EXCLUSIVE: We The Kingdom Discuss Their Music and Spirituality Links

We The Kingdom are a powerful contemporary country and Christian band who effortlessly create outstanding tracks that always look to incorporate a little slice of their spirituality throughout as they look to create music with meaning and with their debut album ‘Holy Water’ they have managed to do just that.

Here we discuss their music and spirituality links further:

Congratulations on all the success you’ve had this year so far, how are you finding the response to your new music?

Gosh, we are so grateful. It’s crazy that people want to listen to the music we make jamming out in our basement studio. Quite a lot of the songs we’ve written came from some really hard stuff we walked through as family and friends, so to know that the pain had purpose and that it gives other people hope, is overwhelmingly encouraging.

Your music incorporates country with Christian, was that a conscious decision or did it happen naturally?

Our band is unique in that we each come from a different decade of music that influenced us. It makes for a very interesting amalgamation of sounds. Our song “Holy Water” definitely has a more southern, what we call “swamp-bash” type of sound. All of the songs on our record have their own unique thing. We love seeing where each song goes and what it ends up becoming.

How do you feel your spirituality feeds into your sonic sound?

We each individually really love Jesus. I (Ed) have an intense past of alcohol and drug addiction and I was in and out of different bands in high school and college. After several drug treatment centers and lots of rehab, I finally recovered and then I totally put away music for a couple of years because it was one of the main things that had led me into such a dark scene and a lot of pain. I grew closer to God and started picking up music again as it became something that brought me closer to God. It became very healing for me. We all feel that our greatest creativity is unlocked as we allow ourselves to become aware of God and His great love for us.

With your tracks do you always look to include a religious message within the lyrics?

When it comes to writing, you’re kind of at the mercy of the song in terms of direction. You can try to force a song to be something that it’s not, but eventually, you’ll realize that it wants to sound a certain way or say a certain message. You’re just along for the ride. Obviously, we are inspired by certain things, we love God and we intend to present the Gospel in a creative and exciting way, but I don’t think it’s completely healthy to be so concerned with only having religious messages in songs that you miss the beauty of everyday life.

What are you hoping to bring to the genre with your sonic blend?

On every song, we have a lot of what we call “gang” vocals. It basically means all 5 of us gather around 1 microphone and we each sing harmonies, melodies, and different melodies together. It makes the song sound really full and alive. We love musical songs with lots of melodies playing off of each other and love the live band feel like we’re all in the same room playing all the instruments at the same time together.

What do you hope listeners take away from your songs?

We hope that people feel like they are sitting in our living room with us jamming to music around a fireplace when they listen. We hope people feel included to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves. Most importantly, we hope and pray people feel the deep and dear love of God over their lives through each song.

Can you tell us a little about the average writing and recording day for one of your projects?

We have actually only had 1 scheduled co-write EVER in the history of We The Kingdom. We always say “inspiration wins” which basically means that if we are doing something and someone feels the inspiration to write a song, we all stop what we’re doing (if we can) and go do that. We have written songs around hot tubs, around campfires, around pianos in the living room, in the car on the way to play shows, during rehearsal time. One time we wrote a song in the back of a truck, in the middle of a creek. We love to play off each other and sing out different melodies, play different chords, or sing out different lyrics until we find what feels right for the song.

When creating new music, what’s the first thing you do, lyrics or melody?

It really is different every time. We don’t have a formula for songwriting but we just follow the inspiration of where each new song goes. It’s so cool to see how each time it is different. Sometimes we write to a track, sometimes we write to an acoustic instrument, sometimes we have a lyric first. I would say usually we start with the music (chords or riffs) first!

Looking ahead, what are your long term career goals?

We believe in the power of music. We believe that it tears down the walls in peoples’ hearts, obviously, ours included. We need music. It can bring us unexplainable joy and it can be a magnifying glass through which to see the darkest places where we try to hide. It’s a codebreaker that decrypts all the mess and confusion in our lives. Our long term goal is to write songs that are born out of the joy and pain in our stories and which can be used to connect our stories to those of the people who do the honor of listening to our music. Then, after writing them, we want to get out around our country and the world and have unforgettable evenings of music where we get to celebrate the spectrum of human emotion with everyone who will come sing their guts out with us.

And in the short term, what can we expect this year?

We just released our first album called “Holy Water”, just like the song. We are so excited to have these songs out and are so happy that they seem to be connecting with people. We are also working on “God So Loved” global version, where we have several different people singing in their different languages and with a lot of ethnic instruments and sounds. It is absolutely stunning and we can’t wait for you to hear it. We are also doing a fun, jazzy Christmas song that was written several years ago and has been our family song every year. It’s going to be so fun to sing it with y’all too!

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