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Newsboys puts a spin on traditional hymns
By John Benson
Edifying and inspiring audiences for nearly 30 years, Newsboys recently surprised fans with its latest effort, “Hallelujah for the Cross.” However, drummer Duncan Phillips said he views the contemporary Christian-music band’s new album of traditional hymns as a side project with a purpose.
“All of these hymns I remember singing as a kid,” said Phillips, calling from Rockford, Ill. “They’re all kind of in old English, and it’s really different. A lot of the youth, the Chris Tomlins of the world — I know him really well, and he’s a great guy — have never heard these songs.
“Hopefully, it’ll get them to dig a little deeper and recognize that Christianity is older than the artists they’re listening to.”
The new CD boasts a collection of favorite hymns including “Jesus Paid It All,” “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “It Is Well,” “All Creatures of Our God and King” and medley “Where You Belong/Turn Your Eyes.” This marks the first time Newsboys has ventured down the traditional road.
While on rare occasion the Australian band has covered a hymn or two, Philips said the band just felt a calling to record “Hallelujah for the Cross.”
“We thought we don’t have a batch of those,” Phillips said. “And lyrically, some of them are great, so we had a stab at it. Of course, we can’t help ourselves, so we did it Newsboys style. It’s really a combination. It’s really difficult when you do an old standard like that.
“I think you have to make it now, but then you don’t want to take away from what it was. It’s more difficult than you think to get some of these standards and acknowledge where they came from but put your sheen on them. And that’s what I believe we have done. We have 10 of our favorites, and they came out great.”
As far as the aforementioned side-project notion, Phillips said just as Newsboys have delved into Christmas music in the past, “Hallelujah for the Cross” is their attempt at resurrecting traditional Christian music. With that in mind, he stresses this doesn’t mean from here on out the group will be recording only hymns.
Fans can expect future material sounding like quintessential Newsboys, which for the better part of the past decade has included erstwhile dc Talk singer Michael Tait as frontman.
Phillips added that the transition from Peter Furler to Tait was seamless.
“I think this form of the band, there are kids out there not aware of the band before Michael joined up,” Phillips said. “And Michael is such a great vocalist. We probably couldn’t have done this record before. His vocal prowess is so wide and varied that he can sing pop and rock. Michael has really grown as a vocalist.”
Phillips acknowledges that because Newsboys is one of the genre’s elder-statesmen acts, preserving the group’s legacy is a consideration.
“People like to know you have been around and you’ve kind of proved yourself,” Phillips said. “My biggest fear as an artist, I don’t want to let the fans down. So that’s one thing that keeps the band straight. We don’t want to be the Jimmy Swaggart of CCM.
“We don’t want to be that band that is caught doing something silly or stupid just because of a momentary lapse of reason.”