After nearly 11 years away, South African rock band Tree63 returns with VOYAGE, an album shaped by renewal, spiritual discovery, and a willingness to begin again. Following a lengthy season in which frontman John Ellis stepped away from songwriting and reconsidered his relationship with faith and the music industry, he found fresh inspiration during the pandemic and eventually revived the band with Cape Town musicians Angus Warden and Deon Knipe.
In this conversation, Ellis discusses Tree63’s musical roots, the difficult experiences that led to its hiatus, his evolving understanding of faith, and why VOYAGE represents a liberated, forward-looking new chapter for the band.
After nearly 11 years between Tree63 albums, what inspired you to bring the band back and record VOYAGE now?
At the tail end of the “Land” period, I was in Nashville, and I really felt God say, “Stop.” Music had become a burden for me, even though it’s what I’m made to do. Pursuing a career in the music industry (I suppose like any industry really, but especially this one) became so toxic that I really needed a season away from it. I packed up my studio, put my guitars in their cases, stopped writing. I didn’t write a note for five years. I turned to poetry instead, and lectured English literature at a South African university. Focused on my children and really interrogated my faith. I needed to meet God again, perhaps for the first time. Which I did. During COVID, I picked up my guitar again; songs started coming. I relocated from my hometown on the East Coast to Cape Town on the West Coast and started playing music again, just cover gigs.
At the start of 2024, an old friend asked me why, if I had written all those Tree63 songs, I wasn’t performing them anymore. I realized I didn’t have an answer for him: the time felt right to start singing what I’d written. Getting onstage with those songs requires total heart, soul, mind, and spirit commitment; I have to mean it, otherwise I cannot do it. I was finally ready, and I found two musicians here in Cape Town to perform with. At first, I wasn’t sure whether it was “John Ellis,” “Tree63,” or something else entirely, but it made sense to go with “Tree63,” and after months of rehearsing, gigging, and writing, there were new things to say and a new record to make.
The title track explores the idea that faith is a lifelong journey rather than a single moment. How has your understanding of faith changed since Tree63 first began in 1996?
The lyric for “Voyage” came from a long conversation with an Anglican priest friend of mine, a lightbulb moment that stayed with me for a long time. It’s one of the oldest cliches there is, that old chestnut about “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey,” but things don’t become cliches for nothing. In terms of spirituality, it takes a lifetime to discover who we already are. There is so much unlearning to do, especially for Christians: Western Christianity has often been poor at teaching the basic tenets of what it means to be a person of faith. So, in terms of the lyric I managed to come up with for “Voyage,” there is wisdom that comes in realizing the journey toward God is slow, uneven, “a crooked journey down a straight and narrow path,” as I once sang (“Foolishness” 2007). We are not set for life upon the moment of conversion. We are not spiritual forever the moment we surrender. It’s a constant ebb and flow, and settling in for the voyage can be a deeper moment of realization that “God” is a process.
What were some of the biggest lessons you learned during the band's hiatus that found their way into these new songs?
Faith lessons, issues of foundational spirituality. I went back to the source and studied, searched. One of the greatest tools for spiritual awareness is meditation, a word Christians are frightened of because of non-Christian connotations. The medieval church taught mystical faith through Meister Eckhart, St. Theresa, and Julian of Norwich, and modern elders like Richard Rohr, Matthew Fox, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Thomas Keating have suggested reclaiming this “inner journey” through forgotten practices like centering prayer. These writers and teachings have changed my life and my approach to the “voyage.” They brought me back to God from the cliff-edge of evangelicalism, which, like all theology, has just one piece of the puzzle, not the whole box. So, all my “new” discoveries are of the oldest practices, and they have proved the most effective. I’ve tried to fit everything I’ve learned into these songs, but as the wise man said, “it’s only rock 'n' roll.”
Tree63 has always been known for blending thoughtful lyrics with memorable rock melodies. How did you approach honoring that legacy while still making VOYAGE feel fresh for 2026?
I’m not a great believer in “legacies.” I feel artists should always be looking forward rather than back. I’m proud of what Tree63 did in the past, but I’m far more interested in what Tree63 represents now: some joy and hope in a culture as fixated as ever on self-destruction, and some sense of “otherness” in a society fixated on the self. At the same time, Tree63 is also a rock band; the music is as important as whatever the lyric happens to be about. For me, music is not just a delivery vehicle; it’s also the actual message. Before the singer starts singing, there should already be a clear intent. But yes, when the singer starts singing, there better be something worth saying.
The new lineup features artists Angus Warden and Deon Knipe. What have they brought creatively to this new chapter of Tree63?
Darryl Swart, Tree63’s founding drummer, and Daniel Ornellas were unable to participate in this new chapter. I got together with Angus and Deon here in Cape Town, South Africa, and began working through the Tree63 song list. They are both highly experienced musicians and bring so much fresh energy to what Tree63 is about.
Songs like "Blessed Be Your Name" and "King" have impacted listeners for decades. Did carrying that legacy create any pressure while writing and recording new music?
No, not at all. For starters, our version of “Blessed Be Your Name” was just that, a version of somebody else’s song. We were put under intense industry pressure in Nashville by our label, InPop Records (owned and run at the time by Wes Campbell and the Newsboys), to record that. Tree63 is not a cover band; it was a very difficult decision, but the pressure was real. I’m glad for my friend Matt Redman that our version (which was also greatly interfered with by the label, I must just say) was such a hit, but it was not necessarily what Tree63 was about. “King,” too: InPop was trying to force another song on me, and I wrote “King” as a response. Again, I’m glad it meant so much to people, but both these songs were small parts of what Tree63 was meant to be doing. That is why we didn't re-sign with InPop after our last album for them (“Sunday!” 2007); you can’t work with people who fundamentally disagree with what you’re about. InPop has a lot to do with why Tree63 took such a long break; there was significant trauma involved. I’m free now, of course, free to say and write and sing exactly what God has put on my heart, so no, no pressure for “Voyage.” All of us, fans and band alike, are different people now compared with 2004, and the new songs have to reflect that.
In a world filled with noise, division, and constant distractions, what message do you hope listeners take away from VOYAGE?
The message is the same: God is real, God is good, God is joy, God is life. The noise, division, and distraction are at a high level of intensity in this modern age, but fundamentally it’s the same thing humans have faced forever: we lose sight of God for every reason under the sun, but he is never far. The message is that the life of surrender is better than the life of self. That’s the gospel, after all.
Looking back on Tree63's remarkable journey—from South Africa to stages around the world—what excites you most about this next season of the band's story?
We’ve never had more odds against us than in 2026: the music industry has changed fundamentally since Tree63 first arrived (miraculously!) in America in summer 2000. I feel it’s harder now than ever before as a songwriter to get your songs heard, which is strange (the internet was meant to be this great liberator) but inevitable (human nature!). And yet, I’m excited: all that matters, for all of us creatives, is to do the thing God intended us to do. He’ll take care of the details. That sounds naïve, but if it’s not true, then “God” is a myth. My songs, my art, will be heard by those they’re intended for. If that ushers in a new season for Tree63, then thank God. All I’m required to do is be faithful with what God has given me to do.
