*All songs written by Adrienne Liesching, Marc Pautz, Chris Poisat, Costa Balamatsias, Nick Volsteedt, Marc Theodosiou. 'Need,' 'Your Kisses Blind Me,' 'This Is Not,' 'Lift Me Up,' and 'Violently' were written by The Benjamin Gate, Marc Theodosiou and Michael Quinlan.
Adrienne explains the origins of the songs on "Contact":
1. Lift Me Up
This is a song about being away from home but realizing this is only the beginning. Even though we may be far away, God has surrounded us with so many incredible people. It’s kind of a request for those around us to lift us up, whether that be in prayer or just support, because although it is tough being far from home, we are committed to what we are doing, and we are running the race to win the prize, and we know we can’t do it alone.
2. Need
This is an awesome song. This is truly how I feel all the time. God is incredible and no matter what fears we have and things we go through we will always be in His hand and he holds onto us. It’s also about giving absolutely everything to God and that’s when we will truly exist.
3. Do What You Say
There is a scripture in the Bible that speaks about different people being called to different things and another scripture that says 'take the log out of your own eye before you take the speck out of your brothers.' There were some things that I saw around me, that made me really think about how, if we are not in the place that God has called us to be, we tend to be a hindrance instead of a help to those around us. I feel that too often people try to put other people in boxes, so that they won’t be a threat. So often that can actually stifle the exact thing that God has called those people to do. It is a challenge song to myself and to others to do what we need to do, rather than try to change everyone else.
4. Overkill
This is an amazing song written by Colin Hay from Men At Work. We wanted to cover this song because of the amazing effect it has when people hear it. Everybody knows the song but they seem to have forgotten it - you get these bewildered looks when you play it - people know they have heard it before, they just don't know when or where - there's a familiarity there. The song really just speaks about the amazing ability that we as humans have to worry. It is something that we can all relate to, a familiar song for a familiar human trait. We worry far too much about things we cannot change and usually about things that are going to be all right. This song has the ability to take your mind off things and allows you to get lost in the melody and to just forget about the worry because it is all just overkill.
5. The Way You Are
This is a song about how often God is right there to share a moment with us. When we have that intimate time with him, His character will blow us away and hopefully we will become wiser. It’s kind of a poetic dialogue between us and God.
6. This Is Not
This was written from a girl’s perspective and focuses on how we sometimes compromise who we are or what we need. It talks about the struggles we face as we try so hard to fit into other people’s expectations of us, sometimes very superficially, and realize that it is not what we really need or want in our lives.
7. The Calling
This song is about a person’s dreams and the 'calling' in their lives to find the potential of who they are as individuals. Sometimes we ask God to do things in our lives, but when the time comes, we are really afraid of what we might be or what we might have to go through. This song was written as an encouragement to not turn away from the fire of purification.
8. Your Kisses Blind Me
This is a love song, either to God or for someone who is in love. When you are in love, nothing else matters and everything revolves around your love. It’s beautiful the way God created us to love so deeply and devotedly.
9. Light
This is a song about the importance of carrying each other’s burdens. The 'light' represents unity and the beauty of being a strength to each other. It was inspired in a way by the phrase, 'united we stand.'
10. Tonight
This song is about our action to the 'darkness' in the world. 'Tonight' is simply saying that before time runs out, we should stand up together and be united in our faith.
11. Violently
I was thinking about spiritual warfare and what it might be like when Jesus comes back and on a smaller scale. 'Violently' touches on how our lives are like when we are going through the rough patches. But in any situation, this song was written to give encouragement that we need to fight until we reach God.
12. Fall Away
The inspiration behind this song came from me having a really bad day. It was one of those days that made me feel really frustrated and pretty upset. Then, all of a sudden, as God seems to do, I just felt completely at peace. It’s just amazing to me how much of what we place emphasis and importance on, next to God, is just so futile. When God enters the picture, what really matters stays, and the rest just 'falls away.'
13. Gratitude
This is a song about the feeling of being so incredibly grateful for the gifts you have been given. 'Gratitude' really speaks for itself in every way. It is a song about being affected in the most complete way by the Holy Spirit. This song was written to be a physical declaration of joy and power.
