music gathering at a lake house, just
reconnecting, writing some songs, and just
being together. In that, every morning and
every night we would hear from one person,
what place they’re in, how are they in their
life, and what are they feeling. And during the
morning one of our guys, Cody Rae Lee, was
just sharing his journey with anxiety, and just
being tormented by it. He’s struggled with
that. So we end up praying for him, and there
was this picture that someone saw of us lifting
up Cody beyond his own strength, so we all
lifted his arms up in the air with our strength
and not his, and it was this symbolic picture
that Cody doesn’t have to use his own strength
to overcome anxiety. And right after that, not
even five minutes later after we prayed, Cody,
Julian Gamboa, and me, walked into a room,
and we started immediately playing. We played
that chorus and bridge, and it came out within
twenty minutes from that place we had just
prayed for Cody in, with overcoming that
anxiety. So, the song was really birthed out of
an authentic place in that time of what we were
believing. And it came from a personal place of
exactly where we were.
[WM] Producing a studio recording presents
challenges but producing live projects can
present their own set of unique issues.
Capturing worship can be fraught with
background noises, vocal and instrumental
mistakes, sound leakage between players, etc.
But still there is a beauty to it all. Tell us about
the dynamic of live production and how you
approach it?
[Matt] Oh man, I could talk about this for
hours. That is a huge calling in my life, and
what that is for me is I believe that the Lord
has been calling worshippers back to the
place of authenticity. It doesn’t mean that we
weren’t authentic, it doesn’t mean that there
was anything wrong with CCM and other studio
genres and things like that.
Into the Battle
earlier. That is a big calling of mine, I am never
going to produce or record a record striving for
perfection in everything. Obviously, it needs to
be professional and up to industry standards,
but I’m not afraid of the person yelling in the
crowd, the person clapping, the things that a
lot of people are looking to turn down and edit
and get out. There is a place for that for sure,
but for me, I just feel like there is a generation
that can sense authenticity beyond many
generations. I think that social media and all of
these things that young generations are coming
up with now, has made people just desire the
authentic at a completely new level.
People don’t just want something that has
been extremely polished or fabricated and
looks good on the outside. People want what’s
true now more than ever. I think going through
this virus, with all of the protests, and everything
our nation is going through right now, people
have a desire for what is true. That’s the same
thing I feel about doing a live worship record, I
want it to sound great, I want it to feel great, I
want it to be professional, I want musicians to
feel honored that they got to put their best foot
forward, but I want it to be authentic.
A lot of what I’ve done in my career, I want to
make sure you can hear the crowd. Even though
I look back at some of the stuff that I’ve done
and think, “Wow, maybe I should have turned
that guy down?” Even on the song “Land of the
Living”, there’s a guy who’s screaming so loud
on the bridge, but I love it even though maybe
it’s a little loud. My point is, doing a live worship
record is not just capturing a song, it’s capturing
an atmosphere. If you’re there to just capture a
song, then you don’t have to do it live, there
are a lot of other ways to do it. But if you’re
there to capture an atmosphere of something
the Lord is doing at a certain place and time,
that’s a live record to me! Why hide some of
those little imperfections that make something
so pure and so authentic?
When you listen to these UPPERROOM records,
at least the last two of them, To the One and
this one, you’re going to hear a lot of our house.
You’re going to hear the atmosphere, people
singing and people praying. At the end of “Rest
on Us” you can even hear our pastor Michael
Miller, he declares something in the crowd, he’s
not on a mic or anything but you can hear him,
and if you know what he sounds like then you
know that’s him. And that was just picked up
with crowd mics doing a live record.
My point is just that I believe there’s a generation
out there that is longing for something authentic,
and that is a partnership with authenticity and
cultivating skill and putting your best foot
forward as well. To me it’s a partnership, and
its understanding that perfection is not the goal.
[WM] The song “On the Cross” is an
atmospheric 6/8 anthem, thanking God for
the rescuing work of Jesus in our lives. But I
wanted to ask you about the song, “History”,
that you co-wrote with my friend Jonathan
Lewis, as well as Oscar and Julian Gamboa,
and Sabastian Suarez. I love the lyric pool that
you’ve all drawn from and can’t remember a
worship song that chronicles our personal
But it feels like there is something the Lord
has been doing in worship with authenticity
without perfection, like we were talking about
On the Cross
History
26 July 2020
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