Lineup

Alternative CCM rockers Skillet formed in Memphis, Tennessee, around the nucleus of lead singer and bassist John Cooper, guitarist Ken Steorts, and drummer Trey McClurkin. Debuting in 1996 with a self-titled LP, the trio returned two years later with Hey You, I Love Your Soul. Invincible followed in early 2000, and the group contributed three tracks to the Ardent Worship: Skillet Live compilation that same year. With a new lineup of Cooper on bass and lead vocals, his wife Korey Cooper on guitar and keyboards, Ben Kasica on guitar, and Lori Peters on drums, Skillet released Alien Youth on Ardent Records in 2001, followed by Collide, also on Ardent, in 2003. The latter album was then picked up by Lava/Atlantic and reissued the following year with a bonus track. Collide went on to be the band’s best-selling album to date (even earning a Grammy nomination), and Skillet supported the record on tours with bands like Saliva and Shinedown. Skillet’s next effort for the label, Comatose, appeared in fall 2006, followed by Awake in 2009 and Rise in 2013. A compilation album, Vital Signs, was released in 2014 to introduce the band to European audiences. Skillet’s ninth album, Unleashed, followed in 2016 and was bolstered by a deluxe version, Unleashed Beyond, which arrived in late 2017 and featured five new songs, including “Breaking Free” with Lacey Sturm. ~ Jason Ankeny & Steve Leggett, Rovi

After 10 albums, multiple hit singles, millions of records sold, a GRAMMY Award and 20 years of touring, in late 2017, SWITCHFOOT put the brakes on. The successful release and tour for their most recent album, WHERE THE LIGHT SHINES THROUGHhad concluded, and the San Diego-based quintet decided to take a long deserved, much needed hiatus. Their goals? To think on difficult, important questions about the band and themselves personally, including: “Why are we doing this?” The answers weren’t long in coming and are musically evident in the 14 remarkable songs that make up NATIVE TONGUE, a creative juggernaut spawned by singer Jon Foreman’s realization that the answer to “why?” was to “pursue joy.”

Joy became the paramount goal in his life and music. “Joy is an incredible motivator,” says Jon: “It’s only to be found in the moment, not in the past or future. That’s what music is to us: The ever-present joy of the ever-present now.”

During the hiatus, Jon’s positive immediacy inspired songs that he had to get out. Creative openness without a goal resulted in an electric, wide-ranging collection. “There was no ‘should’ or ‘ought.’ It was a beautiful freedom. Songs we wrote didn’t have to turn into anything, as long as we were pursuing joy. That’s where this record was born.”

The results of that pursuit include the infectious, title track; the get-your-lighters out, sway-along “ALL I NEED”; and the edgy excellence of “VOICES.” Then there’s a trippily wonderful departure in the Beatles-esque “DIG NEW STREAMS,” a tune drummer Chad Butler calls an “odyssey. It breaks so many rules: Structure, tempo, arrangement, style. I love that.”

Lyrically, NATIVE TONGUE doesn’t dwell on the world’s fraught social and political situations, rather, it’s an answer that offers an antidote to them. SWITCHFOOT observe that “we’re living in a time where it feels like hatred, fear, war, pain, anger is the native tongue of our species, that these dark words are our language. For me,” says Jon, “Holding my infant son in the middle of the night reminds me of how helpless we all start off. All of us, everywhere, were comforted, held, given a bottle; we were not hated into the world, we were loved into the world. Love is our native tongue, our common bond. And when fear and hatred are put in their proper place joy is available to us. That aligns well with joy, which is only available when fear, hatred, all those things are put in their proper place, cast aside by love.”

The time off for reflection “started a beautiful season for me, of falling in love with music and songwriting all over again,” says Tim, who co-founded SWITCHFOOT when he was just 17. “I’d sneak into the band studio and write and play. But then I noticed some scribbled lyrics left by my brother. He’d been doing the same thing.” Chad, too, admits to dropping by the studio. “I ran into Jon there. He played me a couple new songs, including ‘LET IT HAPPEN,’ which is poignant lyrically, coming from the space of not having a plan or agenda.”

