Music to Change Lives
http://www.thejournalofstudentministries.com/articles/88/1/Music-to-Change-Lives/Page1.html
Jessica Robin
A passion for music with a message drew Jessica to Nashville in 1999, where she has worked in and around the music industry in many different facets. She has written for Release Magazine, 7Ball, CCM Magazine, Christian Music Planet and various web sites. A proud fan of dc talk, Switchfoot and Jars of Clay since the early days, her current favorite band is needtobreathe. By Jessica Robin
Published on 03/14/2008
The band plays and behind them more than 200 lamps switch on, creating a wall of light, a dramatic backdrop to the otherwise simple living room setting.
Behind the scenes with Christian band Esterlyn
The band plays and behind them more than 200 lamps switch on, creating a wall of light, a dramatic backdrop to the otherwise simple living room setting.
It’s the climactic scene in Esterlyn’s new video for the song, “We All Need,” and it’s powerful. The words of the chorus ring out:
We all need faith, the faith to love all that you are
We all need love when there's no hope beyond the door
We all need hope, the hope to live for something more
Esterlyn—a four-piece band that sometimes include keyboards—makes melodic rock. Perhaps the best way to describe their style is “right now.” They blend with what’s popular these days in rock music—their influences read like a laundry list of cool bands (e.g., Death Cab for Cutie, Copeland, All American Rejects, Mute Math, Jimmy Eat World, etc.), but they definitely don’t sound like a knockoff of any one band. Esterlyn’s is an accessible sound and most importantly, the lyrics are easily intelligible, which brings the message front and center.
Clearly Stated
In a time when it’s common for bands of believers to veil their messages in metaphors and vague love songs, Esterlyn isn’t at all shy about their purpose.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe God had called me to it and if I didn’t believe it was an effective ministry,” says lead singer and band founder, Luke Caldwell. “For me, music is an avenue to share what’s been put on my heart and what our generation needs to hear—the love of Christ and the hope that we have in him.
“Obviously we want to make good music; we desire to be creative and to come across in a genuine way. But ultimately there’s a deeper goal than just making music, having fun, and getting on the road. It’s meeting students where they’re at and sharing God’s love with them in a practical way—through our music, our lives, and who we are as individuals.”
Out of the Blue
While that might sound like a pretty heady goal for a group of 20-something guys from Idaho, it turns out that Caldwell has some experience in youth ministry. A pastor’s kid, Caldwell followed up a short stint in Bible college with more than five years of serving as youth pastor at his father’s church, Calvary Chapel Boise. While at Bible college, as he prayed for God to show him what to do with his life, Caldwell was literally handed a guitar one day, out of the blue.
A girl approached him and said, “God wanted me to give you this.” Caldwell had never entertained the thought of being a musician. But he began to learn to play and sing, and as his roommates so delicately stated, “Luke, you’re horrible!” To this, he responded, “I know…pray for me.”
So as he spent his early twenties ministering to junior and high school kids, he also honed his musical skills. And, as he puts it, “God kept opening doors.”
On the Move
A glance at Esterlyn’s MySpace page illustrates a busy year on the horizon for the band—their debut album Lamps releases on February 26, and they have tour dates already lined up from January through the summer festivals. Many of their past and near future shows are booked at churches, including some consecutive shows at the same church, evidence of the heart they have for one-on-one ministry.
“We really try to make [talking with the kids] a priority, whether before or after concerts or chatting online and through different networks online,” Caldwell shares. “We try to connect with them at a real level…one thing I learned from being a youth pastor is that a lot of these kids don’t have role models. They don’t have parents who love the Lord or people they can always look up to, so whether it’s as a youth pastor or as Christian musician, I want to be available to these kids. There’s a lot of hurt, and there’s a lot of heartache in this world, and we want an avenue to share our faith with anyone who will listen.”
Becoming a Lamp
As Esterlyn embarks on this journey, don’t look for them to sign with a major mainstream label anytime soon. While some bands may be called to take the gospel into the unchurched world, Caldwell and the guys in Esterlyn are dedicated to ministering to the youth in churches around the nation and perhaps, one day, in other countries. Caldwell’s philosophy is that by encouraging and challenging the Christian kids, those kids in turn will be equipped to reach way more kids in their schools and in their communities than the band could ever hope to connect with on their own—the exponential ministry effect, if you will.
“My dream is to be able to impact Christian culture right now, be a band that [Christian kids] can look up to, and actually live out our faith in songs that really glorify God. And stick to that. That’s who we really want to be,” Caldwell states succinctly.
