In the most recent edition of their Bus Banter podcast, Disciple announced their plans for two potential side projects. One project will be a worship album under frontman Kevin Young's name, and the other will be a metal EP in partnership with Wolves at the Gate's Nick Detty.
The band shared that although the worship album will be created completely by the current members of Disciple, they plan to release it under Kevin Young's name instead to avoid any confusion on the band's overall musical direction, which will continue to be their intense, gospel-centric brand of hard rock. The idea of releasing a worship record follows naturally from the fact that each of the members individually is either involved in leading worship currently or has been in the past, and from the fact that both Kevin Young and guitarist Josiah Prince frequently write songs that best fit the worship or AC format. "We have all these ideas, and we just feel like Disciple is not the right avenue to use these ideas," Kevin Young explained during the podcast. "We're thinking about doing an album half originals, and half covers."
In addition to the worship project, Disciple is ambitiously planning to work on a metal EP as well in 2017. They will be enlisting the aid of Nick Detty, lead vocalist for Wolves at the Gate, to lend his screams to the project. The EP, which is primarily the passion project of guitarist Andrew Stanton and drummer Joey West, aims to be even heavier than Disciple's material.
Both projects are currently in their creative infancy, with official timelines to be determined later. Disciple attributes their ability to pursue such a wide range of ventures in part to their independent status. Although distributing last fall's Long Live the Rebels in partnership with BEC Recordings, Disciple has functioned as an independent band since 2014's Attack. The full creative calendar also proves the work ethic that has made that independent route successful for the band. "I just love that we have goals," guitarist Josiah Prince shared. "It's not like we're just coasting through another year, thinking OK, Long Live the Rebels is out so we can just kind of play shows this year. No, we're trying to do more. We're trying to be creative."
Just in case any fans were worried however, Kevin Young clarified "we'll never stop Disciple." The band has already begun working on some material that will be held in reserve until the next Disciple album release.
Disciple has been spending their spring headlining the City Rockfest tour, which is currently in its final month. For a full list of tour dates and continued updates on Disciple's projects, you can follow them on facebook, twitter and instagram. You can also subscribe to their Bus Banter podcast here.
