The Power Of Songs

Drums, Tenors, Bar Bands and Worship Leading: A Song Journey to SONS The Band

• Chris Estes

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Join Jordan and Steve from SONS The Band as they we have a laugh-filled convo about the songs that impacted their musical journeys.  From U2 to Willie Nelson to Elvis performing in the Marriott Conference Room circuit with Steve's Mom's band opening, this episode is fun ride! 

Chris Estes:

So I have the opportunity right now to give a little disclaimer because of lesson number two I've learned in my long history of two months of podcasting you should not have a mobile device on near the microphones and you certainly should not have three mobile devices on. In your whole interview with two other guys Three total. So what you're going to hear in this podcast is also another rookie mistake I made was I had two microphones and there was three of us, so we were sharing microphones between Sunsaband and I had ones. My voice is pretty constant in it, but you'll hear Jordan, steve at different levels, and my producer really tried to salvage as much as he could.

Chris Estes:

The episode is great. I think the content is awesome. If you can just bear with a little bit of what you'll hear is static from mobile cell phone interference and also some volume dips from just microphone passes around. So anyway, good news is these are all lessons I've learned along the way and I will be doing much better in the future. So if you'll stick with it and stick with me, you'll have a great episode here with Sons The Band. I'm super excited about what we talk about and then keep tuning in on Tuesdays for new episodes from the Power of Songs. What was one of the in the Marriott circuit? What was her biggest opening slot? She did.

Steve Davis:

Elvis.

Chris Estes:

No, elvis, get out of here. Elvis did in Marriott At the end of his career.

Steve Davis:

He was doing.

Chris Estes:

At the end of his career, at the end of his career he was doing.

Steve Davis:

I mean, I don't remember. I wasn't alive for that, so I don't really remember. My mom says it was towards the tail end of what he was doing, but he was still Elvis, so yeah like I'm trying to imagine, like Elvis in the tail end of a like a conference room in the hotel. I mean it's like it was the club, like lounge-y, you know, but it's still Marriott, but it's still Marriott hotel.

Chris Estes:

Yeah. I don't know how much money Josh did that, but the colonel was like we're just making some money, Elvis, let's just go.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, but I remember she tells me the story where they were in the loading bay and she had finished her set and he's coming in with his team and he actually sees her in the band and he just gives them the compliment. You know, like anybody we was like that was a great set, Like it's just hilarious to me that my mom just met Elvis in a loading bay.

Chris Estes:

Welcome to the power of songs podcast, where we explore the powerful connections songs have throughout the journey of life. Yeah, so that would be funny. Just keep this. We just all talk like with no, I just hit record. We just like so I easily, I don't do like this fancy intro, we just start talking because I don't like doing the hey, welcome to the low. But this is an interesting situation because I have two mics and three interview.

Steve Davis:

We're picking up a lot of room noise.

Chris Estes:

We're at the presidential suite, the Hampton Inn. This is funny because this is a reason I should have three mics, because if I had two guests in this that's the thing.

Steve Davis:

Well, normally we would have a mic with us, yeah, Songfinches Songfinch guys, but songfinches died Songfinches. If we have mics, they don't know who we are. They don't know who you are. They don't have a mic.

Chris Estes:

I'm the one stuck with two, so we can have to share mine, which is fine. We're not using my mic stands, but they're available.

Steve Davis:

We don't need them yeah.

Chris Estes:

You have to be really close. You brought mic stands. Seriously, I've got table mic stands, but I have two. I need that third one.

Jordan Colle:

I have room for the third one this is your first band.

Chris Estes:

This is my first son's without the band. Son's the band. This is your first band. You need two.

Jordan Colle:

This is funny.

Chris Estes:

This is funny, that's funny, so introduce yourselves like Jordan.

Jordan Colle:

Yes, hi, I'm Jordan. I'm one half of son's.

Steve Davis:

One son, I'm Steve, I'm the other half of son's the other son. The other son, particularly the other son. One has long hair and one has short hair.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, you can't see that I'll ask you guys.

Steve Davis:

Jordan has a short hair.

Chris Estes:

The funny thing is, I didn't meet you guys together. I met you guys separately and then I met you back together.

Steve Davis:

I've never heard how you actually met Jordan for the first time.

Chris Estes:

So Jordan was he reminded me of this because I was his driver at Brandon Lake House of Miracles. Live recording In Nashville, in Nashville.

Jordan Colle:

I went because I had a song on his album. He didn't play it at the recording, but it was on the House of Miracles album. So he invited me to come and, which was great, I was hanging out with Dustin Smith all night, basically, and Brandon's like just jumping the car with us. We're going just whatever, it's a hangout after and Chris was driving.

Chris Estes:

Which I do like to drive. You guys have been so technically.

Jordan Colle:

Technically, I met Chris before Steve right.

Chris Estes:

You did. It's had to been before, yeah.

Jordan Colle:

This was pre COVID.

Chris Estes:

That was pre COVID, Steve. I think we met first on a zoom.

Steve Davis:

I think that's the first time I actually you want to know the real first time we met Chris. Was it before that?

Chris Estes:

We had a camp before that.

Steve Davis:

We were at. I think it was maybe the first tribal camp. Okay, I was. I was walking in between rights because I didn't really know anybody at the camp and a mutual friend of ours, yeah.

Chris Estes:

Who remain unnamed.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, a mutual friend of ours Stopped me mid walk and he goes Steve, I want you to meet somebody named Chris. Chris, this is Steve. He's one of our riders and I was like hello, Chris, I'll see you later. I just can't.

Chris Estes:

I offered to give you a ride anywhere.

Steve Davis:

No, no, I was just so. I was like just so uncomfortable the entire week that meeting. Anybody knew I was like I can't handle anybody.

Chris Estes:

I swear. The funny thing is that those camps we had so many people there Like I literally met yeah.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Chris Estes:

We're at this recording in Delaware tonight and that's where I met Adrian at a camp like and just hanging out, you know, just talking it up and say connected.

Jordan Colle:

The same camp speaking of this Delaware show right now, or we just did was that's how same camp me and Steve met is where we met Drew. Is it yes, same camp, and we met Tiana that camp too, and like that camp was like I mean it's like very wild, because it's where how we started this whole thing that we're doing, steve and I. It's also like we're still so connected with so many other people from that camp, like so many things I mean, like I would.

Jordan Colle:

There was like what 30 something people there. There's like 32 of us or 31 of us or whatever. Like 15 to 20 of us are still friends Legitimately. Wow, like Timotope was from that camp. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean just, I mean so many a lot of people were in the family music thing. Yeah, karen Espinoza was that camp. Yeah, I mean it's, it's pretty, it's absolutely a God thing at this point has to be yeah.

Chris Estes:

It's like it's wild, it's almost like it's crazy, it's yeah Multiple levels of you think about, like we talked about Motown on the way up here, like how. I mean something like Smoky Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Olive in a certain area of Detroit Like I feel like those camps like brought together a mass amount of people from way different areas but they stay connected and stuff came out of it like you look like a Stevie. Jordan thinks he's Stevie Wonder.

Steve Davis:

That's the most Jordan thing I've ever heard, all day.

Chris Estes:

If Stevie had a mullet right now, you would be. Of course she probably wouldn't know if he had it, so that's a bad joke. We should cut that.

Steve Davis:

I was going to cut that? That's not going to make it. That's not going to make it.

