It’s rare for me to rank worship albums.
It’s even weirder for me to hail one album as the best in the last five years. But today, I’m going to do that.
We have the honor of featuring an interview with Rend Collective Experiment, a fresh worship band hailing from northern Ireland.
Kingsway Music has graciously agreed to give away 5 copies of their album to my readers. Scroll to the end of the post for details on how to win.
David: I hear you guys have a new record out 🙂 In a word (or more), how would you describe “Homemade Worship by Handmade People”?
Rend Collective: HWBHP is a collection of hymns and songs recorded in our own family homes. This is not a polished “factory-made” studio album but rather an organic and raw expression of our collective journey with Jesus, recorded amidst the beautiful mess of our ordinary everyday lives.
David: The sound of your music and the raw truth of your lyrics is very refreshing in the modern worship landscape. Did you set out to be different or simply be who you are? What inspires your creative direction?
Rend Collective: Thanks! We don’t particularly set out to be different for the sake of being different, but we find that coming from Europe, specifically Northern Ireland, our preferences are automatically different to people from North America.
We listen to a wide range of secular music in addition to some Christian music and write in an atmosphere in which experimentation is encouraged and enjoyed( as our name suggests!). We are all avid readers and find inspiration from poetry and theology as well as the scriptures and our daily lives.
David: What’s the weirdest instrument you used on the new record?
Rend Collective: Without doubt the infamous “Jingling Johnny”! It is a percussion stick of Turkish origin which, as one audience member keenly observed, looks like a picnic set being beaten to death! It has to be seen to be believed!
David: You guys seem to have a lot of people in your band. Is the songwriting process a complete group effort?
Rend Collective: We create, arrange and record as a Collective of between 15 and 30 of us back home in Ireland, however there are 5 of us who write the songs and tour as Rend Collective. The family ethos is vitally important us and we believe collaboration and relationship are keys to functioning well as artists and also as members of the church.
David: Who are your biggest influences?
Rend Collective: Personally I would say, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (author of “The Cost Of Discipleship”), the poet John O’donohue and musically, some combination of Tim Hughes, Tommy Emmanuel, Glen Hansard and Death Cab For Cutie!
David: What do you think is the future of worship music as we know it?
Rend Collective: I see it becoming more honest and more artistic in approach. I think people are hungry for something beyond the glib sentimentality which can plague modern worship writing.
David: Many readers of this blog write and record their own music. What advice would you give them in their creative process?
Rend Collective: Don’t write anything dishonest or that you haven’t truly experienced for yourself. It’s not worth it. You might have to sing that song every day over a fifteen year career! Write songs of substance, songs that matter out of genuine encounter and revelation.
Winners
1. JJ
2. Lee
3. Chris Gambill
4. Paul Ellison
5. Emily P
If you did not win, I strongly suggest you pick up this album. You won’t regret it!
Question: What do you think of Rend Collective’s new album? Let us know in the comments!
wow…great interview…
I’m always looking for refreashing music and recently i’ve found Gungor…
This Album RCE, could definatly be up that ally!
Plus…i gotta freakin hear the weirdest instrument in the world! lol…
God bless David.
Arny, before you know it everyone will be using the Jingling Johnny!
I have never heard of this band before. They’re really interesting! I don’t have twitter or fb so I can’t do the first option, but I would love to get a copy of this CD!
Man…I need to be inspired again. This might be the ticket.
Rend Collective: A fresh new- worship experience.It’s sound is unlike anything you will here. Their lyrics are catchy and they pull at your heartstrings with their tones and melodies. It is a must have album for sure. If you are looking to catch the new wave of worship this is the album for sure.
LOVED their view on where worship music is going, LOVED their description of who they are and how they write, and LOVED what they said about writing out of experience and revelation. Thanks, David!
“HWBHP is a collection of hymns and songs recorded in our own family homes. This is not a polished “factory-made” studio album but rather an organic and raw expression of our collective journey with Jesus, recorded amidst the beautiful mess of our ordinary everyday lives.”
