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Disciple http://www.disciplerocks.com

KEVIN YOUNG // JASON WILKES // JOSIAH PRINCE // ANDREW STANTON // JOEY WEST

    Long Description

Our new album ATTACK is out now!
     Our music video for "Radical" is out as well!


      Bio



To know the story of Disciple, you have to place yourself in Kevin Young’s shoes. Like Kevin, Disciple’s singer and bandleader, let’s say you’ve recorded ten albums, played thousands of shows worldwide, headlined tours since the late 90’s, and opened multiple times for the biggest artists in Christian music. You’ve sold hundreds of thousands of records and you’ve got fourteen #1 singles. Add to that the fact that you are done with your most recent recording contract and your band needs a lineup change. You’ve been on the road for twenty years, and you’ve seen more hotel rooms than a Gideon Bible. Most people would probably say, hey, I’ve done a lot and maybe it’s time to walk away. Most people are not Kevin Young.
    
    •    “Disciple started when I was 16,” says Young, “so I’m somewhere between old and young. I know Disciple’s been around for a long time, and sometimes, when I wake up, I can feel every mile, but I can’t wait to see what’s ahead. It honestly doesn’t FEEL like it’s been as long as it has, and in a lot of ways I feel like we’re just getting started. The process, where I’ve been and the new stuff we’re doing right now as a band – it’s a gift. We chose to be who we are AND embrace the new.”

    •    In a six-month period around the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, Kevin rebuilt Disciple, as well as his own approach to the band’s future. “We added Josiah Prince from Philmont and Andrew Stanton from I Am Empire on guitars, Jason Wilkes from High Flight Society on bass and vocals (since the guy was an amazing lead vocalist for his band), and Joey West from After Edmund on drums. It’s Disciple’s best lineup ever. They have the perfect combination of being great players and performers, and are ridiculously talented songwriters,” says Young. “One of my favorite things about these guys is that they have embraced where Disciple has been and love to play the classic songs for our fans, as well as have put every ounce of their souls into trying to take Disciple higher than we’ve ever been. I think our fans have embraced them for that in return.”
    •   
    •    Next, the band had some business decisions to make. Disciple finished their record label contract in 2013 and the band’s recording future was in limbo. “We talked to a bunch of labels, but the whole time my manager and I kept asking each other the same question: why wouldn’t we do this on our own? I guess we decided that it was because recording an independent project and all that goes with that was new and a little scary. Being fearful is real, but it’s also a bad excuse,” says Young.
    •   
    •    “We decided that we would really give ourselves to our fans. It’s one thing to have a record deal, make a record, and see if folks will buy it. It’s a whole different level to engage your fans – really talk to them, tell them what you want to do and why, embrace them and then hope that they will embrace you back. We created a bunch of really cool packages that the fans could buy and put them all up on Kickstarter, hoping that our fans would buy things ahead of time to help us make a record. We were scared to death. But then our fans met our goal in seven days and it just kept going up until the forty-day funding process finished. We were stunned and just so thankful. Nobody has fans like we do,” says Young.
    •   
    •    “So with the lineup solidified and plans for a new record in place, now all we had to do was write the album. No big deal right? I was a little nervous – excited but nervous. I had more freedom than I’ve ever had to make the music and say the things that I really wanted to say. We had the support of our fans. But what really energized me was the music that was being written by the band members. It somehow felt very Disciple-esque and was somehow new at the same time. I think we all were really inspired by it.”
    •   
    •    The first order of business was to bring back Travis Wyrick to produce. Young states, “I hadn’t worked with Travis in six years, but we knew this was going to be a hard, aggressive record. Travis recorded all of our hardest albums and working with him was like going home.” The finished album is called Attack, and it is the band’s most ambitious project to date. It’s bold, it’s hard, it’s experimental, and it’s sweepingly atmospheric. Attack gives a nod to long-time Disciple fans with “Radical” and “The Name” and the album will intrigue new listeners with offerings like “Dead Militia,” “Lion,” and “Angels And Demons.”
    •   
    •    “We wrote this record as a new band. Attack is the right album title because that’s what we did with every song. Every band member contributed in a huge way to this album. Everybody brought songs to the table that we all worked on, and made each other’s songs better. It was definitely a well-coordinated attack on all sides,” says Young.
    •   
    •    “You know, rock music isn’t the most popular music genre right now, but it’s also the music genre that will never die. Rock music always comes back around. And with that, I know what we’ve been called to do, and that’s to do our best to show Christ to people with our music, and with how we interact with them, both on and off the stage. I thought about this new album for a year before we started in the studio, and I knew that the lyrics would be the boldest Disciple has ever put on a record. I wanted to talk about Jesus loudly and without shame. That’s why “Radical” is the first track and our first single. It sets the tone for what we want people to hear. We talk about Jesus openly at every show. We do an altar call. That is who we are and that is what Disciple is called to do, and we hope that people hear the new music and say ‘Yeah, now THAT’S Disciple!’”



