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The Glorious Unseen signed to Tooth & Nail last month. Below are some questions, and some answers to those questions. Ben from the band answered them, so they are highly relevant. Take a gander. -Jay
Can you give Buzzgrinder a brief history of The Glorious Unseen?
Well here’s the deal with the Glorious Unseen… I’m a worship leader at a small “indie” church here in Nashville called the Anchor Fellowship… Over the past 4 years of leading worship here I had begun writing my own songs… As I began leading these songs in worship I really felt a definate connection these songs had with the people that were coming out to our church… So I recorded an independant worship CD of original songs in 2005 titled “Embracing the Call”…
You recently signed to Tooth and Nail. How did that come about? You seemed to have come out of nowhere.
Well in a way we did come out of nowhere, yet in another way - this has been in process for 4 years or so… I have been leading worship over the last 4 years… So these songs that many are hearing for the first time right now - have already been sung in our church for a few years now… Now the name The Glorious Unseen has not been around for 4 years… I was just a worship leader not really going under another name at that time… My first worship record just went under the name The Anchor Fellowship. At the time I released that album, I already had some friends out at Tooth and Nail - I already was aquainted with Chad Johnson (A&R) cause he used to come in town often… My friend Ryan Rado who manages As Cities Burn and Jonezetta was also a big fan of my worship stuff… he got the CD to Chad and Chad started getting really into it… So that was like last fall sometime… Then january Brandon Ebel got excited about my stuff… so we met together at GMA week in Nashville and discussed ideas for this worship record…
Your music seems very worship-oriented, a factor that traditionally places bands under the BEC Recordings banner. Was there a reasoning behind putting you on T&N?
Well I think originally the GU was gonna be under BEC… but after further discussions it was decided that we would go under T&N… I think basically it’s because of the scene we identify with… T&N is more our scene… Yes, they do have all the worship stuff under BEC - but clearly this stuff is a much different sound, and it identifies with a completely different fan base… Our fan base is not Jeremy Camp’s crowd… now hopefully they’ll be some crossover…. but we’re finding that our crowd is more kids that are into Underoath, As Cities Burn, and MeWithoutYou rather than the more CCM crowd…
Your myspace blog says you are in the middle of recording for your first release. How is that coming along? Any basic details you’d care to share?
I feel really blessed to get to do this record with producers Steve Hindalong and Marc byrd… They did the last 2 Cool Hand Luke record’s and have also done a host of other credible stuff I listen to… so yeah we’re doing the record here in Nashville - it’s cool being able to do it here… I don’t have to travel out of town for long periods of time… we just do it during the weekdays and take our time with it…
Your blog mentions a “new kind of worship”? What do you mean by this, exactly?
ummm… Well I just feel that this is a whole new vibe of worship music -not wanting to sound pretentious or anything like that… but I have felt all along that this worship stuff would bring about a new worship style…with a new audience…. And I feel that that’s our calling as worshippers and worship leaders as well - that we should always be striving to go deeper and push bounderies further… The way I see it, worship music goes through new awakenings every few years - where a new style of worship music will come forth… I remember back in the mid 90’s when I first heard Delirious… and I was totally excited about this new worship music… musically it sounded different than anything I had ever heard in worship - and lyrically they sang about things that I identified with… so that was the new worship thing in the late 90’s and then the whole Passion thing came along and released a bunch more worship albums by more artists such as Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin… and all that stuff is excellent - but clearly the kids that listen to underoath and ACB don’t generally connect with that stuff… and I feel like in general there isn’t anything available that we as a “scene” or whatever you want to call it can identify with in worship music… And it is something that we are desperate for - even though we may not know it all the time - we are created to worship God… its part of who we are… thats why huge hardcore bands such as underoath can go out in front of thousands of kids and not be ashamed that they are Christian… because God is real and we are created to worship him… and we need songs to worship Him with… we need an outlet to voice our love for him… That is what the Glorious unseen is about… worship. The sole purpose of this project is to draw this “scene” into communion with God. To give us songs to sing to Him…
What does TGU have planned for 2007?
The album is hopefully going to be released in late spring if all goes as planned… then we will definately be playing as many of the summer festivals as we can… we’ll definately be at Cornerstone… and as we are given opportunities at the other festivals we will be there… also we hope to do a bunch of worship events at churches around the US… I’ve been discovering a lot of these “emerging” churches - if thats the right word for them… but basically young churches filled with a lot of people who like more “alternative” services if you will… I think the GU will fit in well there and that the songs will connect with many of those people… so as we get invitations to come lead worship we will do so….
