April 29, 2025
Jeff Frankenstein has clocked up a couple of decades with Newsboys and shows no signs of slowing down. We cover off Jeff’s career to date, recent gigs and some brilliant road stories to boot. To listen / watch: Audio-only: click on the play button in the audio player above, or: Video: watch the embedded video...
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
When you're at this stage of our career, you're just cheering each other on because youknow, like you've been through so much together.
You've been through so many challenges and you're on this other side.
Welcome to the keyboard Chronicles of podcasts for keyboard players.
(00:20):
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm pumped as always to be here with you.
Um, look, another great episode has been quite a flurry of wonderful guests.
Well, really the whole three, three and a half years of the podcast and Jeff Frankensteinis absolutely no different in that regard.
So Jeff has been the keyboard player with the newsboys, iconic Christian rock band andjust iconic band really outside of that genre as well.
(00:43):
And as you'll hear, Jeff's introduction to that band is alone with the price of admission,but he has some amazing insights on working that long and lots of, for those that love a
good rig tour, we definitely get into some of the depth around the rig, is always cool todo as well.
So yeah, hope you enjoy this a lot and I'll talk to you after the show.
(01:15):
Jeff, it's an absolute pleasure to have you here, sir, and thanks for joining us fromNashville on a Friday night.
It's no mean sacrifice.
No problem.
In fact, we have a four week old baby at home.
So relaxing.
Yeah.
that uh
(01:40):
and we've got a boy for the fifth one.
So yeah
You're an old hand then.
Yeah, that's great.
So now look, it's lovely to have you here.
I thought we'd kick off with our more traditional question about Jeff, your musicalupbringing.
So what got you into music in the first place and led you to developing a passion for it?
Yeah, well, I grew up in Detroit, Michigan.
I was an adopted kid.
(02:02):
so family that adopted me or my mom was actually a musician and she was the church musicdirector.
And so probably a similar story to a lot of keyboard players.
was forced into mandatory service at the church and our church was kind of like, it wasvery like gospel Pentecostal oriented.
So we would have like these, uh, you know,
(02:23):
three hour services and about half of that would be music based.
And so I was the kid who was like in the band.
like thrown into it with a bunch of musicians from, know, some were great, some wereamazing, some not so great.
And it was one of those kinds of churches where you were just thrown into the fire.
You know, the pastor could call an audible at any given moment.
(02:43):
any song in any key at any time.
And it was a, it was a great learning environment.
You know, I did take lessons for awhile.
I didn't find that to be that rewarding.
I think I was always more interested in just venturing out on things I wanted to createinstead of playing other people's music when I was younger.
And then when I hit like high school and, and college, I really started to take on like
(03:07):
really got interested in music and Detroit was just a wonderful city to grow up in as faras music is concerned because you had everything from like soul music and Motown, which is
such a big heritage, big part of that.
And that really, I was fascinated by that.
Also as a keyboard player, it's also the one of the, you know, alleged birthplaces oftechno music and programming.
(03:30):
And so that captivated me as well.
Um, how like one person.
synthesizers could create all this stuff.
at that time, you know, have to think about the year.
So like I was born in 1974.
So my high school years would have been, you know, from like 88 to 92, which was a really,you know, incredible leaps and bounds and the synth world and all that.
(03:55):
So I was really intrigued by all that.
Couldn't afford a lot of the gear back then.
It was so like,
Pricy and crazy.
There were no laptops.
There were no computers like all the things that we enjoy that make our lives so mucheasier now.
So but yeah, that was my upbringing and it's it's funny I'll just go into the story of howI actually even joined the band while we're here because it's kind of interesting I was a
(04:17):
sophomore in college and a friend of mine at the church where I played
He decided that he was going to bring in a band called Newsboys into town and that he wasgoing to host them in a local high school gym and it was going to be, he was going to
promote this concert.
So he knew that my mom had just bought a brand new mini band.
And so I got deployed to be the runner for the show.
(04:39):
And that's actually how I met the band.
I drove the band from the hotel to the venue back and forth throughout the day and diderrands for them.
And so little did I know my friends behind my back were like, spouting out to the bandabout, Oh, Jeff plays keyboards, blah, blah, this and that.
And they were, they were, they were playing me up behind the scenes and, uh you know, itwas a great experience.
(05:03):
I got to see the backstage of what a concert is like for the first time as a kid and allthat stuff.
And, uh, so I, I didn't think much of it.
The band came, went, did the show and, uh, about, let's see about.
Three months later, I got a cold call to my house from the lead singer of Newsboys, wasPeter Furler at the time, Australian.
(05:24):
And he called my house.
I was at a college class, my mom answered.
So I get home from a night class in college and my mom says, yeah, the lead singer ofNewsboys called the house.
And I was like, what?
And so I get the phone number, I call back, know, the band was living in Nashville at thetime.
Sure enough, it was Peter.
And he was like, well,
We need a keyboard player.
when you were driving us around, your friends were saying that you were this or that.
(05:48):
Would you be interested in auditioning?
And I was just like blown away.
I was like, this is crazy.
And I said, well, yeah, sure.
I'd love to.
Turns out the band was playing not too far from where I lived that next weekend.
You know, typical Aussie style up here was like, all right, well, we'll just see you nextweek.
Just show up.
And so, uh, he gave me a list of songs to learn.
(06:09):
And so I stayed home for like a week.
And I learned all the songs in my parents basement, had it all written out on like threeby five cards.
And I drove in my car like three hours out to West Michigan.
And I just showed up and they're like, you know, here, get to work.
You know, so we, back then we had no crew.
had nobody.
And, uh, and we get to the part of the day to sound check and they're like, yeah, set upall your stuff on stage and we'll just run through our whole show and you just play along
(06:36):
and we'll, and our manager will listen to you from the front of house.
So here I am like.
I was 19 years old and we ran through the whole set during soundcheck and the managercomes up to me after all that and he says, uh he says, well, that was really great.
Why don't you just play the show tonight?
So here I am like 2000 people coming to this show and I barely even know the guys, thecrew, the band, anyone's names.
(06:59):
And I do the entire show.
with them and after it, you know, we pack up everything and they're like, well, the nextshows in Indianapolis.
So pack your bags and get ready.
So I went home that night, 19 years old, and I told my parents, I was going to be droppingout of college the next day.
And I hopped in my car and moved to Nashville and we did like 280 cities that first yearin 1994.
(07:24):
And obviously that was like 31 years ago now.
That's one of the most amazing audition stories I've heard, Geoff.
That's incredible.
And just, you said, I think it was around 280 shows in 1994.
To go from college and playing some keyboards to doing that, what was the psychologicaladjustments you had to make there?
so it was crazy.
(07:44):
There was so much going on all at once.
I had never lived on my own before, let alone lived in a tour bus.
know, typical Aussie style, the guys were very motivated, very passionate.
They had just abandoned everything in Australia and moved to the United States.
So I had never seen a group of guys that worked harder.
(08:06):
And I was just like shocked by all that because they didn't want to go back to
Not that they didn't love their home country, they didn't want to sacrifice all this andhave it mean nothing.
And so I was replacing a keyboard player who was, who had left.
couldn't handle it anymore.
He couldn't handle the workload and went back.
So I had no idea what I was stepping into.
(08:27):
In fact, I, know, it was a lot, but at the same time, it was incredibly fun and enjoyable.
mean, within the, I went to Australia in my first three months, I went to Europe.
went, I went to.
Almost all 50 States in a year.
And I saw the entire country and where I had come from.
Most people don't even leave the state in their entire life or travel anywhere.
(08:49):
So I didn't know that I was going to love traveling so much or any of that.
It was all kind of meant to be.
And it was tough being away from like your entire home base and everything.
The other thing that was difficult about it was that, like I said earlier, as far as gearwas concerned, I was really limited in what I could afford.
And the band was like halfway through making a record when I joined.
(09:10):
And so I got thrown into a studio full of MIDI keyboard, outboard gear back in thenineties that I had never seen before.
I'd only seen it all in magazines.
And so the, you know, so our lead singer and the writing process and the, they wanted meto be heavily involved in programming all this gear.
And so I was just, it was like fake it till you make it.
Right.
I was just saying, yeah, I know about this.
(09:33):
I know about that.
And I remember like, you know, some of the band guys or singers would go home at night andI would like,
some of the interns that were there, they were students at Belmont and I would ask them,please, can you spend an hour and teach me how this Roland Sampler works or how this piece
of gear works?
So it was an incredible learning experience, life lessons and gear lessons and the wholething, all at the same time.
(09:56):
Absolutely.
I have to ask, when you turned up to that audition that turned into your first gig thatnight, what keyboards were you bringing with you there?
Yeah.
so the funny story with that is that entire summer before that audition, I worked threejobs so that I could buy a Korg O1W Pro.
So that's what I carried with me.
(10:17):
And the hilarious thing about that was that that was what the previous keyboard playerswere using and Peter, our lead singer was using and loves.
And so I had no idea.
So I had like all the sounds that I needed for the show were kind of already in there.
Cause what, because if you, if you listen to the record called not ashamed, it.
Basically is an, it's like a demo for the Oh one to be here.
(10:38):
Cause it was such a groundbreaking synth at that time.
was like a true workstation that could do everything.
So lucky for me, I knew my way around that thing.
Like the back of my hand, I like that screen at that time was huge.
It was amazing.
And so that I, I, I was an O we played those throughout the nineties and that was thekeyboard to go to.
(10:59):
Yeah, absolutely.
And obviously over the years since 1994, the newsboy sound has evolved tremendously.
mean, we'll talk about what you've released in the past.
What, how have you needed to evolve both your playing and what you're backlining orbringing with you to keep up with that diversity of now what's an enormous discography.
(11:22):
Yeah.
Well, back in the nineties, when I started, it was like, we were almost more of like a, a,like a kind of loop based alternative band, almost like Jesus Jones or something like
that.
So technically, you know, was a lot of programming, a lot of sense, but, a lot of tons ofoutboard gear.
And so I was taking, not only did I have like the O and W, but like, you know, the, the, Bthree sounds was
(11:47):
in everything we did back in the nineties.
So I was taking Leslie cabinets and a Hammond XB2 and, and then a big old rack full oflike a Roland S760 sampler.