Jon believes that where the songs arise from is crucial; “ulterior motives can ruin even the best of intentions.” The idea of “let it happen,” along with “pursuing joy,” gave a shape to the lyrical ideas and music and spirit that went into NATIVE TONGUE.  As SWITCHFOOT enjoyed the time off and, the avid surfers—reveled in the inspirational immensity of the Pacific Ocean—music flowed easily, merely for the joy of it. The band’s ‘time off’ turned out to be particularly creative and their prolific nature clicked in, writing nearly 100 songs for the project. The question arose: “Are we making an album?” The answer was clearly yes, and songs were culled to a manageable number to be produced by the band, along with OneRepublic bassist and multi-instrumentalist Brent Kutzle.

The tunes coalesced quickly. “THE HARDEST ART” got a beautiful boost thanks to vocals added by Kaela Sinclair, of the French electronic outfit M83. For his part, Tim got rid of equipment and bought “old basses, new to me,” to change up and challenge his sound and approach. Jon wrote lyrics that are an oft-philosophical combination and of the personal and universal. For example, “VOICES” was inspired by a homeless man who lived at the beach. “He was a nice guy,” says Jon, “who always wore aluminum foil on his head to block out the signals and voices he heard… Looking back I think he was bipolar. But I realized there’s always voices in our heads, all of us, an inner dialogue or diatribe.”

NATIVE TONGUE marks the 11th record since 1997’s debut, THE LEGEND OF CHIN, which started SWITCHFOOT on a path of critical and fan acclaim for albums including 2003’s multi-platinum breakthrough THE BEAUTIFUL LETDOWN, the GRAMMY award-winning HELLO HURRICANE (2009), and FADING WEST, which was also the name of a documentary on the band.

For an album that “snuck up on” SWITCHFOOT, there’s a remarkable cohesion among the songs. Of course, 20 years together can do that to a band. A band that moves easily among the world of modern rock but mystifies those who try to pigeonhole them. “Since the beginning, SWITCHFOOT never fit into a musical genre,” notes Chad. “We all come from different musical upbringings, and we believe any good playlist has diversity.”

Approaching the music on NATIVE TONGUE with kid-like enthusiasm combined with the years spent honing their craft makes NATIVE TONGUE a rare gem. “We channeled Queen, ELO, the Kinks; our favorite albums from the past. Albums with guitar solos,” laughs Jon, who says, “I’d play solos over and over just because they were fun! But we didn’t want to make a throwback album, and Brent was great at marrying the sensibility of our roots with the present and beyond. We took fun risks.”

Those risks paid off in songs that the listener can interact with on multiple levels. If NATIVE TONGUE’s tunes are approachable and memorable, the album also has a heady goal. NATIVE TONGUE is, Jon says, ‘An attempt to be a loving embrace of all the human souls who have been weighed down by the times. It’s a chance for all of us to be reminded of what brings us together, not what tears us apart. My hope, for this record,” Jon concludes, “is that it would be a reminder that there are new streams available for us to travel down, and that hatred is not our language, love is our native tongue.”

One of Christian rock’s most enduring bands, Australia’s Newsboys first rose to popularity in the 1990s, becoming perennial chart-toppers with a global audience who followed them through three distinctive eras all led by different frontmen. After building their foundation with singer John James, they enjoyed a second decade of mainstream pop success in the 2000s behind Peter Furler, who was himself succeeded by another Christian legend in dc Talk’s Michael Tait in 2010. Along the way they experimented with various facets of rock, pop, and more straightforward worship music, notching various Grammy nominations, gold records, and over 30 number one singles. An expanded lineup eventually coalesced after Furler’s return, resulting in the Furler/Tait-fronted supergroup Newsboys United who issued a studio album in 2019.