 

Seventh Day Slumber http://www.seventhdayslumber.com"

Joseph Rojas
Jeremy Holderfield
Ken Reed
Blaise Rojas

• From its indie beginnings at the tip of the 2000s to debuting on BEC Recordings in 2005, Seventh Day Slumber has continuously raised the bar of alternative rock excellence coupled with an unabashed gospel message. It’s a tightly wound dynamic that’s not only seen the band’s last two albums land on the Billboard Heatseekers charts (at #10 and #6 respectively), plus a string of Top 10 singles (including the smashes “Caroline” and “Oceans From the Rain”), but it’s also quite literally saved lives. As the group prepares to release the worshipful Take Everything, the story of front man Joseph Rojas’ delivery from depression and a $400 per day cocaine addiction has already been well circulated. But many might not be aware of the fact that his previously estranged father came to Christ as a result of a recent Seventh Day Slumber concert.
  
  “My father called me out of no where after he’d been following the band online and asked if I would be interested in meeting him and I said ‘absolutely!’” recalls Rojas, even withstanding early memories of abuse and subsequent divorce. “He told me his brother had died and his three nephews were weeping at the casket, which made my dad pose the question ‘would my kids cry for me if I died?’”
  
  Following the conversation, the front man flew his father to Nashville, reconnecting for the first time on a significant scale since childhood. From there, the senior Rojas took a road trip with the band during the summer festival run, including a faithful day at the Alive extravaganza where Joseph gave an altar call.
  
  “It had started to rain, but I still saw about three hundred kids come forward to accept Christ,” he remembers. “In the crowd of people running to the altar, I saw my father coming forward and he wound up giving his life to Christ at one of our concerts! Now my father and I actually have a relationship, and while we don’t get to talk as much as we should simply because I’m on the road so much, it’s a pretty awesome addition to the story.”
  
  More than being merely an anecdote, the experience was one of the many catalysts behind Take Everything, which finds the group specifically centering its content around a praise motif, but in a remarkably unexpected way. Instead of merely copying the current cuts on Christian radio and cranking out a few cliché-drenched copy cats, the project puts a fresh coat of paint on familiar favorites, enriched by three original cuts that find Rojas and company at their most spiritually vulnerable and intimate.
  
  “We wanted to make these songs more appealing to some of the youth and teenagers out there,” he says of staples like “How Great Is Our God,” “I Can Only Imagine,” “Famous One” and “Nothing But the Blood.” “They’re all really amazing songs and are obviously known by millions of people, but we wanted to record them in way that wasn’t wrapped around the traditional arrangements. We wanted people who wouldn’t normally listen to worship music to hear it in a way that’s relevant to them.” Considering BEC falls under the Tooth & Nail/Solid State umbrella, inspiration from label mates like Underoath, Demon Hunter and Anberlin wasn’t all that far behind, not to mention Seventh Day Slumber’s pre-existing alternative centering. Basically the guys kept their iPods on shuffle, allowing the intermingling of these worship cuts to channel themselves through osmosis into rough necked rockers.
  
  “We wanted to come up with something really interesting, taking the same lyrics and basically the same melodies, but putting a completely different spin on them,” he echoes. “So there we were going through our iPods listening to a heavy riff from Underoath one minute and “How Great Is Our God” in a standard worship format the next and subconsciously started taking those traditional worship songs and making them heavier.”
  
  As noted, in addition to nine covers, the collection boasts three stirring originals, starting with the title track. At first, Rojas admits thinking “okay, I gottta write three songs for this worship album and I want to give the label something they’ll be excited to hear,” though that mindset quickly shifted to a much more spiritual centering.
  
  “I opened the book of Psalms and starting copying what David had written down, but I began to feel convicted as I heard God asking ‘is that all you’ve got for me?’” he ponders. “I also felt Him asking ‘why were you writing a song to your label instead of a song to me?’ and my heart began to sink. So I grabbed my guitar, began to pray and told God He deserved more from me, and at that point, I just literally told him to take absolutely every part of me. It’s one thing to live some mediocre Christian lifestyle, but I want God to have every piece of me and that’s exactly what this record is about.”
  
  “Carry Me” is another attention-commanding new cut that is once again steeped in surrender, specifically geared towards people hurting from the aftermath of divorce and growing up without one of their parents. A stripped down version of the previous hit “Ocean From the Rain” brings Seventh Day Slumber’s journey of praise full circle, reminding listeners that no matter how severe the storm in their life, healing and hope are always attainable resolutions.
  
  As Rojas and his band mates sit back justifiably proud of the project, there’s also one untapped angle that has the leader particularly pumped. Now that the singer’s a family man himself, he notices the songs on Take Everything resonating with his three young sons in an extremely meaningful manner.
  
  “They’ve sang daddy’s songs before, but these songs aren’t just about my hurts, pains and addictions,” he adds. “They’re singing to God Himself, which is something I didn’t really have growing up but wished I did. These songs let them know that there’s more to life than toys and they also let me know there’s more than my own situations and problems. He’s the ultimate source of our souls finding hope and rest, which after seeing it happen firsthand with my own life and now my father’s faith walk makes me even more excited to sing these songs than ever before.”

