Our Exclusive Interview with The Morning Watch: "We Try to Write Songs Based on Our Experiences that Will Encourage People"

The Morning Watch, formerly known as Living Love, released its self-titled EP in the Summer of 2014  The uplifting thread of hope finds itself in much of the music written by the band, which first got together in 2010 to jam. Knight, McCullers, and close friend Darren Barwick, the original three members, began playing some acoustic shows. They added Reynolds as the group's permanent drummer a year later and the band started playing regularly under the name Living Love.  The fourth band member, Ben Haywood, joined the band on lead guitar, banjo and background vocals, to round out the group.

In 2014, the band members decided to ramp up their musical career. The first step was signing with Inov8 Music Group, home to Leslie Woods, Amanda Ashby, and Sarah Grinder.  "We knew that in order to get to the next level we would need some expert advice from someone who not only knew the ministry aspect but also the business side of the Christian music industry," McCullers says, explaining their choice of Inov8 as their record label.  

The name change and new EP are the final pieces to a strategy intended to expand exposure for the band beyond its regional market. That's good news for fans of upbeat music steeped in God-centered transparency and encouragement.   Time to be on the lookout for The Morning Watch. 

Hallels:  Thank you guys for doing this interview with us.  For our readers who may not familiar with your music, tell us briefly who is the Morning Watch? How did Morning Watch start? 

Josh-

Thanks for having us. The Morning Watch is a south Georgia based Contemporary Christian/rock band whose purpose is to encourage people and tell them about God's love through music. We actually started in 2010 in Dublin, GA when myself, Josh, and Zach got together to jam and decided to start forming a band. Cory, came on in 2011 to play drums and Ben joined in 2013 to add electric guitar and banjo.

Hallels: I believe you were formerly known as Living Love.  Why did you change your name?  What's the significance of your name "The Morning Watch"?

Cory-

We did start out as Living Love. We changed our name last year because we felt like we were starting a new chapter in our ministry. We had gone through a few different musicians over the first 3 years or so and we felt like we finally had a group that was serious about this ministry and where God was leading us. We wanted somewhat of a fresh start.

The Morning Watch comes from Psalm 130:6, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning." The morning watch is commonly known as the first part of the morning set aside for personal devotion and prayer to God. We consider our music and ministry as our devotion to the one who not only blessed us with talent but more importantly, saved our souls.

Hallels:  In your press release, it says that a couple of you once wrestled with anxiety and depression, what happened there?

Zach-

Yea a couple if us have dealt with and still, to some degree, deal with anxiety and depression.There were times of pain and heart aches that derived from different relationships and family struggles, things that a lot of people deal with on an everyday basis. Through that time it was tough to let go and let God work. Eventually when I hit rock bottom and all of the worldly fixes didn't help there was only one place to turn...Jesus. All of us have grown up in church so we never think that we can be susceptible to things like depression, but we can, I was.

For anyone else in a similar situation, our advice is to let go and let  God handle  it. Faithfully ask for his guidance and be obedient in all ways. Although easier said than done, one thing still remains.... God's love is and always has been there for us, we just have to take heed and accept it. 

Hallels:  How did you overcome such challenges?  And are these experiences reflected in the songs on your new EP?

Ben-

Our song, Through It All, talks about  there not being a mountain that we can't climb or a stronghold that we can't break because God is always there through every situation. Our song, Ye of Little Faith, comes from Matthew 8. Basically it is God saying to us, "Why do you not have faith in me? Haven't you seen what I can do already?" We as Christians sometimes don't have enough faith, I mean God can do anything, including get you out of a depression. So we try to write songs based on our experiences that will encourage people.

Hallels:  How would you describe your sound?  Which artists would you say have influenced you?

Cory-

We would describe our sound as Contemporary with a rock/pop edge. Our influences include Needtobreathe, we love their sound and always try to go to their concerts when they are close by. Ben Rector's pop/rock sound and songwriting, Finding Favour,who are from close to where we live and Tenth Ave North. I could name many more, but those are the main ones.

Hallels:  Tell us more about your new song "Greater Love"-- what was the inspiration behind this song?

Josh-

 We wrote Greater Love with our producer, Sean Hill. we were in a writing session and we were throwing around ideas. We wanted to write an upbeat song about God'd love and Sean just started playing this chord progression and someone sang the first line "A greater love that is better that life itself" and we started piecing it together from there. The song talks about how we search for love everywhere and anywhere, but God's love is always here for us and there is nothing greater. It's amazing how sometimes songs just come together. We are really excited to be releasing Greater Love to radio right now. We hope that it does well and that people are inspired by it.

Hallels:  For our readers who would like to purchase your new EP or/and find out more about you, where can they go?

Cory-

You can get our new EP on iTunes, Googleplay, Amazon, you can also get a copy of the EP at http://www.inov8music.com/store.html or at any of our shows. We are all over social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and we love to hear from people and add them to our prayer list. We hope people will add our ministry to theirs. We also have a website http://www.themorningwatch.com so look us up and have us come minister!

 

 

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