Louder Than The Music

Ian Yates, a Christian worship leader and songwriter from Liverpool, UK, releases his new EP 'Battlelands, Vol 2' on January 12th. The title comes from a phrase you say to someone if you don't know the answer to a question or didn't even understand the question in the first place.

Ian says, "I came across the phrase ‘Battlelands’ and loved what it meant, I was inspired by the word and the idea that there are a lot of answers I don’t have. ‘I don’t know’ is a valid answer for me now.

This is really ‘Deconstruction’ Vol 2. These songs were written for the ‘Between the Joy and the Sorrow’ project, we recorded them, yet felt they didn’t fit that project. They’ve now made ‘Battlelands’ EP - 4 songs of honesty, reality and disappointment, yet filled with a quiet hope.

Musically and sonically, I love this collection of songs. I know not everyone will get them or like them, but I’m super grateful to release them. Trevor Michael's production and the drums played by Paul Evans sound immense."

Ian leads musical worship at his home church Bootle Elim and is part of Elim Sound, the national worship department for the Elim movement. Ian is married to Kate, they have 3 young children, Jackson, Elijah and Abiah.

His 2014 album DNA reached number 5 in the Official UK Christian Chart and won contemporary album of the year in NFN’s annual awards. In 2015 he co-wrote the song ‘No Longer I’ with 2-time Grammy winner Matt Redman which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London on Redman’s ‘Unbroken Praise’ album. In 2016 his song ‘Highwire’ reached number 1 in the UK Christian ‘AStep Fwrd’ chart. His 2020 album ‘Mystery’ was received with glowing reviews and his song ’Loved By You’ from that album has been streamed almost two million times.

Ian's sixth studio album ‘Between The Joy And The Sorrow’ was released in 2 parts. Part 1 dropped on June 24th 2022 with part 2 following on September 30th the same year. The album gained favourable reviews and the song 'God You've Never Failed Me' was added to playlists across the USA on Christian radio, whilst the title track received airplay on BBC Music Introducing.

His songs have been shared on over 41,000 Spotify playlists including Spotify's own New Music Friday Christian, Calming Christian, Indie Spirit and Ultimate Christian Alternative. He has received radio airplay across his native UK as well as Europe, USA, Canada, South America, and Australia, proving himself to be one of the finest artists and songwriters in the present UK Christian and Gospel music scene.