this project , has just been because they ’ re the people in my world and my circle and that ’ s just very fun . I ’ m always open to writing with new people , especially if I hear someone ’ s song and I ’ m inspired by it . It ’ s a great honor to get to write with someone like that whose moved me , which thankfully is a lot of my friends that I get to work with .
[ WM ] Let ’ s discuss your newest project in further detail . First off , I must say that the cover image of Sold Out , Sincerely , is an extremely bold statement for you to make , and quickly identifiable even as small as at a thumbnail size . What can you say about this ?
[ Benjamin ] I love this cover . It was done by my brother ’ s company , Avenir Creative House . It ’ s my brother and one of my best mates Jay and they ’ re incredible . We ’ ve been working together for a really long time . Jay and I worked together on all of the Hillsong projects throughout the years , so it ’ s really cool to keep getting to work together . We just have a synergy and a chemistry . We ’ ll have a plan when we go into shoots , but a lot of it is creating in the moment which I love . It feels like a songwriting session . It ’ s so collaborative because you ’ ve got like ten people there , there ’ s lights moving and projectors , “ What should we do here ?” “ Where do we do this ?” and it ’ s very inspiring .
What I ’ m trying to communicate with this cover specifically , I ’ d say , is where I ’ ve landed in my journey and struggles with faith and wrestles with God over the years . I think when I get out of my head and just sit across the table from Jesus it all makes a lot of sense and the stuff that confuses me becomes seemingly irrelevant . There ’ s a line in ‘ Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus ’ that says , “ the things of the world will go strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace .” It feels like when you take the time to just sit with Him and who He is as a person and a divine example , everything falls into perspective pretty quickly . So for me , this coffee shop image is just that . It ’ s getting out of my head , removing Him from being this God in the sky , this far away entity , and remembering the friendship , companionship , and the very tangible evidence of Him in my life .
I was chatting with the Avenir boys after the fact , and this wasn ’ t intentional , but we realized that for the first cover we had a projection of me holding a sheet up trying to cover my face , and that was a self-titled record . Whereas this record is entirely about Jesus and this time the projection is of Him . There was even a moment when I thought about just calling the album ‘ Jesus ’ but I thought that seems maybe a bit obnoxious and I didn ’ t feel like I had the right to do that . But that was another little thing that I guess is an Easter egg , but it was an unintentional one .
[ WM ] Your song , “ Still You ”, is an incredible expression . Please tell us about it .
[ Benjamin ] This to me is probably the flagship song on the album . It ’ s very much a worship song , and I hope people feel like they
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