And you just pray to God that everything would work, you know, through the show.
Um, it was so different.
My rig looks a lot different these days than it did back then.
Now it's like typical main stage on a laptop and that's kind of going with me everywhere,controllers and then, uh, so yeah, it's changed a lot.
(12:15):
But my, my formula for how I set things up and my workflows, it's pretty much stayed thesame the whole time.
You know, lot of patch changes in our songs and that's always been a thing, but yeah,that, that part has kind of stayed the same.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
yeah, we probably dig into actually let's do it now.
yeah, you run a main stage rig now.
What was the time point where you sort of move from more, you know, the rack mounts andthe keyboards to running more of a software base rig.
(12:43):
What was sort of the straw that broke the camels back to that you felt I need to move tothis sort of setup?
Man, when Mainstage came out, was a very early adopter of that.
Like as soon as I could figure out a way to make it work, I was on it.
So I had, you know, Mo2 interface and all that.
And just the flexibility of what it could do compared to what I had before.
(13:06):
was just so mind blowing, like changing the order of your sounds.
It was everything.
And the ability to really get into, cause I'm the tracks guy in the band as well.
And so.
You know, building a rig that like where my tracks rig could, change patches for, youknow, so easily networking between computers or changing our guitar players rig.
(13:28):
Not that you couldn't do that stuff before, but like all of a sudden it just blew my mind.
remember when our guitarist saw main stage, he was so blown away by it that he builthimself a main stage based guitar rig.
Like on the early versions was just like the stock plug in.
And so all that, so that was, don't remember exactly what year that was, but I figured,um, man, as soon as I could jump, I made the jump because you could just basically take
(13:53):
the same sound you used on the record and just take it with you.
had never been able to do that previously.
No exactly.
you say about the running of the tracks you're not using main stage to run the tracksyou're just more interfacing between main stage and whatever you use to run them.
Yeah.
So people are always surprised by this, but we use logic for tracks.
Yeah.
Okay.
(14:13):
And only because I know it really well.
It's what I've used for most of my life.
I mean, I was an old Atari Cubase guy in the very beginning.
In fact, if you listen to like not a shame record going public, some of those ninetiesrecords, those were all done Cubase on the Atari with that one MIDI output on the Atari,
which was just so incredibly rock solid.
So we, we rolled with that for a long time.
(14:36):
Uh, and then.
Kind of around the time when Apple acquired logic was when I jumped over to logic and kindof just stayed with it I've been happy with that.
I've been really happy with it as a track streak to be honest with you I've not had anyreal stability issues with that a lot of times people are surprised when I tell them
they're like why don't you run Ableton and You know nothing against Ableton at all I justopened it one day and I looked at it and I was like nope, and I closed it and that was
(15:04):
about it, you know
I guess I need to me my way around it a little bit more.
Yeah, we've been logic.
I use oh an eye connectivity, PA 12.
And so I've got two just really small MacBook Airs just to my right.
And then I've got another dedicated laptop to main stage as well.
And that seems to be great.
Typically, I mean, I know I could probably run everything on one computer, but I just likehaving different points of uh failure that I don't have, you know, when I'm responsible
(15:33):
for so much on stage.
That's right.
Let's have, you know, let's make it as simple as possible, yeah.
So let's talk a little bit more about that.
Let's use your latest album, Worldwide Revival, part one, as an example, talk us throughA, the writing process and from the keyboard viewpoint, what your involvement was there
and then how you prepare that stuff for tour.
(15:53):
And I'm assuming, and please correct me on this, that because of how good tracks and stemsand everything is now that you're essentially able to lift what you're doing from the
recording and basically bring it out.
But just tell us about the process from writing on the album, recording, and then gettingit ready for tour.
Yeah, well recording it's different now than it used to be.
know, like in the earlier incarnations of making albums, we would spend all that time at astudio in Nashville.
(16:19):
We'd all be together the whole time until the thing was done.
So it was consuming like every day that we weren't on tour, we would be in a studio likenine to five or whatever our schedule would be.
Whereas now it's kind of like probably similar story to a lot.
of people you interview, but it's bits and pieces, you know, from here and there.
(16:39):
We're working from home.
I can program from home.
Everyone's contributing and all that.
So you kind of have your producer who is the collecting everything and putting that alltogether.
And that's kind of how life is now, which kind of works good when you have a family andlots of kids and all that, you know, you're, you're able to kind of balance that home life
a little bit easier, take the kids to school and then come home and write some good, somekeyboard parts or arrange something.
(17:03):
So I do like.
Do you love that?
But yeah, typically my workflow for tracks is once the mix is kind of done, I'll connectwith the mix engineers and I like to get the, um, all the, if I can, I like to get all the
tracks raw from the recording.
So not super compressed.
mean, one of my pet peeves, um, and I don't know how technical you want to get into this,but when I go to a show and you know, it's a tracks heavy show and you know, the tracks
(17:31):
are blasting through the PA, but they're like,
already mastered and compressed and the lights going through a PA and it's just, it's notmeant to hit you like that, that much processing.
So if I can, I'll go and get the like whatever stem and I love to play as much as Ipossibly can.
So the basic parts I will play live and then I get to the point where it's like somearpeggiated part of bleeping or blooping or effects.
(17:57):
Those I'll send over to tracks, but um,
our guitar player as well.
don't use any guitar tracks.
Keyboards, it's almost impossible because there's going to be some arpeggiated, know, justthe nature of what we do.
But so I'll grab all the tracks kind of unprocessed and whatever that entails.
And then I'll just add processing myself.
And then our front of house guy has been with us for, man, I want to say oh almost 20years maybe.
(18:20):
He's one of my best friends.
So we work together really well in and
Just finding that right balance between everything and what sounds natural as possible.
still, so when you're coming to a show, you get that live energy without just gettinghammered by some crazy tracks.
And so that's been a great way to do it.
And my tracks rig is not that elaborate.
(18:41):
Like I think we run like five tracks live, maybe six.
So it's like click a mono percussion track, a synth bass track for the stuff we can't.
play and then I have like a stereo pair of like whatever I just whatever we make thedecisions on what we're gonna use it all gets balanced down and we just kind of hang with
(19:02):
it that way and that's great I have like I have everything kind of set up on a footswitchso when I'm playing I can switch between songs and and all that kind of stuff and yeah it
works really well
Yeah, that's amazing.
No, thank you for the insights on that.
Cause I know our listeners, viewers are always interested and most of our listeners andviewers, Jeff are obviously players themselves.
(19:22):
And like you, all understand bands are unique beasts, particularly bands that have had thelongevity that newsboys have.
And obviously there are lineup changes that's inevitable with, with bands again, that havebeen around for, well, I you've been there 30 years.
Newsboys formed it'd be about 35 years ago, wouldn't it?
Yeah, so I'm pretty close to the beginning.
Yeah, that's right.
(19:42):
So obviously, you know, Michael stepped down recently, Adam stepped up to vocals orwhatever.
How does the creative process change as you have people come on board or people leave?
I mean, I'm sure it's fundamentally the same, but just what have you noticed over that 30years as people come in and out?
oh
I mean, it's kind of interesting, even though I've been in the same band for 30 years,this will be our fourth beat singer during that time.
(20:07):
So yeah, you're right.
every, every, you know, it starts at the top, right?
And then kind of goes down from there.
We've always been one of those bands where, you know, we've always given everyone an equalseat at the table, especially when we're on the road, when we're touring.
In our bus, we...
We have one bus that has 12 beds.
We live with all of our crew and there's no special privileges for band guys as opposed tocrew guys.
(20:32):
We're all in it.
We're all in there together.
There's no suite in the back for the lead singer, nothing like that.
And our crew guys, they love that about us.
And that's the reason they, some of our guys, like I was saying, have stuck with us for solong because it is family, you know, um, and so that being said, like, I think that's the
key to longevity is
being honest with your bandmates, you know, cause, uh, and, I think that's like half the,like most musicians that, you know, tour full time, like we do, we'll say, you know,
(21:04):
they're like, well, I'm not the greatest.
I know that like probably 80 % of people that you have interviewed for your podcasts aregoing to be technically better keyboard players than me.
have no doubt about that, but there's so many other factors involved, you know, in beingin a band.
It's almost like a social experiment.
Can you be forced to live within 12 feet of 12 other people for that long and not gocrazy?
(21:29):
And, can you compromise?
And so that's, it's, it's almost the, you know, 50 % psychological, but the cool thing iswhen I get on the bus and I see my bandmates, like there's nothing there.
Like I'm so happy to see them.
So, so the process is, um, is always how.
(21:50):
Can we make this better?
How can we make this good as it can be?
And I think a lot of times it's pride that stops greatness.
When you can't admit you're wrong or your idea wasn't as good.
And so Adam, he's been our lead singer, he's been in the band with us now.
This is the third year in the band.
But we've known it for almost 20 years.
(22:12):
So he was in a band that opened for us in 2007.
And when we asked him to join the band, we already knew exactly.
We knew him, he was already our friend.
um, so he, and he, and for him himself, you know, he's got experience at the lead singerposition because he's been the front man of bands before.
And like, you know, and we're older guys, we've learned from a lot of our mistakes overthe years.
(22:34):
so when you are at that, um, it's almost like when you're at this stage of our career,you're just cheering each other on because you know, like you.
been through so much together.
You've been through so many challenges and you're on this other side where you know, nowwe're older, we're established, have families and kids.
And so it's like, how can we support each other?
(22:56):
Not to say we don't have our battles or fights or whatever, but you know, it's always,it's always joking and laughing when it's over, you know.
Yeah, I think that's a great perspective.
You're right.
It's 90 % about the hang.
I think, yeah, you guys have done a brilliant job of picking and choosing really carefullythat that hang will work.
And I'm assuming faith had played a role in that too, Jeff, as far as that there's thatcommonality on top of you touring together and so on.
(23:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I think that's one of the cool things I've always felt about being in gospel andChristian music is that there is another element to it that's bigger than ourselves too.
And I know that for me personally, like, you know, when I go out on stage, there's peoplewalking into that venue and they're walking in from all kinds of different life
(23:41):
situations, their family situations, job situations, and they...
They want to just check out of real life for a couple hours.
