Irish Worship Band Chapel Chats About their New Album "The Gathering"

Pop worship team, Chapel Band has recently released their new album, The Gathering. After recently signing with DREAM Worship, the group quickly went into the studio to finish amazingly powerful pop live album.  The songs of this revival were penned by the young worshipers of Chapel Band who had poured into this movement and were beginning to see all they had prayed and longed for. The songs on the album have become anthems over the nation in their hometown in  Ireland. 

In 2013, in a nation largely unreached for Christ, six students got together in the Chapel room of a downtown Dublin Church, wanting God to move in the land of Ireland. These young people prayed and worshipped God, seeking Him for revival and change in their city and in universities across their country.  In the three years since that time, Chapel has become a home, a community, a family to hundreds of young people encountering Christ every single week. 

The heart of Chapel Band is to minister about Christ to people.  Each week, Chapel band lead hundreds of young people into worship and point them to who Jesus really is.Chapel Band saw unprecedented success when their debut EP, 'Fire By Night' went to No.1 on National iTunes, being the first ever Christian group to reach number 1 in Ireland. Chapel Band champion the local church and play weekly, training up new musicians and worshippers. 

Q:  Thank you for doing this interview with us. You've got quite a story of how your College Ministry started. Can you tell our readers how God gave birth to Chapel? 

We started about 4 years ago in the small Chapel room of our church. There were 6 of us at the time, all college students. We wanted to see God move in our city and knew that we had a role to play. We began to just do life together, supporting one another, praying for each other and worshipping together. It's amazing what God can do with 'small starts'. Fast forward 4 years and we have hundreds of young adults from around Dublin now part of the Chapel family. 

Q:  How big is Chapel now?   

Chapel is just one of many ministries at our church St. Mark's, Dublin City. Chapel has over 150 college students and young adults who attend our weekly gatherings with many more coming to our event nights and 'invite nights' which are a chance for people to bring friends who may have never been inside a church before.

Q: What are some of the factors that led to such growth in Chapel?

I would say two things - Leadership Vision & Faithfulness. Our Pastor Daniel Malone leads with passion, incredible vision and excellence at all times. He challenges us, encourages us and inspires us to dream for our city. That is a crucial reason why Chapel has grown. The other is being faithful. When we are faithful in the small things, truly God prospers and brings the bigger things. He always sees, he always knows and he honours faithfulness.

Q:  Coming from Ireland, do your Irish roots influence your sound?  If so, how?

The main influence on our sound would be the kind of music we all love listening to, which is very current - most of it electronic, dance and pop music. I would say our heart behind the music is more influenced by our Irish roots. Irish people are known to be fiery and passionate and with this album, we poured ourselves fully into it.

Q:  After an EP on your own, why and how did you get to work with Dream Records? 

We released out EP which was more successful than any of us imagined. It reached No.1 on iTunes in Ireland which is a first for the Church over here. Dream discovered it and loved the sound, they came on board with 'The Gathering' and encouraged us hugely. It's been a huge blessing for us to work along with Dream Records and they have taken our music to places we never imagined reaching. 

Q:  I am very intrigued by the album's cover.  Can you explain to me the significance of the album picture?

We really wanted the album cover to encapsulate what God is doing in the city of Dublin and the gathering that is taking place. We love this city and are blessed to serve it. We have an amazing team at Chapel and our incredibly talented friend Kirsten Van Der Flier created freestyle drawings of various landmarks in Dublin and combined them together to create the skyline image.

Q:  Talk to us about your new song "All In."  What's the song about?  And what was the story behind this song?

We had a sermon series by our pastor Daniel Malone a few months ago titled 'All In'. He explored whatit looked like to be 'All In' for the kingdom. Many times we find it difficult to be passionately sold out for Christ when we don't see our promises fulfilled. This song is a song of encouragement to build our faith and remind ourselves how worthy he is of every part of us, in every season.

Q:  What's your hopes and dreams for your new record "The Gathering"? 

We've been overwhelmed by the positive reviews and feedback we've already gotten from the album since it was released in November. Our hope would be that people would hear our music and connect to Jesus through it. We've heard stories of people who don't know Jesus, listening to the album and asking questions about Jesus. If our album can begin a journey of faith for people, we would see that as a success.  

Tags : dream records chapel chapel band the gathering daniel malone chapel band the gathering