Rivers & Robots - Green Room S2E02

and all my sins like scarlet will be white as snow and though they're red like princess hey everybody it's me will hart as you can tell we have a different setup today and that is because i have some great friends here well great i shouldn't really say that we're going to be great friends after this i have some friends that are here uh they are fresh in the middle of their u.s kind of west coast tour uh this is the indie christian indie band is that how you guys title yourselves rivers and robots i want to talk about the name rivers and robots uh you guys are in for a treat um i found out about these guys about two years ago actually well i heard your music before i didn't know that but i found out met you guys about two years ago and uh some crazy stuff happened i'm gonna fill you in like subscribe uh lay hands on that subscribe button you like that it's very pentecostal i thought of that in the shower this morning just speak in tongues over the bell and uh [Music] prophesy to the subscribe button because we need more subscribers and uh we'll we'll go hey guys hey awesome good to have you guys good to be here welcome so this is about half of the rivers and robots team yes yeah the elderhof yeah so tell us about yourselves give us like the quick quick quick introduction who is rivers and robots what is rivers and robots why did you name yourself it's a very good question um we basically i started rivers when i was about 18 um so i'm 27 now so kind of nine years ago um and we both like grew up in church and i've been like pastors kids and um i think for me it kind of started out of curiosity just from being a worship leader and also living in manchester it's like a really big music city and hearing lots of different artists coming through and i was just amazed at like the diversity and creativity of expression i was seeing in like the music world and thinking um it's kind of a shame that a lot of our church songs we sing the same style all the time right um it makes sense because we're trying to sing corporately and you know do things for everyone but i was just curious to find out what would it sound like to do a worship song in a different style of music and would anyone listen to that and would it work and it was kind of just an experiment and i recorded two albums in my bedroom at home and then met this guy and a few of the guys from uh a charity called the message trust in manchester and uh we ended up turning it into a band and yeah we went from there that's awesome yeah so what year was that that was started in 2012 11 yeah 2011. then became a band in 2013. yeah so and you're six albums deep right now yeah six albums yeah i think that's right it's amazing yeah wow and how did you get involved so i yeah i met jonathan eating sandwiches like the message trust and he showed me this song and i was like this is insane um like we need to make a band so i tried to become his drummer and i was like i'll play drums for you but he'd already met a better drummer so then i i thought i'd play the guitar then so i brought a guitar to the practice and uh you already found the guitarist as well so i ended up on the bass uh never played bass before so bought a bass i was like i need to be in this band yeah so it's good yeah and that was um what was that eight years ago nine years ago yeah i realized i didn't even introduce your names we have jonathan jonathan and nathan over here yeah and there's two others that they're hanging out we might yeah we might see them in a little bit yeah hanging out phillip and caleb phillip and caleb they're amazing and they got their wife yeah not their wife no friend of philip's wife phillip's wife an amazing little baby out there um okay so you guys started the band you started making music yeah and and then i i i wanted to share a little bit of a story because i think the reason why you're actually here is because i got to connect with you well i connected with both of you but i really connected with you it's pretty nice it was super nuts and i and i like i want you guys to talk but i want to give a little bit of foundation i'm a preacher so i go on and on so i'm going to try to make this as short as possible and what i want because whenever i hear a story um like i always remember the points that i like and i forget some of the finer details so interrupt me okay please interrupt me and i won't because because actually me and nathan are go back 16 years now probably something like that and we didn't even know this until two years ago it's kind of nuts yeah yeah so how how often have you guys played open door we met at open door festival and it was open skies open northern ireland yeah open skies uh in north see this is i'm so happy yeah just correct me uh my wife does it all the time i'm super comfortable with it okay so we met at open skies i was there with heidi baker yeah she got invited to come and speak at open skies which is uh a worship festival have you guys played it before that was the first time first time yeah yeah so she got an invitation and i'm heidi's like little kind of like lackey right i follow her around and they gave me a speaking spot in like a tent in a corner just because i think heidi was like i'll come but you got to give will a spot too yeah and so so i