One thing I also want to say - our myspace page says that Mark Nicks from Cool Hand Luke and Cody Bonnete from AsCitiesBurn are in the Glorious Unseen… which is partially true but has to be clarified… Since I’ve been worship leading - on a weekly basis I have many different people play with me in church… Mark Nicks started coming to the Anchor a few years ago and ended up playing drums on my first worship album and then did some of the drums on this upcoming GU album… Cody and I have been friends for a few years and he is hopefully gonna do some guest vocals on the GU album… and he played with me at Cstone last year because I thought it would be excellent to have him play in worship with me - to give it a real “community” feel - having a bunch of guys from different bands playing worship together…and it worked out really well… but going forward from here - I’m not sure how busy As Cities Burn is gonna be next year… they may be so busy that it would be impossible for Cody to come play with the GU… and Mark has CoolHandLuke stuff going on - I think they’re about to release a record - so its doubtful that he will be out with the GU next year… but we’ll see how things go… those guys are good buddies of mine and we’ll probably play together from time to time… but I just don’t want people to think that they’ll be out on tour with TGU all the time…
myspace.com/thegloriousunseen
purevolume.com/thegloriousunseen
Great interview Jay! I’m real excited about this project; I think its great that T&N has decided to release it…
[…] Jay over at Buzzgrinder interviewed Ben from The Glorious Unseen. You can read that here. I am getting more and more excited about this project. […]
i really love the interview. I feel like God is going to really use this band to greatly touch his people and it will connect those who are intertwined with this type of sound that you find in indie rock with the slower sound that isn’t too christianese as they say. I am excited to hear the rest of the album myself! keep up the great work.
I’ve been looking for more worship stuff to check out. I dig the passion stuff, but sometimes I wish we could some stuff that was more all encompassing, kind of like this guy.
This stuff is goooooood.
i am most def excited for this CD. i got the one under anchor fellowship a few years ago @ c-stone, not knowing what it was. i was blown away. this is going to be the best worship album of the year, by far!
Questions in Dialect put out the best worship album I’ve ever heard.
This is what the church needs today! Real,relevant worship from the heart. The My space tracks are as great as this interview.Lyrics and musicians are awesome.
I am simply amazed by this group. I first heard them when a young lady from our daughter’s mission team in Australia (YWAM) sent me 12 minutes of our daughter dancing, laughing, and loving life with a song in the back ground by The Glorious Unseen and I wondered who on earth they were. Now I know! I have never in my life been more moved by such incredible music and lyrics in my life! Our daughter (s) have longed for the same kind of things in this life… loving more, community and fellowship. Thank you for sharing your gifts with others! Thank God for ears to hear! With love in Christ
In memory of Emily-
The life given us by nature is short-
but the memory of a well spent life is eternal-
Cicero
She IS dancing with JESUS
TGU played right before Inhale Exhale did
At Cornerstone?
No, TGU was at soulfest. Another Christian festival like Cornerstone but its allot smaller and its in Gunstock NH. It was July 30 to August 2nd but actually after TGU played it started pouring and thundering so nhale Exhale was rained out haha..
Do a article on Soulfest Jay
“Do a article on Soulfest Jay”
Why?
I’ve been to Soulfest a few times in the late nineties/early 2000’s. My old band played there twice. It was fun.
Cool. Iv been there only two days in 07 and the whole time this year. I was just kidding about the article unless theres nothing else to do a article on.
Oh ok. I thought something happened there that we should know about.
One year, I think 2001, the fest admin got all paranoid because someone fainted that year at Cstone during POD. It was kinda funny.
oh why did he faint? and what was your band called?
Some guy fainted from dehydration I think. They thought it was more serious so they stopped the show and got an ambulance in there. Keep in mind this was the Cstone mainstage. And it was POD in 2001.
I was in Concrete.
hmm. Iv never been to Corner Stone but at soulfest the main stage is only for like worship music not stuff like POD. So was concrete a christian band? seeing how you your band played at a festival like that. Actually “Recycled Percussion” a crazy drumming band got to play because they were local and no lyrics
Yes we were.
cool
Im totally for Hannah Montanna coming next year.
She would have a wardrobe malfunction, I’m guessing.
Yah, she would also have a lip sync malfunction because the biggest stage there is close enough to the crowd that people would notice her sad cheapness.