For the last four years, for KING & COUNTRY's sophomore album, Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong., has been playing on repeat from my daughter's boom box, our cars, or anywhere she could find to play a CD. My daughter was not the only person to take note of this album. In the time since the album's release, for KING & COUNTRY has collected two GRAMMY's, three Dove Awards and seven We Love Christian Music Awards while being certified RIAA Gold. After the band announced that they began work on their third studio album a year and a half ago, fans have been patiently anticipating the October release of Burn the Ships.
To celebrate the release of their third studio album, the brothers announced a small, 10-city album release party. They intentionally chose theater-style venues to provide a more intimate experience. They not only played favorites from their previous albums but also introduced eight of the ten songs from the new album. I caught up with Luke on their Dallas, TX stop a week after the album was released. We talked Burn the Ships, live shows, and what’s coming up next.
Now that the album is out, what feedback have you received about the new music? What stories have you heard?
I got the final version of the album sent to me on the phone, just a link to a website. I’m looking at it, and was like, “Wow, I’ve got the album.” I was talking to my wife a while back and she asked me what I thought about it. Well, when you just look at just a link after a year and a half of working on recording it, it doesn’t feel like it’s worthwhile. When it becomes someone’s song or someone else’s story, then that music becomes very worthwhile. It's cool to just hear people say in these first weeks that this is an album full of their stories and all the things they’re going through right now.
What song on this album did you enjoy recording the most?
The song I enjoyed the most was the title track "Burn the Ships." It was a song we worked on several years earlier and didn’t necessarily think it would be something that the album would be named after. To see that come to fruition, to see the journey that song went on for about three years and to see it recorded and finished and become the title track was something really special and endearing.
What is the story behind that track?
When my wife was pregnant with our second child, Phoenix, she was dealing with debilitating nausea. She went to the doctor and got some medicine and that worked for about 6 weeks. She went back to the doctor after it wasn't working anymore and they said they could up the dosage.
I was in Austin, TX for a show one night and she called me and said, “I need you to come home.” She had never made that phone call before. It was quite a frantic call and she said: “I’m taking this medicine and I just can’t stop.” I go home, walk through the back door, and I ask her if she’s okay. She said, “I am right now.” As the night progressed, she started saying things like, “I know I’m not meant to take any more of this medicine, but what if I just take one more just to get through tomorrow. We can deal with it then.” Then her hands started shaking and I realized at that point we’ve got a serious problem. The next day, we went to the mental hospital.
When they called Courtney’s name and we both started to go through the door, they told me that I couldn’t go through. There was a loneliness that both of us felt at that moment. They recommended two weeks of outpatient therapy, from nine in the morning until two in the evening. She made such great progress through that time that they said she didn’t need to come back. When we were back home, she had the bottle of pills and she said “Luke, I’ve got to flush these pills. They represent so much shame and guilt in my life and I need to see them physically leave.”
There’s this story about an explorer going to a foreign land who wanted to explore the horizons, explore the mountains. He called all his men to the shore and told them that they’re going to go explore. They didn’t want to follow him. They wanted to stay in the dirty confines of those boats. A few days later, he calls all the men to the shore again and as soon as the soldiers are on land, he orders his generals to burn the ships. He says, “We’re not retreating, we’re not going back, we’re pushing forward.”
When my wife flushed those pills, that was the moment when she burned the ships and wasn’t going to let her past consume her future.
At what point did "Burn the Ships" become the title track?
Surprisingly late, probably 6-7 months ago. Album titles are tricky because at points they don’t say that much, but at points, they can say everything. I think the theme of "Burn the Ships" is present throughout. The theme of “no retreat” is something that comes up through the album: never ever give up, fight on fighter, burn the ships. I think there’s a lot of songs on this album like that. We also wanted something that could paint a picture in your mind. When you think of "Burn the Ships," you think of ships burning, and it makes you ask why. When you attach the story to the why, I think it makes the album and the title feel potent.