And so for me, like when I'm working on a set list or designing a show and thinking aboutthat, and then also the spiritual part of it is like, you know, these people are coming
together to be united in their faith and they wanna, you know, it's hard to explainsometimes to people who aren't Christians, but you know, when people of faith come
(24:11):
together and sing and worship, there's something that happens there that's super.
and super powerful if you've ever been in that experience.
So yeah, we're really mindful of that.
And I think that's a big part of probably why we're still around because it's not like,hey, look at me, I wanna be this or I wanna be that.
It's like all of us together, the crowd included.
(24:32):
And so yeah, it's cool.
After 30 years, a lot of times you have fans coming through the signing line and it's likethree generations where it's the grandma, the parents, and then they're bringing their kid
along.
They're telling you they saw you in the 90s at some show and everyone's got a story whichis always cool and then they've got this kid there and he's looking at you going, know,
(24:53):
this is my first concert ever.
And to which I usually say, well, it's all downhill after tonight, like, and I'm like, howcool is that?
Like when someone tells you it's their first show because everybody remembers their firstshow no matter how good or bad it was, you know?
So I'm like, that kid is gonna remember this day forever.
that's the stuff you're thinking of in the back of your mind when you're putting a showtogether.
(25:15):
All those things they all play a part in the big picture
Absolutely, and just when you said about shows going good or bad, I do have to ask you,has there been a time where either just for you personally as a player or the show has
gone terribly bad for a technical reason that you can look back and laugh on now?
Yeah, there there's been hundreds of them.
(25:35):
No doubt about it.
Man.
I remember one of the worst shows that we ever had was right around 2010, 11.
It was right when Michael first joined and he was still, he hadn't been in the band.
So it was kind of like, uh, we rehearsed with him for a while and then we went out to do aseries of shows and we were guests of this event called, uh, acquire the fire.
(25:59):
This was like a 2009 or 2010 and they used to do these big youth arena events.
So it was like 13,000 kids and like they were all teenagers and we were in Greenville,South Carolina.
And it was just a technical nightmare.
It was not our equipment.
It was not our gear.
It was not our events.
were just guests, just complete.
(26:20):
Monitor failure like complete teleprompter failure for Michael which was like he was stillgetting the layer getting ahead of the lyrics which you know I'm trying to get all that
and and he he had a panic attack and the band just fell out of sync and I remember lookingout and there was you know, nothing more stressful than like 13,000 teenagers just staring
(26:41):
at you wondering what's going on And so the show ended and I remember thinking man, thisisn't gonna work.
I was like this is this the end of the bay like what?
what is gonna happen from here on out, you know?
And so I get off stage, everyone's kinda depressed, I go grab my cell phone, and there wasno service in the building, so I walk outside, and my wife texted me, and she was like, oh
(27:06):
yeah, I just wanted to let you know I'm pregnant.
And I'm like, oh, not only did I lose my job, but I'm gonna be a parent.
I was like, what am I gonna do with my life?
Yeah, so yeah, there's no shortage of drama when you're...
uh
That's definitely a top five trademark.
(27:28):
That's amazing, Geoff.
And just when you mentioned too before about designing the show and the setlist, I mean,like a lot of people play, you're finding you play either a de facto or an actual musical
director role with the band.
Yeah, I do.
I wouldn't say that I was officially given the title ever, but yeah, it's the one thingthat I've learned over the years.
(27:49):
It's like, I've always, when anyone's ever stepped down or there's been a need as a rise,they're always like, Jeff, can you do that?
And so I just kept saying, yes.
And so now I'm the, not only am I the MD, but I'm the LED content guy.
And sometimes I'm the set designer.
or the video director or camera editor or whatever it might be.
(28:13):
Actually, and that's been something I've really enjoyed greatly because the video world isfantastic, especially for designing the show.
One thing that's so refreshing about editing video is that unlike editing audio, when youhave 128 tracks and your brain's trying to get around that, editing video where there's
not as many things in your timeline, it's actually quite refreshing.
(28:35):
So I've enjoyed that, like all the LED content that you see behind our show that I've puttogether for every single song.
And I've been able to work with other artists too, because my work is like always ondisplay.
So I've had other tours see it and be like, you know, so I've been able to do otherartists like Jeremy Camp and Katie Nicole and went on tour with Maverick City and Kirk
(28:57):
Franklin a couple of years ago and did content for them and help with some show design forthem.
So working with Kirk Franklin was like,
Yeah.
full circle life just going full circle for me and a bunch of other artists that will hitme up for things here and there.
stuff I like to do, not that there's a ton of spare time, but if there is, enjoy getting alittle change of pace that way too.
(29:23):
Yeah, that's amazing.
And you've just mentioned Kirk Franklin, just another artist that you admire.
So one question we always ask our guest, Jeff, is to tag another keyboard player.
So is there another player out there that you've always admired that you would love tohear more about their story?
Boy, that's a good question.
I'm not prepared to have a name at the top of my head.
That's okay.
(29:43):
But actually Kirk would be one of those guys, because I listen to him play every singlenight on stage, and that Kingdom tour I was on was like a three hour show, and I was at
front of house for every single night of it.
And I had never been on a Black Gospel tour like that before.
seen that and I remember we did pre-production and our first show for this just a coupleyears ago was in uh at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and it was sold out and I was on the
(30:11):
team that was in the production team and the LED team and being able to witness a gospelconcert like that and be a part of it like was unbelievable and he was an incredible
player like just you know, he's one of those guys where you know
I'm just going to do this.
And then it was just amazing.
And you know, like some of it was planned, but like, like that's just not my style.
(30:36):
Like I have got to be way more prepared than that, you know, where I was just like in aweof just here's a guy who can just go off in any direction and play whatever or change keys
or actually play black keys, which I don't really play a lot of in our music.
It was pretty awesome.
No, that's a mo and yeah, look noted re Kirk.
We had the amazing Jim Danica on I'll be two, two and a half years ago and Jim used toplay with Michael W Smith and so on.
(31:02):
And he, called out Kirk as an inspiration as well.
So yeah, definitely noted.
Well, here's a full circle moment.
I actually, Jim is a good friend of mine.
And when he was MDing with Smitty, we did a tour with Michael W Smith.
And so he was a guy I always looked up to.
And then I got to tour with him for a few months and got to watch him play every night,which I absolutely loved.
(31:24):
In fact, we got to be good buddies.
And so he's developed a ton of mainstage patches and cells, libraries and virtual stufflike that.
And so he was.
kind of, that was all in development when we toured together.
And so that makes up quite a few of my patches in my stuff that he designed.
So it was like a full, full circle moment.
And I would, honestly, I would recommend his, his libraries to anybody.
(31:49):
Like they are just butter in the mix, like the pads and, I know Jim, he's like, he issuper OCD and like he does not, he does not mess around.
So he does great things and he's been a good friend.
remember.
not that long ago, I flew back into Nashville and we had to play a TV show and I had anaccess virus keyboard that didn't make it on my flight home and I needed it for the gig
(32:13):
and he's like the only like he has every keyboard ever made at his house in Franklin.
I like I know that it's all there.
He's just got keyboards everywhere and so sure enough, I was like, hey, I call him up andI was like, bud, my keyboard didn't make it back.
Do you happen to have the access virus TI the white one?
He's like, yeah, I got one of those in the back.
(32:33):
He's like, where are you?
I'll bring it to you.
And so he like literally, he literally drove from his house and delivered it to where Ineeded.
So dudes like that are awesome.
Great guy.
No, Jim's a great guy.
And as you probably know, he's working on this amazing arcade orchestra concept at themoment, which I'm excited to see what comes out of that.
So there you go.
Small world, Jeff, small world.
(32:54):
So the other question, actually, before we get onto that, I'm interested in what adviceyou would give someone in your situation that they're 19 and going to college and
interested in music.
What advice would you give to someone trying to enter the industry nowadays, given howradically it's changed?
Yeah, I think the main thing that I noticed in, not to sound like the grumpy old guy, getoff my lawn or anything like that, man, I think that college students and I was the same
(33:24):
way that you go into it and you think you have a good idea of how, you're gonna do, howyou're gonna fit into it and how that's all gonna work out.
And like Jody, our guitar player has always said, we've always said over the years, likeif you think you know where you're going to be five years from now, whatever that thing
(33:45):
is, you are completely wrong.
And that's been true my entire life.
So, I, you know, obviously I dropped out of college to take this, this gig, you know, andI that's incredible in and of itself.
But I say, you know, like what I've noticed this time is like we talked about earlier,just
being a people person is a big thing.
(34:08):
Being willing to take on a challenge, even if you fail, just being able to say yes, I'lldo it, um and be flexible, that's the big thing.
Because what you're gonna end up doing is probably nothing like what you thought.
And think touring ends up being shocking to people when you realize that most of your lifeis just trying to get to a place, let alone play the show.
(34:30):
The show is like, that's the fun, easy part.
Like everyone's like, what's it like to be on stage?
I'm like, to be on stage.
That's like easy.
That's super fun.
Like you do all this work of preparing and all the technical stuff and all the learning ofthe songs.
Like that's the hard part, the traveling, the not sleeping, the being away from yourfamily.
(34:51):
Those are all the tough parts.
The show is, the fun part, but I think a lot of people looking at it from the outside,they only see the show part and they have no idea what they're getting into.
That's right.
Yeah, very well put.
No, I love it.
And Desert Island Discs, Steph, we've got to go there.
What are five albums?
If you have to nail it down to five, what would they be?
(35:11):
We were talking about this the other day on the bus actually some of the some of ourfavorites I Love the YouTube octane, That's like when that came out it just blew my mind
And I think if you look back at some of the newsboy stuff, you'll definitely see a lot ofthat that influence in there sonically like for the time it's not it's so different and I
(35:38):
love the
I love the concept of a band being willing to just take a left turn on a drop of a dime.
Like what a massive gamble they took in those years over and over again.
It was almost like became weird if they didn't make a radical left turn between albums orsomething like that.
And then just the production and Daniel Anwar and Eno and all those guys.
(36:02):
I mean, how could you not love that?
I know that a lot of times like Octoom Baby's not
the one that comes up from YouTube, but for me, that's the one that's just like, wow,that's crazy.
Um, see maybe like this one's going to sound funny.