Newsboys formed in the Queensland resort town of Mooloolaba in the late ’80s around a core membership of John James, Peter Furler, and Phil Joel. Though early in its career the band was panned for a perceived over-reliance on religious clichés in its lyrics, Newsboys later grasped secular music’s alternative revolution in the early ’90s for an image makeover, with good results. With James on lead vocals and a secure guitarist, Jody Davis, in place the group gained a string of number one singles on the Christian charts in the mid-’90s and received more coverage in secular media outlets than most CCM bands of their time. In 1998, after six albums withe band he helped found, James departed and Furler took over as frontman on Step Up to the Microphone, the group’s first album for major-label Virgin. The ’70s-inspired Love Liberty Disco appeared a year later. In celebration of the new millennium, Newsboys also observed their own career with the greatest-hits package Shine…The Hits, issued in fall 2000. Their most elaborate work to date, Thrive, was issued in spring 2002 and led to one of their biggest CCM hits ever, “It Is You.”

The band issued Adoration: The Worship Album in April 2003. The record included both originals and Newsboys versions of well-known worship songs. Guitarist Davis left Newsboys in late 2003 in order to care for his daughter, Bethany, and Bryan Olesen took his place for a little over a year. He left in 2004 to work on his own band, Casting Pearls, just after Newsboys released their second worship album, Devotion. Paul Coleman, an Aussie singer/songwriter, came aboard as the band’s new guitarist, and the next two years found the band touring the globe and working on the songs that would become its first pop album in four years, Go. That album, released in October 2006, was the first to be released on the band’s own Inpop Records and the last to feature founding member Joel, who left shortly afterward.

At the beginning of 2009, after a year of touring, Coleman left the band to go back to his solo career and Jody Davis returned. More shockingly perhaps, Furler announced soon afterwards that he was going to scale back his involvement in Newsboys, no longer touring with them but instead staying behind the scenes as a songwriter/vocalist. His replacement came from one of the other titans of Christian rock, namely Michael Tait of dc Talk. Before Tait took over entirely, the band released one last album with Furler as lead singer, In the Hands of God, in May of 2009. By September of that year Furler was gone and Tait took over vocals for the band’s next album, 2010’s Born Again, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. The new-look Tait-led Newsboys returned in 2011 with the studio album God’s Not Dead, and in 2013 they issued the well-received Restart, their 16th studio LP. Another worship album, the hymn-centric Hallelujah for the Cross arrived in 2013, followed in 2016 by Love Riot, which saw Newsboys heading back in a pop-oriented direction. A year later, both Furler and Joel joined up with the group for the lengthy Newsboys United retrospective tour. Parlaying the tour’s success into a new studio release, this expanded version of the band — billed as Newsboys United — issued the United LP in the spring of 2019. ~ John Bush

Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Jeremy Camp returns with a brand new album “The Story’s Not Over,” which debuted in September 2019.

Camp recently wrapped the Hits Deep Tour with TobyMac this Spring, and is also heavily involved with the biopic feature film about his life, I STILL BELIEVE, which chronicles Camp’s personal story of love, loss and faith. I STILL BELIEVE is being produced by the Erwin Brothers’ (I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, WOODLAWN) newly-formed studio, Kingdom, in association with Lionsgate and is scheduled for a March 2020 release.

ABOUT JEREMY CAMP: Throughout his 17-year career, Capitol CMG artist Jeremy Camp has established himself with landmark accolades including:

• Lifetime consumption of almost 5 million and 325M lifetime streams
• Holds title for most #1s among solo artists on the Christian Airplay chart
• Billboards #2 artist of the Decade in 2010
• 40 #1 radio hits across all formats
• 4 RIAA certified gold albums and 1 gold single
• 1 Grammy nomination, 3 American Music Award nominations & 4 ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Awards

Jeremy has also authored an autobiography, I Still Believe (2013, Tyndale) and toured the world, sharing his music in more than 36 countries, and his organization, Speaking Louder Ministries, has allowed him to travel to Brazil, Guatemala, Ukraine, Japan and Kyrgyzstan.

While there’s no sure route to carving out a significant presence in the music industry, there’s always something to be said for remaining true to one’s self. Since arriving on the scene with his 2004 debut Real Talk, Lecrae has been occupying two different yet not entirely opposing worlds: the sacred and the profane. Which is to say that his art, not unlike his life, has been as much about inspiring the streets, and about justice, freedom, and interrogating real-world issues, as it is about his personal journey of faith. His music has long served as a call to arms for those willing to sacrifice for a cause beyond themselves. Still, he won’t be boxed in to any genre or made to serve as a poster-child for any particular agenda.

