Him + Her Worship Reveal How Their Songs Were Birthed During a Season of Darkness

Minneapolis-based husband/wife folk-pop duo Him + Her Worship have just released their new album Even in the Dark. Grounded in the assurance of God's steadfast love throughout life's deepest valleys and highest peaks, the project was written, recorded and produced by Him + Her Worship's Seth and Jenna Herlich. 
 
With additional instrumentation and production support from Hotel Eden's Kelly Warner, Even In The Dark was mixed and mastered by Nicolas Essig (Lana Del Rey, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood) and features 10 selections-seven vocal tracks alongside three instrumental interludes. 
 
 Him + Her Worship's Seth (piano, vocals) and Jenna (guitar, vocals) Herlich began songwriting and performing together two years ago. Quickly carving a unique niche in the worship landscape with their vulnerable, introspective lyrics and experimental, folk-pop sonic textures, the duo's "All Along"-from their critically-acclaimed 2019 debut EP Beacon-was featured on Spotify's coveted "New Music Friday Christian" playlist. Bringing their passionate harmonies and timeless message of Christ's love to audiences around the country, Him + Her Worship's full-time life on the road is chronicled in the 2019 documentary Follow Where You Lead, which was showcased at last year's Great Lakes State Film Festival.   

Q:  Thanks for doing this interview with us. Who is Him + Her Worship? How did you feel the call into music ministry?

Jenna: We are a husband and wife worship duo from Minnesota, and we travel in our camper leading worship nights in churches around the country. At the beginning, we were both working jobs we thought would be our careers, living in a really nice home in a lovely city, but we were feeling drained and purposeless. God used that feeling to pull us into music ministry through the encouragement of some key people in our lives.

Honestly, when we first started making music, we wanted to pursue playing secular music. We set up a tour on both coasts, but by the time we were ready to go, every single one of the secular venues fell through and we ended up playing 30 churches instead. That was so clearly God's hand guiding us. That summer caught our hearts on fire, and we couldn't go back-we knew worship music was our calling.

Q:  What do you think sets your music apart from the countless worship albums coming out now?

Seth: Jenna and I are really passionate about having our music be as authentic as it possibly can be, so we chose to produce the record with raw honesty in both the words and production.

Q:  Tell us how your new album came about.  What were some of the highlights in the making of this record?

Jenna: From a writing perspective, the songs on this album came from a continuous season of heartache, loss and disappointment. Maybe these aren't highlights, but they were really, really important dark moments. I remember scribbling "I have prepared you for this" in a journal entry a hundred times because I knew it was true, but I didn't quite believe it yet. I recall Seth playing the piano at midnight in a church in Georgia until the hooks of "It'll Be Alright" and "Faithful" finally emerged, and another important moment was wrapping a bow on "It'll Be Alright," written for Seth's mom, just to get the text minutes later that she was ready to meet Jesus.

It wasn't until January 5th, three days after Seth's mom passed away, that we randomly met the most talented and lovely producer, Hotel Eden's Kelly Warner, and we asked him to join in on the project as our contributing producer. For months he helped guide us towards crafting the songs and assembling the right team for the project. And as we made plans to track the record on our own, the world shut down in quarantine. God gave us the time we needed to record the songs, make a marketing plan, and get ready to release these songs into the world.

 Q:  Many of the songs came from "a season of darkness." Tell us more about this season.

Seth: Since going full time into music, there have been many ups and downs for us- a lot of excitement followed by discouragement and everything in between. Also, in the midst of all of this, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. Shortly after, the world started to crumble as well. A lot of that came out in our songwriting, as we were feeling the path we were on just fell through. The album seemed very relevant to our lives and the lives of so many others.

Q:  Who or what was your hope? How did the Lord help you through this time?

Jenna: Over these past few months our faith has been tested. After seeing God bless our ministry in various ways since its beginning, we started looking towards visible success as our idol. We thought a new manager or producer or partnership would save us and our ministry. Sometimes it's hard for us to remember Who our hope is, and that is the theme that keeps coming out in our songs. God is sovereign. He has a plan for us. Our value does not come in the success of the album or the number of streams. I think He's been guiding us towards that. Jesus wants our hearts and truly He is the only one that can give us peace.

Q:  If there's a song or two on the new record that best captures this season -- which would it be? And why?

Seth: "It'll Be Alright" and "I Have Prepared You For This" best capture this season, for sure. The common theme through them is that God really is in control and Jesus is with us. In so many ways we want things in our lives to be amazing, and that's not the reality God promised. I almost always feel like I'm in over my head, but the reality is that God uses every detail of my life for His good purpose. So, you and I can know when we are facing situations that we think we might not have the strength for, God has prepared us, and He is our strength in these moments.

Q:  How will this record help some of our listeners who are also going through a difficult season?

Jenna: There is strength and power in community. When we play live, sometimes we'll sing a song, or share the story of a song, and something in the room changes. Sharing these stories doesn't make our audience's lives better; it doesn't fix their problems, but knowing they are not alone makes a huge difference. We wrote these songs with the faces of those people in our hearts and minds, and I think when a person who needs this hears these songs, they will know they are not alone.

For further information, visit himandherworship.com or turningpointpr.com. Follow Him + Her Worship on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

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