was in uh i was at the conference or the the festival about 5 000 people in the they camp in tents and uh they have this huge kind of like um circusy type tent yeah and really cool setup people are all around i've never been to anything like that at least put on by the church um and so and so i they uh they had a green room tent connected to like the the bigger tent or you had to walk across and you guys were playing in like middle of the day mm-hmm 12 o'clock you had like quiet slow yeah so you guys go on and you're playing in the big ten and i'm in the smaller tent having a pity party um and this is i i don't know i don't know if i've told you i think i told you the full story when i was on tour in the uk yeah yeah and i was like i don't think you realize what actually happened i was in i was in the green room tent just being like having my time with the lord just being like god uh this is dumb like i don't even know why i'm here they didn't even get me like a hotel room i'm sitting here in this green room there's no food the only reason why i'm here is because heidi's speaking and you know like i just had this little side slot 10 thing that they just you know did to appease her and i was having a pit like a legitimate pity party and i'm sitting the green room was empty you know there's like 10 20 couches in there and all this space i was one of the only guys in there because all the other big time musicians went home and i'm sitting there just upset and i hear this amazing music coming from the tent and i want to preface it with this like i don't i don't believe in flattery i think flattery's lying yeah yeah i really do like i think it's yeah so when i when i'm saying this i'm not trying to i'm not lying or embellishing at all i remember sitting on the couch and hearing you guys play and no joke i felt the presence of the lord fall on me as i'm sitting there in this couch and the best of the best worshipers were there at that festival that like they really were like my my hero jason upton was there yeah i don't know about you guys but jason jason was so important in my life i think i was 20 when i first heard him yeah and just wrecked my life so jason's there and all the all these like all these big big time worshipers are there yeah and they've been playing all day long and but when you guys started playing i literally felt the presence of the lord drop in the tent i got up and i ran into in like the middle of my pity party i ran into the big tent and there might have been a hundred people in there yeah in a tent that holds five thousand yeah i'm a speaker like one of the worst things you can do is have like a big room yeah with like a lit like even if there's just it's a little bit awkward isn't it like even if there's like hundreds of people there yeah if it holds five thousand it's just yeah i feel like i'm spitting bricks every time i preach yeah and and i remember walking in and i think maybe one of both you guys you just had you like your arms lifted up and you were worshiping and i was like number one that's one of the skinniest worship leaders i've ever seen i'm scared like if he's gonna break i need to go to the gym bro [Laughter] i was like man that's but but you guys are worshiping and and i was blown away and i and i elbowed a woman next to me and i was like who are these guys like i've never heard of them and she goes oh they're rivers and robots and i was like i'm sorry that's a good accident i apologize i shouldn't do that that sounded pretty authentic i feel like i got my grandmother's english oh i grew up like going to guernsey in jersey yeah they had a house in guernsey um she goes they're rivers and robots and i was like this is amazing and then i just entered into worship with you guys and i think maybe two three songs and then you were done and and i met you guys on the side of the stage i i remember you could tell me if i'm wrong i remember running out being like who are you guys what the heck just happened you're amazing you guys carry the presence of god and i don't know which one of you guys i was speaking with i think that's i saw you stood at the back and i'm like i think i recognized this guy from like years ago but i wasn't sure if if you were the same guy so it's like we need to just get a coffee and just talk through some stuff i'm a lot fatter than what i was like i wasn't saying that you know but it is true okay so you saw me coming yeah i was like i was like i think i think i know this guy like from a few years ago um so yeah i don't know if you want to yeah so were you peeking with your eyes closed well i was just like there wasn't many people there and you're at the i was like yeah it's kind of nuts no so yeah so i started i i think my first one like where are you guys from you said manchester yeah and and i had been to manchester previously it was actually i don't know how how long i want to make this story but um i used to travel with randy clark yeah i don't know if you're a guy that was used in toronto yeah and we were up in toronto doing a meeting and the holy spirit fell we were doing like a side meeting and side room the holy spirit fell people just lined up and i remember them exiting the building lining up in like the driveway and we spent randy and i spent hours ministering like all throughout