Following a host of celebrated mixtapes and LP’s, his most recent being 2017’s exemplary All Things Work Together, Lecrae returns with new music. Let the Trap Say Amen , a collaboration with acclaimed producer Zaytoven (Gucci Mane, Migos, Future), was born out of a mutual respect for each other’s work. Joined by common faith and a love for the trap, and after years of maneuvering through some of the same circles, the two Atlanta legends decided to come together. The result is a project brimming with thunderous beats, rapid-fire bars, and, as listeners have come to expect from Lecrae, vivid storytelling.

One of the many groups affiliated with the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, Hillsong Young & Free release worship music with a target audience of teens. Announced in 2012, the group issued the singles “Alive,” “Awake,” and the Spanish-language “Vivo Estás,” all in 2013. Filled with dance beats and teen pop anthems, their debut album, We Are Young & Free, arrived later in the year, featuring production from Hillsong veteran Michael-Guy Chislett. In early 2016 they released their sophomore album, Youth Revival, which peaked at number two on the Billboard U.S. Top Christian Albums chart and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. A year later they returned with an acoustic rendering of the same album called Youth Revival Acoustic. The single “P E A C E” appeared in 2018. ~ David Jeffries

New York City-based rap and hip-hop artist Andy Mineo makes progressive, electronic-influenced hip-hop. Raised in Syracuse, Mineo began rapping and producing albums in his home studio while still in high school. Originally going by the stage name of C-Lite, Mineo was signed to Syracuse University’s Marshall Street Records and opened for such acts as the Roots and Common. While in college, he reconnected with his faith via a meeting with producer Alex Medina and the urban evangelism project T.R.U.C.E. He was soon touring with T.R.U.C.E., and in 2009 released his first mixtape, Sin Is Wack, Vol. 1. In 2011, Mineo signed with Reach Records and dropped the moniker C-Lite in favor of his actual name. That same year he released his second mixtape, Formerly Known. In 2013, Mineo returned with his proper full-length studio album, Heroes for Sale. In 2014 he released the EP Never Land, and 2015 saw the release of the hit single “Lay Up” along with the album Uncomfortable. Two years later, Mineo joined Wordsplayed for the collaborative mixtape Magic and Bird. Peaking inside the Top 50 of the Billboard 200, the effort featured the singles “Dunk Contest” and “Judo.” The next year, Mineo scored gold certification for the single “You Can’t Stop Me” with Messiah. The same month, he issued the EP I: The Arrow, which featured two songs with Weatherman, and included the single “I Ain’t Done.” ~ Matt Collar

Jordan Feliz is a Billboard-charting contemporary Christian pop singer and songwriter. His sound walks the line between classic rock, slick retro ’70s R&B, and modern pop. Feliz grew up in Clovis, California and began his formal musical career with faith-based hard rock/screamo band A Current Affair in 2006. The band’s debut EP, Life in an Hourglass, offered a seamless screamo sound. It was followed by the Josh Auer-produced The Real Devastation EP in 2009.

Feliz left the group and relocated to Nashville in 2012. After a series of part-time jobs working as, among other things, a handyman to a valet, he became a church worship leader. In 2014, he was invited to participate in an unsigned artists’ retreat hosted by Centricity Music, and was promptly signed by the label. He began recording his debut album in February with producers Colby Wedgeworth (Lincoln Brewster, the Main, Lydia) and Josh Silverberg (Newsboys, Plumb). They finished in July. His first single, “The River,” was issued the same month, and he also became a father that September.

