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| Kutless : To Know That You're Alive |
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Title |
Artist |
Sample |
Lyrics |
Get It |
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The Feeling |
Kutless |
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Sleeping City |
Kutless |
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To Know That You're Alive |
Kutless |
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The Disease And The Cure |
Kutless |
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Complete |
Kutless |
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The Rescue |
Kutless |
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Promise You |
Kutless |
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Guiding Me Home |
Kutless |
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Overcoming Me |
Kutless |
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I Do Not Belong |
Kutless |
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Loud |
Kutless |
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Dying To Become |
Kutless |
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You |
Kutless |
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Sometimes the most ambitious artistic breakthroughs are birthed out of the most unexpected circumstances, or more accurately in the case of Kutless’ To Know That You’re Alive, a painfully annoying accident. Having front man Jon Micah Sumrall tear his shoulder might seem like an unlikely muse for songwriting and sonic sculpting- especially considering the band’s sold over 1.5 million CDs, performed in front of nearly two million fans and conquered Christian radio with numerous singles since its debut in 2002- but it results in one of the band’s most immediate, expressive and aggressive discs to date.
“I have a tendency to be accident prone because I’m really active in sports,” says the leader of the BEC Recordings-based alternative rockers. “I’ve had a handful of pretty serious accidents that involved surgeries and broken bones, and most recently, had a skiing accident that tore my shoulder to pieces. It required two operations and a lot of physical therapy that just ended as the writing for this record started. But in between I spent a lot of time lying around bandaged on my back going ‘okay God, why are you allowing this to happen again?’ It felt like such a bummer deal!”
But the more time Sumrall had to think about his situation, the more he realized God’s perfect plan for even the most precarious situations. In fact, a piece of advice from his earthly father (who’s been afflicted with back pain all his life) helped steer the singer/songwriter in a much more positive direction and sewed the initial lyrical seeds for To Know That You’re Alive.
“One thing my dad told me, especially after knowing the feeling of being bed ridden, was ‘every time I threw out my back, the only place I had to look was up,’” reflects Sumrall. “We get so busy in life with so many things going on- from various aspects of life to our band to this overall ministry- that sometimes we even forget our own relationship with Christ. It’s funny how the Lord allows something like an accident to, which often times causes us to cry out for help. What I realized was it made me turn to God for help, and secondly, it made me appreciate what I have! You don’t realize how much you use your shoulder, arm or wrist until you can’t use it and I’m so glad I’ve been healthy most of my life. A lot of people are permanently disabled and it reminded me of just being thankful for what I have.”
So with that, the title track was birthed out of the perspective that sometimes one has to hurt to realize the scope of the world around them, coupled with being thankful for any sized blessing regardless of the circumstance. And with that renewed zeal, Sumrall set pen to paper to craft a dozen more cuts of intensely personal reflections that also connect with relational appeal across an alt-rock centering that ranges from bone crunching to heart wrenching.
“On the last record Hearts of the Innocent, we wanted to bring awareness and encourage young people to get involved and make a difference in this world,” the tunesmith recalls. “On this record, we’re really trying to reach out and help them through difficult situations and difficult times to find hope, and ultimately, find fulfillment in life.”
Of course, that means of personal gratification can only come in Christ, which is a thread that runs through the record’s potent emotional framework, regardless of radio format. For the contemporary-minded crowd, “Complete” channels the idea that everyone has a God shaped hole inside their heart that can only be filled through faith, not to mention a daily walk with the Lord. For those more inclined to pump their fists, “The Feeling” (offered as a free, pre-release single download, flanked by endless internet buzz) is a rollicking romp that’s sure to connect in concert, but is anchored around the common goal of lifting one’s voice to bring glory to God. “Promise You” also leans towards the rock faction of Kutless’ fan base, diving deep into the darkness of spousal abuse and serving as an anthem for the victims to rise above their circumstances.
“We see so many young people at shows struggling with all sorts of issue, but it’s quite common to meet kids or even their moms who are being abused,” suggests Sumrall. “Often times you can spot it in their body language and it’s such a sad thing because they’re always very quick to make up an excuse for a noticeable physical ailment. Often times in the Christian world, there seems to be this justification that we need to turn the other cheek on this person who’s doing the abusing, but that’s really taking that verse out of context. We’re not called to be taken advantage of or beaten up, so the song is really a call to arms to make a stand and get out to a place you’re safe. It’s also a song of healing and moving on, especially because someone’s bitterness can destroy them more in the end than the person who’s hurting them.”
