Disciple has announced that they will be launching a crowdfunding campaign for their upcoming album
Long Live the Rebels, which is due out by the end of the year.
This will be the second full-length release from the veteran hard rockers since beginning their independent journey with
Attack in 2014, and it will also be their second crowdfunding campaign. "We really look at crowdfunding a little differently than everybody else," explains Disciple founder and frontman Kevin Young. "We look at it as really like a preorder of the album as opposed to crowdfunding. We try to create packages that our fans would want to have."
Long Live the Rebels, which has been truly a collaborative writing effort between members Kevin Young, Josiah Prince (guitar), Andrew Stanton (guitar) and Joey West (drums), is almost completely written at this point. The dedicated work ethic and sense of unity in the current Disciple lineup led to a set of songs written entirely in-house with no outside collaborations-- the first time this has been true of a Disciple album since 2008's
Southern Hospitality.
The band will be recording the album in Nashville early this summer, working for the first time with producer Aaron Sprinkle (
Anberlin,
Demon Hunter,
Thousand Foot Krutch). "You hear this phrase thrown around the industry quite often: 'it's all about the songs.' And if that's true, then this album is one of the best that we've ever done," Young shares. "Because of that, we didn't want to take a chance on it. We wanted to have a producer that we respect that would do right by these songs. So that's why we asked Aaron Sprinkle."
Thematically, the album will follow in the tradition of the rest of Disciple's discography with its unashamed allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a theme that is immediately present from the choice of title. Kevin Young says of the naming process, "Twenty-five years ago, if you said someone was a rebel, you put them in a category of certain things that they would do that were bad behavior. But now, it seems like that set of behaviors is absolutely, one hundred percent normal. And to actually be a follower of Jesus in this day and age is very rebellious to this culture and very abnormal."
That theme will weave its way through individual songs as well. "Another theme of the record is returning to your first love," Young adds. "Remembering what it was like when you first became a Christian, the passion, the energy, and recapturing that. But also for someone who has completely run away from God and has been running for years to remember that first love and return."
The decision to continue as an independent act for
Long Live the Rebels has been bolstered by the success of
Attack and last year's
Vultures EP, and also by the strength of a dedicated fanbase standing with the band-- an asset the group is grateful for. "We've learned that a lot of things can be done on your own. We're really thankful to have a fanbase in place that trusts us with putting out a solid record, and knowing that we have that helps us breathe a big sigh of relief," Kevin Young concludes.
The band will be spending the months before recording connecting with those fans through 40 dates headlining the second annual City Rockfest tour alongside Seventh Day Slumber, Spoken, Children 18:3 and Decyfer Down. You can follow Disciple's
official website,
facebook and
twitter as they launch the crowdfunding campaign in the coming months, and stay tuned for continued updates through
NewReleaseToday.com.
