Interview: Trent
Louder Than The Music have been able to get a quick few words with Trent Worship team, who have just released their latest DVD "Burn Bright". Have a read of what the guys have to say about this great new project.
1. How did Trent come about?
Nige: We've been playing together for around 9 years now, although we have had several drummers and Adam is a relatively recent addition to the band. We started playing together when the church moved towards band line ups rather than a model of worship leader with different musicians each week. As the worship pastor I (Nigel) tried to put together three bands from the musicians within the church with a good spread of abilities. We all knew each other fairly well but out of the three bands we ended up gelling really well. We committed to rehearsing once a week even though we were not playing that often and we have kept up that rehearsal schedule (plus a bit more!!) ever since. After a few months we began to write our own songs and then after about a year Vineyard Records approached us to do our first CD (Hold On). Over the years since we have been priveledged to record another studio album (Unfailing Love) and an EP (Radio Everything). The great thing is that after all these years we still all really enjoy playing together and look foraward to rehearsals and playing together. I'm convinced that even if we had nowhere to play we would still meet once a week and rehearse and worship together!
2. You have a new album out soon tell us a little about inspiration behind the album?
Rich: Having done 2 studio albums we were keen to capture what we do best, leading worship, at home with our friends and family at Trent Vineyard. The songs are the soundtracks to the lives of so many people in our church and it was great to host an evening that everyone could participate in who has inspired us on our journey.
3. Was the recording process of this DVD/CD a good experience?
Nige: It is always, I think, a privilege to be asked to record. We were all a bit nervous about this one being a dvd, but in many ways it captures what Vineyard Records are all about - documenting worship songs from around the nation. A DVD is most probably the best way to capture what's happing at the church right now. Yes we brought in extra lights, but essentially it's us playing/leading worship exactly as we do in our church.
Matt: the recording of the DVD was a rather unnerving experience! We don't do performance - we lead worship... So we aren't used to playing in front of cameras and lights... We wanted to capture worship and we wanted something interesting to watch - we'll leave it to others to decide how we have done. Did we enjoy making the DVD? - well - I loved it!
Phil: Yeah, I loved it, I got to hang out and play music for 4 days with the
best bunch of guys and then on the recording night it was great to hand the
hard work over to God and worship with the extended Trent family, what
better way to spend a week!!!!
Rich: Yes!
Adam: It was a great experience, rocking out with four heroes for a week, pizzas, nando's, trev's 'yeeeaahh', and then of course sharing an amazing night with our family that is Trent vineyard, I'd do it every day of the week.
4.What is your favourite track on your album and why?
Nige: I think it would be 'Jubilee' at the moment. It just feels good to play and always seems to get a reaction. It was the first time we'd played the song on the night, but even so people responded and connected with it.
Matt: My favourite track has to be 'Perfect Sacrifice'. "all my hope is in You, my treasure and my truth, my hope is in You". I don't think I need to say anything else.
Phil: 'Unfailing Love', looking back, this song captured the reason we do what
we do, people were really singing this one out, some hands were clapping,
others were raised, we smiled lots during this one and Matt grooved on the
percussion, awesome!!!!!
Rich: 'Keep me where the light is', expresses a beautiful sentiment about wanting to please God, and stay by his side, in such a lovely way, one of Nigel's best lyrics, and it's a gorgeous song to play.
ADAM: 'Burn Bright', it's legendary. I love how it builds to the powerful playout, "I want to burn bright for You", with a groove that never tires.
5. What's your song writing process?
Nige: These days I will generally turn up with an idea (a song vision with a few lyrical lines and a melody). I'll play it to the guys and we'll start to get a feel for it. Sometimes things just come together really well and other times it can take weeks for a song to take shape. The key is sticking with it and not being too precious, some of our best songs are the one that have been written - rewritten - scrapped - pulled back out the bin - changed - started again - etc. The more we do this, if the song vision is strong (the overall theme) then usually we'll persevere until it's finished. I've come to enjoy the process now, whereas at the start I found it daunting.
Matt: We make the effort to go away as a band for a long weekend at least once a year to spend time writing, playing and just hanging out with each other. We record pretty much everything we do at these sessions (pretty badly), but we will sometimes pull one of those ideas out a few months (or even years) later and write a song around it. There are at least two more tracks that we know we have to finish sitting in that pile of recordings! You do have to be fairly thick skinned when writing songs in this band though - I can still remember playing the early music demo of Walk Humbly to the rest of the band. They laughed nearly as much as when they saw the first footage of me on the DVD...
6. What's on your IPod at the moment?
Nige: Doves - Elbow - Kate Walsh - Feist - John Mayer
Matt: Elbow - LeftRightLeftRightLeft - Blur(!)
Phil: Kings of Leon and John Mayer
Rich: Gaslight Anthem
Adam: I don't have an ipod. But 'no line on the horizon' is in the car!
7. You're stuck on an island, its hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your IPod. What track is it?
Nige: Paranoid Android - radiohead
Matt: Glass of Water by Coldplay - I can't believe that track didn't make the main album!
Phil: Black - Pearl Jam, b e a utiful!!!
Rich: Walk on, U2
ADAM: Seven days, Sting. Sorry chaps!
8. What does the next year hold for Trent?
Nige: Well, we've got New Wine coming up and then Greenbelt. Talk of a mini UK/US tour is on the cards for early next year - and we have been asked to lead worship at one of the Spring Harvest venues for the first time - which we are really excited about. We will continue to write and record new songs (if they are good enough) and we'll do the job that we are all called to do - lead worship in our own home church.
We all have regular jobs so we're constantly juggling holidays and family time around what we do - so it is hard to do everything we would like to. It's fun though.