Chris Estes:

Hey, there's a funny, funny, funny tip. I can say that because I know this about Stevie Wonder. I've never met the guy, but I know people who work closely with him and he inherently, every time, if you know him personally, he calls you FaceTime. The last guy I know is in here, monitor guy and he's I swear, I swear that is the truth. I've verified twice that I mentioned this guy, rico. Again I was like, hey, I heard this guy say that he always FaceTime. He's like, yeah, he's like, he'll FaceTime me in. His camera's turn sideways, it's upside down, whatever, but he will not call you audibly. He will call you on a FaceTime every time. It's funny. So I think he, yeah, he's good, he's funny.

Steve Davis:

Maybe he's not. Maybe he's not blind.

Jordan Colle:

Shaq thinks he's not blind. Shaq has a story that he saw. Stevie Wonder drive out of a parking garage.

Chris Estes:

No yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Shaquille O'Neal Like there's, like there's another Shaq. No, this is true. This is true. You said that he literally saw Stevie Wonder drive out of a parking garage and wave at him and leave.

Steve Davis:

That is funny. He smells like one of those Bill Murray stories. I can't even drive away.

Jordan Colle:

No.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, oh man, that is hilarious.

Jordan Colle:

All right, so the podcast is about the power of song we're talking about.

Chris Estes:

Stevie Wonder. We've all been impacted by a song. What's the first Stevie Wonder song you remember hearing?

Steve Davis:

Superstition.

Chris Estes:

Superstition. Yeah, I think superstition it was. Is it called In the City? What's it? Yeah, it's the title of the song. Yeah, it's the title of the song. Is In the City, right? Yeah, yeah.

Jordan Colle:

What's the record?

Chris Estes:

The double record with the red and the yellow circles, some about life, some Key of life, key of life. Yeah, that's it.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, it's off that record, I believe.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, that's.

Jordan Colle:

Fine, it's a song that I've been telling me my dad influenced quite a bit of what. I listened to. When I was a kid, that was one of them, that he was like you need to listen to yeah, it's classic, it's very wild Classic. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Estes:

So I'd like to start with. All right, we'll start with you, jordan, because you've got the microphone.

Jordan Colle:

Songs in the key of life.

Chris Estes:

Songs in the key of life, that's what it was.

Jordan Colle:

That's what it's called. Yeah, yeah, it's not the key of life, sorry, we shortened it up. Really.

Chris Estes:

Very superstitious Riding on the wall.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, wow, I kind of I didn't even catch that.

Chris Estes:

It's a plural plural version. Is it superstitious plural or is that just a word? No, without the superstition, superstitious is not plural.

Jordan Colle:

You're hurting my brain I don't know.

Chris Estes:

We're not doing an English podcast. We're going to talk about music.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah Well, kind of English, so I like to talk about Jordan.

Chris Estes:

You got the microphone. How did you get?

Jordan Colle:

in, there's only one mic.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, you got the microphone.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, the microphone. Not plural oh, microphone.

Chris Estes:

How did you get into music Like?

Jordan Colle:

what's your?

Chris Estes:

journey into where, like where did you start music?

Jordan Colle:

and work up to where you are now. Yeah, it's very much a simplified version. Was is probably. I mean, I grew up in a Christian home and I grew up in, yeah, going to church and doing the whole thing, and so I think I started out as a drummer and so that was kind of what got my foot in the door and playing music in general and I had this like super old red drum kit that like I'm pretty sure the rack Tom looked like the Grand Canyon was like the most beat up thing ever seen in your life and that's what I learned on. And I started playing a youth group and then I played in big church so we called it as a kid and it was cool because we had multiple bands. Like we had a more like playing your Hillsong, you know modern Christian worship stuff, and then we had like a more gospel centric band playing like Kirk Franklin and Fred Ham and everything. So I got to play drums a bunch of different styles styles, which is really cool. I think helped me in a lot of ways.

Chris Estes:

But attracted you to drums Like what was the the?

Jordan Colle:

draw Probably just my sheer amount of energy.

Chris Estes:

Just wanted to beat something up, yeah.

Jordan Colle:

I just kind of psychotic personality and needed to come out somehow and I just drifted towards it. I don't know, I fully know why I just like the idea of it and kind of, but I, I mean I like legitimately practiced. It was like a whole thing Got into it.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, cause I had to earn the first real drum kit. I got. You know, I played that red drum kit for a long time and then I got to like kind of earn my like. My Christmas present one year was like a new, it was like a PV. Oh, yeah, it was like a, like a, like a hunter green. It was pretty sick.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, like PV had a day Like the.

Jordan Colle:

Rack Tom was like. It was like it was like 24. It was like it was like the biggest drum set ever.

Chris Estes:

But it was cool they had that wide thing around the top. Was that the PV set? They had the wide it was.

Jordan Colle:

it was like a, like a four piece, so it was like kick snare to Tom.

Chris Estes:

But the shells were not just like a straight shell, it had, like a white, had the top and the bottom as like their signature thing. Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, I think it was like a. What are the like Sabian symbols?

Chris Estes:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Be, be, sabian, be, whatever, anyway, yeah, Just what you're like like your first symbol and they just sound atrocious, but essentially, yeah, and then that basically got me into. I did that basically all through high school when I started playing guitar a little bit my dad played and I started writing songs a little bit like in high school, but nothing major and just kind of found like a singing voice when I was like 18, 19.

Chris Estes:

Wow, so I started singing like later yeah, what was the first stuff you were singing?

Jordan Colle:

like modern worship stuff, yeah, or like covering, like a Coldplay song or like something like that and just singing in my room and then kind of stumbled into the worship leading thing, just kind of like I had an okay, enough voice for them to throw me up there and people were like, hey, you should really try to pursue this. So then I kind of left the drums behind and sort of pursuing that, and now I'm in sons.

Chris Estes:

Wow, all right, that's a quick journey. Yep, you skipped a few things in the middle. We'll go we'll go.

Steve Davis:

We'll go. I started singing and now I'm in sons 18 and I'm in sons.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, we'll come back to it. Actually, I think you both should. I'm going to ask the question again, Steve.

Jordan Colle:

How did you get into music?

Chris Estes:

And then I'm going to give you the only other mic we have so you can commentate while, because you guys are awesome.

Steve Davis:

Oh, that's great. That's a great idea.

Jordan Colle:

That's good.

Steve Davis:

So same question how did I get into music? I grew up my mom was Nope, nope. I'm kidding you don't remember. No, that's not true.

Jordan Colle:

That's not how it worked. That's not how it was.

Steve Davis:

That's why we don't let him have the mic. I grew up, my mom was a singer and a piano player and a guitar player and she was the worship leader at my church and she was also like the. I mean, she was doing music for everything that you could think of and she put on some cool records though, right. I mean, she was in I'm going to butcher this I think she was in a group called the library that was like her band.

Jordan Colle:

Honestly kind of sick.

Steve Davis:

Yep. She toured back in, like the seventies and eighties for Marriott hotels. And she which hotel are we at right now? Hampton Inn, hampton Inn. Chris doesn't have a mic. Yeah, we're at Hampton Inn. I'm over here miming. Yeah, we're at Hampton Inn. No, so my mom was the house band for corporate Marriott back in the late seventies or early eighties Pretty sick.

Steve Davis:

Yep, she was in the hotels in all the major cities and play at the top level clubs and she opened up for some pretty cool people some pretty cool acts. So I got to ask you what?

Chris Estes:

is it Got to watch how you pronounce that word, like what? Don't pluralize it. Yeah, yep, where did she pop that P? What was one of the in the Marriott circuit? What was her biggest like opening slot? What did she?

Steve Davis:

do Elvis.

Chris Estes:

No Elvis. Get out of here. Elvis did a Marriott conference room Back at the end of his career.

Steve Davis:

He was doing.

Chris Estes:

At the end of his career. At the end of his career.

