Louder Than The Music

All Sons & Daughters have quickly become one of today's most exciting worship groups. Duo David Leonard and Leslie Jordan have been writing incredible worship songs alongside some of the strongest songwriters around. LTTM caught up with the group while they were in the UK for Big Church Day Out to find out more about their new self-titled album.

Tell us a little bit about your new self-titled album and what the inspiration behind it was?

Leslie: It's our first full studio record and it's probably the best reflection of who we are and where we've been. That's the reason behind it being self-titled. We started writing together about four years ago and in that time we've gone through so many changes and seasons in our church, as a band, and as individuals.

David: The inspiration came from so many places, but I think you can tie it all back to God's love and faithfulness, His unchanging nature. The songs were inspired by different scriptures, prayers and experiences - both from our community and from other churches.

Which is your favourite track on the album and why?

David: 'You Will Remain'... "Your promise is sure, never ending. Your love will endure. You were, You will be, You always are the Great I Am." It's all about remembering the faithfulness of the Father, looking back and seeing the hand of God in the good times and the bad.

Leslie: For me, it's 'For Your Glory and My Good' for much the same reason as David mentions. Seeing the two extremes and God's goodness in both.

You collaborated with a number of different people on this release, describe that experience to us.

David: Writing with others makes you see things in a different light, makes you see Scripture differently, in a fresh way. You draw things out of each other and hopefully create art together.

Leslie: For this project, we wrote with a quite few people... Francesca Battistelli, Derek Webb, Leeland, Jack Mooring, Stu G, Sandra McCracken, Jason Ingram, David Wood, our producer Paul Mabury. Whenever a writing session can turn into a time of worship, that’s the best... One of the songs that came the most quickly was 'Christ Be All Around,' which we wrote with Leeland and Jack. We finished the song in about an hour because it just flowed out. Then we spent the rest of the time worshiping.

What's your song writing process?

Leslie: Sometimes we work from an idea, something we've read, a question or a prayer... something our church is dealing with.

David: It usually starts with a conversation, especially if we're writing with others, people we don't know well. Getting to know people, sharing stories, struggles. Then we dive back into scripture and try to find answers together.

If you could work with any song writer, who would it be and why?

Leslie: We've actually had the chance to write with some amazingly talented people... but if we're talking 'wish lists', I'll add Chris Martin, Tom Petty and Patty Griffin.

How would you define success in your career as a group?