And they did clap on the two and four . For an Idaho church they could have been going on the one and three . At the very least we had that . I was a guitar player too , I loved rock and roll . And so sort of getting to the idea of serving in my youth band and getting to play along was so cool .
And then the first record I was given at 17 when I became the worship leader was Hillsong United ’ s United We Stand . There are songs like “ From The Inside Out ”, “ Take It All ” and “ Fire Fall Down ” on that record . And that was so pivotal to me . Leeland ’ s first record , Sound of Melodies , was massive for me as a young musician in church and all that stuff . And then I found myself in Australia at Hillsong College about two years after I ’ d gotten that CD and started singing those songs . And it was such a crazy pinch me moment when years later , I was much to my shock , writing songs . That was essentially what United was to me . We started that and yeah , been a crazy journey .
[ WM ] So , that ’ s how you came to be part of Hillsong and Young and Free was by going to college there ?
[ Alex ] Yeah , that ’ s right . I went in as a bass player even though I did lead worship , but I thought , “ Hillsong ’ s got plenty of great worship leaders . They don ’ t need a kid from Idaho ”. And so I was there to play bass and a guy by the name of Dean Usher was there ( who wrote songs like , “ Oh , Praise The Name ”, “ Rhythms of Grace ”, and a song called “ Anchor ”). He ’ s an amazing songwriter and even better pastor , and an even better big brother . I don ’ t know what he saw in me , but he saw something in me in a rough , angsty , emo 19-year-old kid and he really pulled me under his wing and got me involved in youth ministry pretty much straight away after I arrived in Australia . I had no idea that eventually they would want to do a new group , because Hillsong United was the youth band of Hillsong church but they hit their thirties and mid-thirties .
“ Alive ” - Hillsong Young & Free
It was like , “ Well , we are not a youth band anymore ”. And so , there was this gap for a couple years and there was nothing really for the young people of our church and those of us leading worship for youth really felt it . We then we were mandated by our senior leadership to write songs for the young people of our church . And again , I was like , “ Well , I hope to play bass for this band . That would be the coolest . I would be blown away if I just got to be in the band ”. And I , along with another guy named Aiden King wrote a song called “ Alive ”. That really defined our sound and defined really the faith , I suppose the spirit is a better way to describe it , the spirit of the band . And that would ’ ve been late 2012 when that started .
[ WM ] So I guess I could say that you ’ re bicontinental .
[ Alex ] ( laughs ) That is accurate ! I was in Sydney then for almost 14 years and I just moved back to my full circle moment . I ’ m back in Southern California .
[ WM ] When I was originally researching you , I noticed that you had a great affinity for U . S . 8 May 2024 Subscribe for Free ...