Steve Davis:

He was doing. I mean, I don't remember. I wasn't alive for that, so I don't really remember. My mom says it was towards the tail end of what he was doing, but he was told Elvis.

Chris Estes:

So yeah, like how I'm trying to imagine, like Elvis, in the tail end of a, like a conference room in a hotel.

Steve Davis:

I mean it's like it was the club, like loungey, you know, but it's still a Marriott, but it's still a Marriott hotel.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, I don't know how much money he charged to do that but the colonel was like we're just making some money, elvis, let's just go, yeah.

Steve Davis:

But I remember she tells me the story where they were in the loading bay and she had finished her set and he's coming in with his team and he actually sees her in the band and he just gives them the compliment. You know, like anybody was like that was a great set, like it's just hilarious to me that my mom just met Elvis in a loading bay you know like in between passing, I thought you were going to say he like kind of like hit on her or something.

Steve Davis:

No, but no, no. What if your mom got hit on by Elvis? What if, weirdly, it was like no Cut?

Chris Estes:

The father is yeah, right, yeah, exactly.

Steve Davis:

Elvis, your dad, I'm wondering. Question marks now. Question marks now. Anyway, so my mom was a piano player and singer in this band and also the worst player at my church. So I always say that I grew up underneath the piano at rehearsal and so I grew up with her listening to like John Denver and James Taylor, and then you know, she was like singing like Sandy Patty and and darling Czech songs, you know, for Sunday. So I was learning all that stuff too, just from a young age, and when I got into school I was a jock for a long time, but this girl I liked in middle school was in choir and so I joined choir and then I was a choir kid from middle school into college.

Jordan Colle:

And I think that you did.

Steve Davis:

Yep, yep, I was. I did classical voice for a long time and I was a voice performance major in college and then was in just a bunch of bands at some time.

Jordan Colle:

What would you, what would you, what would you guys do? Like what, what's like?

Steve Davis:

There's a lot of foreign language stuff. Okay, like Italian and French, I got pretty good at singing in French, but don't ask me to do anything.

Jordan Colle:

No, I'm not gonna ask you that it's been a long time. No, it's cooler, Like like the mystery of it's cooler.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, I remember her sing a lot of foray, gabriel Foray.

Jordan Colle:

What's your favorite? Love him, yeah, huge fan, yeah, yeah.

Steve Davis:

I probably am not saying his name correctly, but yeah. But no, so I did. I did classical voice for a long time and then, in the midst of all that I was touring with like pop punk bands and playing guitar and that stuff, I started when I was 14, 15 playing I first song I ever played live was I the Tiger?

Jordan Colle:

What a freaking great song.

Steve Davis:

Yep, yep.

Jordan Colle:

We're near a family yeah.

Steve Davis:

Right, yep. So I played, I the Tiger, when I was 14 and non-Minson's band.

Jordan Colle:

Wow, just like that.

Chris Estes:

There you go, guys. I the Tiger and then sons of band. Yeah, it's great, I like the time warp there, yep. So I like to go through. You know, I gave you guys a brief look at the questions I like to touch on.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah.

Chris Estes:

Which I think kind of builds the whole podcast thing. So the first question. Oh, steve's passing the mic over to the other son.

Jordan Colle:

Hey guys.

Chris Estes:

Jordan's on the mic. Now I love this question because I can actually remember at a very young age when I was like, oh, because you go from this point. The moment was I'm not listening to what my parents listen to or what my older sister was trying to turn me on to, but I actually was like, oh, I'm listening to music that I want to hear that. I like you know, I was like I think I was nine when that happened. So I think everybody who's in music has that moment. It's like then you get drawn into it. You're like okay, I'll have a passion for love for music. So I like to start with that question. Like, do you remember what song or songs plural, sorry, we've been having this little joke about the plural bands. Bands would be fun.

Jordan Colle:

You two's, they were all plural yeah, yeah, funny, it's not that funny.

Chris Estes:

I cut this part out. So what you two'd, we hit that is that one.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, the ED is like that one's good, Nickelbacked, I mean that's like that almost sounds criminal.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, it does.

Jordan Colle:

Sounds the bandaid. Well hey.

Chris Estes:

Elvis Presley'd.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, oh yeah. That's like Steve's dad, you mean, oh okay.

Steve Davis:

Now we're hitting some hot topics.

Chris Estes:

Okay, so what song or songs do you remember like this? This was the moment where I like oh yeah, I'm listening. This is a song that I'm listening to now and it's like Like, not worship song, like you mean.

Jordan Colle:

Any song.

Chris Estes:

Like it could be a worship song, but it's like I think there's that moment for me it wasn't worship, because I didn't grow up in a faith family, but it was that moment where I'm like man, I love, I love this song. This is a song that I want to listen to. That you're because I think there's a passive moment, like you kind of. We all grew up, especially now, all around music. But even as you're growing up, when we were kids you were hearing music. You know parents in the car radio, whatever. But then there's a moment where you're like I'm listening to the music and I like this thing.

Jordan Colle:

I mean there's a couple that come to mind. I remember my dad introducing me to a lot of gospel music, like he was a big Fred Hammond guy, not was he is. So I remember that I don't know if that was necessarily like a. I'm also feeling what my dad's feeling. I love this it was.

Jordan Colle:

I mean I enjoyed it and I liked it, but he would always kind of show me different types of music. I mean there was definitely like a U2 aspect of it. He loves U2. And so there was, like you know, like streets and all that you know, all like the hits. And there I think the thing about the U2 thing is there's very much like an emotional pull that you feel with their music and I think that's really where I think I started to like be like okay, I'm feeling something that is beyond me just enjoying this. Like I feel a desire to want to understand like how they did this, and then that kind of turned into like Coldplay and Radiohead and that it just took me down a trail of like some other bands that were obviously influenced by U2 in a lot of ways. But yeah, I think that's, and then obviously that turns into worship stuff too.

Jordan Colle:

And that was probably like a pretty pivotal, like you wanted to discover how and why and if I ever could do something like that, where would I start?

Steve Davis:

kind, of thing. Yeah, that's great man. Thank you, Steve. You're welcome, I think Elvis. No, Believe it or not, no, it was not my father's music.

Jordan Colle:

Dad.

Steve Davis:

My actual father yeah just so we're clear. Dave.

Jordan Colle:

Elvis is not Steve's dad.

Steve Davis:

No, Dave, this is a probably a deep cut for some and an obvious one for people in the world that I, the music that I really love which is like folk, singer, songwriter, like old time country music. But when I heard Time of the Preacher by Willie Nelson for the first time, I was hook, line and sinker, I was in and I was like I want to write stories like that and I want to sing songs like that and I was probably 12, you know, 11 or 12 when I heard that.

Jordan Colle:

I think it was about the same for me. About that age.

Steve Davis:

Yep, I heard Time the Preacher and it was like I feel like so much of music and when it hits you is also like the place you're in when you're listening to it. And I remember it was me and my dad, which is weird because my dad wasn't the musical influence in my life. My mom was, and we're driving up north in Michigan at the time.

Jordan Colle:

So Canada.

Steve Davis:

In the fingers. You know, not yet Canada, but we had like hunting property and we were going up to like prep the property for the season and we would listen to their album Red Headed Stranger, like I don't know how many times We'd listen to that. And Randy Travis yeah, that's good.

Steve Davis:

And Time the Preacher. Every time those it's like a couple of different times it comes back through that record. Yeah, I think it's my big time in the preacher part one and part two, both whatever one was on I was like hooked and then that kind of turned into. You know, I just I just started loving story and so I went back and I listened to like Bob Seeger and like how he was telling stories in the boss and how.