that like the the street or like the driveway it was amazing yeah and i guess the pastor of zion it was the name of the king's white church kingsway church yeah church down the road from from my home church yeah really yeah so the pastor from kingsway was there yeah i mean i guess i ministered to him and he was like i want you to come to my church yeah and so that was my first ever international gig where a pastor actually paid my ticket yeah i was blown away yeah they were always like you can come but you got to make your own way yeah and so he he he flew me out and i was so scared yeah that like god wouldn't show up if i went yeah yeah i was a petrified wow and so he was like oh if you have a like a personal assistant you can bring him too yeah and so i bought i brought my buddy jamie galloway who we traveled together and because i was like jamie jimmy carries god and i was like if at least if god doesn't show up i can blame it on him as well like it would be like 50 50. and so i brought him out and we ended up at king's way king's way yeah in the basement i feel like it was a tiny little church hall yeah 30 people or something yeah i remember about 25 30 and i've actually told the stories from kingsway because god did so many amazing things in my life during that time and yeah yes so we did this 14 years or 15 16 years ago now yeah my youth pastor just kind of dragged me along to it like we didn't even go to kingswood i thought they were all a little bit nutty so i was like super suspicious like you see you're doing like fire tunnels and all this kind of stuff like i've not seen anything like this before and i don't really want to get too involved in this how are you i was like maybe 11 or 12. i was just like what the heck is going on and um i was like one of those people who didn't want to go down in the spirit and god just kind of took me down but i was like i don't want to give the people in this room the satisfaction of the world that's so that's what was literally what's going on in my heart and that meeting i thought you were all kind of crazy yeah we are which you kind of are yeah well i'm okay with that now yeah so what what happened so you showed up were you there for the whole time the whole um i feel like we were there i went for a couple of the days yeah um some yeah my youth leader was really into the holy spirit um i mean my home church is a charismatic church but we we didn't really do the whole toronto thing right um so i'm like going through this fire tunnel um my friend was one of the people praying for everybody and i thought she wants me to go down and i don't want to go down just for her like i'm going to prove to her that i won't go down you know and uh you're 11 for 12 at this point yeah this is like the most foolish 11 year old yeah it's very english yeah so i felt like i had probably the most powerful encounter with god i've ever had in my life which is hilarious um i just felt like the weight of his presence just like fall on me and just basically pushed me to the ground and i'm like literally crawling out of this fire tunnel thinking what the heck's going on and then you walked up to me and told me that uh god was gonna send me around the world playing music all over the world and my brother who is the same comes crawling out and then i think jamie said you're also gonna be influential in christian music and he's now like a producer for christian fans all over the world as well so stop we were like both trying not to get too involved and god just kind of grabbed us and yeah yeah and marked our lives basically yeah so i love the prophetic yeah i love it and that was like 16 years ago and it's kind of cool then meeting you at a festival and getting to share the story but yeah so so fast forward so this was so we fi we figured this out on the side of the stage yeah you're like i remember some blonde kid prayed for me i was like that was me yeah i'm the blonde kid and you were like the two guys came from toronto which yeah kind of did by uh the meeting yeah yeah we were living in pennsylvania at the time and honestly like that moment and that moment changed my life and it took me out of a really kind of like i don't wanna i don't wanna say like a dark season but yeah you guys get it you guys travel around and you're poor you're doing like the thing that god has told you to do yeah but you're not you might not be always like seeing the fruit that you thought you would see or that you were promised that it would be yeah and and it's funny because now i look back at it i was sitting in one of the largest you know worship festivals in europe or whatever you know and and even in the middle of it i'm like having my own pity party five years ago if you said will you're going to be speaking with heidi baker at the largest outdoor worship festivals in northern europe yeah like you're crazy and then i'm in it and i'm not and like i'm so introspective that i'm losing the focus on on what i actually i told god i would do right if he took me around the world and and then he just yeah he's begins to show me the fruit i think there's something like when you're just like sowing seeds in those seasons where you are really passionate and really on fire and you just sow those seeds and then god's just really kind sometimes and