I am also not polished.
I love my family and we live at home.
I eat organic food (or so my wife tells me).
I also like sushi, which is raw.
I am on a journey with Jesus.
I lead a beautiful mess of an ordinary everyday life.
This album just might be for me.
Stand by for tweet action!
“I also like sushi, which is raw” – that’s awesome 🙂
You are by far the best blog I subscribe to. Yes, you are the only one I subscribe to, but I’m sure that if I would subscribe to more you would still be at the top. Is this kissing up so that I have a better chance of winning a CD from a great new worship band? Possibly. But it is up to you to determine if this will work or not. Please pick me to win. I am not above begging. In fact I don’t see anything wrong with begging if the motives are right. I would love to be given this great new CD – I bought their first CD and it is really great. You are great too, I think I already mentioned that didn’t I? Thanks for your consideration.
Lee, you are way too kind 🙂 Thanks!
Our LORD doesn’t make “factory made” anything, so listening to worship that isn’t “factory made” is special.
I have a guitar. POW POW
I like the album … Because I like the cover.
I spent 5 months living in Northern Ireland recently, and it was a phenomenal experience. I had the opportunity to see RCE in concert on two different occasions and it truly is life-changing. Their passion for life with God is phenomenal and definitely comes out in their music.
Looking forward to the day I can see these guys live! Better than their records?
My parents are moving over to Northern Ireland as missionaries in October so it would be nice to give them a gift of the best music in Ireland!
If you can secure me a trip to Ireland as well, the CD is yours 🙂
As a Native Irish Man, seeing what this band is doing is so great> Our country needs God, very much. They are going into the darkness to show Gods light. I have had the pleasure of talking with these band members and I love where there hearts are. I want this CD to show my friends so they can show there friends and those friends can share it with there friend, an so on!
Reading this article makes me want to do an Irish shindig to the awesome music that Rend creates for us to enjoy!
Chad, I want to see this 😉
Simply because I would like to blast this on St. Patty’s day (oh, and ’cause the Irish can rock God as only the Irish can!)
Interesting how this album is described as different when a number of melodies are directly taken from other artists… Fleet foxes & cold war kids to name a few.
Nope. Those artists stole melodies from Rend Collective 😉
I fell in love with Rend Collective when I saw them in Huntsville on the Rock and Worship Road Show! Their music is so uplifting and AMAZING and I would LOVE to have their album!!
It touched my soul when you came to Springfield MO…..build your worship here…..great back home sound
My four boys and I were blessed to be introduced to RCE for the first time a few weeks ago at the Rock&Worship Road Show in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I can’t begin to tell you how much we enjoyed the Spirit-filled, passionate, raw worship experience of RCE. Early the next morning, of all the awesome bands we saw and heard, we wanted to hear more of RCE. So we looked up everything RCE we could find on youtube and had our own Irish jam session in the living room, in our pajamas. Our favorite? Build Your Kingdom Here.
Irish jam session + living room + pajamas = awesome 🙂
Whenever I’ve watched a video of them doing a song, I have always been struck by the pureness of what they are doing. They seem to genuinely be enjoying the making of music together and being together in the presence of God. And they do it creatively. It would be awesome to be able to have a copy of this project of theirs.
Great assessment, Chris. I agree. Something about their music is innocent and fresh.
I almost bought this album on iTunes, please give it to me.
Please please please… x 100
x100? Wait a second, that’s an unfair comment trick. It’s impossible to lose when you add that! 😉
Would love some new fresher music… With a bit of the gift of gab!
I fell in love with rend collective on the rock and roll road show tour when I heard build your kingdom here! I want the cd because in a few weeks I’m going to Texas to visit her and other missionaries in training before they leave for their mission sites, and I would love to play their new cd for all of them!!!!
I went to Ireland once, is a beautiful place and very green.
The colour green in creation reminds me of new life.
New life is at the heart of the RCE message.