Maybe like hysteria, Def Leppard.
That was like, think now like looking back, that was like the precursor to what countrymusic is now almost like production wise, know, like, I've, you almost see that trend in
(36:28):
Nashville.
Like the rock metal guys are in country.
Like there's, there's so many similarities there, but just the way it's
those couple of Mutt Lang Def Leppard records were produced.
like crazy.
Let's see, I would have to put a Stevie Wonder record in there somewhere.
I'm trying to remember which one maybe saw us in the key of life.
(36:52):
I had the privilege of seeing him here in Nashville.
I had never seen him before.
And he was a big influence on me as a kid.
I was just like, wow.
Growing up in Detroit, my parents had...
My parents had a story talking about Motown music around the dinner table with my parentsone day.
And I was telling them all the records that I'm into now.
(37:14):
Obviously they listened to them all in the sixties growing up in the city.
And my mom one day, I was at dinner and she was like, she was like, saw Stevie Wonder tonsof times.
I'm like, you never told me.
It was so like, it wasn't even a big deal to her at all.
like, I'm like how?
And she said that Motown records would send artists to
(37:35):
her high school to play dances, to test singles, to see how well they went at, you know,in front of an audience.
And so she saw him plenty of times.
And then I finally ran into him at a restaurant in LA.
He was at the table next to me and I tried to get his autograph and his handler stoppedme.
I couldn't get anywhere near him, which was a bummer.
(37:56):
But then I got to see him a few years back and he played for C.
I didn't make it to the of the show because I had to get home because I had kids and stuffthe next day.
It was like well after midnight.
think he had played and it was Greg Phillinganes was the band director.
And it was just insane.
So I would say that would be that would be one for me.
(38:17):
So you need five for real.
Yeah, so you've done three great ones, You're two to go.
Um, let me think here.
Oh man.
Um, trying to think.
There was a band that influenced me actually influenced a lot of guys in the band, a bandcalled Kings X.
I don't know if you're familiar with them.
They were on Atlantic records in the 90s.
(38:39):
Probably one of the most like a very influential band on me and a lot of the guys in theband, they were on Atlantic, just never, they were a three piece, had a black lead singer
who played a 12 string bass.
What?
And has incredibly soulful, um, soulful melodies, great songs.
There's a record called Gretchen Goes to Nebraska.
(39:00):
If you've never heard it, I would check it out.
That was a, that was a big one for me.
Let's see what else.
Last but not least
These are desert island discs I need to take with me.
So got to pick.
I would, I almost want to go like keyboard player.
This is going to be an odd pick.
A lot of Australian music is actually, I got introduced to because I've joined anAustralian band.
(39:24):
like, and it goes pretty deep.
Like I know, I know a lot of, of, of, uh, Australian artists, but I would say in excess,um, in excess kick would be up there.
A highly influential band on Newsboys over the years.
I love INXS.
oh
Great.
So there's your five picks.
And I can only imagine on a tour bus for many, many hours over the years that you've been,you know, inflicted with everything from the angels to midnight oil to, know, ice house.
(39:55):
love ice house.
Yeah, yeah our drummer every now and then he'll take over the controls and he'll digreally deep into like the Johnny Farnham Yeah, and all those all the classics.
Yeah.
So yeah, I know them all actually great stuff It's incredible like how many great artistssome made it here to the stage
Some didn't, yeah.
Hoodie Gurus?
(40:15):
Have you done Hoodie Gurus?
Yep, they come out every now and then.
Yep.
There you go.
Jeff, our last question is a multi-part one.
So we call it our quick fire 10.
So 10 short and sharp answers to 10 short questions.
So as far as you recall, the first album that really made an impact on you when you heardit.
I'm gonna have to go back to um Octoing Baby.
(40:39):
Yeah, Beaker?
Good.
Your most important pre-gig ritual.
What do you need to do to feel settled before a show?
I'll-
I'll always walk out on a stage during the set change and check my whole rig myself.
I always have done that.
uh
Yep, good discipline.
If you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your career choice would have been?
I would be the video coach for an NHL ice hockey team.
(41:02):
Wow, okay, there you go, that's amazing.
That's another whole episode.
uh
Well, there would be favorites for different reasons.
But most memorable would be our first ever arena tour.
We went from playing gymnasiums to arenas opening for a guy named Steven Curtis Chapman.
(41:25):
And that was a big jump.
First time we could do a tour and not have to be our own full-time crew.
That alone makes it worth it.
Absolutely.
Favorite gig you've ever done.
That's even harder, I know.
Uh, let's see.
Man, well it's hard not to have a story attached.
Take that, subscribe.
Uh, but maybe we'll just, we'll attach the story.
(41:47):
Yeah.
So back after nine 11, we got invited by the government of Morocco to travel over thereand play a festival called a friendship festival.
And it was the government, apparently at the time was a little concerned about antifeelings towards that part of the world after nine 11.
(42:10):
And so they were trying to promote events of cultural exchange, right?
And so we were invited to go as the Christian Gospel representatives.
And so we shared the stage in the middle of the desert in Marrakesh with all these localartists from Morocco.
And it was the only time I have ever seen while playing like 300 Moroccan troops withAK-47s loaded in hand in front of the stage.
(42:43):
I'll never forget that.
And it was really incredible to be able to share our music to those people in like face toface and see their reactions.
Many of them had never seen a rock concert in person, maybe never again after that.
So it was, they couldn't believe what they were seeing either.
Yeah, no, that's one of the best answers ever.
(43:05):
Thank you.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Name a song that you used to love, but you've played it to death.
Good question.
So a lot of songs we did that we played them to death and then they've gone away for along time and now we're like in this cycle where they're coming back into our set list
like a lot of these a lot of these older songs are creeping back like We've been we havethis part of our show in the middle Where we we all come down at the front of the stage
(43:32):
and we have this time a tiny little Arturia controller like the smallest possibleinstruments we can
fine and I just network it back to my rig and we'll just rip through a medley of like allthe old stuff from the 90s and fans like freak out.
But I don't think I have one, you know?
don't really get sick of songs because I always feel like I might feel like I've played ita lot, but when people show up, they're different every time.
(43:59):
So there are some, I mean, we have played God's Not Dead a lot.
in every possible configuration you could think of but man like the fans if that's whatthey want to hear i'm fine to play it
there's always something to find in it yeah that's great yeah favorite music documentaryor movie uh
couple fire festival, the original just blew my mind.
(44:23):
I loved it.
I could relate to it a lot because there's been a lot of festivals we've played over theyears that, uh, we're similar to that, but we actually, they actually happened that we
played them.
Yeah.
I can't remember the name of it.
Let's see.
I was just talking to somebody about this the other day.
I'm not a huge movie guy, so I apologize.
(44:45):
the Tom Petty documentary.
Oh yeah, I know the one you made, I've seen that.
talking about where like they had all this incredible footage of them.
No, wait.
Well, there's that one.
And that one was amazing.
The other one I'm thinking of was the Rush documentary where they, they had been, um, theyhad like a, I don't know if it was a grant or something with the CBC.
(45:08):
And so they had like all this footage of them.
I'm like, how did they have all this where like they're all sitting around their diningroom table talking about how they want to be a musician one day.
That's all like.
really well, but it's the actual stuff.
So that would be, yeah, those would be two of my favorites because they, they, they, they,really get an insight into the relationships with the band.
(45:32):
Tom Petty one Jeff is that the one where Tom Petty is producing and he's an iconic 60sartist who name escapes me at the moment and he's basically ripping the record executive a
new sphincter because of the way he's treating his artists like it's yeah.
It's incredible.
I'm like, how did they get this?
Yeah, it's amazing.
Yeah, amazing.
Okay.
(45:53):
No, great.
And then no one thing you'd like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboardplayer easier.
We need more 76 key keyboard controllers.
I'm glad to hear that because that like 76 key was the perfect size for me and nobodymakes one right now that I can find if there's anybody out there send me a message, but
(46:16):
I'd love to know about it
Yeah, there's definitely a theme emerging there.
Manufacturers get on us, including myself.
I'd love one of those.
Yeah.
Favorite non-musical activity or hobby.
What keeps you sane outside of music,
I am a avid ice hockey fan and player.
So I play in three, three hockey leagues here in Nashville.
(46:39):
One of them, play with our stage manager who was a minor league goalie in Europe.
So we're on a team together and it's fantastic.
You get exercise, you get totally out of the music industry.
So, you know, you get placed on a team with, you know, 15 other guys that are from alldifferent walks of life and
you'll become best friends with them by the end of your season.
(47:02):
They'll do anything for you.
And yeah, I love ice hockey.
It's been a passion of mine since I was a kid.
and how many broken bones and lacerations I have to ask.
My wife took me to the hospital once to get stitches in my chin.
After that, she hasn't been to watch me very often.
Instead of have fun, I leave and uh I get be careful.
(47:25):
Yeah, that's right.
Validly so.
Look, that's amazing, Jeff.
I can't thank you enough for your time.
mean, you, uh even though you may have, you know, been actively working in music for 30plus years, it feels like you've got at least another 30 to go, whether you like it or
not.
It's been an absolute pleasure getting those insights in you.
We can't thank you enough for it.
Yeah, my pleasure.
(47:46):
Thanks for having me on.
It's lot of fun.
And there we have it.
I hope you enjoyed that.
What a guy Jeff was, as always.
Just a guest that was very forthcoming with lots of interesting insights.
(48:06):
I can see I would want to hang out on a tour bus with Jeff and so I can see why he slottedso well into the newsboys.
It's just amazing.
So yeah, huge thanks to Jeff for his time and I'm hoping to see them down under again inthe future given that half the band are from down under.
So yeah, we'll leave it there.
Thank you as always for listening and a big shout out to our gold and silver supporters.
(48:27):
Musicplayer.com forums in the keyboard corner in particular, Dave Bryce and the teamhighly recommend it as a great place to hang and talk keyboards.
Do jump on that one.
From the Sunnylander Wales, Mr.
Dewey Evans, thank you sir for your ongoing support.
The lovely Tammy Catcher from Tammy's musical, Stu.
We could not do it without you.
Thank you so much.
And last but definitely not least, Mike from midnightmastering.com.