Nine Lashes ninelashes.com

Jeremy Dunn
Jon David Jefferson
Noah Terrell
Jared Lankford

We are a group of guys from Birmingham, Alabama passionately chasing Christ. We write music in the hopes that it impacts someone and brings them one step closer to our Father.

Decyfer Down http://www.myspace.com/decyferdown"

Chris Clonts
TJ Harris
Josh Oliver
Brandon Mills

• “We’re not trying to fight God’s battles, because we can’t. But things need to be said, so we said them…” TJ Harris, Decyfer Down.
  
  From the beginning of their existence, scarecrows have served but one purpose—to keep things out. By definition they are not welcoming or attractive. They exist to repel. In 2013, there are scarecrows everywhere…erected by hate, discrimination, fear, apathy… In every political, social and, sadly, religious institution, there are those whose sole purpose has become that of a scarecrow—to keep others away. Those who are different are kept out. Those who don’t wear the correct uniform are ostracized. Those who have been beaten down by life and humanity are further pummeled downwards by those who have redefined themselves in terms of superiority and piety.
  
  And it is there—at the intersection of duty and contempt—that Decyfer Down must raise their voice. “People are scaring other people away,” shares TJ. “All of the tension and persecution is wrapped up in a lot of hate.” As the men of Decyfer Down have watched people in their own communities push others away, they refuse to watch in silence anymore.
  
  Armed with truth, defiant against injustice and guided by love, they have channeled this battle cry against hypocrisy in their first studio project in five years…aptly called, Scarecrow. “This was in God’s timing,” shares TJ. “We just wanted to create music that really resonated. The point is to glorify God through the gifts He’s given us.” That singular focus comes across in each track on the record produced by Paul Ebersold (3 Doors Down, Sister Hazel), who also produced their previous record, Crash. Thematically and stylistically, Scarecrow is clearly at a new level of musical and spiritual maturity.
  
  “The Crash record was all about worlds colliding within our spiritual walk,” TJ shares. “Whether it was addiction or other things we deal with internally, this record is more than what’s within us. This is more about what we see in our churches, the politics that are played, the way people use God’s name in vain. This record is about becoming refocused, reenergized to bring awareness that this is not the way it’s supposed to be.
  
  “God really set us up for the entire record,” TJ continues. “We’re saying exactly what He wants us to say.” While statements like that aren’t rare in Christian culture, Decyfer Down backs it up by allowing their lifestyle to reflect not only their pursuit of God, but also their obedience and honor in His presence. They aren’t singing about the church because it’s an easy target. They’re singing about the church and home and community because that’s where they live. That’s where God is schooling them day in and day out.
  
  “We’ve done everything from touring like crazy and experiencing the highs of going to the Grammys to coming off the road and reestablishing ourselves within our community and families,” TJ shares. “We’re building that network again and getting plugged back into our communities and families. That inspired a lot of the music and a lot of really cool things, but also brought out some darker things we had to deal with.”
  
  Darker things like the story behind the song, “Say Hello,” which tells a chilling true story of an argument gone tragically wrong and an innocent victim landing at the receiving end of a bullet. “This is straight from God’s point of view,” shares TJ. “This girl shocked an entire town, but we’re called to love her still.” Stories like this aren’t told for shock value. Boundaries like loving the unlovable aren’t crossed for the sake of crossing them. Rather, these boundaries and emotional land mines are breached because God has led them to do so.
  
  “We’re not trying to fight God’s battles, because we can’t,” says TJ. “But there are things that need to be said, so we said them.” Things like the folly of societal rules and tradition that have nothing to do with the truth of love and of God…yet too often become monikers for our culture in a world already scorched with skepticism and seething with contempt.
  
  “A lot of people hear something from their pastor but don’t ever see what God actually said,” says TJ. “We get hung up on man-made rules and decisions that scare people. ‘If you do this or don’t do this you’re going to hell.’ People can live in fear their entire lives. God came to set us free…not bind us in fear.”
  
  And that is the heartbeat of this project and this band. All too cognizant of a worldly culture of hypocrisy, self-indulgence, apathy and neglected family structures…Decyfer Down has seen it all. Very often the target of contempt from Christians who don’t buy into the idea of certain styles of music and God going hand in hand, they have walked both fields—those who misunderstand and those of the misunderstood.
  
  Suffice it to say, that realization has come home. No longer satisfied with silence, Decyfer Down is stepping boldly into new territory… challenging a generation held too long in the vice of comfortable, damaging piety to wake up to truth. To wake up to love. To wake up to the fact that they’re missing it. Driven by passion more than agenda, Decyfer Down knows what they’ve been called to do and hope others will hear the heartbeat of God pulsing through each song.
  
  “People need to listen to this with an open mind,” TJ says. “This is deeper lyrically, different stylistically, but it’s exactly what God wants us to do right now. People are living in fear, but God came to set us free. That’s what this is all about. We’re not bound in fear. We have to live in victory.”