Thus, the “lamp” theme of the album and the video. “Each and every one of us is choosing to be that lamp, to be that light around us, to shine all over the world,” Caldwell explains. “And that’s not something one person can do just by going from place to place. Jesus lived to equip his disciples to go—to share who he is with the world. And that’s the concept we embrace as a band—to challenge, encourage, and equip as many people as we can so they’ll go and share their spirit influence.”
It’s the climactic scene in Esterlyn’s new video for the song, “We All Need,” and it’s powerful. The words of the chorus ring out:
We all need faith, the faith to love all that you are
We all need love when there's no hope beyond the door
We all need hope, the hope to live for something more
Esterlyn—a four-piece band that sometimes include keyboards—makes melodic rock. Perhaps the best way to describe their style is “right now.” They blend with what’s popular these days in rock music—their influences read like a laundry list of cool bands (e.g., Death Cab for Cutie, Copeland, All American Rejects, Mute Math, Jimmy Eat World, etc.), but they definitely don’t sound like a knockoff of any one band. Esterlyn’s is an accessible sound and most importantly, the lyrics are easily intelligible, which brings the message front and center.
Clearly Stated
In a time when it’s common for bands of believers to veil their messages in metaphors and vague love songs, Esterlyn isn’t at all shy about their purpose.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe God had called me to it and if I didn’t believe it was an effective ministry,” says lead singer and band founder, Luke Caldwell. “For me, music is an avenue to share what’s been put on my heart and what our generation needs to hear—the love of Christ and the hope that we have in him.
“Obviously we want to make good music; we desire to be creative and to come across in a genuine way. But ultimately there’s a deeper goal than just making music, having fun, and getting on the road. It’s meeting students where they’re at and sharing God’s love with them in a practical way—through our music, our lives, and who we are as individuals.”
Out of the Blue
While that might sound like a pretty heady goal for a group of 20-something guys from Idaho, it turns out that Caldwell has some experience in youth ministry. A pastor’s kid, Caldwell followed up a short stint in Bible college with more than five years of serving as youth pastor at his father’s church, Calvary Chapel Boise. While at Bible college, as he prayed for God to show him what to do with his life, Caldwell was literally handed a guitar one day, out of the blue.
A girl approached him and said, “God wanted me to give you this.” Caldwell had never entertained the thought of being a musician. But he began to learn to play and sing, and as his roommates so delicately stated, “Luke, you’re horrible!” To this, he responded, “I know…pray for me.”
So as he spent his early twenties ministering to junior and high school kids, he also honed his musical skills. And, as he puts it, “God kept opening doors.”
On the Move
A glance at Esterlyn’s MySpace page illustrates a busy year on the horizon for the band—their debut album Lamps releases on February 26, and they have tour dates already lined up from January through the summer festivals. Many of their past and near future shows are booked at churches, including some consecutive shows at the same church, evidence of the heart they have for one-on-one ministry.
“We really try to make [talking with the kids] a priority, whether before or after concerts or chatting online and through different networks online,” Caldwell shares. “We try to connect with them at a real level…one thing I learned from being a youth pastor is that a lot of these kids don’t have role models. They don’t have parents who love the Lord or people they can always look up to, so whether it’s as a youth pastor or as Christian musician, I want to be available to these kids. There’s a lot of hurt, and there’s a lot of heartache in this world, and we want an avenue to share our faith with anyone who will listen.”
Becoming a Lamp
As Esterlyn embarks on this journey, don’t look for them to sign with a major mainstream label anytime soon. While some bands may be called to take the gospel into the unchurched world, Caldwell and the guys in Esterlyn are dedicated to ministering to the youth in churches around the nation and perhaps, one day, in other countries. Caldwell’s philosophy is that by encouraging and challenging the Christian kids, those kids in turn will be equipped to reach way more kids in their schools and in their communities than the band could ever hope to connect with on their own—the exponential ministry effect, if you will.
“My dream is to be able to impact Christian culture right now, be a band that [Christian kids] can look up to, and actually live out our faith in songs that really glorify God. And stick to that. That’s who we really want to be,” Caldwell states succinctly.
Thus, the “lamp” theme of the album and the video. “Each and every one of us is choosing to be that lamp, to be that light around us, to shine all over the world,” Caldwell explains. “And that’s not something one person can do just by going from place to place. Jesus lived to equip his disciples to go—to share who he is with the world. And that’s the concept we embrace as a band—to challenge, encourage, and equip as many people as we can so they’ll go and share their spirit influence.”