lets you reap the harvest in that season when you're not feeling yeah very passionate you're wondering what's going on it's like oh man god's so faithful yeah yeah it blew me away and then i don't i don't want to get into this part but then the next day did i tell you what happened the next day to me with uh what's his name tony yeah okay you remember i'm sorry i'm like the worst with names but tony came up to me and i prophesied over him eight years prior that that he i think he was in maryland i said god's calling you to the atlanta area and you're gonna meet your tribe down there and he got in his car and lived homeless for two months so he comes running up to me the next day he's like will hart and i had no idea who he was and to be honest yeah i really didn't like good good father [Laughter] i'm sorry i'm sorry house fires like it's not because it's not a good good song it's it's it's because like everywhere i went for three years every church 150 160 days a year on the road yeah some buddy would be playing that song in off-key and he just began to chisel away at my soul but he but he he came up to me and he said and this is this was the next day he said yeah like you prophesied over me i moved to atlanta i became homeless or lived homeless for two weeks yeah and then i found these people and we started this thing called house fire six months later we wrote good good father i've been waiting to tell you this for eight years and i i don't know you guys have been traveling now for how long eight seven years seven years and you and you you're doing it out of obedience but you never know yeah you just you never know who is sitting in the crowd who you're impacting yeah wow so that's how we connected and i just honestly like that what you guys represented in my life was it pulled me out of like a really really kind of horrible place in my own heart yeah and i'm so grateful i really am i'm just so grateful and uh yeah so now you guys are traveling around the world yeah and talk to me uh first of all what is are you guys a worship team yeah yeah we say like it's probably the weirdest name for worship man but so here's here's what i can't put my finger on like people love listening to your stuff everywhere i go because i've told this testimony a couple of times and everybody's like i'll be in asia i'll be anywhere and and people know your your stuff yeah but they listen to it like they would just any music yeah yeah but when you sit and listen to you guys it is like radical worship it is not but it's like it's also like where do you guys see yourself falling in there yeah i think it took us a while to figure it out in some ways especially like i think the uk is quite defined in like you're either a worship band that sounds like this or you're kind of a christian band with some christian lyrics and you play in the venues and that kind of thing um i think for me it was just trying to write the style of music that came naturally to me and i kind of knew this isn't going to be like a sunday morning worship song um and i didn't really know where it would fit like my literally my vision for the band was like put some songs on facebook and let my friends hear it and then people started emailing us from like brazil and chile and saying i'm still loving the music and i think it seems to be the kind of stuff people want to listen to in the car or like at home and have one in the house that kind of thing but yeah it's fully worship music like lyrically it's very upfront all about jesus and um when we kind of play a concert we do see as leading worship we're playing these songs and for a long time it it's like really awkward it's like everyone's like chilling out and vibing but also like what what [ __ ] what do i do to this but um yeah we just see it as worship music that sounds a bit different but i think the cool thing as well is like um i think we've tried to box in worship sometimes to say like worship is what you sing on a sunday or it's a certain style of music and like the presence of god on me comes in when the pads are doing a certain thing um which is kind of dumb um i mean that's nice but like like like sorry that was very english but i think the presence of god actually um is something it comes through relationship like so when you're spending time with jesus in a secret place and you have that relationship with him like what you do is like fragrant like it carries his presence and like it brings life and fragrance and stuff and that can be whether you're just a band playing in a club like we do sometimes um and the presence of god just sweeps in or um if you're just a businessman or like a mama or whatever you know like just i think there's something about that intimacy with the father that like just brings the presence of god and like that can be any style of music any thing you're doing you know yeah and i guess that's kind of what we do so we just get up there just completely chill completely ourselves and just allow the lord to move and yeah it's kind of nuts it's very humbling that we see like god moving in people's lives and stuff it's great yeah come on so you didn't have like i know nathan had this kind of charismatic experience which freaks some people out and i totally understand that the more yeah so do i i mean i mean we we we