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So I guess I'm saying that I never thought about who this album was for or how it should sound. For once in my life, I got to make a record without radio or record sales playing a part. I love the first album so much that we kind of toyed around with what to call the next record, like Hymned 2. But Hymned Again was meant more to be tongue-in-cheek—let's just do it again, and continue where the last one left off. There is intentionally kind of a similarity between the two. I never really thought it would sell, so I was trying to get in as many styles as possible, because I figured it could be my only chance to do this!

So if there's a third album, what do you call it?

Millard I don't know. I didn't think of that. Hymned 2.1 or maybe Hymed 2 plus 1?

Are there other styles you haven't tapped into you that you'd like to try for a future project?

Millard: It would be great to make an album of Christmas hymns with this old vibe. I don't know if there's a particular style that I've been wanting to tackle. But I'll hear hymns that I haven't done yet that I think would also work in the same style.

A lot of the songs I don't decide on until the recording. Like "Victory in Jesus," I tried it on the first record but it didn't work. I never really liked it growing up, but that was part of the motivation for making Hymned—to take songs I didn't care for as much and try to make them into something cool. It was the session players that came up with the Kansas City swing/shuffle feel on Hymned Again that worked great with it. I never thought to go there with it, but I kept bringing up Louie Prima, and they came up with this identical vibe that worked out great.

So it's not just you and producer Brown Bannister coming up with the arrangements? It's a collaborative process with the studio musicians?

Millard Yeah, this time around especially. With the exception of one or two players, it's all the same guys who played on the first Hymned album. I had a blast going in with a clean slate because they typically have to read sheet music when playing for a living. So they were flipping out over the chance to create, and it was really cool to hear what they'd bring to the table.

Maybe it helps that they're not in a band—they play a wide range of styles rather than remaining grounded to "the MercyMe sound."

Millard Yeah, definitely. The guys in MercyMe, when we sit down and start writing music together, it naturally ends up sounding like MercyMe. That's just what's going to happen when you put the music through that filter. But these [studio musicians], while they're familiar with MercyMe, they're not tied to the sound. We've got Faith Hill's guitar player, Emmylou Harris' bass player … they all come with lots of experience, and a unique sound, but nothing too specific since they're always playing with different artists. It's cool to have their input. They stretched me a lot—because I know I didn't stretch them!

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