something new. And so that’ s the heart of that. So that song has already been on a three-year journey.
Which is so crazy. And having Paul and Hannah McClure on it just took it to a whole new level. And then the live band, and we recorded at Austin City Limits, so there were definitely people there that are not a part of our church, but we had a couple thousand people there from our church. It just felt like a full circle moment, and you can feel that when you’ re listening to the song.
[ WM ] So in the video, those real tall curtains— that’ s Austin City Limits?
[ Tauren ] Yes. We transformed that room. It’ s the Moody Theater. It was an amazing night.
[ WM ] I want to dig in a little bit to your gear that you use. Now, what are your personal favorites?
[ Tauren ] That’ s funny. I don’ t know all the specifics, but I typically play one of my guitarist Uriah Solis’ s guitars because he is responsible for transporting all of them, and carrying guitars around is very cumbersome. So I’ m usually playing one of his Teles. Although I do have my own Tele, it’ s a replica of a 1980s telecaster; it’ s really cool. And then I also have a Gretsch that I call the“ Silver Surfer” that I don’ t let them touch.( laughing)
I also have a Gibson acoustic guitar back here that I love. So I use that stuff. I play Nord keyboards and love them because the only sound I play is piano, so that works really well. We’ ve used, I think, the Shure SM7 capsule for the vocal, but we’ ve messed around with a couple different capsules as well. So I don’ t know what we use specifically on this album mic-wise.
[ WM ] Gotcha.
[ Tauren ] But something different about this one, because it was“ live,” is that I did very few overdubs. We left everything as natural as possible from either what happened in the room or in rehearsal, but I just used the same handheld mic in the studio to do some of the overdubs for the record, which was a really cool experience.
[ WM ] That is cool. Tell us about the song“ The Church is on Fire.”
[ Tauren ] One of my favorites. I just love this idea that we are consumed by the Holy Spirit and the passion that comes from that. And sometimes it’ s a deep passion that takes you into deeper still waters, and sometimes it’ s a fire burning out of control, and that song feels like a fire burning out of control to me. And it’ s so indicative of the culture and nature of our church. And I hope that churches are seeing that all over the world because I believe it’ s a 14 September 2026 Subscribe for Free...