minister in all different denominations right that's just my experience right yeah yeah but when you guys are praying like the the the i the physical presence of god like enters enters i feel enters the room have you when it was the first time you noticed that like oh my gosh people are really being touched by god yeah from the words that i write and the music i play like what what yeah what did that do um i think i was on like a real journey with that myself so i grew up in like a brethren church so it's like super traditional yeah um and then yeah it was kind of hit with a big move of the spirit around the same time as toronto and um like i kind of grew up in that early 90s sort of just yeah seeing all kinds of crazy stuff and um i think my older brother used to be a worship leader as well and i used to play in his band and he was like the kind of guy that would write a set list and play the first song and none of the others and it would just like go off and i'd have to try and follow where he was going but that was kind of my environment for learning how to wish it was just seeing people in the presence of god and like trying to follow where the spirit is going through that and so um yeah i started leading worship when i was like 17 and like the first time i led was just three people in a prayer meeting and i'm like shaking so i'm so nervous like um i think even when we started doing the band like that was our context for playing so like the first thing we did was like a worship conference we had a speaker from ihop and kc and um we just like opened in worship and then threw a couple of our songs in the middle and nobody really knew what to do and then we played like david's tent a big festival in the uk um and yeah we've just it's been really open like you say like we've had a chance to play a huge variety of like different denominations and i think part of it is like lyrically we just take scripture pretty much like i love singing psalms and i think it's something that's so wide and everyone can relate to like being on the same page on scripture and um yeah we've had a chance to play in like so many different expressions of church and and non-christians as well and um yeah it's just been really fun to yeah this so i i just got back from brazil and i was yesterday and and i was last i don't know about a week ago i did service in sao paulo and i i do services you know all over and you know you kind of get into a rhythm yeah you know it's like worship then uh you know offering or whatever and you know announcements and then i get up and speak and and uh i think cory you were there right corey yeah corey was in the room and there was this band that got that that got up i thought they were the worship team so i didn't know i literally didn't know what was going on i was actually trying to figure out what i was gonna you know preach on so i'm sitting in my chair and this dude with like big orange pants and long hair yeah uh gets up like big poofy pants and there's this teeny little latina like with the guitar and i and i literally internally i was like ugh you know like oh another like you know like a warm-up i didn't even know what i actually had no idea what was going on because there was like a worship team there and then there's these guys and so i'm sitting there just i stay down everybody stands up i stay in my chair and i'm flipping through the word and they start playing and i had the same stinking experience that i had watching you guys play yeah you know it was so they were out of the box they weren't the regular sort of music thing yeah yeah but the presence of god just fell in the room like it was so beautiful and i remember standing up and just being like and lit like literally being like oh my god i see what was on you guys is on these guys and yeah and after they got off i just ran up and i was like who are you you blow my like what is happening to me right now who are you guys yeah they told me they were ecclesia blah blah yeah i ended up praying for them and and uh they were like oh we know rivers and robots you mentioned i think i think even as i was praying for i was like you guys you have that same thing yeah you're like oh we know them we love them say hi to them yeah and i started in this last week i started to kind of look into this genre that maybe it's just because i've just started it's probably just because i've started looking at you guys been living in it for a little while but it's like there's so many spirit-filled like little pockets of these people that are experimenting yeah there's a whole bunch of us yeah yeah and and i feel like our days as well so what what ekklesia said is like you guys are and i know you're young but they were like you guys are like some of the pioneers of that how does that make you feel yeah it's kind of crazy kind of it's so crazy i heard this um i had this picture like four or five years ago um of uh i was just like sitting in a prayer room at the time and i saw this little like sailboat going out into this big kind of like unknown ocean and um i'm kind of like i used to graphic design so a very like visual thinker so i saw it like a movie and it like zooms out and all these other boats are coming alongside and i felt like god said like you're gonna push into kind of unknown direction