(48:50):
If you're creating your own music and you need a great engineer for mixing and mastering,then Mike's your guy, midnightmastering.com.
Again, thanks to you.
We'll be back again in a couple of weeks and until then, keep on playing.
When you're at this stage of our career, you're just cheering each other on because youknow, like you've been through so much together.
You've been through so many challenges and you're on this other side.
Welcome to the keyboard Chronicles of podcasts for keyboard players.
(00:20):
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm pumped as always to be here with you.
Um, look, another great episode has been quite a flurry of wonderful guests.
Well, really the whole three, three and a half years of the podcast and Jeff Frankensteinis absolutely no different in that regard.
So Jeff has been the keyboard player with the newsboys, iconic Christian rock band andjust iconic band really outside of that genre as well.
(00:43):
And as you'll hear, Jeff's introduction to that band is alone with the price of admission,but he has some amazing insights on working that long and lots of, for those that love a
good rig tour, we definitely get into some of the depth around the rig, is always cool todo as well.
So yeah, hope you enjoy this a lot and I'll talk to you after the show.
(01:15):
Jeff, it's an absolute pleasure to have you here, sir, and thanks for joining us fromNashville on a Friday night.
It's no mean sacrifice.
No problem.
In fact, we have a four week old baby at home.
So relaxing.
Yeah.
that uh
(01:40):
and we've got a boy for the fifth one.
So yeah
You're an old hand then.
Yeah, that's great.
So now look, it's lovely to have you here.
I thought we'd kick off with our more traditional question about Jeff, your musicalupbringing.
So what got you into music in the first place and led you to developing a passion for it?
Yeah, well, I grew up in Detroit, Michigan.
I was an adopted kid.
(02:02):
so family that adopted me or my mom was actually a musician and she was the church musicdirector.
And so probably a similar story to a lot of keyboard players.
was forced into mandatory service at the church and our church was kind of like, it wasvery like gospel Pentecostal oriented.
So we would have like these, uh, you know,
(02:23):
three hour services and about half of that would be music based.
And so I was the kid who was like in the band.
like thrown into it with a bunch of musicians from, know, some were great, some wereamazing, some not so great.
And it was one of those kinds of churches where you were just thrown into the fire.
You know, the pastor could call an audible at any given moment.
(02:43):
any song in any key at any time.
And it was a, it was a great learning environment.
You know, I did take lessons for awhile.
I didn't find that to be that rewarding.
I think I was always more interested in just venturing out on things I wanted to createinstead of playing other people's music when I was younger.
And then when I hit like high school and, and college, I really started to take on like
(03:07):
really got interested in music and Detroit was just a wonderful city to grow up in as faras music is concerned because you had everything from like soul music and Motown, which is
such a big heritage, big part of that.
And that really, I was fascinated by that.
Also as a keyboard player, it's also the one of the, you know, alleged birthplaces oftechno music and programming.
(03:30):
And so that captivated me as well.
Um, how like one person.
synthesizers could create all this stuff.
at that time, you know, have to think about the year.
So like I was born in 1974.
So my high school years would have been, you know, from like 88 to 92, which was a really,you know, incredible leaps and bounds and the synth world and all that.
(03:55):
So I was really intrigued by all that.
Couldn't afford a lot of the gear back then.
It was so like,
Pricy and crazy.
There were no laptops.
There were no computers like all the things that we enjoy that make our lives so mucheasier now.
So but yeah, that was my upbringing and it's it's funny I'll just go into the story of howI actually even joined the band while we're here because it's kind of interesting I was a
(04:17):
sophomore in college and a friend of mine at the church where I played
He decided that he was going to bring in a band called Newsboys into town and that he wasgoing to host them in a local high school gym and it was going to be, he was going to
promote this concert.
So he knew that my mom had just bought a brand new mini band.
And so I got deployed to be the runner for the show.
(04:39):
And that's actually how I met the band.
I drove the band from the hotel to the venue back and forth throughout the day and diderrands for them.
And so little did I know my friends behind my back were like, spouting out to the bandabout, Oh, Jeff plays keyboards, blah, blah, this and that.
And they were, they were, they were playing me up behind the scenes and, uh you know, itwas a great experience.
(05:03):
I got to see the backstage of what a concert is like for the first time as a kid and allthat stuff.
And, uh, so I, I didn't think much of it.
The band came, went, did the show and, uh, about, let's see about.
Three months later, I got a cold call to my house from the lead singer of Newsboys, wasPeter Furler at the time, Australian.
(05:24):
And he called my house.
I was at a college class, my mom answered.
So I get home from a night class in college and my mom says, yeah, the lead singer ofNewsboys called the house.
And I was like, what?
And so I get the phone number, I call back, know, the band was living in Nashville at thetime.
Sure enough, it was Peter.
And he was like, well,
We need a keyboard player.
when you were driving us around, your friends were saying that you were this or that.
(05:48):
Would you be interested in auditioning?
And I was just like blown away.
I was like, this is crazy.
And I said, well, yeah, sure.
I'd love to.
Turns out the band was playing not too far from where I lived that next weekend.
You know, typical Aussie style up here was like, all right, well, we'll just see you nextweek.
Just show up.
And so, uh, he gave me a list of songs to learn.
(06:09):
And so I stayed home for like a week.
And I learned all the songs in my parents basement, had it all written out on like threeby five cards.
And I drove in my car like three hours out to West Michigan.
And I just showed up and they're like, you know, here, get to work.
You know, so we, back then we had no crew.
had nobody.
And, uh, and we get to the part of the day to sound check and they're like, yeah, set upall your stuff on stage and we'll just run through our whole show and you just play along
(06:36):
and we'll, and our manager will listen to you from the front of house.
So here I am like.
I was 19 years old and we ran through the whole set during soundcheck and the managercomes up to me after all that and he says, uh he says, well, that was really great.
Why don't you just play the show tonight?
So here I am like 2000 people coming to this show and I barely even know the guys, thecrew, the band, anyone's names.
(06:59):
And I do the entire show.
with them and after it, you know, we pack up everything and they're like, well, the nextshows in Indianapolis.
So pack your bags and get ready.
So I went home that night, 19 years old, and I told my parents, I was going to be droppingout of college the next day.
And I hopped in my car and moved to Nashville and we did like 280 cities that first yearin 1994.
(07:24):
And obviously that was like 31 years ago now.
That's one of the most amazing audition stories I've heard, Geoff.
That's incredible.
And just, you said, I think it was around 280 shows in 1994.
To go from college and playing some keyboards to doing that, what was the psychologicaladjustments you had to make there?
so it was crazy.
(07:44):
There was so much going on all at once.
I had never lived on my own before, let alone lived in a tour bus.
know, typical Aussie style, the guys were very motivated, very passionate.
They had just abandoned everything in Australia and moved to the United States.
So I had never seen a group of guys that worked harder.
(08:06):
And I was just like shocked by all that because they didn't want to go back to
Not that they didn't love their home country, they didn't want to sacrifice all this andhave it mean nothing.
And so I was replacing a keyboard player who was, who had left.
couldn't handle it anymore.
He couldn't handle the workload and went back.
So I had no idea what I was stepping into.
(08:27):
In fact, I, know, it was a lot, but at the same time, it was incredibly fun and enjoyable.
mean, within the, I went to Australia in my first three months, I went to Europe.
went, I went to.
Almost all 50 States in a year.
And I saw the entire country and where I had come from.
Most people don't even leave the state in their entire life or travel anywhere.
(08:49):
So I didn't know that I was going to love traveling so much or any of that.
It was all kind of meant to be.
And it was tough being away from like your entire home base and everything.
The other thing that was difficult about it was that, like I said earlier, as far as gearwas concerned, I was really limited in what I could afford.
And the band was like halfway through making a record when I joined.
(09:10):
And so I got thrown into a studio full of MIDI keyboard, outboard gear back in thenineties that I had never seen before.
I'd only seen it all in magazines.
And so the, you know, so our lead singer and the writing process and the, they wanted meto be heavily involved in programming all this gear.
And so I was just, it was like fake it till you make it.
Right.
I was just saying, yeah, I know about this.
(09:33):
I know about that.
And I remember like, you know, some of the band guys or singers would go home at night andI would like,
some of the interns that were there, they were students at Belmont and I would ask them,please, can you spend an hour and teach me how this Roland Sampler works or how this piece
of gear works?
So it was an incredible learning experience, life lessons and gear lessons and the wholething, all at the same time.
(09:56):
Absolutely.
I have to ask, when you turned up to that audition that turned into your first gig thatnight, what keyboards were you bringing with you there?
Yeah.
so the funny story with that is that entire summer before that audition, I worked threejobs so that I could buy a Korg O1W Pro.
So that's what I carried with me.
(10:17):
And the hilarious thing about that was that that was what the previous keyboard playerswere using and Peter, our lead singer was using and loves.
And so I had no idea.
So I had like all the sounds that I needed for the show were kind of already in there.
Cause what, because if you, if you listen to the record called not ashamed, it.
Basically is an, it's like a demo for the Oh one to be here.
(10:38):
Cause it was such a groundbreaking synth at that time.
was like a true workstation that could do everything.
So lucky for me, I knew my way around that thing.
Like the back of my hand, I like that screen at that time was huge.
It was amazing.
And so that I, I, I was an O we played those throughout the nineties and that was thekeyboard to go to.
(10:59):
Yeah, absolutely.
And obviously over the years since 1994, the newsboy sound has evolved tremendously.
mean, we'll talk about what you've released in the past.
What, how have you needed to evolve both your playing and what you're backlining orbringing with you to keep up with that diversity of now what's an enormous discography.
(11:22):
Yeah.
Well, back in the nineties, when I started, it was like, we were almost more of like a, a,like a kind of loop based alternative band, almost like Jesus Jones or something like
that.
So technically, you know, was a lot of programming, a lot of sense, but, a lot of tons ofoutboard gear.
And so I was taking, not only did I have like the O and W, but like, you know, the, the, Bthree sounds was
(11:47):
in everything we did back in the nineties.
So I was taking Leslie cabinets and a Hammond XB2 and, and then a big old rack full oflike a Roland S760 sampler.
And you just pray to God that everything would work, you know, through the show.
Um, it was so different.
My rig looks a lot different these days than it did back then.