Steve Davis:

Springsteen was telling stories and now it's like it's, it's. It's just morphed into just me trying to find like the heaviest, most heart wrenching stuff you can possibly get your. You know, you wrap your head around.

Chris Estes:

So there's a good follow up question to this which I think is interesting for guys our age or kind of in the same proximity of ages Close enough. And at that age, when you're discovering that and you're kind of going down the trail of new music, how were you getting to it Like, were you buying it, were you? Listening to the radio Like what was your? How'd you get to it?

Steve Davis:

I mean, at first I was digging through cassettes.

Chris Estes:

Yeah.

Steve Davis:

Like my dad or my mom had. And then it was, my dad had a bunch of CDs, you know that you just going through their stuff, is going through his and her stuff.

Chris Estes:

You remember what you did. You first buy something like? Do you remember buying?

Steve Davis:

music in Cubis.

Chris Estes:

Was that really?

Jordan Colle:

No really I bought.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, wow, yeah, and Cubis was the first one.

Jordan Colle:

Well, what's funny, the whole you two thing. That's from earlier. It's kind of like a. I remember my dad handing me the CD and being like you need to listen to this. It was very much like a like. Yeah, it was like. It was like kind of an intense moment almost and so I like had this, you know, like you had this like obnoxiously huge boombox things in your room Yep.

Jordan Colle:

And I'd like put the record. I put the seat, not record, with CD on and it's like I think for me it was. It's interesting because you grow and mature and then you, you love all aspects of songwriting, but what captivated me as a young kid was that like emotion that I was feeling.

Steve Davis:

I was like wait, what's happening to me?

Jordan Colle:

Right Like, and so that's what I began to chase, and I think it's still kind of what I chased today, like Steve's, probably a little more like like concept driven or a little more like like storytelling driven which, as, as I was saying, you grow and you learn to love both and you learn to chase both, Like I still chase those same things. But what brought me into it? And I think still what probably leads a lot of my chasing?

Jordan Colle:

is that like I want to feel that again, you know, or I want to, I want, and with portion music it's different and we can get into that, but yeah quick at all I like it, you both are going to pass me the mic.

Steve Davis:

I was going to have two mics. This is going to be a tough edit. And now I'm too mic'd, you're going to have no idea which channel is which.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, it's really. It's like. It's almost like you go through a musical baptism when you first you have that draw, you're impacted, you're, you're actively listening and you're drawing into it. But then when you start buying and pursuing music, it's like you are in, like you're fully in. And the interesting thing now is I feel again like we were both. You know, I remember cassette days. I wasn't I'm not old enough to be like eight track days but.

Chris Estes:

I love vinyl. We all have an appreciation for vinyl, which has been the original music distribution format and, to me, is the greatest art expression, from cover art and everything. Yeah, vinyl is awesome, but I think there's a thing where it's a bit nostalgic for us. Now I've had some other guests on the podcast where you actually your first discoverability was through friends and parents, or like I had one guest that had a milk crate full of vinyl and a basement that he found that turned into secular music that you got to listen to because you're a faith family, so it's an interesting thing nowadays, like our kids.

Chris Estes:

you know, we're up here with my daughter and she does not know music not being readily available and accessible. And she doesn't even feel the friction of having to buy music. She just has access to everything she wanted to listen to, so she has a pretty wide taste. But it's like it's a whole different experience. Like you know, your young flow will grow up and he'll have I mean his discoverability will be, he'll be able to go down rabbit trails.

Jordan Colle:

Oh no, bill Evans, yeah, and Tayman Paula, I mean it's like it is crazy.

Chris Estes:

It's so accessible now. But I think there is a moment, like we went through, when you start actively buying it and then you're engaging with it and we all lived through the digital wave and how it all became kind of so in for a moment and culture starts to influence.

Jordan Colle:

I think when you're that, when you're as young as we were telling those stories, it's like you're still very much influenced by your home and your siblings or you know like. But then once you start, you know, getting a little more freedom in your life, you get influenced by what your friends at school are listening to, or what's popular Right, like, well, what's pop music?

Jordan Colle:

Like, obviously, the Willie Nelson and YouTube records were not popular when we were in middle school. It's like so then it's like, oh, I guess I'm going to listen to. You know, steve said Ankybus earlier. I'm going to listen to. I'm going to try out, you know this whatever band and whatever artists, and then it becomes a little bit.

Chris Estes:

Then you get some weird, weird music, and now you can go through thinking about this Early 2000s was tough, yeah, but now you can listen to the decades like the playlist and the people also listen to and it sounds like all those rabbit trails like there's such a curated experience now that we didn't, you know, in our age it was like parents yeah, you curate your own thing, or radio influenced you, or MTV influenced you or something had some kind of curation, but it's crazy.

Chris Estes:

So the next question, which you kind of touched on this a little bit, but if you can think about it, like what song or songs really impacted you in a way of like man, this song, like you kind of talked about it with Willie, but are there other songs that like man this song actually changed a lot of things for me.

Jordan Colle:

Yes, you can go if you have.

Steve Davis:

So I think the song, I think the song that power of our prayers is available on all streaming platforms.

Jordan Colle:

It just came out, friday.

Steve Davis:

This is. It was a weird left turn and I don't even really know how I ended up really liking this band as much as I did, but I've probably seen this band more than any other band and this song probably set the trajectory for me as a songwriter and as, like a front man and is like and it's weird because I would not put it as like one of my top favorite songs. It's just the song that I remember setting me on this thing and it's Iris by the Google Dolls.

Jordan Colle:

It's such a good song though.

Steve Davis:

I okay, that's kind of. That's a weird response because most people would have the story.

Jordan Colle:

That isn't isn't that the story? That song and credit like writer's block or something, and he like it was like the first song he wrote in like a year I was going to say.

Chris Estes:

I think the sink placement in the movie is what really put it on the top. Yeah, I mean to me. I think it got the mass, mass, but it was like it was perfect, it was perfect. To me, it was like one of the most perfect sinks in the movie ever.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, I mean, I've gotten so much crap for that. No for liking that which.

Chris Estes:

I feel very loved.

Jordan Colle:

I feel very loved right now.

Steve Davis:

But Iris, and just the way that John Resnick performed that song I saw him do that half a dozen times in various different places and contexts and I probably was in high school at that point Like it was an older song that I'd found and I really liked it and I was like this dude is doing something and I just wanted to do it. I just it was like I'm going to do that now, and then I really haven't turned back, like I've just been like acoustic sing your heart out top of your lungs, everything inside you, the deepest parts of you, get it out. But I think what got me about that one, what was different about Willie and John Resnick, was that Resnick was actually he was using like modern melody and like kind of like this soaring vocal thing, and I had already really liked the storytelling aspect. But when you added that melodic thing that he was doing, I was like this is magic.

Chris Estes:

That was it for me. That's interesting, that is the power of songs. That's why I wanted to do a podcast on this, Because I think there are songs that are markers like that that change the trajectory of how you pursue music, what you do in music, even as a consumer of music. There's songs like that that are like man. This is a song that marked a lot of things and can actually motivate you to make a life change.

Steve Davis:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, like I said, it was like that was one of the things where it's like an instant, Like you hear a song and you go. I'll never unhear that, I'll never not be able to like think about everything, that now everything I write has to kind of like meet that standard. You know, dude for?

Chris Estes:

me I was as a guitar player. I was, like you know, kind of a novice, as novice as you can be as a teenager. Ninth grade of high school, Welcome to the jungle. Came out guns the roses was first in the scene. The rate local radio session played it every single morning and I remember, I can, I can literally when I hear that riff, that opening, iconic riff. I can remember walking down the breezeway at high school, a kid with a boombox cranking it and thinking I want to play guitar like that and that that committed me to like I'm going to be the best guitar player. Yeah, How's that going?