“The River” claimed the top spot on the Christian AC Songs chart and remained there for ten weeks. His Beloved EP was released in October and entered the Heatseekers chart at number 12, eventually earning the top spot and remaining there for eight weeks. The follow-up single, “Never Too Far Gone,” was released in March, landing inside the Top 20. His debut full-length, The River, was issued in April 2016 along with third single “Best of Me.” The album entered the Christian Albums chart at number four and garnered a Dove nomination for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. The EP 1 Mic 1 Take, a live acoustic session recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, arrived the following year. In 2018, Feliz returned with his sophomore full-length album, Future, featuring the single “Witness.” ~ Thom Jurek

Born Kevin Elijah Burgess, Florida rapper KB exploded on the Christian hip-hop scene in 2012, topping the U.S. Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart with his debut effort, Weight & Glory. A troubled teen in high school, KB was saved by a Christian rap CD a friend gave him, and after one listen, he was on his way to a career in hip-hop for the Lord. Unfamiliar with the Christian rap scene, KB recorded demos with no network to hear them, but throwing his tracks on video-sharing sites and other social media gained the rapper a loyal following. Superstar Lecrae caught wind, took KB on tour as an opening act, and five shows in, KB was offered a contract with Lecrae’s label, Reach. The mixtape Who Is KB? followed in 2011 with KB’s official debut, Weight & Glory, landing a year later. The EP 100 followed in 2014, featuring a guest appearance from Andy Mineo. In 2015, KB delivered his second studio album, Tomorrow We Live, featuring contributions from Lecrae, Mattie, and professional golfer Bubba Watson. Two years later, as if in response, KB delivered Today We Rebel, his third LP, which again featured Lecrae and Andy Mineo, as well as guest spots from Aha Gazelle, Casey J., and others. ~ David Jeffries

U.S.-based English vocalist/drummer Jennifer Carole Ledger secured a life-changing role as the drummer of Christian hard rock outfit Skillet when she was still a teenager. After a decade with the band, she took her first steps as a solo artist with her debut EP, Ledger. Born in Coventry, England in 1989, Ledger moved to Wisconsin at 16. In addition to her high school studies, she also drummed with the band at her local church, which is where she was discovered by Skillet’s husband-and-wife duo John and Korey Cooper. With the then-recent departure of their drummer Lori Peters, the Coopers encouraged Ledger to audition for the spot, which she got in 2008. From the church stage to arenas, Ledger’s first outing with Skillet was on their Comatose Tour. Over the following decade, Ledger and the band released and toured behind Awake (2009), Rise (2013), and Unleashed (2016). In addition to her work behind the drum kit, Ledger also contributed vocals to each album with increased frequency. Under the guidance of the Coopers, she began to form ideas for a solo project as early as 2012. That music wouldn’t be fully realized until 2018 with the release of her first effort, Ledger (Atlantic/Hear It Loud). Produced with Korey Cooper, the defiant set of pop-influenced rock anthems was elevated by Ledger’s vocals, a stirring blend similar to Lacey Sturm, Cassadee Pope, and Hayley Williams. The set debuted just outside Billboard’s Top 50, rising as high as number two on the Christian chart and number seven on the overall Rock ranking. To promote the EP, Ledger pulled double duty on the road, opening for (and later playing with) Skillet on their joy.UNLEASHED 2018 tour. ~ Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi

Born on October 19, 1991 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, singer/songwriter Colton Dixon first caught the public’s attention on season 11 of American Idol. The guitar-playing, golden-maned Dixon’s soaring vocals and upfront spirituality connected with audiences enough to secure a seventh-place finish, and it didn’t take long for the charismatic rocker to land a record deal. The resulting A Messenger, his debut for Sparrow Records, was released in 2013 and quickly rose to #15 on the Billboard Top 200 and #1 on the Christian Album chart. With newly raised stakes, he fared similarly well with his 2014 follow-up, Anchor which also topped the Christian chart and featured the hit single “More of You.” Tours with major artists like TobyMac, Third Day, and Casting Crowns helped increase his profile as a popular concert act. In 2015, Dixon released The Calm Before the Storm, an album which combined two previously released EP’s: the all-acoustic Calm and a set of remixes called Storm. Early in 2017, Dixon released the single “All That Matters,” a preface to his third full album Identity, which was released by Sparrow that March. ~ James Christopher Monger