The message of Christ is what people need.
I need the album so I can pass it on to someone who can experience Christ meeting their need and creating in them a fresh life of genuine worship to our Saviour.
Beautiful.
I have been a Christian for years and know all the worship songs but have never been able to connect with God through them. I figured I’m just not a music-person. But when I went to a Youthworks conference and heard The RCE I was blown away. I was able to engage in worship and felt my soul rise. I have been following them on Twitter and watching their videos since – I very rarely do this with any music, and so would love their album to add to my very small cd collection.
No denying of the undoubted SAME melodies then? Not original at all!
To be honest, I’m not as familiar with the melodies you’re mentioning. But every artist has influences. I’m able to look past that and enjoy what they’re creating.
Listen to the song bulldozer, cold war kids around half way through & you cant miss it’s direct melody that’s in true intimacy.
I already own this album and it is, in a word, AMAZING! I want another copy so I can give it away to someone who would be encouraged to hear a fresh, creative, authentic spin on the Gospel and worship music in general.
I absolutely LOVE “You Are My Vision” and have realized that it is impossible to hear it without doing so three times in succession (and tearing up).
I’ve heard a few things about this band already and I’m really looking forward to giving it a listen. I feel there’s just as much debate over “Christian” music or worship music as there is over denominational differences, or any other social “issues” that people have used to divide us as followers of Christ. Churches, worship leaders, musicians, all talk about how bad “Christian” music is but rarely do they go out and look for it, bother listening to it on the radio, or just go and grab a cd at the local store and “investing” in Christian music until they here about a band that everyone is talking about. John Mark McMillian, Gungor, and now the Rend Collective are all being described as “fresh” “authentic” and the such…and i’m not disagreeing but there are some great artists and music in our local bookstores, whether you want to call them “Christian” artists or just artists. I get disappointed when you tell someone you’re going to see a Christian band at a concert, they ask “who is that?” because they “don’t like” “Christian” music. If u2 comes to town everyone in the church is going to the concert and if that show happens to be on a Wednesday the Pastor cancels service. Youth Pastors encourage their students to miss “youth night” because they have tickets to see the latest, greatest, artist on the radio….but these same pastors would never cancel a youth night to take all of their students to see Gungor or any artist that professes to be Christian…..because that’s not “cool.” I’m not sure why I got off on this tangent, probably because I was discouraged when reading some of the comments so forgive me for that. I really hope the Rend Collective is a wonderful group of people that love God, and that this flows throughout their music and their lives. I enjoyed the interview and I think i’ll go buy the album even if i don’t win a copy. Sounds like it would be worthwhile. Thanks for all you do David.
Thanks for being honest, JT. So you’re saying we should be more excited about Christian music?
I’m saying some of it should be given a chance. I read at least 3 “tweets” today from artists who are “Christian” but don’t want to be called “Christian artists” that were knocking Christian music. I will readily admit that I have my favorites as well as anyone, but it bugs me when people, especially church leaders have mentioned publicly that they don’t listen/don’t like Christian music or have written in their church website “bios” – cause that’s a cool thing to do 😀 – that they list their favorite bands or “influences” and most have nothing to do with the gospel. I just feel that what many (not everyone) has lost sight of is that you only get out of anything what you put into it. Since being involved in leading worship for the last 10 years or so I’m constantly looking for new artists/songs/words that when presented to a congregation can help lead them into a worship experience. I’ve always encouraged anyone I’m leading or on a team with to go and buy music and support artists that are making a difference. If I find a cd on sale that I really love I’ll buy several copies to give away, when I can do so. I’ve found so many great cds that nobody ever recommended that have really been a blessing to me. What you spend your time listening to, and where you spend your money, are the things you are passionate about. You’re not going to be passionate about Christian music if you aren’t listening to it, aren’t looking for new artists, or spending your money on an artist because they aren’t someone you’ve heard great things about. Take a chance.
Love the fresh new worship!!!