Both your wife and Joel's wife, Courtney and Moriah, get to sing on the song "Pioneers." Since you and Joel are on the road all the time, how awesome is it to get to have Courtney and Moriah involved with your music in the studio?
Oh man, it’s fantastic. Courtney sang a song with me on our last album called "Without You." She’s a crazy good talent. She can sing and is a gifted writer.
Joel and Moriah were actually in Australia at the beginning of the year. I assigned myself to get two songs figured out. I needed to get "Burn the Ships" in working order, and I needed to get "Pioneers" as well. It was during that time that Courtney came to the studio and we tweaked some lyrics and messed with some things on "Pioneers," she did her vocals and I did mine. When we played that version for Joel and Moriah, it actually brought them to tears. It was a pretty special moment. Up to that point, "Pioneers" had been on the chopping block. We weren’t sure it wouldn’t be included in the album. When the girls’ voices made it on there, that’s when it all made sense.
At every for KING & COUNTRY show I've been to, you've been out in the crowd and interacting with the fans. Is that something that started spontaneously, or is that something that was planned from the beginning?
It’s funny, I’m not like a dancer, or necessarily think of myself as eloquent when I move. When the music starts, there’s an energy there. I just always felt when we’re getting ready to walk on stage, something happens and there’s energy. I don’t want to just stand on stage and sing my songs, I want to put everything I’ve got into them. I want to be able to touch the people as well and make sure they feel not only welcome but feel the energy of the night. I’ve often joked that if you take a basketball team and instead of playing basketball, they decided to throw their love into a band, you’ve got something like for KING & COUNTRY.
You take the time at every show to talk about the value of women, and you have the coin pendants to symbolize this. As the daddy of a little girl, that’s awesome for me to see emphasized. What was the birth of this movement?
Early on, when Joel and I first started, we were doing Mother/Daughter conferences. We thought, “This is what our career is going to be. Women’s conferences.” Our mother was out on the road with us one time and she said, “You know, you’re the only men here. I think you have an obligation to say something." She didn’t tell us what it was, just to think about it and that maybe there’s something there to share. That’s when we came up with this Priceless movement idea, which says culture says for you to talk and dress and act like you’re not worth anything, or that you’re worth something like a penny, but we believe in a God who says you’re priceless.
We started sharing that, and before we had any songs on the radio, that was far more successful than our music. People were so enamored with the concept and we realized we stumbled onto something. I think that culture struggles with worth and people don’t understand their value. Everybody’s fingerprint is unique, the talents they have are given only to them, and I think that’s something we need to lean into and really understand. This is especially true for women, but it also applies to everybody. We’ve seen the need to continue to share this, and I think it’s something we’ll continue to share until Joel and I hang it up.
Through all of your albums, what song are you most proud of, but hasn't been in the spotlight?
There’s a song for our last album called "Without You" that I did with my wife, and we did a music video for it. We had a bunch of radio people come to us and say we should release it as a single. We decided not to. It’s a song that really, really connects with people. There are so many people who have come up to me in the past couple of years saying, “You have no idea how much this song has meant to me." That song was written about when I was really sick and my wife said, “I don’t want to live without you.” Ironically enough, I lived, and yet a lot of people find solace in that song when the person that they loved actually died. There’s something about it that was unexpected.
Now that the album is out and we’ve seen a bunch of awesome music videos, what’s coming up next?
I think a break (laughter)! The album is out, the music videos are for the most part finished, we’ve got a Christmas tour this Christmas, and spring should be something exciting. As far as big projects, I think we need a bit of an emotional vacation. We’re a little bit beat. The amount that goes into just one music video is a lot, and there’s five of them out there. And the amount that goes into just three songs versus ten is a lot. We’re toying with the idea of another movie at some point, but we’ve got to let the dust settle and we can figure a bit more clearly where we’re going in the next year or so.
Jake is a longtime fan of Christian music, Jesus Freak Cruiser, a techie, and a softball player. He lives in Texas with his wife and daughter.
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