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10 Questions with ... Fike
May 7, 2012
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
LABEL:
- Integrity Music
DISCOGRAPHY:
- The Moment We've Been Waiting For (2012)
1) Tell us a little bit about your musical journey and how you connected with Integrity Music.
Dana and I have been doing music together since before we married. We traveled in a band called Facedown for a long while, and then we moved to Tyler, TX to work at a church called Grace Community Church. That's when we switched from full-time travel with occasional church attendance to full-time church with occasional travel. We like the latter much better. When we found Vanguard Church here in Colorado Springs, we'd found home. Eight years in, we released three independent records while on staff.
One day, our friend Jared Anderson shared two of our songs, "My Savior Lord" and "Make A Sound," with Integrity's publishing department. They loved the songs, signed me as a writer, and we started talking about moving forward as artists on the label. So we spent late 2010 and early 2011 recording with producer Brent Milligan. We finished the album, presented it to Integrity and they loved it. They offered us a deal, we accepted and then Integrity was sold and the project was put on hold as the label transitioned. In the months that followed, we wondered what God was up to. In that season I wrote the song "Wait": "It never goes like I thought it should, and that's a real nice thing 'cause the Lord is good."
God was teaching us that achieving our dreams isn't nearly as precious as tapping into HIS. We found a peace in surrender we couldn't have expected. We think he wanted us to want him more than a record deal. We do. And now he's granted us both. It's pretty humbling.
2) Is there a singular theme or message to your new album The Moment We've Been Waiting For?
Our church experienced a pretty grand tragedy in the early part of 2010. We lost one of our shining stars: David Hames. He was on location filming for Compassion International at the time of the Haiti earthquake. He was trapped in the Hotel Montana and found weeks later in the rubble. We mourned a lot in that season, and you always think that this kind of tragedy is supposed to happen to someone else.
As pastors, we were given the task of shepherding a flock of downtrodden, disenfranchised, disenchanted believers back to the heart of God. Week after week, we could feel the angst. We could see the questions on the faces of our people. We knew it because we were feeling it too. So how do you trust God after he, well, lets you down?
We believe that the best way to combat pain and fear is with truth. That's probably the theme of the record.
3) Tell us about the story behind your debut single "Wait"?
"Wait" was very much a song that God delivered to us as an answer to our questions to him about why our lives/ministry weren't going the way we'd hoped. It was like he was saying, "I could give you everything you're asking me for. Sure I could. But wouldn't you rather I give you what I'm dreaming about for you?"
Of course, the answer to that question is "yes." But, when you're in the midst of feeling like you're not measuring up, it's hard to see how his plans are better than what makes obvious sense to you. "So, I believe that the lesson I'll embrace is WAIT."
4) Do you have a favorite song on the new album?
Dana: "Glorious You Are." We do that song differently live, but Brent found something beautiful in the process of recording it.
Richie: "That's Why I Praise." In my mind, I sound like a mix between Ray Charles and Michael McDonald. In reality I sound nothing like either. But on this song I tiptoe towards them.
5) Do you have a favorite song that you love to lead in worship services?
Dana: "Jehovah"
Richie: "Grace"
6) Who inspires you personally, spiritually and/or professionally?
Richie: I try to write songs for two groups of people: Vanguard Church and local worship leaders. Local worship leaders inspire me. Guys and gals who are 1.5 drummers deep on the rotation, fighting for a little better than last week, dreaming of the day when they can multiply their passion into someone else. I love local worship leaders. It's a very difficult job.
I think the one guy who has this whole worship leader/worship artist thing figured out is Paul Baloche. I've been to his church in Lindale, TX. It's not a mega-church. Not really even close. He's rooted. He's connected. He's real. He's not writing from a tour bus. He's writing from the vantage point of all of us weekend worship warriors, trying our best to get that guy on the fourth row to feel free enough to un-cross his arms and worship Jesus. Paul knows that struggle. He lives it. So his songs communicate a relevance that no trendy 20-year-old has the capacity to attain. I love him for it.
And Jesus.
7) You're originally from Louisiana but now live in Colorado Springs. If you could take the best of both worlds and mash them up, what would your new home look like?
LSU's Tiger Stadium (Little known fact: There are dorm rooms that are now condemned and shut down that were put on the outlying corridors of LSU's Tiger Stadium, and my Dad lived in one for two years while attending college there. I think that's pretty neat.)
8) Fill in the blank: I can't start my day without:
Richie: Chick-Fil-A (280 calories in a 3-count Chicken Minis. Not bad for an 1800 calorie/day diet)
Dana: A long bath
9) What song do you wish you had written?
Richie: "Before the Throne of God Above"
Dana: "Amazing Grace"
10) Do you have much time to check out other artists' music? What are you listening to right now?
Sadly, not much time but here's what we're listening to when we have a moment to breathe. Bethel's "Loft Sessions" is amazing. Travis Ryan's new record is epic. Civil Wars, Mumford & Sons, Ingrid Michaelson, Adele, Passion, and Dara Maclean. Oh, and Jennie Riddle's new record is gorgeous
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