Now it's like typical main stage on a laptop and that's kind of going with me everywhere,controllers and then, uh, so yeah, it's changed a lot.
(12:15):
But my, my formula for how I set things up and my workflows, it's pretty much stayed thesame the whole time.
You know, lot of patch changes in our songs and that's always been a thing, but yeah,that, that part has kind of stayed the same.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
yeah, we probably dig into actually let's do it now.
yeah, you run a main stage rig now.
What was the time point where you sort of move from more, you know, the rack mounts andthe keyboards to running more of a software base rig.
(12:43):
What was sort of the straw that broke the camels back to that you felt I need to move tothis sort of setup?
Man, when Mainstage came out, was a very early adopter of that.
Like as soon as I could figure out a way to make it work, I was on it.
So I had, you know, Mo2 interface and all that.
And just the flexibility of what it could do compared to what I had before.
(13:06):
was just so mind blowing, like changing the order of your sounds.
It was everything.
And the ability to really get into, cause I'm the tracks guy in the band as well.
And so.
You know, building a rig that like where my tracks rig could, change patches for, youknow, so easily networking between computers or changing our guitar players rig.
(13:28):
Not that you couldn't do that stuff before, but like all of a sudden it just blew my mind.
remember when our guitarist saw main stage, he was so blown away by it that he builthimself a main stage based guitar rig.
Like on the early versions was just like the stock plug in.
And so all that, so that was, don't remember exactly what year that was, but I figured,um, man, as soon as I could jump, I made the jump because you could just basically take
(13:53):
the same sound you used on the record and just take it with you.
had never been able to do that previously.
No exactly.
you say about the running of the tracks you're not using main stage to run the tracksyou're just more interfacing between main stage and whatever you use to run them.
Yeah.
So people are always surprised by this, but we use logic for tracks.
Yeah.
Okay.
(14:13):
And only because I know it really well.
It's what I've used for most of my life.
I mean, I was an old Atari Cubase guy in the very beginning.
In fact, if you listen to like not a shame record going public, some of those ninetiesrecords, those were all done Cubase on the Atari with that one MIDI output on the Atari,
which was just so incredibly rock solid.
So we, we rolled with that for a long time.
(14:36):
Uh, and then.
Kind of around the time when Apple acquired logic was when I jumped over to logic and kindof just stayed with it I've been happy with that.
I've been really happy with it as a track streak to be honest with you I've not had anyreal stability issues with that a lot of times people are surprised when I tell them
they're like why don't you run Ableton and You know nothing against Ableton at all I justopened it one day and I looked at it and I was like nope, and I closed it and that was
(15:04):
about it, you know
I guess I need to me my way around it a little bit more.
Yeah, we've been logic.
I use oh an eye connectivity, PA 12.
And so I've got two just really small MacBook Airs just to my right.
And then I've got another dedicated laptop to main stage as well.
And that seems to be great.
Typically, I mean, I know I could probably run everything on one computer, but I just likehaving different points of uh failure that I don't have, you know, when I'm responsible
(15:33):
for so much on stage.
That's right.
Let's have, you know, let's make it as simple as possible, yeah.
So let's talk a little bit more about that.
Let's use your latest album, Worldwide Revival, part one, as an example, talk us throughA, the writing process and from the keyboard viewpoint, what your involvement was there
and then how you prepare that stuff for tour.
(15:53):
And I'm assuming, and please correct me on this, that because of how good tracks and stemsand everything is now that you're essentially able to lift what you're doing from the
recording and basically bring it out.
But just tell us about the process from writing on the album, recording, and then gettingit ready for tour.
Yeah, well recording it's different now than it used to be.
know, like in the earlier incarnations of making albums, we would spend all that time at astudio in Nashville.
(16:19):
We'd all be together the whole time until the thing was done.
So it was consuming like every day that we weren't on tour, we would be in a studio likenine to five or whatever our schedule would be.
Whereas now it's kind of like probably similar story to a lot.
of people you interview, but it's bits and pieces, you know, from here and there.
(16:39):
We're working from home.
I can program from home.
Everyone's contributing and all that.
So you kind of have your producer who is the collecting everything and putting that alltogether.
And that's kind of how life is now, which kind of works good when you have a family andlots of kids and all that, you know, you're, you're able to kind of balance that home life
a little bit easier, take the kids to school and then come home and write some good, somekeyboard parts or arrange something.
(17:03):
So I do like.
Do you love that?
But yeah, typically my workflow for tracks is once the mix is kind of done, I'll connectwith the mix engineers and I like to get the, um, all the, if I can, I like to get all the
tracks raw from the recording.
So not super compressed.
mean, one of my pet peeves, um, and I don't know how technical you want to get into this,but when I go to a show and you know, it's a tracks heavy show and you know, the tracks
(17:31):
are blasting through the PA, but they're like,
already mastered and compressed and the lights going through a PA and it's just, it's notmeant to hit you like that, that much processing.
So if I can, I'll go and get the like whatever stem and I love to play as much as Ipossibly can.
So the basic parts I will play live and then I get to the point where it's like somearpeggiated part of bleeping or blooping or effects.
(17:57):
Those I'll send over to tracks, but um,
our guitar player as well.
don't use any guitar tracks.
Keyboards, it's almost impossible because there's going to be some arpeggiated, know, justthe nature of what we do.
But so I'll grab all the tracks kind of unprocessed and whatever that entails.
And then I'll just add processing myself.
And then our front of house guy has been with us for, man, I want to say oh almost 20years maybe.
(18:20):
He's one of my best friends.
So we work together really well in and
Just finding that right balance between everything and what sounds natural as possible.
still, so when you're coming to a show, you get that live energy without just gettinghammered by some crazy tracks.
And so that's been a great way to do it.
And my tracks rig is not that elaborate.
(18:41):
Like I think we run like five tracks live, maybe six.
So it's like click a mono percussion track, a synth bass track for the stuff we can't.
play and then I have like a stereo pair of like whatever I just whatever we make thedecisions on what we're gonna use it all gets balanced down and we just kind of hang with
(19:02):
it that way and that's great I have like I have everything kind of set up on a footswitchso when I'm playing I can switch between songs and and all that kind of stuff and yeah it
works really well
Yeah, that's amazing.
No, thank you for the insights on that.
Cause I know our listeners, viewers are always interested and most of our listeners andviewers, Jeff are obviously players themselves.
(19:22):
And like you, all understand bands are unique beasts, particularly bands that have had thelongevity that newsboys have.
And obviously there are lineup changes that's inevitable with, with bands again, that havebeen around for, well, I you've been there 30 years.
Newsboys formed it'd be about 35 years ago, wouldn't it?
Yeah, so I'm pretty close to the beginning.
Yeah, that's right.
(19:42):
So obviously, you know, Michael stepped down recently, Adam stepped up to vocals orwhatever.
How does the creative process change as you have people come on board or people leave?
I mean, I'm sure it's fundamentally the same, but just what have you noticed over that 30years as people come in and out?
oh
I mean, it's kind of interesting, even though I've been in the same band for 30 years,this will be our fourth beat singer during that time.
(20:07):
So yeah, you're right.
every, every, you know, it starts at the top, right?
And then kind of goes down from there.
We've always been one of those bands where, you know, we've always given everyone an equalseat at the table, especially when we're on the road, when we're touring.
In our bus, we...
We have one bus that has 12 beds.
We live with all of our crew and there's no special privileges for band guys as opposed tocrew guys.
(20:32):
We're all in it.
We're all in there together.
There's no suite in the back for the lead singer, nothing like that.
And our crew guys, they love that about us.
And that's the reason they, some of our guys, like I was saying, have stuck with us for solong because it is family, you know, um, and so that being said, like, I think that's the
key to longevity is
being honest with your bandmates, you know, cause, uh, and, I think that's like half the,like most musicians that, you know, tour full time, like we do, we'll say, you know,
(21:04):
they're like, well, I'm not the greatest.
I know that like probably 80 % of people that you have interviewed for your podcasts aregoing to be technically better keyboard players than me.
have no doubt about that, but there's so many other factors involved, you know, in beingin a band.
It's almost like a social experiment.
Can you be forced to live within 12 feet of 12 other people for that long and not gocrazy?
(21:29):
And, can you compromise?
And so that's, it's, it's almost the, you know, 50 % psychological, but the cool thing iswhen I get on the bus and I see my bandmates, like there's nothing there.
Like I'm so happy to see them.
So, so the process is, um, is always how.
(21:50):
Can we make this better?
How can we make this good as it can be?
And I think a lot of times it's pride that stops greatness.
When you can't admit you're wrong or your idea wasn't as good.
And so Adam, he's been our lead singer, he's been in the band with us now.
This is the third year in the band.
But we've known it for almost 20 years.
(22:12):
So he was in a band that opened for us in 2007.
And when we asked him to join the band, we already knew exactly.
We knew him, he was already our friend.
um, so he, and he, and for him himself, you know, he's got experience at the lead singerposition because he's been the front man of bands before.
And like, you know, and we're older guys, we've learned from a lot of our mistakes overthe years.
(22:34):
so when you are at that, um, it's almost like when you're at this stage of our career,you're just cheering each other on because you know, like you.
been through so much together.
You've been through so many challenges and you're on this other side where you know, nowwe're older, we're established, have families and kids.
And so it's like, how can we support each other?
(22:56):
Not to say we don't have our battles or fights or whatever, but you know, it's always,it's always joking and laughing when it's over, you know.
Yeah, I think that's a great perspective.
You're right.
It's 90 % about the hang.
I think, yeah, you guys have done a brilliant job of picking and choosing really carefullythat that hang will work.
And I'm assuming faith had played a role in that too, Jeff, as far as that there's thatcommonality on top of you touring together and so on.
(23:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I think that's one of the cool things I've always felt about being in gospel andChristian music is that there is another element to it that's bigger than ourselves too.
And I know that for me personally, like, you know, when I go out on stage, there's peoplewalking into that venue and they're walking in from all kinds of different life
(23:41):
situations, their family situations, job situations, and they...
They want to just check out of real life for a couple hours.
And so for me, like when I'm working on a set list or designing a show and thinking aboutthat, and then also the spiritual part of it is like, you know, these people are coming
together to be united in their faith and they wanna, you know, it's hard to explainsometimes to people who aren't Christians, but you know, when people of faith come
(24:11):
together and sing and worship, there's something that happens there that's super.
and super powerful if you've ever been in that experience.
