Matt Redman

Artist Bio

For his fourth live-recorded album, Matt Redman knew he wanted to do something different. The most recent live recordings, GRAMMY award-winning 10,000 Reasons and Billboard chart-topping Your Grace Finds Me, were recorded in Atlanta, but Redman had a different dream for Unbroken Praise, his latest live collection that will release with sixstepsrecords on June 16.
“I had the Abbey Road idea because we’ve done a few little things there in the past,” says Redman. “But to record a whole album there is another level and I wondered if it was perhaps a dream too big!” The historic London recording studio is better known for recording bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, and Queen than it is for hosting nights of worship, but after Redman shared his dream with Louie and Shelley Giglio, label leaders of sixstepsrecords, their team began making phone calls. Soon after, the idea began to take shape.
On recording day, a crowd of 350+ gathered in the Georgian townhouse-turned-studio and worshipped. “That was an amazing moment,” recalls Redman. “Partly because it’s an amazing thing to make a record there anyway, but also to have church in that place. To me, that’s even more special. Those in attendance had learned all of the songs to be recorded beforehand. All of the songs except for one: “Unbroken Praise.” That’s because Redman and longtime co-writer and friend Jonas Myrin had only finished writing it at 11:30 p.m. the night before.
In rare night-before-a-live-recording producer form, Nathan Nockels (10,000 Reasons; Your Grace Find Me), wrote Redman an email that said, “We’ve got your back, so even if at this moment you wanted to bring in a brand new song, that would be fine with us. We’ll make a plan.” That’s the encouragement Redman needed. “I remember thinking to myself, I’m sad I didn’t get to finish that ‘Unbroken Praise’ song. It’s just one of those things. I’ve tried my best and didn’t get there. Then Nathan emailed me.”
Redman and Myrin finished up the song just in time for the live recording. “I could see people pouring out their hearts to God through it,” says Redman, “and very quickly it became the title song.” The phrase “unbroken praise” was taken from a verse in the classic hymn “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” referring to the act of glorifying God through praise and acknowledging Him in everything we do.
When thinking of someone he knows who lives a life of unbroken praise, the UK’s Bishop David Pytches comes to mind for Redman. “I’m always inspired by people who manage to get it right over a long period of time,” he says. “I was in his church from the age of two, so I’ve witnessed this guy in ministry for many years. I’ve seen him be faithful. He buried my dad when I was seven years old. He baptized me. He baptized all my kids. He married my wife and me. Now he’s over 80, but he’s still living that life of faithful worship and service for Jesus.”
This is the theme of the entire album: choosing to worship God for the long haul. Through not only the celebrations, but also the hardship. “There are quite a few songs about trusting God or walking through the night and still singing a song of praise,” Redman says.
Referencing Bono’s quote “I preach what I need to hear,” Redman explains the message in Unbroken Praise is just as much for him personally as it is for those who will listen to the album.
“It Is Well with My Soul,” the first single, is an example of this. Beth Redman, Matt’s wife and co-writer says, “We’d had a stressful year and ‘It is Well with My Soul’ is one of the songs that came out of that. It reflects on the fact I know God is with me; I know I am being taken care of – and I know He is working in all of this.”
The song has original verses, but borrows the well-known chorus. Redman said it was an unexpected pairing: “I wasn’t trying to rewrite that hymn at all, but once I started with a verse, I instinctively sensed the chorus of the old hymn and thought it was a wonderful response.”
Unbroken Praise is certainly not lacking in guts. With lyrics that declare the truth of God’s goodness and a subtle, steady stream of hundreds of voices as the backdrop for each song, this album reminds believers that we are in this together, and we are never alone. Even the cover art reflects this truth.
Designer Leighton Ching had a unique vision for this album cover. Inspired by London street art, he attended the recording at Abbey Road and got a signature from every person in the room. Then, he scanned each signature onto the cover. Redman approves. “I love this because I always say that although my name’s on the cover, what goes into these things is a huge amount of teamwork. From the songwriters to the mix guy to the guy who’s doing my demo vocals. It’s so many people bringing an amazing amount of hard work and expertise.”
Included in this group of hard workers and experts are Redman’s longtime co-writing friends Jonas Myrin, Chris Tomlin, Jason Ingram and Matt Maher. He has worked with them for years, producing well-known songs like “10,000 Reasons”, “Our God” and “Jesus, Only Jesus.” The group contributed heavily to this album as well, writing bits and pieces of songs wherever they could get together: Atlanta, Nashville - even an 800-year-old chapel in London.
“It’s like a band of brothers,” says Redman. “We’re all for each other. We all bring the best out of each other. We all sharpen and challenge each other. I look at these songs and think there is no way on earth I could have written these alone. I see their friendship and expertise all over them.”
David Crowder can now be added to this band of brothers. Though he and Redman have been friends for years, this was the first time they collaborated musically. He makes his debut with the song “Abide with Me,” one of those soft yet incredibly powerful pieces of worship that repeats important truth about God’s love.
This act of repeating truth in worship is intentional on Redman’s part. “Worship is the ultimate reality check,” he says. “You can have something crazy going on with your relationship status or your bank balance, but when you’re in that moment, you can look up and see Jesus on his throne ruling over your life. Your circumstances might not change but something inside of you can.”
Turbulence and trust. Hardship and hope. Sorrowful yet rejoicing. These paradoxes of the faith are written boldly and joyfully into Unbroken Praise, making it an album that will resonate with the pain in people’s hearts and encourage them at the same time.
Continuing to take his music all around the globe, Redman will be bringing Unbroken Praise and his other popular worship songs to audiences in the U.S. and abroad throughout the rest of 2015.  Redman will join the Worship Nights in America Tour with Chris Tomlin, where they will play venues like Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks Amphitheater.
But for Redman, it’s all just church. Whether he is leading worship in an arena in America, an amphitheater in another part of the world or a historic recording studio in his home country, he says, “My ultimate aim is to write songs for the church to sing. I don’t really write other kinds of songs. When someone says, ‘Your song helped me say to God what I wanted to say but I didn’t know how,’ that’s what fires me up.”