Jordan Colle:

But dude it, inspired. You though.

Steve Davis:

Super inspiring.

Jordan Colle:

Super inspiring to be a manager.

Steve Davis:

That's too good. Yeah, welcome to jungle. Go ahead, jordan, oh yeah.

Jordan Colle:

We can make fun of mine too. It's great. No, I think I've always been very visual, so it's like, if there's ever anything, I got more used to.

Steve Davis:

Are you synesthetic in my sense right?

Jordan Colle:

Like when you like synesthetic, I don't think so, but like I don't ever think about it when I'm playing, like I don't ever think if I am or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's like some sort of aspect to that.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, for sure.

Jordan Colle:

But I say all that because it was Coldplay came out with X and Y.

Steve Davis:

Oh yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Which was their third, was parachutes, russian blood. The next one, right yeah yeah, which I was obviously a fan of the other two I mean massively but they came out with like a video recording, like a like this, like a live recording, live performance thing with X and Y, and the first track on that record is Square One, I think.

Steve Davis:

That sounds right yeah.

Jordan Colle:

And like the visuals and just the whole thing. You're just like dude. This is like I want to do this so bad.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

It was very much like I yeah, it was like that moment for me. For sure, it was, you know, like we talked about this. We've all had these moments in multiple ways, but I would say that that's probably another one that was just kind of like I think I watched that concert live like 20 times.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, dude, it's just like stupid you know, yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Like what else are you going to do, you know, but that was definitely a big one for me.

Chris Estes:

So what another question in the trail of questions is so you guys are songwriters, artists, you actually trying yes, or both very best. What are some of the favorite song of your favorite song or favorite songs you've worked on Well, like like us, personally, yeah.

Steve Davis:

Man.

Jordan Colle:

Well, what's cool about this season that we're in with the songs? I definitely feel like it's one. I think it's been some of our favorite stuff we've written like individually I would probably maybe say I would put cross empty grave right up there with some of my favorite songs. Yeah, so I think that is been really cool. Man, yeah, cross empty grave is one for sure. Crowns, I think for me is still a big one. I think it comes to your mind.

Steve Davis:

Dude, what about? What was the name of your record? You released solo.

Jordan Colle:

Mainland.

Steve Davis:

OK, I know I didn't write that song Mainland, but if you're not talking about Mainland, Mainland.

Jordan Colle:

Yes, I am. I am proud of that. You should be a thousand percent proud of Mainland. That song is unbelievable.

Steve Davis:

Thank you, you're welcome.

Jordan Colle:

I mean, I guess we can do this if we want to do this. But Steve has a song called Moon Shine and this is unplanned, this is unplanned, but I'm serious like I. I obviously, you know I have my opinions on every, on everything. We know this. There's some production liberties I would have changed. But, that is one of the best songs. Just songwriting wise. Thanks man, it's very, very good and it's it's. It's what you everything he was talking about earlier. What do you strive for? I think you nailed it on that one.

Steve Davis:

Thank you.

Jordan Colle:

It's very much like the emotional, pouring your heart out, but it's a story and it's a really intense story and it's a beautiful story and sad, but it's also. Yeah, I mean, it's why you write songs.

Steve Davis:

Right, yeah, stuff like that.

Chris Estes:

So yeah, absolutely I also love that you both answered the question for each other, because you're you're such fans of each other. It's like you're the best bandmates, it's like you just both answered your own questions for each other.

Steve Davis:

It's true. I think there's a lot of song.

Jordan Colle:

I mean like there's like a lot of songs that probably no one's ever heard and no one might ever hear that like 100 percent.

Steve Davis:

I love like.

Jordan Colle:

Yep. I mean it's part of the part of the. I think you you really weed out people with songwriting when they're doing it to get heard. It's like I think there's something innately that works with us is because we're both people that would do it anyway. Whether people are listening or not, like I can't help myself but to write a song.

Steve Davis:

We both did that when people were not listening for years.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, and people are like kind of listening now, but it's like it's, it's a yeah, it's doesn't change too much of like yeah. Like my hobby is what I'm doing. It's like when you're like, hey, what do you?

Steve Davis:

want to go do.

Jordan Colle:

I'm like, I'm kind of doing it. You know what I mean, right?

Steve Davis:

Yeah, I was going to say it's a it's a great question and I think it's like To to jump on a bandwagon phrase right now but it's like era based, you know a little bit with like. There are songs I wrote as a new writer and I'm talking like when I was like a teenager, when I had no idea what I was doing that I still think, as far as like what I was doing at the time. I'm really proud of those songs. They meant something. They meant something and it's like in per like at whatever level you're at, if you get something you're really proud of, like, that doesn't change. You know, you should still be proud of that, even if you're 15, 20 years down the road. It's probably technically bad.

Jordan Colle:

Oh, it's horrible, but it's like it was it was a but, as a as a 15 year old writer writing your first song.

Steve Davis:

you know like I'm proud of some of that stuff, you know, and some of the stuff I did with my band back in college, like there's songs.

Steve Davis:

I remember being like I'll never get a room, which is crazy now thinking back, but it's like. I remember distinctly being like we wrote these songs to get rid of the bad guys. Being like we wrote these songs to get rooms on our side. You know opening up in bars and and you know small clubs and you're you're just trying to get a room with you, and there's songs that I think I remember being like we got a room with that song. You know that's a very secular desire, but at the time that was like all I wanted was like somebody to jump on a song with me and get a room singing a song, and so in that sense, I'm proud of that. We got that done, but that's also not a great song. You know, yeah, and I think probably like 15 years from now, me and Jordan will be sitting in a room somewhere and being like. You remember when we wrote Only Ever Good with our buddies. Yeah, and that's probably going to be. That's a good song.

Chris Estes:

I heard the interview with you know, babyface, the, he's an artist, he's a producer right, yeah right. He's written a ton of different stuff and in the it was a songwriter interview and one of his favorite songs was when he wrote in high school a love song. He's like you know same thing. He's like it's one one that I'm the proudest of. Yeah, it still resonates with me.

Chris Estes:

I think that's it's a creative process, man. It's hard to even imagine like. I looked at our numbers this last week over a hundred thousand streams for the week and like to think about that, just to go from like. I always want to get somebody in the room to like now a hundred thousand listens in a week which is humbling. It's crazy, which is like you know, it's the age we live in, Right.

Chris Estes:

This music is so accessible, but also the consumption is crazy, man, like right Back. You know, when we were teenagers it was like if you sold a hundred thousand anything, it'd be amazing, right, right.

Chris Estes:

Hey it's not the same, but the consumption's there. This next question is one that I love because, especially with guys like you that are in the space that we're in and we get to see a power of songs that go beyond just what some people experience in what they would call mainstream music or whatever. But it has ministry tied to it. It's got, you know, gospel truths, it's got Holy Spirit filled, things that people feel and and I've seen it over the years and what I've been involved in. But I love this question for guys like you because it kind of speaks to a different dynamic of the power of songs. So the question is how have you seen, or how would you explain, the power of song that you've been involved in, how it's impacted people like you know?

Chris Estes:

I've seen, for me I've seen. You know I've seen healing, I've seen redemption, I've seen life restoration. You know you guys have been involved in that kind of stuff too. But what are some stories that you can remember that are like man, this was like I saw. This was the most amplified power of what a song can do.

Steve Davis:

In that way I've never had spiritual conversations with my brothers and sisters before I started writing worship music. So personally it's pretty cool. Personally, it's made a pretty huge impact on me, you know and that's why you prep the questions, so you'll get caught off guard.

