On the Bandwagon?
When Kutless cut a recent album of popular praise-and-worship songs, critics accused them of simply following a trend. Jon Micah Sumrall defends the band's decision.
by Andree Farias | posted 5/23/2005
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No one typifies the fine line between popularity and heartfelt worship music as much as popular grunge-pop group Kutless. As many others who have waded in the waters of the worship movement—or fad, depending on your point of view—Kutless says its recent album, Strong Tower (BEC), is simply a return to its roots. Critics panned the CD for lack of creativity; we gave it 1 star, calling it dull and predictable." Vocalist Jon Micah Sumrall recently talked with us about what makes a good worship album, his response to the critics and skeptics, and why they really made their latest offering.
Why make a worship album? Everybody's making them nowadays.
Jon Micah Sumrall To us it's like going back to our roots. We started out in church doing music together. We basically made a record to give back to our fans for supporting us. It's songs we've been singing for a while. This is what we sing back in our church back home. It's something we wanted to share with everybody.
Were your beginnings just like on this record? Was the decibel level all that high?
Sumrall We tried to make it upbeat. Perhaps [in the old days] it was a bit more conservative than what we do right now, a little mellower. We've grown as musicians and before it was a bit hard to rock out.
But you're known for your original, grunge-type alternative material. So why regress to songs other people have written? Isn't that a step back?
Sumrall That's a tricky question. I know there have been a lot of skeptics on this record. People who ask, "Why is Kutless doing a worship record?" Again, the whole reason we did this record is we really want people to see our roots a little bit and be blessed by some of these songs. The first couple of records were much more evangelical. They talk about salvation and things that pertain to people that aren't Christians. This record is more for the people that have grown in the church and enjoy it. This is something for people to pop in their CD player, pump it up loud, and sing at the top of their lungs.
Personally, I think this is the heaviest worship record I've heard to date. We really tried to bring it up a notch. There have been a lot of worship records coming out, and they all sound the same to me. We tried to stay away from that and sound a bit original. Whoever's out there and is critical of it, pick it up, listen to it, and then come see me.
A lot of these songs are anything but original, though. They've been done a million times before.
Sumrall I've never heard them done like we did them, though. "We Fall Down" and "Better Is One Day" are way heavier than anything I've ever heard them done before. We really tried to breathe a little bit of life into them. When I go to a church, it's not very worshipful if I don't know any of the songs. So we really tried to balance that by picking some standards so people would recognize them and to help establish a worshipful experience.
But at the same time, we wanted to incorporate some songs that may be new to the rest of the country that we've known for a while. And we also incorporated a couple of originals. The idea is to bring recognizable music, but hopefully do it in a way that's really fresh and exciting to someone who's heard it a million times.
Do you think this album will have a long-lasting impact?
Sumrall For me, the whole "worship thing" kind of started when Sonicflood put its first record out. That record meant a lot to me, although a lot of the songs I already knew. But I'd never heard them done like that before. It was great. So we really hope this record causes the same reaction.
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