So yeah, we're really mindful of that.
And I think that's a big part of probably why we're still around because it's not like,hey, look at me, I wanna be this or I wanna be that.
It's like all of us together, the crowd included.
(24:32):
And so yeah, it's cool.
After 30 years, a lot of times you have fans coming through the signing line and it's likethree generations where it's the grandma, the parents, and then they're bringing their kid
along.
They're telling you they saw you in the 90s at some show and everyone's got a story whichis always cool and then they've got this kid there and he's looking at you going, know,
(24:53):
this is my first concert ever.
And to which I usually say, well, it's all downhill after tonight, like, and I'm like, howcool is that?
Like when someone tells you it's their first show because everybody remembers their firstshow no matter how good or bad it was, you know?
So I'm like, that kid is gonna remember this day forever.
that's the stuff you're thinking of in the back of your mind when you're putting a showtogether.
(25:15):
All those things they all play a part in the big picture
Absolutely, and just when you said about shows going good or bad, I do have to ask you,has there been a time where either just for you personally as a player or the show has
gone terribly bad for a technical reason that you can look back and laugh on now?
Yeah, there there's been hundreds of them.
(25:35):
No doubt about it.
Man.
I remember one of the worst shows that we ever had was right around 2010, 11.
It was right when Michael first joined and he was still, he hadn't been in the band.
So it was kind of like, uh, we rehearsed with him for a while and then we went out to do aseries of shows and we were guests of this event called, uh, acquire the fire.
(25:59):
This was like a 2009 or 2010 and they used to do these big youth arena events.
So it was like 13,000 kids and like they were all teenagers and we were in Greenville,South Carolina.
And it was just a technical nightmare.
It was not our equipment.
It was not our gear.
It was not our events.
were just guests, just complete.
(26:20):
Monitor failure like complete teleprompter failure for Michael which was like he was stillgetting the layer getting ahead of the lyrics which you know I'm trying to get all that
and and he he had a panic attack and the band just fell out of sync and I remember lookingout and there was you know, nothing more stressful than like 13,000 teenagers just staring
(26:41):
at you wondering what's going on And so the show ended and I remember thinking man, thisisn't gonna work.
I was like this is this the end of the bay like what?
what is gonna happen from here on out, you know?
And so I get off stage, everyone's kinda depressed, I go grab my cell phone, and there wasno service in the building, so I walk outside, and my wife texted me, and she was like, oh
(27:06):
yeah, I just wanted to let you know I'm pregnant.
And I'm like, oh, not only did I lose my job, but I'm gonna be a parent.
I was like, what am I gonna do with my life?
Yeah, so yeah, there's no shortage of drama when you're...
uh
That's definitely a top five trademark.
(27:28):
That's amazing, Geoff.
And just when you mentioned too before about designing the show and the setlist, I mean,like a lot of people play, you're finding you play either a de facto or an actual musical
director role with the band.
Yeah, I do.
I wouldn't say that I was officially given the title ever, but yeah, it's the one thingthat I've learned over the years.
(27:49):
It's like, I've always, when anyone's ever stepped down or there's been a need as a rise,they're always like, Jeff, can you do that?
And so I just kept saying, yes.
And so now I'm the, not only am I the MD, but I'm the LED content guy.
And sometimes I'm the set designer.
or the video director or camera editor or whatever it might be.
(28:13):
Actually, and that's been something I've really enjoyed greatly because the video world isfantastic, especially for designing the show.
One thing that's so refreshing about editing video is that unlike editing audio, when youhave 128 tracks and your brain's trying to get around that, editing video where there's
not as many things in your timeline, it's actually quite refreshing.
(28:35):
So I've enjoyed that, like all the LED content that you see behind our show that I've puttogether for every single song.
And I've been able to work with other artists too, because my work is like always ondisplay.
So I've had other tours see it and be like, you know, so I've been able to do otherartists like Jeremy Camp and Katie Nicole and went on tour with Maverick City and Kirk
(28:57):
Franklin a couple of years ago and did content for them and help with some show design forthem.
So working with Kirk Franklin was like,
Yeah.
full circle life just going full circle for me and a bunch of other artists that will hitme up for things here and there.
stuff I like to do, not that there's a ton of spare time, but if there is, enjoy getting alittle change of pace that way too.
(29:23):
Yeah, that's amazing.
And you've just mentioned Kirk Franklin, just another artist that you admire.
So one question we always ask our guest, Jeff, is to tag another keyboard player.
So is there another player out there that you've always admired that you would love tohear more about their story?
Boy, that's a good question.
I'm not prepared to have a name at the top of my head.
That's okay.
(29:43):
But actually Kirk would be one of those guys, because I listen to him play every singlenight on stage, and that Kingdom tour I was on was like a three hour show, and I was at
front of house for every single night of it.
And I had never been on a Black Gospel tour like that before.
seen that and I remember we did pre-production and our first show for this just a coupleyears ago was in uh at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and it was sold out and I was on the
(30:11):
team that was in the production team and the LED team and being able to witness a gospelconcert like that and be a part of it like was unbelievable and he was an incredible
player like just you know, he's one of those guys where you know
I'm just going to do this.
And then it was just amazing.
And you know, like some of it was planned, but like, like that's just not my style.
(30:36):
Like I have got to be way more prepared than that, you know, where I was just like in aweof just here's a guy who can just go off in any direction and play whatever or change keys
or actually play black keys, which I don't really play a lot of in our music.
It was pretty awesome.
No, that's a mo and yeah, look noted re Kirk.
We had the amazing Jim Danica on I'll be two, two and a half years ago and Jim used toplay with Michael W Smith and so on.
(31:02):
And he, called out Kirk as an inspiration as well.
So yeah, definitely noted.
Well, here's a full circle moment.
I actually, Jim is a good friend of mine.
And when he was MDing with Smitty, we did a tour with Michael W Smith.
And so he was a guy I always looked up to.
And then I got to tour with him for a few months and got to watch him play every night,which I absolutely loved.
(31:24):
In fact, we got to be good buddies.
And so he's developed a ton of mainstage patches and cells, libraries and virtual stufflike that.
And so he was.
kind of, that was all in development when we toured together.
And so that makes up quite a few of my patches in my stuff that he designed.
So it was like a full, full circle moment.
And I would, honestly, I would recommend his, his libraries to anybody.
(31:49):
Like they are just butter in the mix, like the pads and, I know Jim, he's like, he issuper OCD and like he does not, he does not mess around.
So he does great things and he's been a good friend.
remember.
not that long ago, I flew back into Nashville and we had to play a TV show and I had anaccess virus keyboard that didn't make it on my flight home and I needed it for the gig
(32:13):
and he's like the only like he has every keyboard ever made at his house in Franklin.
I like I know that it's all there.
He's just got keyboards everywhere and so sure enough, I was like, hey, I call him up andI was like, bud, my keyboard didn't make it back.
Do you happen to have the access virus TI the white one?
He's like, yeah, I got one of those in the back.
(32:33):
He's like, where are you?
I'll bring it to you.
And so he like literally, he literally drove from his house and delivered it to where Ineeded.
So dudes like that are awesome.
Great guy.
No, Jim's a great guy.
And as you probably know, he's working on this amazing arcade orchestra concept at themoment, which I'm excited to see what comes out of that.
So there you go.
Small world, Jeff, small world.
(32:54):
So the other question, actually, before we get onto that, I'm interested in what adviceyou would give someone in your situation that they're 19 and going to college and
interested in music.
What advice would you give to someone trying to enter the industry nowadays, given howradically it's changed?
Yeah, I think the main thing that I noticed in, not to sound like the grumpy old guy, getoff my lawn or anything like that, man, I think that college students and I was the same
(33:24):
way that you go into it and you think you have a good idea of how, you're gonna do, howyou're gonna fit into it and how that's all gonna work out.
And like Jody, our guitar player has always said, we've always said over the years, likeif you think you know where you're going to be five years from now, whatever that thing
(33:45):
is, you are completely wrong.
And that's been true my entire life.
So, I, you know, obviously I dropped out of college to take this, this gig, you know, andI that's incredible in and of itself.
But I say, you know, like what I've noticed this time is like we talked about earlier,just
being a people person is a big thing.
(34:08):
Being willing to take on a challenge, even if you fail, just being able to say yes, I'lldo it, um and be flexible, that's the big thing.
Because what you're gonna end up doing is probably nothing like what you thought.
And think touring ends up being shocking to people when you realize that most of your lifeis just trying to get to a place, let alone play the show.
(34:30):
The show is like, that's the fun, easy part.
Like everyone's like, what's it like to be on stage?
I'm like, to be on stage.
That's like easy.
That's super fun.
Like you do all this work of preparing and all the technical stuff and all the learning ofthe songs.
Like that's the hard part, the traveling, the not sleeping, the being away from yourfamily.
(34:51):
Those are all the tough parts.
The show is, the fun part, but I think a lot of people looking at it from the outside,they only see the show part and they have no idea what they're getting into.
That's right.
Yeah, very well put.
No, I love it.
And Desert Island Discs, Steph, we've got to go there.
What are five albums?
If you have to nail it down to five, what would they be?
(35:11):
We were talking about this the other day on the bus actually some of the some of ourfavorites I Love the YouTube octane, That's like when that came out it just blew my mind
And I think if you look back at some of the newsboy stuff, you'll definitely see a lot ofthat that influence in there sonically like for the time it's not it's so different and I
(35:38):
love the
I love the concept of a band being willing to just take a left turn on a drop of a dime.
Like what a massive gamble they took in those years over and over again.
It was almost like became weird if they didn't make a radical left turn between albums orsomething like that.
And then just the production and Daniel Anwar and Eno and all those guys.
(36:02):
I mean, how could you not love that?
I know that a lot of times like Octoom Baby's not
the one that comes up from YouTube, but for me, that's the one that's just like, wow,that's crazy.
Um, see maybe like this one's going to sound funny.
Maybe like hysteria, Def Leppard.
That was like, think now like looking back, that was like the precursor to what countrymusic is now almost like production wise, know, like, I've, you almost see that trend in
(36:28):
Nashville.
