Lead vocalist Jason Ingram, guitarist David May, bassist Jono Brymer, and drummer Matt West have playing history with artists like David Crowder, Matt Redman and Watermark, so when talking to Matt West about the musical intentions of The Longing, I knew his words carried much weight in terms of the current worship scene. I wasted no time in asking him about the challenge of making music offered as sincere worship, and still having to deal with the commercial end of the endeavor.
Matt was more than ready for the question. “I think what you will find different in The Longing from maybe the average band that is out for profit or even for the pure integrity of their art is that with this band, at the end of the day, it’s all about the gift that we’ve been given. We all come from different backgrounds, with each of us involved in many different things, but when we come together as The Longing, what we have is a pretty pure and raw thing. Because for us, it’s an outlet for our gift, even speaking specifically here in terms of Jason’s songwriting.”
“I’ve known Jason for a lot of years, and I know the depth of his writing comes from a very intimate place, really from the heart of his own relationship with the Lord, and his desire to be able to express that in a way unique to him.” I asked Matt if what he meant was that their distinctive individual experiences come together to form a unique corporate experience. Matt replied, “Yes, what we’re truly attempting to do is represent what a body of worshippers looks like, to lead by example. God has taken these four people from different places with the same goal in mind, to try to find that spot in worship He has for us.”
“The key word is balance,” he continues. “In The Longing, we’re all about to step into a new season for ourselves. Right now I’m a pastor but I’m going to be relocating to be with The Longing fulltime, writing and producing. We all have things that in one sense are kind of like our “day jobs,” but on top of those, we have this thing that we “get to do,” which is The Longing. And it truly is the heart of the band right now to educate, to teach others how to strike that balance. Jason and I have both grown up in and around the church. We’ve had opportunity to watch the Christian music industry morph and change, falling back and going ahead, and at times get lost. You might begin with the sense that you’re using the gift God’s given you to worship, but it can twist into a place where that isn’t enough anymore, and what is enough has more to do with records sales or getting bigger venues.”
“We are trying to approach this in a new way, although I know enough to know there really isn’t anything new under the sun,” he laughs. “But we can reinvent things, and we’re trying to reinvent the idea of what it means to make a living leading worship and using your art to do it. It’s almost like centrifugal force, the powers spinning in a circular force so strong that you cannot stop it anymore. Our desire is to lead this thing by example, quietly and also very tangibly in the local church, with young musicians and the people who are looking for answers to these questions. The message never changes although the methods may. But we want to be sensitive to maintain our focus, as to why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
Matt’s voice is tinged with wonder as he exclaims, “Lots of times we look at what we get to do and think, I can’t believe we get to do that. It’s a gift in itself.” Like Matt said, therein lies the real centrifugal force of The Longing. Listen to it yourself on their debut album, “The Longing,” from Indelible. Click here to read Suite's review of the project.