and pioneer something but also there's going to be a lot of people that you meet as you step out they're doing that as well and you just kind of do it as as family and um i don't really know what that was i kind of sat with it for a year and we ended up when we quit our jobs and went full time we set up a ministry called set sail based on that um which is just based on like using our worship and creativity as a way of telling people about jesus and also trying to encourage and equip other artists and creators around us so um we kind of had a bit of an understanding for that but like literally when we started we didn't know other people were doing this kind of thing right like even in the last three four years we've met so many other artists that are all experimenting all being super creative yeah full-on fiery worshippers and like it just feels like something god's doing all over the place like with eckless ecclesia i was like lucia and they corrected me and i just can't get out of my head with ecclesia i'd been listening to the music for six months i don't even know it my daughter yeah dad put this song on baptized and fired and she kind of like rock out on this insane isn't it so stinking good yeah like so stinking good yeah and and it's this beautiful balance of worship like contemporary yeah and i i mean you guys is it weird that you're you're about to touch your 30s you guys are yeah or you're pioneering you're you're some of the pioneers in this and and what i saw i kind of took a deep dive into your instagram yesterday which there's a lot there man there was a lot i was on the plane so it took a little time to load it up but you're insanely gifted you're with with graphic design like i was i was blown away doing it for a long time yeah but at least with like ecclesia ecclesia i don't know whatever uh they they seem to marry the all the arts yeah yeah uh when i got saved like the only artsy things were the prophetic groups and it was you know like some beautifully beautiful-hearted lady yeah or man you know in their 60s like drawn you know a world with like fire and that was like arts in the spirit-filled church and it seems like what you guys are doing what these guys are doing is the next level the next iteration yeah yeah yeah i think i just kind of like i worked as a graphic designer before i did music basically so um i've always just been passionate about creative stuff and even since i was like 17 i just like prayed and committed that to god and said like i know that you've made me to be creative and i want to use that in a way that glorifies you and whatever that is like i got to do my design work for christian charities and like designing things that were literally taking schools bands and preaching the gospel with that and um then we get to do it for our music as well but yeah i think it's just like it's part of the expression of this kind of new movement if it was a movement um of just there's a lot of young people coming up that like are willing to push the creative side of things and use that as worship and that it's not just the songs we sing but it's the visuals that we create and it's everything that we pour into it can be done as worship and so i think i used to i used to think that worship um there's this phrase matt redman used to talk about um worship leaders the best worship leader is an invisible worship leader and because it's all about jesus right um and i i grew up with that and loved that and i still really believe in that but um i kind of accidentally translated it as that means i have to not play my guitar too well even though i could play the guitar and it means that i don't take the limelight kind of thing which um is a good heart to have but then i started reading about um the lady who got the alabaster jar full of perfume that cost like 20 000 pounds or whatever it was incredibly extravagant and just smashed it on the feet of jesus and it got me thinking about what does it look like to make something extravagant art wise and like do all the production and all the craziness [Music] and then just throw that at the feet of jesus and actually i think that that's the key thing rather than being invisible it's more about where are we putting our worship towards like is this going on the feet of jesus or is this going to puff up my ego or something right and when i when i had that switch in my brain i was like man we can be as creative as we want to be we can be as extravagant as we want to be because he's worthy of that yeah and like and then as a result like the aroma of that the fragrance like i've been talking about i'm talking a lot about fragrance this morning i'm not that into flowers i think i actually forgot to put some deodorant on this morning i noticed when i hugged you i'm very sorry about that but it's that kind of like that's the after effect of like we're ministering to the to the father we're ministering to jesus and then the after effect is people get saved and people um experience the presence of god and they get healed and all sorts of things just from that worship you know come on yeah i love it it's cool so walk me through your writing process because like for me i mean there's a ton of songs that that i love but the one that i constantly play over and over and over and over again is