Sean Curran, the group’s lead vocalist, keyboardist and principal songwriter, explains the genesis of the band. “We met at our home church and felt like kindred spirits pretty quickly.”
“We felt like God was doing something in our hearts and in our community, so we just embarked on this journey to try to figure out what exactly that vision was.”
It would be some time after their initial coming-together in the summer of 2009 that Curran, Melissa Mage (vocals, percussion), her brother Mike Mage (programming, vocals, guitar), Zach Glotfelty (lead guitar), Josh Luker (bass, percussion) and Kenny Werner (drums) would recognize that their common interests and abilities were leading them to become a band.
“We were leading worship a lot together but hadn’t really looked past that,” Sean says. “We started getting these opportunities and God began to place these song ideas on our hearts, so we started meeting up once a week just to figure out what we should do with all this.
“We’d sit around the dinner table fellowshipping, talking about it, dreaming out loud and songs just started to be birthed out of those times,” he continues. “It was an easy transition; we had songs and we had an EP we’d recorded on our own because these songs were connecting with our church. All these things lined up over the course of a summer, so we sat down and finally said, ‘I think we’re a band now.’
“It’s been very much seeking after the will of God and letting that be the focus, and then seeing the opportunities come and making sure they’re God-driven, and then stepping into them and seeing where they lead us.”
“Most music is meant to bring attention to the artist, maybe for some simple enjoyment. It’s all kind of focused on the stage,” Curran says. “Worship music creates a space for people to step into, to direct their attention, their hearts, their souls and their focus, to God.
“When those moments happen, everything else disappears. There’s no stage anymore… everybody in the room has gotten to the same place and they’re doing the same thing together.”