For every dynamic topical shift, To Know That You’re Alive is packed with the band’s boldest artistic statements to date, stemming in part from work with producer Pete Kipley (The Afters, MercyMe, Phil Wickham). The guys also added extra fuel to the fire by packing their bags for London and setting up shop in the famed Abbey Road Studios (The Beatles) to record several spacious string sections.
“We definitely wanted to change up the formula as much as we could and we wound up recording with Pete here in Portland, in San Diego, plus on the road in everything from green rooms to underneath church baptismals,” shares Sumrall with a laugh. “The more fleshed out sounds are a result of being real intentional with the time and effort we put into every angle of the musicianship. And London was absolutely awesome where we had members from the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic- most of whom played on The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and many others. It was amazing to be over there and the infamous Abbey Road was really a dream come true.”
But above all the instrumental intricacies, astute session players, behind the scenes shenanigans and the sheer enjoyment derived from making To Know That You’re Alive, Sumrall insists its all about impacting others and helping them reach the hopeful realization he faced during those long and lonely days of mending.
“We know life is hard, but God is good,” he succulently sums up. “Both Christians and non-Christians need to hear that message, especially in a world that’s so misunderstanding of Christianity and is very hostile to the way they view the faith. People need to see who God is and how God can change their lives, so we’re just here to keep those ideas out in the open and talk about real stuff we’re dealing with, what we see every day and anything that’s on our hearts. We want to share how God’s impacted our lives in all of that, and I think when people can hear the sincerity on this CD, it will hopefully reach them wherever they’re at.”
From the Heart of Kutless…
Being in a band is pretty weird. When you start, it’s like being an infant. Infants grow into kids that mature into adults. If you’re fortunate, you make many of your mistakes when you are younger. By in large, those mistakes are somewhat harmless, and you don’t make them in front of a large group of people.
Being in a band is just like that, except we were fortunate enough to have early success. The challenge with that is we end up growing up in front of a whole bunch of people. The successes and failures we faced as a band for the past six years have been out there for everybody to see. We’ve been up, down, exhausted, stoked – you name it. We’ve been through line-up changes, played decent, played terrible, written and recorded some good songs and some songs that we wished would go away and most of you have watched it all.
A funny thing happened though – we started to grow up – as a band, as people, as friends. We are not there yet by any means –we’ll never be; however, we are getting better. That’s the context for our new record, To Know That You’re Alive. The makeup of our band is so strong right now; Jeff Gilbert on drums and Dave Leutkenheolter on bass are a great rhythm section. James Mead and Nick DePartee can really play their guitars and Jon Micah Sumrall doesn’t hold back on vocals.
Are you learning to serve the melody of a song? Can you pick your moments live? Do you like each other? Can you defer to each other out of respect? Can you write together? Those are the important questions. When we started to think about this record, we wanted to be able to answer all these questions correctly, but we were afraid. We were worried about whether we could really write together because we’d never done it as well as we wanted, worried about picking a new producer, and recording in a new place. Yet, we also felt like things were starting to gel between us guys in the band. Our new guitar player Nick brought a whole new element to the band and Jeff and Dave were ready to contribute in a much bigger way. The more we thought about it, the more it felt like it was the right time for risk. We needed to push ourselves.
For the new record, we chose Pete Kipley (Mercy Me, Phil Wickham) to produce the record. That’s not exactly a standard choice for a rock band, but Pete understood us and we felt like he could help us to mesh in the studio. We started in June of 2007 and all told, we wrote 70 songs. We’d never written more than 15 before for a record. We recorded in November, December, January, February and March of 2007 and 2008. We recorded in killer studios by the ocean in San Diego and in hotel rooms in Pennsylvania with a mike duct taped to a lamp stand, and pretty much everywhere in between. Jeff recorded drums until all he could do was lay on the floor in a pool of sweat. We didn’t sleep, we drank too much coffee, and we depended on each other. We pushed harder than we ever have, and somewhere in that process, we started to become a band.
To Know That You’re Alive is the result. It represents the hardest music we’ve ever recorded (songs “The Feeling,” “The Disease” and “The Cure”), the most experimental (“Dying To Become,” “Sleeping City”) and the most melodic (“Guiding Me Home,” “Broken Pieces”). This album is about feeling fully alive. It’s about that feeling that you get when you know that you are doing your very best with what God has given you, and that you’re doing it with your friends – everybody, together. It’s a good feeling. We hope that you enjoy. It’s definitely not a standard Kutless record.
Thanks for being willing to watch us grow as a band. Our hope is that you feel like we’ve grown well in the process of recording To Know That You’re Alive.
Jon Micah, James, Jeff, Dave, and Nick
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