Dustin Smith is one of many worship leaders who has grown his songs out of the atmosphere of worship at his church home in Kansas City. World Revival Church has partnered with him in producing several worship albums in the past, and those past efforts combined with speaking and ministering in countries such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and England have definitely equipped him both by refining his passion and building the experience to express it.

You Are the Fire: Live From Kansas City is his first solo venture, drawing on a recording of a live night of worship with a few studio cuts in the mix as well.

NewReleaseTuesday's Bill Lurwick had the opportunity to talk to Dustin Smith about the process and the vision behind the project.

This is a live project and it's your first ever release, right?

This is my own personal release, my first time doing one on my own. I’ve  done about five albums with my church actually, but this is the first one that I took on and did myself.

So what does that mean for you? It’s not part of the church. It’s just Dustin Smith, but it’s also a live project. What’s different between this one and the last projects you’ve done as far as the recording process goes?

The other ones we did in house, and this one we went outside of the house to get some help. I got Michael Farin, who helped produce it. Kyle Lee, who works with Michael W. Smith.

We brought in some other guys. The church CDs are great, and we used all people from inside the church. This time we went out and got some help. That’s really what makes this one different.

How was the live recording process for you on this project? Were there numerous takes, or did it just all flow?

No, it all flowed. We might have done two songs again at the end because there was a recording problem that happened with the equipment, but there was no problem with the worship. It was a pretty amazing night. It flowed incredibly well.

When you get instrumentalists like that, you really don’t have to worry about taking more than one or two takes, but really the crowd– and you can hear it on the album– the crowd just worshiped their hearts out.

Actually afterwards, one of the producers said it sounded like you paid every single person $1,000 to be  as loud as humanly possible. It was neat because we didn’t really have to do any overdubs or anything with the crowd vocals because they were so into it.

It really captured the heart of what we were trying to do beyond just musicianship. We were trying to capture a group of people who were just passionately worshiping that night. It was pretty powerful.

There are 17 tracks on You are the Fire live from Kansas City. We've got three studio cuts on here and we’ll talk about those in just a moment, but first I want to talk about a young lady that you’ve got on the project with you named Jennifer Balser. She’s on two cuts. Tell us about Jennifer.

Jennifer is a worship leader in nationals. I actually heard about Jennifer from Michael and Kyle. We were looking for somebody to maybe come in and be that voice, kind of like a Christy Nockels on Passion, and that’s who I thought of when I first heard Jennifer.

We listened to her and right away her voice really captured us. It's more than just a pretty voice— you could tell her heart through her voice. She's on a song called Breathless that Michael actually brought. It’s the only song I did not write on the album. The first time I heard her sing it I knew right away that this is right for the album.

I think it just really opens up the CD. It gives it a different voice, but it’s not just a voice. It’s somebody who really, I think, grabs those moments and was able to sing with all her heart.

Talk about "Rushing Waters." It’s really a word picture in song.

For that song I sat down with Michael Farin. We were in the integrity songwriting room and he said, “What’s been on your heart?” I had just read in the book of Revelation where it said thousands upon thousands were singing and it sounded like the rushing of water.

I just became overwhelmed by it. I realized that in heaven, they don’t teach them how to sing songs. They see who He is and they respond to it. I think in church we’ve been taught how to sing songs for so long that we’ve forgotten we’re supposed to see something and not just sing about something.

What “Rushing Waters” is for me is really trying to get us to stop just singing songs in church, trying to get us to see who He is just like the angels do. I don’t think they teach a song called “Holy, Holy, Holy” in heaven. I think they see who He is and then it just overwhelmingly describes Him.

I believe that Jesus told the disciples to pray “on Earth as it is in heaven. Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” I think we have the ability to recreate a piece of heaven too. When there’s thousands upon thousands describing what they see, then that’s when heaven can happen on Earth. We create that atmosphere by seeing who He is and then just let that sound like rushing waters.

So that song is pretty overwhelming for me because I’ve sung it really around the world now and every time I do, you can feel the connection between heaven and Earth. We’re joining really with the angels and thousands upon thousands describing a greatness of who God is.

Talk about the song “You are the Fire.” You’ve got a studio version of it on the project, and it's the title track of the record. What’s that song all about?

We did a live cut too. The live cut I think is track 14, but when we did that song, it was one of the last songs really that we wrote for the album. We’re really trying to capture what God is to us. The Bible says He’s an all-consuming fire, and I think it’s interesting.

Christianity a lot of times, I think, likes to pinpoint little theologies of what they like about Him and then they make that prominent in their lives. I realized about a fire – it says He’s an all consuming fire. So He doesn’t just touch little pieces of our lives. He doesn’t just touch our finances or He doesn’t just touch our bodies. He touches everything.

We were trying to really get a song that I think really describes who He has become in my life. It’s greater than just one little area. He’s everything.

I think there are other songs that may be bigger songs. “Rushing Waters” is a big song, and some of the other songs are too, but “You are the Fire” is probably the song that best defines what He’s been in my life over the past several years, learning that He’s big. He consumes everything.

That song means probably more to me than almost any song on there.

We're excited about this. Thanks for spending time with us at NewReleaseTuesday, Dustin.

Thank you.