Steve Davis:

I mean, I've never had spiritual conversations with my older brother, my younger brother, my older sister, my little sister is a worship leader, so we'd have conversations. But ever since we've been doing songs and been doing family music like it's opened up huge out of the blue, you know, it's been a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, big, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, much, huge, huge, big, huge來. Where you just come through this, through me, something like this structure. I've been doing family music like it's opened up huge avenues it to taking the story given me and kind of putting that on display. The first initial hit was people that were very intimately close to me that I have had very little intimacy at that level with, and so huge, personally huge shift. You know there's tons of stories of people DMing and texting and stuff.

Jordan Colle:

We get stuff like that quite a bit which is super rad and humbling and it's like you know, my brother doesn't know the Lord and I showed him this song. I mean I had, I had my I won't share names because it's very much still happening but the my best friend through like high school and middle school and this is actually just happened recently, like three weeks ago he married me and Amanda and like just like best friend, like we worked together at church and he just struggled with addiction and stuff through a lot of his life and kind of fell off the map for like four years. I heard from like new phone.

Jordan Colle:

I just couldn't get ahold of him, whatever it had been four years and he called me like three weeks ago and he said that he was in like a facility, like a rehab facility, and he'd been in like in and out of a bunch and a couple of people were there that, like you know, I'd just gotten there and he had been there for me a couple of weeks and he would always go into like the the facility has like a chapel.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

And he would just go in there and he would like get access to the projector and play like worship videos and he'd play only ever good all the time.

Jordan Colle:

Like the live video and he had two, these two, two people that came that into the facility. That won nothing to do with the Lord and it wasn't a Christian rehab, it was just like a whatever you know, and so he's. But he was just like. He's like you need to come to the chapel with me. I call whoever morning. Blah, blah, he's like. He's like. My buddy sings a song. You gotta hear it, you know he's like chatting me up or whatever.

Jordan Colle:

And he's always, always been a big fan of like whatever I've written, whatever I've done, just like huge supporter of all that kind of stuff. And I mean, and it's been so long as I've talked to him I didn't even know he knew we were a thing you know like right, or that he was even keeping up with what I was doing. And basically this, this girl came to like the chapel and like put on every good and just like freaking, got wrecked and like changed your life, like this was. I can't even share this with you guys.

Steve Davis:

This was crazy. This is fun.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, so he. So when he was calling me he was telling me the story and it was just he was like you just never know, like what your songs are doing, like what a video can do.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Um, she like just wanted nothing to do with the Lord, but like that song opened up something you know to, at least the beginning of a, maybe a relationship with him. Um, but sometimes you even think it's just like a rowdy fun.

Steve Davis:

I'm so glad Lauren brought that line.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah.

Steve Davis:

I am my father's dream line.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah.

Steve Davis:

I'm so glad she brought that. That's like a moment that will live, yeah, in my mind forever.

Jordan Colle:

So it was pretty wild and I I mean I was it's I hung up the phone and I'm like immediately crying. Cause like like with my and she, she like my wife knew she's like, she's like. I had a feeling it was Sean Like wow. His name. But whatever, he won't care honestly, but she's like I had a feeling it was him.

Steve Davis:

And we can cover over with David Hasselhoff.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, I love David. Uh, it was just wild man, so I all that to say. There's, it's, uh, that was one of the most recent ones. It's very cool and personal in a lot of ways, but yeah, that's wild man, that's, it's, it's.

Chris Estes:

I think it speaks to the power of not only song, like you're talking about, um, but the uh. You know you call it evergreen, but there's, I feel like songs are, they're markers in time, they can be soundtracks for moments, but they can also be a continuing revelation for people. And and now, like, yeah, your friend who may not have known you're even in sons band just discoverability and accessibility to music, like for him to, even if he looked up your name was like yeah, when was he doing?

Chris Estes:

and to look up at YouTube like that that song would pop up on YouTube because it'd be your most popular song. Um, I remember you sharing about resurrection power, like some of the DM uh testimonies out of that that were, um, people just having it playing in. You know, in environments where they're they're needed healing, they needed some, you know, some resurrection healing power and and it happening, um, and I think it gives language to that man and it's like that's what I love.

Chris Estes:

being involved in music like this with you guys is what's always cool when you have songs that are like.

Jordan Colle:

they're obviously like the vertical stuff is super powerful, but like singing to people too is like letting them know something they should know, Like you need to know that, like, if you need resurrection, it's here.

Jordan Colle:

If you need things healed in your life, it's here, Like and that's also very like creates a I, like an energy and like a, a encouragement, you know, and like a reminder to these people. It's like it's like, as worship leaders, we're not just ushering people into the presence of God which, yes, that is a massive part of what we do but it's also like we are leading these people to where we have been and the leading them to places that we know you know like.

Jordan Colle:

I, somebody told me, like you can never lead someone to a place you've never gone. It's like I need them to know. Like I know, this resurrection power and you can have it too. You know what I mean, Like I've seen it in my life. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen that part of the song.

Chris Estes:

You know what I mean it's yeah, yeah, that's so good man. I think it's. It's a reason why the Bible has the biggest book is a book of songs, because it it does give language and and songs are are memorable, like you can remember the hooks, you can remember the, the choruses or what you're singing. So, yeah, it's super powerful. Hey, the last question that I'd like to end with yeah, is if you had a pick a favorite color of a band, the yeah.

Chris Estes:

So this is. I'm kind of touched on a little bit of this, but we'll. We'll kind of go straight into it again and just see if there's a different perspective on it. But what song or songs would you say have impacted you? Your profession, like for you, iris was one of those. But like, would you look back and say, man, this one or these songs like really impacted me.

Steve Davis:

Sure In my profession. Yeah, oh, absolutely so. I remember distinctly the first time I heard from the inside out by Hillsong United.

Steve Davis:

that song will never leave my soul it was my my yeah, my buddy Matt, who I didn't even hear Hillsong lead it, which is, I think, a testament to local worship leaders and how much you can have an impact on people. My buddy Matt, who I worked with for years, was leading this song at like I don't know it was like. It was like a youth retreat that we were leading together in like 2006, you know, 2007, something like that, whenever it's a great year.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, whenever that song came out, it was, it was fresh and he led it and I was like what is this song? I went and let you know, listen to it from the United version and I led that song for 10 years. You know on and off. And then do you know the song Sinking Deep.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, young and free Young and free. Oh yeah, love so dear to you.

Steve Davis:

So I had been leading worship for a long time at that point. Honors.

Jordan Colle:

That was a half-long ago.

Steve Davis:

No, yeah, I think it was probably 2013.

Jordan Colle:

Really, that long ago 2012, 2013.

Steve Davis:

I'm kind of curious now Something like that We'll look it up.

Jordan Colle:

Chad, can you get on the?

Steve Davis:

research, maybe a little bit after that.

Jordan Colle:

We'll look it up, yeah.

Steve Davis:

But I remember leading that song at a youth retreat and having like my real first, like this is the room was vertical. Your love, so deep, is washing over me. Your face is all I see. You are my everything. We were like there was like 200 kids, just like vertical, and that was the first time for me that that happened in like a really real sense, you know where. It didn't feel fabricated, it didn't feel like kids were just like doing it because they saw leaders do it. It was like 200 kids that were believing it. You know, and it was that song and that was, I would pinpoint. That is like that was the journey, the start of the journey that the Holy Spirit was going to send me on. That I didn't know about. You know, like 10 years later, you know so it's 2015. So maybe eight years later, eight years later, yeah Right, 2015. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Jordan Colle:

Um, so with everything was a big one for me. Another Joel Houston banger, freakin' guy.

