Anthem Lights announced in an exclusive press release today that they will be including a special treat for their listeners on their upcoming project Painted Skies slated to release in May. The deluxe version of album will contain a bonus track featuring none other than pop legend and teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.
The Canadian pop phenomenon recently reached out to the band after stumbling across a cover video mashup they did a year ago featuring several of his songs from the album Purpose. "I mean, I don't usually listen to fan covers of my songs because there are so many out there," Bieber commented. "But I decided to give this one a shot 'cuz it looked pretty professional and legit. And when I heard it, I was just blown away."
Intrigued, Justin did a little digging and discovered that he had something in common with the guys from Anthem Lights. "I was so surprised when I found out they were a Christian band," Justin said. "A lot of Christians wouldn't sing a song like 'Love Yourself' in public because of the original lyrics, but these guys sang it and they nailed it. And ya know, I'm trying to recover from some really bad press, so I thought it might be good to sing with some Christians. Judah Smith said it'd be a good idea."
"Justin contacted us sort of out of nowhere and said that he loved our work and would like to work with us on some new music," said band member Chad Graham. "We couldn't believe it was actually him! The Biebs!"
"The kid's got crazy talent and he's been in the business a long time." Anthem Lights' Caleb Grimm commented. "We're so excited to work with him on this song and see what he'll bring to the table, both as a songwriter and a vocalist."
The track title hasn't been released yet but one possible name is "Love You More Than You Love Yourself." Bieber says the song will be different than anything he's written before.
"I've done the whole bitter breakup song thing, and since I'm working with a Christian band on this song, we thought it should have more of a theme of forgiveness. It will be similar to 'Sorry' only, you know, actually sincere."
Bieber plans to tour with Anthem Lights after their album is released to promote the song live. "I'm thinking we should call the tour Bieber and the Anthem." Justin said about the tour. "It has a nice throwback boy band ring to it."