It's tough to market bands with ecclesiastical tendencies into the mainstream. In the United States, there's that canyon-sized gulf between the so-called Christian music world and the secular one, something the South African band is not accustomed to. Back where the Gate comes from, it could rock out in front of anyone. Creed and P.O.D. are the standard bearers for slyly moving from being labeled "Christian" bands to just plain ol' bands. The Benjamin Gate's challenge is the same. At least one recent review of its second album, Contact, questioned why the Gate isn't already at the same level as those bands. Instead, they're at the Ford V-10 level. The quintet is currently traveling in the van, trekking with the Festival Con Dios tour, sleeping in hotel rooms the headliners use only for showers before heading back to their tour buses. "In our hearts, we know we have to play these gigs," singer Adrienne Liesching told POLLSTAR. "We want to break into the mainstream market as well and, if we want to do that, we have to start all over again, playing 20-minute sets in front of people who don't want to listen to the music. As long as the band is growing and playing, we'll have to deal with the frustrations of that." The group recently sat across a table from Nat Burgess and Keith Naisbitt at Agency For The Performing Arts. APA is the mainstream partner for the Gate's agency, Jeff Roberts & Associates, and books Roberts' Christian acts into secular venues. "APA was definitely impressed with the band in terms of what they heard and what they'd seen," said Gate manager Marc "Thux" Theodosiou. "They were definitely extremely positive and would see what could be done in 2003 in finding the correct places to put the band." As far as Liesching's wish list for next year, it included opening for a No Doubt or a Lenny Kravitz -- certainly for a mainstream theatre tour in general. "We're looking at options," Jeff Roberts told POLLSTAR. "We may even put a tour together that would be The Benjamin Gate and a couple other bands, kind of a smaller club tour, but the verdict is still out. We're shopping the marketplace to see what we can come up with. ... I know it's their vision to be on mainstream tours with bands like Creed or Lifehouse or people like that." Roberts was honest, saying the band didn't knock his socks off when he first saw them a couple years ago after sponsoring their visas from South Africa. But, a few months ago at a concert in Knoxville, Tenn., Roberts got a chance to upgrade his thoughts. "Right now, I can tell you that's a real good band that has played 120 dates this last year. I think we're poised for this band to go to even bigger heights," Roberts said, adding that the word was that The Benjamin Gate was "winning well" on the Con Dios tour, along with two of his other acts, Pillar and Tree 63, the latter also from South Africa. "When I work with overseas bands, sometimes they're not quite prepared to really road-dog it out there," Roberts said. "They're not used to as large a country and doing all the driving. The thing with the Gate that impresses me is I've ran them hard out there these last 18 months and they've survived. They've actually gotten stronger." Right now, the Gate's management office is a "mobile headquarters," as Thux called it, consisting mainly of a laptop, a cell phone with a Nashville area code and "a lot of merchandise." "I suppose over the next six months, you'll see us setting up a lot more shows in the States," Theodosiou said. "But, as time goes on, we might like to branch out and see if we can set up something stable in Europe as well. We'll see how it goes." The band actually had to soften its single from Contact, "The Calling," for Christian radio (saving the original version as a bonus track). Their sound is sort of unclassifiable -- certainly there's a Euro element, whatever that means. They're no wimps, though, especially live. One of the oft-asked questions is how the petite Liesching could own a voice three times her size. "I get asked that all the time," she said. "Where does my voice come from? I'd have to say my alter ego. ... The music is so emotional, so passionate, that when I'm onstage I just try to do everything everything you can't do in normal life emotionally." There was a rumor that if Christian bands ministered onstage in South Africa, they'd get cabbage thrown at them. "I don't know if they'll throw stuff at you," Liesching said, laughing. "But, for most people, they like bands to be bands, you know what I mean? We're just Christians in a band; it's just a different school of thought."
Copyright (c) 2003 POLLSTAR, Inc. All rights reserved.
Kierstin Berry: You've had a lot of exciting things going on lately. First, I know you got married to Adrienne Liesching (The Benjamin Gate) in December. Congratulations.
Jeremy Camp: Yeah, it has been amazing. It really ended the year on a high note.
KB: How did the two of you get together?
JC: Basically, I was on Festival Con Dios in Fall 2002 and she was playing in The Benjamin Gate. When I first met her, I was just trying to be friends with all the bands that came to play. It was funny because I saw her on stage and I was like, 'Wow, she's kind of a rocker chick.' I introduced myself and talked to her for a little bit and I realized that she had a very sweet spirit and I was kind of attracted, well, I wasn't attracted to her, but I was attracted to that. I could tell that she had a real soft heart. Then we started hanging out a little bit with no intentions of anything. As we talked more, I got to be more interested in her life and asked her questions about her walk with the Lord and I found myself realizing she was a really special girl.
KB: Was she attracted to you initially?
JC: Not really. We just became really good friends. It's kind of funny now when we talk about it because I could tell when I first met her that it wasn't weird, you know? I was actually very leery because I am not really friends with girls, especially at that time in my life, I wasn't interested in a girl at all. So when we hung out I could tell there were no weird things. Then, through our friendship we grew closer and I found out that she was an amazing woman and she loved Jesus more than anything in this world, and that is what attracts me to anyone.
KB: What did you do on your first date?
JC: Our first date...we went to PF Changs in Nashville. We had been hanging out all of Festival [Con Dios] but we didn't have time to go on a date, because we really didn't start liking each other until the end of the tour. We were friends for a couple of months before we finally started saying that whole thing. So we were in Nashville and went to eat and just talked for awhile. It was really cool. We just shared our hearts and what God was doing in our lives.
KB: It always fascinates me to see married couples who are in the same business, particularly entertainment. Is it helpful to have that mutual understanding about your careers and also be able to merge your creativity?
JC: Well it's been cool because [Adrienne] quit the band and has been done for about seven months now, but her being on the road and understanding the stresses of different situations that arise, she can be very comforting to me. And she's not high maintenance so when she comes out on the road it's not like, oh this is too crazy, because she's used to it. Actually, it's great to be able to bounce different ideas off of her with songs and say, 'Hey do you like this?' And she'll tell me. But even if she gives me constructive criticism, she's always encouraging.
KB: Now that she is no longer with The Benjamin Gate, will she become more incorporated into your music at all? I know she did some work on your new worship project...
JC: She's going to sing on a couple of songs on my album that's coming out in the fall, just kind of background stuff. And she's going to sing with me a little bit live too. She just wants to be kind of in the background right now, not in the background for me, but with music in general. She just wants to be a wife and a mom and help me in any way she can in the ministry. That's really her heart right now. Like the other night---and this is what happens with us all the time---I played a concert and this young girl came backstage and was just standing there. My wife went up to her right away and they just started chatting. I went into the other room and my wife came in and she goes, 'That girl just accepted the Lord.' It's cool because that's what it is. We're in ministry together and that's how we both look at it.
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