you don't know i don't know i don't know i was seeing i was testing your prophetic no shepherd of my soul i think is probably i'm super biased i think it was the song that i was listening to when you guys yeah it could work when i first heard you yeah but i love that i mean i just looked on youtube today it's over five million views on youtube and i know spotify is equally big yeah yeah i mean that's a pretty cool feeling just it's crazy like i think like oh like five million people [Music] that's a lot singing along to your heartbeat yeah you know like what's that process because i i've i've talked to a lot of different artists and they all each one has a a process on how they do it how do you guys write like my soul like how did that where did that come out of yeah shepherd of my soul actually started as a christmas song and um but i basically i tend to start with the music first so um i've just always loved music production and um the whole kind of creative side of it so you usually have to start with the chord progression or drum beat and kind of craft the whole instrumental and then have an idea of a melody i'm kind of i think that's the thing i'm most drawn to in music is like the melody side so um and then i write lyrics based on like how the track feels and think okay it's this kind of song um the lyrics tend to be like the last part of it but sharpening my soul was like um i was rewriting a uh is that we three kings i think it is like an old hymn and like putting a totally different tune to it and then i came up with this extra part that i really liked and just sung it into my phone um and then i was writing the first part of the song was a different track and then i think we were just in rehearsal once and realized like oh these two parts just go together and yeah i changed all the christmas lyrics and made it fit with the first part is it based off that song is that why everybody loves it it's just like maybe it strikes that christmas thing in their heart and then we just kept like adding more sections yeah we were in a rehearsal and we were like maybe we could put this part in as well like we felt like maybe we went a bit too far like we thought people aren't going to like this and uh really yeah we had like i don't know there's like 10 different instrumental sections to it and we're like is this too much this is a bit too much almost listen to your songs i freaking love it because yeah this bit like what is it through valleys and yeah oh man i'm going to butcher it i don't know three valleys are shadow of death i'm not afraid yeah like yeah i don't know i will weep and listen to that it's it's so amazing what what's your favorite song that you guys remember like individually i wanna ask each one of you like you must have a favorite i think i have a favorite child okay i totally am allowed to say that it's true i'm just getting there i think my favorite is probably um white as snow um but i think it's just for the because we were when when we sung that we were in a prison in the philippines and singing that over all these like very scary looking prisoners and then and then uh leading them to jesus right after that so i think for me that's probably my favorite probably just for the memories attached to it you know um yeah white is snow white snow okay what about what about you um it changes like every couple of weeks i think probably my current favorite is know you more of the new album um i don't know if i've heard that one yeah it's it's kind of like a hidden away one it's like second to last track so okay a lot of people don't get that far you have to sing but give me like give me uh the essence of it and why is it your favorite um so it's kind of i think just i really love the lyrical theme behind it and again it's one of those that has these like different sections and i don't think any of it's repeated it just goes like abcd um and yeah it's just exploring that whole thing of like wanting to know like the infinite like knowledge of god and realizing like we can go as far as we can in any direction and still never fully figure out who god is and like he's completely like i just love that picture of a completely endless ocean of like the knowledge of god and knowing that we get to discover that forever and we'll never reach the end of it and um yeah it's just kind of like a prayer song of like i want to know you more he's like the main light when i listen to your stuff i i feel like you guys like kind of touch on theology is or am i just making that up no yeah it's like have you dug deep into theology and how important is that in what you write yeah it's important do you check it are you like i don't know if this is physically accurate yeah i think like the very first album i did um it was a lot more like personal things and i was writing more like i guess poetic lyrics that would make sense to me but probably not much to anyone else and then i'm part of a house of prayer as well in manchester um and we have this like worship in the word so we like just open the bible and sing through scriptures and i think that's like a lot of our songs are written from those places like choruses straight from singing out of scripture and um like the reason i want to write really is just to sing about the person of jesus and like for people