Interview: Saved By Grace
Saved By Grace recently released their new studio EP, 'The Nashville Recordings'. Louder Than The Music chatted to the band about this new release and their thoughts on making music.
For those who haven't heard of you before, can you tell us a bit about yourselves and how you got involved in making music?
I've always loved music and more recently Christian Rock and CCM. However, I only began writing music about 4 years ago after learning how to play acoustic guitar. Once I started writing, I began to recruit talented musicians in my town to jam with me and Saved By Grace (SBG) was born. The band has 2 Licensed pastors, including myself, 2 praise team leaders, and a choir director. The 7 of us belong to 4 different churches and all are passionate believers in Christ. Hence, our main goal is to help spread the Gospel as far and wide as we can.
Tell us about your new EP 'The Nashville Recordings' and what the inspiration behind it was?
Dean Miller, son of Roger Miller, and owner of Dean Miller Entertainment saw us on social media. I believe he was typically fond of our acoustic version of our self titled song off our 1st album, Saved By Grace. He said, "bring your stuff to Nashville and we will take this to the next level". Once I confirmed it really was him, it was an opportunity we couldnt pass up. His team listened to our version of these 5 songs and made subtle changes and then proceeded to produce, mix and master each one to what I feel is perfection. His mission is to help Indy Artists have the Nashville experience at an affordable price in order to help advance careers. Im so thankful that after praying about it, we took the leap of faith to fly down there to OmniSound Studios.
Which is your favorite track on the EP and why?
We, as a band, all agree its "Let Jesus In". It has every element we like, from guitar solos to an anthem type of chorus. Most of all, we can all relate to the message in our own personal way. It simply speaks to each of us in terms of our journey with our Lord and Savior jesus Christ.
What message would you like people to take from your music?
The loving message of the Gospel and that God wants each and everyone of us to be saved. One of the songs we will be recording this Fall/Winter that will add to this current collection of 5 and help complete album #2 is "I'll Take It On". In that song I wrote "Im praying for souls who want to be saved and even for those that are sick and depraved.....because after all its the Devil we fight and God wants us all to be alright". This sums up the message that the devil is our enemy, not each other; and also, God loves us all no matter what we have done or how corrupted we are. We are all capable of changing, turning to the Lord, and repenting for our sins. This is the message that in one way or another each of our songs conveys.
How would you describe your style of music and what are your influences?
We are Christian Rock with a smidge of Country music thrown in. I am the primary song writer thus far. So, although we all have our own different influences, mine are the ones that have most influenced our sound thus far. I like Nashville influenced artists and am as big a fan of country music as I am the Christian genre. So, even though I grew up on hard rock and heavy metal, my modern influences tend to be country and singer/songwriter based.
If you could work with any songwriter, who would it be and why?
Zach Williams because I love his sound, envy his talent, and appreciate his writing. His songs speak to me and really attracted me to modern Christian Music. I often repeat to fans and our band members that we are not a "praise and worship band" but rather truely Christian Rock. I feel you can say the same about Zach.
How would you define success in your career as an artist?
When we have taken our message, that proclaims the good news of the Gospel, to multiple states as well as having our music streamed in nearly every country of the world. That would be a success for sure. Its all about helping spread the Gospel. If just one fan tells me we helped them find Jesus, then that we be another definition of success for us.
What is your favorite album of all time?
Foreigner's "Records" album because it contained most of my favorites from the band that I grew up listening to. I have tons of respect for the lyrics and the sound they put out.
You're stuck on an island, it's hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your phone. What track is it?
Less Like Me by Zach Williams
What does the next year hold for you?
We will complete our 2nd album by adding to the 5 song EP Nashville Recordings, likely calling the album "American Revival". This will hopefully be followed by an American Revival tour in 2024. We have partnered with Bless Up Records and together are pitching songs for sync licensing and promoting our songs and videos on streaming platforms and YouTube respectively. I see these projects growing in scope and scale heading into 2024. In the short term, we will be headlining the Sunday portion of this years Rod of Iron Freedom Festival Oct 8th, 2023 near the Poconos. We just put on the 1st annual Erie, PA Family First Festival and plan on growing the event in 2024 and beyond. Finally, prior to the future release of our 2nd full length album (likely in early 2024), we plan on releasing live recordings of some of our songs, especially those from our 1st album, God's Master Plan.
