Interview: 7 Hills Worship
7 Hills Worship, is the worship team and band of 7 Hills Church in the Cincinnati area. They have just released their new single 'With Everything I Am,' and Louder Than The Music spoke with worship pastor Kaelob Mecum to find out more about what they do, and their plans to release more new music this year than ever before!
For those who haven't heard of you before, can you tell us a bit about 7 Hills Worship and how you got started?
We are honestly just a group of friends who love worship and love getting together to write songs! We might do 90% goofing around and 10% writing but it’s a work in progress.
Tell us about your new single 'With Everything I Am' and what the inspiration behind it was?
With Everything I Am has been really special to us and to our church because its so challenging. It asks the questions “Why can’t I raise my hands, why can’t I dance? Why can’t I shout?” We basically wanted to write something that encouraged people to know that we have SO MANY reasons to love God and to thank Him for all He’s done for us.
Do you have any plans to release more music in the near future?
Yes! We recorded our second live album in November and have nine releases from that, as well as a fun summer EP that we love to put out every year.
What message would you like people to take from your music?
That God is crazy about you. No matter what. You can’t mess it up. He’s chasing after you always. We are all a little broken but he’s all in.
How would you describe your style of music and what are your influences?
I think our music focuses deeply on personal experiences. I remember someone telling me once that you can’t make worship songs too personal or people won’t relate to them… So we wrote songs that were even more personal, and that is when people began to relate to them. Because everyone has baggage, highs and lows, sometimes life is pretty and sometimes it’s a mess. People want to know that they aren’t alone, and we want to write songs to let them know that they are not.
If you could work with any songwriter, who would it be and why?
We love writing with all of the TIM Publishing songwriters, they are excellent. Someone I personally would like to write with is Josh Baldwin. I think he’s a genuine songwriter and incredible worship leader.
How would you define success in your career as an artist?
We already feel successful. We started as a group of friends writing song for their church to sing and that hasn’t changed. We would love to see our songs find their way into the hearts of people all over the world.
What is your favorite album of all time?
Wow. That’s a tough one. As far as Christian albums I don’t think I could choose just one but I am really looking forward David Leonard’s upcoming offering. As for secular record… Probably Sam’s Town from The Killers.
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?
The Stable Song - Gregory Alan Isakov
What does the rest of this year hold for 7 Hills Worship?
We tentatively have 17 songs to release this year which is double anything we’ve done in the past so it’s exciting and a wild for us. Otherwise we look forward to writing more songs, sharing our stories and making new friends!
