We had John Roberts on violin and actually that wasn’ t even planned, but he had his violin and I saw him and I was like,“ You don’ t have your violin with you, do you?“ And he was like,“ Yeah, it’ s in the trunk.” And so, he just grabbed it and plugged in and that was just a beautiful little bonus thing that happened yesterday. But he’ s played on a bunch of the worship together stuff with me and he always does such a great job.
And then we had Bella Taylor Smith on vocals. She is an incredible worship leader. We also knew her back from Australia. We led with her hundreds and hundreds of times. We were both at the same campus, the city campus back in Australia. And I was always really, really stoked when we got paired together to lead. She’ s the best.
[ WM ] Will some of those players still be on the road with you for the upcoming tour?
[ Benjamin ] We were talking about that last night. Yes, we would hope so. We’ re probably going to have to scale back a litte bit. Otherwise there would be people sleeping on the roof of the bus.( laughs) If we could bring that exact band from last night, I would be absolutely stoked.
[ WM ] You’ re on tour this summer throughout the U. S. Are you both in agreement with the songs that you hope stick with the audiences?
[ Aodhán ] Yeah, I feel passionately about every single song. So, to me, I’ m like,“ Whatever lands, wherever it goes.” I love the idea of a song going off and having its own little life, having a life of its own and finding its own world. And I think we’ re already seeing that just even from how the people are really latching onto the song“ Saturday”. I think Saturday’ s becoming such an anthem for people. I’ ve sung“ Hollow Grave” out on the road a few times already and I can tell that that will be a song that I think worship leaders will pick up on and catch onto and sing. I’ m just excited to see where this whole album goes.
[ WM ] Well, we used to say when something was good that it was an embarrassment of riches. And so, you have an embarrassment of riches with these songs. There are so many great songs on this project.
[ Aodhán ] Thank you so much. That’ s a beautiful saying.
[ WM ] Lastly, what are your instruments of choice, both in the studio and on the road? And, do you have any favorite studio microphones?
[ Benjamin ] Oh, that’ s a good question. My studio is full of weird instruments. I collect the most random things. So we’ ve got bouzuki and a mandolin. We’ ve got an old harmonium that’ s a few hundred years old. I’ ve got a Caledonian harp, which is out of tune because I can’ t find a tuner for it, but it’ s so big. It’ s almost like five foot tall and it’ s so obnoxious in the studio. I guess on the road, I’ ll normally just play guitar or acoustic, but maybe we could bring some of those things. I actually brought a psaltry on my last tour. I have a Lowden, which is an Irish guitar, small handmade Irish guitars. I actually had the privilege of meeting George Lowden last time I was home and he gave me a tour of the factory and then I bought that guitar and it’ s been beautiful. I’ ve always wanted one of their jumbos and an Avalon, which is another Irish guitar. I got a small body Avalon. It’ s one of only two made.
In recent years, my favorite microphone has just become a Shure SM7 because I can be dynamic on it and I can move around the room and it ends up not affecting the quality of the recording.
[ Aodhán ] I mean, I love an SM7 too. And then instruments, I love piano in the studio and I just love acoustics. I was playing Ben Tan’ s acoustic last night, which is an Eric Clapton signature Martin model. I play something pretty similar, like an 00-28 or a HD28, which is a bigger dreadnaught Martin. And then microphones, a U67. What’ s the other one? U47? I love singing on those mics too, but I don’ t know. I just listen to what they tell me to do. I sing on what I’ m told.( laughing)
[ WM ] Love it. Here’ s wishing you safe travels and I’ ll definitely be praying for the worship events across the U. S. and the impact that they have on believers everywhere. So just be safe and don’ t eat any bad burritos on the road!
[ Both ] Thanks so much for your time. Yeah, thank you for that. Thanks for your prayers. Really appreciate it.
[ WM ] Yeah, you got them and thanks again. And again, I just loved last night. It was just fantastic.
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