When listening to The City Harmonic, you instinctively turn up the volume and join the chorus as the music dynamically bounces from sparse intimacy to soaring celebration and back again. It’s a musical metaphor for the band that plays it—with their feet in the dirt and their eyes toward the heavens. It isn’t long before you find yourself singing along and not because you ought to, but because you want to. Like a spontaneous outbreak of “Hey Jude” around the campfire, you want in on the moment. And getting people in on the act—hearts pounding and feet moving—is at the core of what The City Harmonic is about.

No worship band in recent history has created the kind of reaction the Dove Award nominated The City Harmonic has with their EP, Introducing The City Harmonic and their powerful full-length album I Have A Dream (It Feels Like Home). Once you hear The City Harmonic for yourself you’ll feel what the buzz is all about. Instantly addicting, they express profound truth and worship in simple and musically creative ways that will resonate with real people.

I had the great opportunity to interview front man Elias Dummer about the title track “I Have A Dream (It Feels Like Home).”

Please tell me about the background in writing the song “I Have A Dream.”

The title track was written even before the songs on the Introducing The City Harmonic EP. This is a thematic song for us. I often talk about the notion of hopeful nostalgia. C.S. Lewis said, “if I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

That’s always been a quote that’s really resonated with me. The song is about the hope of Heaven imprinted on our hearts before the foundation of the world. The song has always been the lynchpin on which the full-length record would hinge. The dream--like in Martin Luther King's “I Have A Dream” speech--is that there is another way. It can be what we say it is--the eventual truth that we will awaken, just as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz awakened from her dream--to find ourselves home at last.

Do you have any Bible verses you used in writing the song?

The song comes from the Scripture found in Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

What do you consider to be the take-away message for listeners?

As Christians sometimes there’s a pressure in the Christian subculture to act like we don’t worry, or that we don’t have problems or that our lives are perfect. There’s this “plastic fantastic” mentality of a false reality as though all of the bad things that happen will just go away.

Yet, the Gospel is so very much about how we live lives at rapt attention. We live between the promise we inherit at the Cross and the eventual realization of that promise of when Christ returns and Creator and His created are reunited. In many ways, what Martin Luther King did in his speech is he called America to realize the promises of God--for the Civil Rights movement in particular.

We may need a reminder of that in the church. We don’t live in a time where our promises have been fully realized. We live in a time we hope for good, but the ultimate time of when Christ returns and makes all things right hasn’t happened yet. We have a job to do in the meantime. We need to live intentionally. We live in a place that doesn’t feel like home.

“I Have A Dream (It Feels Like Home)” is really about Revelation 21 and the Martin Luther King, Jr. speech, and oddly enough, also the Wizard of Oz. In a sense, Dorothy questions her dream reality world the same way we question this world. At the end, she meets the fraudulent wizard and he tells her she could have gotten home all along. For many of us in the Church, there’s an important lesson there. We now, having a foretaste of heaven, ought to be making this place feel more like home.

Lyrics:
I have a dream
That you can have with me
Of a city that shines so bright at night

Where love is true
But this love He finds you
And there is a fire in His eyes
Where I can see everything's alright

It feels like home
Sweet home
There's no, no, no, no, no, no, no place like home

When I awake
That day of glory
Your love will light the sin-deep streams

O we will meet
Our souls are longing
We'll be a symphony of peace
Brothers and sisters will be free
Thank God Almighty they'll be free

It feels like home
Sweet home
There's no, no, no, no, no, no, no place like home

It feels like home
Sweet home
There's no, no, no, no, no, no, no place like home
Yeah!

Ooooohhh
I hear the bells are ringing
Ooooohhh
I see the city lights
Ooooohhh
The dream was real until you close your eyes

It feels like home
Ooooohhh

It feels like home
Home
Home

It feels like home
Home
Home

It feels like home

What's most impressive is how the catchy songs on this album will have you singing along at the top of your lungs after just a couple of listens. This is the best new worship band I've heard since Delirious, which is absolutely incredible. Just like Delirious, I think The City Harmonic has a great opportunity to reach the lost for the Kingdom of God with their transparent lyrics and incredible musical talent.

The album I Have A Dream (It Feels Like Home), completely rocks and is loaded with songs you can proudly share with your friends and family. The themes of this album are trusting God, loving Him and loving others as He loved us. All of the songs are catchy, exciting and worshipful. After listening to the album, I am stirred with compassion to love people as Jesus loves us. That's the heart behind this album, and thank you The City Harmonic for blessing us with your music and for singing the Truth of the Gospel for the Kingdom of God.

I can’t help but break down every time I listen to this song. If you’ve ever felt alone and pressured by the worries and stress of this world, this song brings great comfort with the extremely wonderful news—“O we will meet, Our souls are longing, We'll be a symphony of peace, Brothers and sisters will be free, Thank God Almighty they'll be free!”

This song encourages me and is one of the most inspirational songs I’ve ever heard. What an exciting thought that all suffering and hurt will be left behind and one day glory will be revealed in us through Christ. As we prepare our hearts to reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the message of this song is a great reminder that one day “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Amen.

(You can listen to the song here.)