Steve Davis:

Joel, if you're listening, we'd hang out with you any day.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, you seem like a nice guy. Chris knows Joel, so he's actually like.

Chris Estes:

I worked those songs in his album, which is funny that you guys mentioned that.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, and also like raised.

Chris Estes:

Joel Houston banger. That's really interesting. It's an interesting place. You're welcome. You're welcome, joel and America. We're going to make a new playlist, the Joel Houston banger playlist. Considering the temperature of that right now, we should probably not. We should definitely get this far now. Yeah, for sure, for sure, this is not going to make it Dude. I remember that's great. Go ahead and finish it, no.

Jordan Colle:

I mean, it was just like. I think why it was so impactful was because when I was talking about earlier, when I left drums to go pursue worship leading, like one of the first night of worship things I led at, they had me lead that song and it was just like it was the first time I led a room that like I just don't know what you're saying. It's like you saw them just kind of like go. I remember telling my buddy after with my buddy Eric, who's like one of my best friends and I was like.

Jordan Colle:

I felt like I was looking down on myself leading. I was up here. I was like God wanted me to see the whole picture and I'm like and it sounds bizarre because it but it's almost like an out of body experience. It was like I remember seeing myself leading the song and like seeing these people worshiping, and I remember being like this is what I want to do, I don't care how many people are in the room, like that was whatever.

Jordan Colle:

But, like it was like this is what I felt very called to do, you know. So that was a big song for me, for sure.

Steve Davis:

Give me faith. I can't believe. I forgot that one Elevation to yeah, give me faith.

Jordan Colle:

I can't put them on the map.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, it also put me in on my face. Wow Multiple times. I love that song.

Jordan Colle:

I was like a true sermon, like set up.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, every time it was like a pastor, move right there.

Jordan Colle:

Give me faith. Put all of your worship by the map. Put me on my face, open your Bible. It's Luke four yeah.

Chris Estes:

What I was going to say is Joel stories.

Chris Estes:

I got some Joel stories. But what I love about these two songs that you guys mentioned and those albums or that that time period of Hillsong United because they were on, I think they made their way like that it was the time where they would do United Album. That's how we make its way to a Sunday Hillsong worship album. Then you have a live out. Yeah, you'd have all the iterations. But what wasn't happening then was which I loved it was like there was such great music coming out. It was such authenticity and just a kindred spirit with, I think, what Holy Spirit was doing in worship at that time. But what was interesting was from the business side, there wasn't this master plan of like, hey, let's push this song, let's like promote this, like this is a focus track. It was just like this great stuff coming out.

Chris Estes:

And what would happen with from the label side that I was supporting them on was they would record. We weren't A&R or anything. There was no creative direction from outside Hillsong happening. They were just writing stuff and doing it. So we would get the albums in and get the music. It was like all this great stuff it was in the day and age where we weren't going to radio with it. So there really wasn't like, hey, this is the one single that we're going to market to the mass church. What was happening was worship leaders like yourself and the audience was they were making the decision on what songs were, and then live, you would see it happening. So I've traveled the world with the guys and you would just see with everything and be a moment, and then I, you know from the inside out was like it was the thing that happened, that video of them playing in like Argentina or something, and it's like all them.

Chris Estes:

That was from an authentic encounter with the song from the audience and from the worship and from the church side. That was not orchestrated at all but just like just guided, which was beautiful.

Steve Davis:

That's so crazy because I don't feel like I don't know. I don't know if that still happens. It doesn't. That's what.

Jordan Colle:

I was just going to say I don't know if that's still happening. I was just going to, I was just going to about to ask. I was like, I was like that's kind of sad.

Jordan Colle:

I can't think of a time where, like recently, since then, really that's like, like, it's so in your face now, of like everybody's stuff and everybody's like what they're putting out, which obviously a lot of. It's great and I'm glad it's in people's faces, but there's aspects of it that's like, like. But I guess all that to say is what is still true is local worship leaders still make the call.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Like it. You can throw it in your face a thousand times, but like, somehow make room, you know, for instance like Lucas and our buddies there, it's like caught on and it was like not promoted a lot, but it just like grew and grew and it's like I think it's that still holds weight, but there is not that like it doesn't. That doesn't happen that much anymore.

Steve Davis:

Right, yeah, yeah, that's funny. It's like. It's like make room, I think, like anything by. It's sort of niche a little bit, but like I feel like upper room doesn't have like a they're not like promoted Mary many places, but they're in every church. You know, like rest on us, we were playing rest on us well before the, whatever that record was.

Chris Estes:

But you know, I think back when, like Harvest, bastion, bastion and she changed the bridge Like it was like, and I've seen every iteration of that song from Brandon to right upper room collab with Mav and right. It's. It's one of those songs that just always felt some. You felt you know when you lead a song like you hear a song, you're like man and I'll say, with United, like a lot of those songs felt the same way.

Steve Davis:

It's like there's so many songs out and I just feel right on top to bottom like great.

Chris Estes:

But that was the one song you're like. It just needs an outlet and the outlet happened to become the upper room Right and it was perfect for them. Yeah, but I think it's when it's the most authentic and unorchestrated ways the songs make they have the best past that way, you know.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Chris Estes:

Now it's a little bit harder, because there's so much noise, there's so much focus, there's like so, so much lead up to the album release, which is all great. Like you have single drops and all that stuff. But there's a beauty in the, in the discoverability of like. Oh, this is like.

Steve Davis:

I found this and you kind of like you discover it that way. Oh yeah, it's like you still feel it when the Holy Spirit, just like this is the song. Yeah, I mean like Waymaker was that way.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, Kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, the Leland and them re-recorded it and made it popular in a whole different sphere of people. But like that song was like everyone needs to play this song on Sunday.

Steve Davis:

Right. It was like you're playing this you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely what was the first recorded version of reckless love Cause I?

Chris Estes:

feel like I heard that that was one for sure.

Steve Davis:

I feel like I heard that one well before.

Chris Estes:

So the first one was it was so the album. The story is the album was going to release in January and Corey had. Yeah, so Corey was. He was transitioning from New Life worship church to a church in Kalamazoo Michigan.

Steve Davis:

Radiant.

Chris Estes:

Like frozen tundra, north Michigan, almost Canada. I think, it was Eskimos that lived there actually.

Jordan Colle:

It was close to Chicago, but yeah, yeah, I don't have my.

Chris Estes:

Northeast geography right at all. But the funny thing is so that was a great song. We knew it was a good song and but he had a great album and the plan was to release in January at summer school in um, summer school worship school in um, at uh, at Bethel music and writing. They have two weeks of worship school that they do there and they had YouTube. All you know Bethel was known for the YouTube streams that came out of school on Sundays and Stephanie so the song was already. They've already led it a few times on Sunday. They'd finished it and then Stephanie Grutzinger led it on uh at campus.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Chris Estes:

And within a week it had over a million streams. And it just started blowing up. So then we fast tracked it. We're like hey, I think the first you may have heard Stephanie's version, but then I was going to say we've probably heard that on YouTube before.

Chris Estes:

Yeah, so YouTube was the first and then the second one was so I fast tracked it with Jason Ingram and Paul Mayberry to to do a single of that that we could get ready for radio that fall Right and um. So that pushed everything back, you know four months and so that that released that fall at radio and it had gained so much traction. This is the funny thing. This was back when radio would not play Bethel music because of supernatural ministry stuff and it was like it was. They were still kind of like, hey, we don't want to support-.

Steve Davis:

Songs are like three minutes in that part of the ministry 21 seconds long.