Like the rock metal guys are in country.
Like there's, there's so many similarities there, but just the way it's
those couple of Mutt Lang Def Leppard records were produced.
like crazy.
Let's see, I would have to put a Stevie Wonder record in there somewhere.
I'm trying to remember which one maybe saw us in the key of life.
(36:52):
I had the privilege of seeing him here in Nashville.
I had never seen him before.
And he was a big influence on me as a kid.
I was just like, wow.
Growing up in Detroit, my parents had...
My parents had a story talking about Motown music around the dinner table with my parentsone day.
And I was telling them all the records that I'm into now.
(37:14):
Obviously they listened to them all in the sixties growing up in the city.
And my mom one day, I was at dinner and she was like, she was like, saw Stevie Wonder tonsof times.
I'm like, you never told me.
It was so like, it wasn't even a big deal to her at all.
like, I'm like how?
And she said that Motown records would send artists to
(37:35):
her high school to play dances, to test singles, to see how well they went at, you know,in front of an audience.
And so she saw him plenty of times.
And then I finally ran into him at a restaurant in LA.
He was at the table next to me and I tried to get his autograph and his handler stoppedme.
I couldn't get anywhere near him, which was a bummer.
(37:56):
But then I got to see him a few years back and he played for C.
I didn't make it to the of the show because I had to get home because I had kids and stuffthe next day.
It was like well after midnight.
think he had played and it was Greg Phillinganes was the band director.
And it was just insane.
So I would say that would be that would be one for me.
(38:17):
So you need five for real.
Yeah, so you've done three great ones, You're two to go.
Um, let me think here.
Oh man.
Um, trying to think.
There was a band that influenced me actually influenced a lot of guys in the band, a bandcalled Kings X.
I don't know if you're familiar with them.
They were on Atlantic records in the 90s.
(38:39):
Probably one of the most like a very influential band on me and a lot of the guys in theband, they were on Atlantic, just never, they were a three piece, had a black lead singer
who played a 12 string bass.
What?
And has incredibly soulful, um, soulful melodies, great songs.
There's a record called Gretchen Goes to Nebraska.
(39:00):
If you've never heard it, I would check it out.
That was a, that was a big one for me.
Let's see what else.
Last but not least
These are desert island discs I need to take with me.
So got to pick.
I would, I almost want to go like keyboard player.
This is going to be an odd pick.
A lot of Australian music is actually, I got introduced to because I've joined anAustralian band.
(39:24):
like, and it goes pretty deep.
Like I know, I know a lot of, of, of, uh, Australian artists, but I would say in excess,um, in excess kick would be up there.
A highly influential band on Newsboys over the years.
I love INXS.
oh
Great.
So there's your five picks.
And I can only imagine on a tour bus for many, many hours over the years that you've been,you know, inflicted with everything from the angels to midnight oil to, know, ice house.
(39:55):
love ice house.
Yeah, yeah our drummer every now and then he'll take over the controls and he'll digreally deep into like the Johnny Farnham Yeah, and all those all the classics.
Yeah.
So yeah, I know them all actually great stuff It's incredible like how many great artistssome made it here to the stage
Some didn't, yeah.
Hoodie Gurus?
(40:15):
Have you done Hoodie Gurus?
Yep, they come out every now and then.
Yep.
There you go.
Jeff, our last question is a multi-part one.
So we call it our quick fire 10.
So 10 short and sharp answers to 10 short questions.
So as far as you recall, the first album that really made an impact on you when you heardit.
I'm gonna have to go back to um Octoing Baby.
(40:39):
Yeah, Beaker?
Good.
Your most important pre-gig ritual.
What do you need to do to feel settled before a show?
I'll-
I'll always walk out on a stage during the set change and check my whole rig myself.
I always have done that.
uh
Yep, good discipline.
If you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your career choice would have been?
I would be the video coach for an NHL ice hockey team.
(41:02):
Wow, okay, there you go, that's amazing.
That's another whole episode.
uh
Well, there would be favorites for different reasons.
But most memorable would be our first ever arena tour.
We went from playing gymnasiums to arenas opening for a guy named Steven Curtis Chapman.
(41:25):
And that was a big jump.
First time we could do a tour and not have to be our own full-time crew.
That alone makes it worth it.
Absolutely.
Favorite gig you've ever done.
That's even harder, I know.
Uh, let's see.
Man, well it's hard not to have a story attached.
Take that, subscribe.
Uh, but maybe we'll just, we'll attach the story.
(41:47):
Yeah.
So back after nine 11, we got invited by the government of Morocco to travel over thereand play a festival called a friendship festival.
And it was the government, apparently at the time was a little concerned about antifeelings towards that part of the world after nine 11.
(42:10):
And so they were trying to promote events of cultural exchange, right?
And so we were invited to go as the Christian Gospel representatives.
And so we shared the stage in the middle of the desert in Marrakesh with all these localartists from Morocco.
And it was the only time I have ever seen while playing like 300 Moroccan troops withAK-47s loaded in hand in front of the stage.
(42:43):
I'll never forget that.
And it was really incredible to be able to share our music to those people in like face toface and see their reactions.
Many of them had never seen a rock concert in person, maybe never again after that.
So it was, they couldn't believe what they were seeing either.
Yeah, no, that's one of the best answers ever.
(43:05):
Thank you.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Name a song that you used to love, but you've played it to death.
Good question.
So a lot of songs we did that we played them to death and then they've gone away for along time and now we're like in this cycle where they're coming back into our set list
like a lot of these a lot of these older songs are creeping back like We've been we havethis part of our show in the middle Where we we all come down at the front of the stage
(43:32):
and we have this time a tiny little Arturia controller like the smallest possibleinstruments we can
fine and I just network it back to my rig and we'll just rip through a medley of like allthe old stuff from the 90s and fans like freak out.
But I don't think I have one, you know?
don't really get sick of songs because I always feel like I might feel like I've played ita lot, but when people show up, they're different every time.
(43:59):
So there are some, I mean, we have played God's Not Dead a lot.
in every possible configuration you could think of but man like the fans if that's whatthey want to hear i'm fine to play it
there's always something to find in it yeah that's great yeah favorite music documentaryor movie uh
couple fire festival, the original just blew my mind.
(44:23):
I loved it.
I could relate to it a lot because there's been a lot of festivals we've played over theyears that, uh, we're similar to that, but we actually, they actually happened that we
played them.
Yeah.
I can't remember the name of it.
Let's see.
I was just talking to somebody about this the other day.
I'm not a huge movie guy, so I apologize.
(44:45):
the Tom Petty documentary.
Oh yeah, I know the one you made, I've seen that.
talking about where like they had all this incredible footage of them.
No, wait.
Well, there's that one.
And that one was amazing.
The other one I'm thinking of was the Rush documentary where they, they had been, um, theyhad like a, I don't know if it was a grant or something with the CBC.
(45:08):
And so they had like all this footage of them.
I'm like, how did they have all this where like they're all sitting around their diningroom table talking about how they want to be a musician one day.
That's all like.
really well, but it's the actual stuff.
So that would be, yeah, those would be two of my favorites because they, they, they, they,really get an insight into the relationships with the band.
(45:32):
Tom Petty one Jeff is that the one where Tom Petty is producing and he's an iconic 60sartist who name escapes me at the moment and he's basically ripping the record executive a
new sphincter because of the way he's treating his artists like it's yeah.
It's incredible.
I'm like, how did they get this?
Yeah, it's amazing.
Yeah, amazing.
Okay.
(45:53):
No, great.
And then no one thing you'd like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboardplayer easier.
We need more 76 key keyboard controllers.
I'm glad to hear that because that like 76 key was the perfect size for me and nobodymakes one right now that I can find if there's anybody out there send me a message, but
(46:16):
I'd love to know about it
Yeah, there's definitely a theme emerging there.
Manufacturers get on us, including myself.
I'd love one of those.
Yeah.
Favorite non-musical activity or hobby.
What keeps you sane outside of music,
I am a avid ice hockey fan and player.
So I play in three, three hockey leagues here in Nashville.
(46:39):
One of them, play with our stage manager who was a minor league goalie in Europe.
So we're on a team together and it's fantastic.
You get exercise, you get totally out of the music industry.
So, you know, you get placed on a team with, you know, 15 other guys that are from alldifferent walks of life and
you'll become best friends with them by the end of your season.
(47:02):
They'll do anything for you.
And yeah, I love ice hockey.
It's been a passion of mine since I was a kid.
and how many broken bones and lacerations I have to ask.
My wife took me to the hospital once to get stitches in my chin.
After that, she hasn't been to watch me very often.
Instead of have fun, I leave and uh I get be careful.
(47:25):
Yeah, that's right.
Validly so.
Look, that's amazing, Jeff.
I can't thank you enough for your time.
mean, you, uh even though you may have, you know, been actively working in music for 30plus years, it feels like you've got at least another 30 to go, whether you like it or
not.
It's been an absolute pleasure getting those insights in you.
We can't thank you enough for it.
Yeah, my pleasure.
(47:46):
Thanks for having me on.
It's lot of fun.
And there we have it.
I hope you enjoyed that.
What a guy Jeff was, as always.
Just a guest that was very forthcoming with lots of interesting insights.
(48:06):
I can see I would want to hang out on a tour bus with Jeff and so I can see why he slottedso well into the newsboys.
It's just amazing.
So yeah, huge thanks to Jeff for his time and I'm hoping to see them down under again inthe future given that half the band are from down under.
So yeah, we'll leave it there.
Thank you as always for listening and a big shout out to our gold and silver supporters.
(48:27):
Musicplayer.com forums in the keyboard corner in particular, Dave Bryce and the teamhighly recommend it as a great place to hang and talk keyboards.
Do jump on that one.
From the Sunnylander Wales, Mr.
Dewey Evans, thank you sir for your ongoing support.
The lovely Tammy Catcher from Tammy's musical, Stu.
We could not do it without you.
Thank you so much.
And last but definitely not least, Mike from midnightmastering.com.
(48:50):
If you're creating your own music and you need a great engineer for mixing and mastering,then Mike's your guy, midnightmastering.com.
Again, thanks to you.
We'll be back again in a couple of weeks and until then, keep on playing.
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