thing. People who grow up in the church… we go through cycles. We all can relate to that, needing that fresh rediscovery of God and needing Him to breathe His life into us once again.

It’s not just a prayer for believers though. No matter who we are, what our background is, we all come to God with presuppositions, ideas that we have about who He is. But the Bible says that there’s one true God and He has revealed Himself to us. We can pray every day and in our morning devotions to really discover the true God in all His majesty. He is this eternal God that has always existed and always will and omnipotent and omnipresent, there’s only so much that the human mind can take in in that.

I like how the album kicks off with what you talked about with “Only the Beginning.” It’s kind of a focus on the new Christian walk, right?

Absolutely. Our last album, Ending is Beginning, was kind of an album for people to sing when they reached the end of their selves. I believe that is where Christ meets us and we finally realize that we can’t do it on our own and that’s where the new album picks up. It’s like, “We’ve come to the end of ourselves. Now what?” So, Altar of Love is about the beginning.


I know “Let Me Rediscover You” has been on the radio, and I know you’re getting ready to send another song off to the airwaves. Which one’s that?

It’s called “Rest,” and it’s actually one of the few songs that Jason and I co-wrote. I think we’ve co-written in the last 11 years maybe three or four songs. Usually we do our own writing and then kind of collaborate in the studio, but this one came at the end of last year and it was probably our busiest year yet. The best songs come out of your personal experience and just being honest about where you’re at and Jason just simply asked me – we really didn’t have anything to start on, so he said, “How do you feel?” and I said, “Well, that’s easy. I’m really tired.”
Obviously we both automatically went to that verse in the Bible where God says come to me all you burdened and heavy laden and I’ll give you rest, and that song just kind of wrote itself in one afternoon.

I like how the project closes with “Reveal the Kingdom,” which is musically a different song from everything else on the project.

Jason loves to write those kind of cinematic epic sounding songs. The only kind of music he listens to regularly is movie soundtracks without lyrics; he just loves the big orchestra arrangements, and this is one of those tunes where he kind of went all the way with that sort of thing.

The story for that song is kind of interesting. He felt at the beginning of his prayer time that God was sort of, I guess in a way, commissioning him to write a national anthem for a country that doesn’t exist.


What a great thought.

This song, “Reveal the Kingdom,” is basically Jason’s attempt at a national anthem and it closes with Latin. We actually talked to a Latin expert/professor and got him to translate for us “The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” So, the end of the song is this Gregorian sort of chant in Latin and that’s what the album closes with. My wife loves that track and I’m hoping all other wives will love it too.

It’s brand new from Downhere, On the Altar of Love. We appreciate you spending time with us at NewReleaseTuesday as always, Mark. God’s blessings to you guys.

Thank you so much, Bill. Good talking to you.