Chris Estes:

Um, no, it's the right format. So, um, they had passed on a few other songs. Uh, I won't mention the radio station, but the big concoctment radio station that makes the big decisions. For that they embraced that song and what happened was it gained a lot of traction before, um, before the album came out how positive, encouraging was that it was super positive and encouraging and it gained so much traction that it um it, it created ways that it was at radio before it was, you know, at all the BSPs and this is a big mess but it was catching up to that massive way.

Chris Estes:

But you may have heard it on YouTube and then radio was like picking up uh, watching him lead it at a.

Jordan Colle:

There was some like conference or live recording or something, but that was the first time I saw it. It was him. Like he like does the whole. He like does the Corey does that? Like he's like this beautiful, like prayer talk thing about, like like you like put me on the shoulders and that guy does that whole thing. And it was just, it was awesome.

Steve Davis:

I mean you talk about a song that had to your point, chris, like not a lot of industry support, in the sense that most of the songs that get funneled into the church do today that somehow just blew up.

Steve Davis:

And also I mean I think ahead you know there was a whole weird stupid controversy about the lyric or whatever, but it's like it didn't matter and it busted through all of it because I believe like Holy spirit was like the church needs to know this and needs to sing this and I think there's something really special to circle it all back to like the idea that who the Lord's, who the Lord, puts in the position of worship leader, he gives the responsibility for the congregation to hear his voice specifically for that congregation, and when he speaks a word to the church, it's just crazy to me that worship leaders across the globe hear the same word.

Steve Davis:

You know, like I believe that you know you could chalk it up to marketing or you know algorithms or whatever today, but I still believe that when a song takes off like it did with from the inside out or with everything, it's like there's no reason for worship leaders to know that other than going to a conference, somebody telling them about it. You know worship leader magazine saying like hey, United released a new album or something back in the day, but it's like, all of a sudden, everybody's doing with everything. All of a sudden, everybody's doing from the inside out. All of a sudden, everybody's doing great Are you, lord? You know it's like Holy spirit does that and I just, I just can't, I can't ignore that you know.

Chris Estes:

The interesting thing with that song in particular, like talking about the power of a song. That one was the first song that Caleb played from Bethel music, which is interesting because I never thought that the lyric, the, you know, the the idea of God's love being reckless was controversial.

Steve Davis:

Sure.

Chris Estes:

And for them to embrace that you know with the controversial. That was amazing. But they also Caleb has an amazing pastoral staff that fields calls. So they they do a syndicated radio, the biggest nationally syndicated Christian radio station, so a lot of their stations are aired into cities. They don't actually have a station there, but what they do is they take calls for people that need prayer, need help, whatever, and then they they point them to local churches and pastors to get local help, which, which is amazing.

Chris Estes:

Good job and one thing they told us was that particular song. They got so many calls for people that were suicidal that heard that song and they called in and they were, they were about to commit suicide, they had thought about it and they needed help and they had so many testimonies of people that were saved from that, that torment from that song, wow, and it was like it was a. It was interesting that that was the theme with that song, like it just spoke to people that way and I think Holy Spirit had a, had a plan for it, yeah.

Jordan Colle:

It's so rad. I, I and I don't know if this is like. I don't know it's like okay, but like I would love to write a song like that, like I would love to be a part of a song that's like impacts people and obviously we shared stories of them, of impacting people, like our songs that we've written as sons. But like you know, you just think about that. You're like man.

Jordan Colle:

that's like what a powerful thing to be a part of and like a great responsibility and like a thing to steward. But I would love that.

Steve Davis:

You know what I think is cool man? Yeah, not to like Jesus Jukyuu. I don't mean to at all.

Jordan Colle:

No, and I knew saying that it sounded weird.

Steve Davis:

No, I think. I think that's a very understandable thing to like. Of course you'd want to be used for the kingdom that way, you know. But to bring it back even more, it's like Corey wrote that song, but I'll bet you the first time somebody really felt something from that song was by their worship leader singing it. And so, in a sense, like we get to be a part of all of that stuff Absolutely and when you like, when you get a song like that and it's like you kind of worship leader right from like a kingdom mindset, it's like you're writing this so that everybody gets to be the mouthpiece for the Holy Spirit in those moments where he's about to drop love on somebody who needs to hear it. You know, it's like what, if you're the worship leader that leads you out on a Sunday morning reckless love for the first time and somebody's like they didn't know that was Corey's song.

Steve Davis:

You know they're like oh, my worship leader, jordan, just said that sang this song that I didn't know was going to save my life, you know and I think to encourage worship leaders out there too is like.

Jordan Colle:

I think sometimes we can think like the like this song is just crazy, anointed. It's like doesn't even matter who sings, it, doesn't matter who leads it. It's like, no, it definitely does.

Steve Davis:

Oh yeah.

Jordan Colle:

I think it absolutely does Like you facilitating that song, whatever it's reckless, love way maker inside out, whatever it's like, there's still a massive responsibility on you as the worship leader to lead that song, I don't care how anointed it is. It's like it's still your people, it's your, your congregation. You know what I mean. Like I just think that it can get chopped up to like, oh, people were really into that song because it's X song. It's like, no, they were into it because, yes, the song's powerful but, like, you led them there.

Steve Davis:

I mean literally we are coming, like we are here today in this place, in this hotel and we were just talking about that for the reason that we've led a bunch of songs tonight at a thing where we're like, in any other context than tonight, like maybe the songs don't go as well but, because of the worship leaders that were leading them and because of the belief that they have in the songs and in like everything that they were bringing in there they're writing for yeah, yeah.

Steve Davis:

Being, you know, surrendered to the Holy Spirit and having in mind these songs are for the people that we are singing them with tonight. They could have. You know, it was so beautiful tonight, those songs were so beautiful and, outside of that context, maybe it's a different story, but tonight was out of this world.

Jordan Colle:

Absolutely. You know, power of a song.

Steve Davis:

That's probably not a huge help as far as painting context for this podcast, but you know, it's like if you believe in the songs you're singing, with the people that you're singing them with and for I don't believe there's any kind of you know, ceiling on that. God did the best, dude, amen dude God wants to take it Amen.

Jordan Colle:

I'm not sick yeah.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

I guess. So all that to say what I was saying Don't worry about.

Steve Davis:

Yeah, it's like what I was saying Scyllis don't matter man. Yeah, scyllis don't matter.

Jordan Colle:

Yeah, but I think there's the part of me as a songwriter that's like man. It would be so cool to see a song you're a part of.

Steve Davis:

Yeah.

Jordan Colle:

Reach that wide Like that's that is rad and that's for most people. If that happens, it's maybe once you know what I mean Like right, so it's pretty wild. Yeah, kudos to Corey and friends.

Chris Estes:

Corey and friends. Guys, this is great. This is great.

Jordan Colle:

Good.

Chris Estes:

Late hotel room hangs. I've got a great podcast producer. He's shout out to Paul Kimsel.

Jordan Colle:

He's a mix engineer. Thanks, Paul.

Chris Estes:

He's front of house guy at our church, awesome guy Podcast producer, so he'll make it sound great. But, man, thank you guys for sharing. Thank you, chris. Two mics with three people, thank you.

Jordan Colle:

Chris. Not just this podcast, but also all of the things you do for us.

Steve Davis:

This podcast, the least of which.

Chris Estes:

Power of our song, power of our praise, sponsoring the power of songs, yes, power of our praise out on all platforms.

Steve Davis:

Now go stream it.

Chris Estes:

Thank you Play to your church.

Steve Davis:

CCLi number. Yeah, I wish we had that memorized. Ccli number XYZ.

Chris Estes:

Well, thank you guys, we will sign off now. I always don't know how to end this thing, just end it with ta ta See ya. Ta, ta for now, bye, bye.

Jordan Colle:

People to that boy.