to grow in more and know more about him so they could love him more and um yeah i just try and sing from things i feel god's speaking to me through scripture and just directly about attributes of god and like if there can be just one line in a song that someone's like i've never thought about that before then that means a lot so yeah we love those like oh classic guys like toeser and um yes andrew murray and yeah yeah all those yeah all those kind of i mainly read books by people who passed away you guys can tell that there's it's not just uh surfacy stuff yeah there is a depth into what you're writing and i think i think that there's a generation that you guys have tapped into that has has not really had that a lot in worship they've had a lot of the just the same old yeah it's all wonderful actually we're kind of sitting it's good worship mecca right and it's beautiful here in the city we we're definitely not against no no no i love it like yeah yeah i i absolutely love it it's not one or the other but i can see that you that you guys are really hitting the hearts of something i think there's a generation that's that's looking for it a depth i think uh up united pursuit kind of started with that yeah and you can see that you guys have really really gone gone deep into not just the the words of worship but but but you are scr singing the scriptures and you're singing truths and yeah it is deep i l i dang it i dig i get really introspective okay so are you guys married no a single single single prince looking to mingle no a little bit i don't know what quick question it's okay that's welcome to my podcast um one of you has to cry before we leave so you know the second um how how do you guys resolve issues as you're traveling i've actually traveled with the worship team yeah uh over a couple summers and it's intense like it's legit intense yeah how do you guys resolve that what do you do like when you fight i think we're like very open um like i i have had to do a lot of that because i'm like full-on introvert so okay and i process everything internally so i can be like really annoyed about something and never say it because i just feel like everyone should know so do i like really annoy you no okay just hang around a little bit longer yeah but like i just realized with journey and longer like just say the things that are frustrating and like have honest conversations with each other and we pride together and i process everything externally yeah it's been a challenge the other way um yeah i think just grace for each other like but we don't travel too long because i think we drove each other insane we only travel for like two to three weeks and then we're back at home yeah great yeah i have a two-week travel on just but you know that's because i have a wife and kids yeah so okay like i'm going to ask a question you don't have to answer this i just want to i'm just interested yeah financially how are you guys supporting yourself yeah because i've had to deal with that where it's like we have to do where we have to do shows yeah we have to play and but you have gas and you have that and you have teams and you have mouths to feed i just saw a little baby out there yeah you know like yeah how do you guys do that yeah yeah so we're basically of course yeah wait um the sale ministry i mentioned earlier that's basically like we all live as missionaries so um we basically use all of the money that the band makes through like album sales and merch and streaming content tickets all of that um and that goes into like the projects that we do so that pays for the tours and all of the kind of gear we need and all the stuff on the road and then personally we all just raise support as missionaries so um yeah people give to our set sail ministry to just help us to do what we do um and sustain us to be able to do it full-time and then all the money is just used for the project itself and we were kind of intentional about that because we didn't want money to be a factor for the kind of songs we're writing and the kind of things we want to do um so we just said right so if we ever write a big song great we'll be able to do more ministry with that you know um yeah it's kind of nice um it means we also have a prayer team around us of all the guys that do support us so yeah come on that's pretty sweet now did you learn this model from somebody else or was it something that you were just like no this we kind of want to do kind of yes or no so i was working for a charity before um that was a missions organization i had to raise support and do that kind of stuff um and then we kind of felt it was ready right to go full time and felt like god was leading us into that and at the same time we were talking to a lot of record labels and um we have a friend of ours who's like a ministry business advisor kind of thing and he was basically we met with him to help us sign a record deal and um he was like i'll fly you out to nashville we'll meet all these top label guys and we'll like get you the best deal that we can the more you started talking about it like the less excited i got and he just kind of looked to videos like you don't want a record dld or i was like no i don't think so and he's like i think you need to start a ministry like that seems to be why you're in it yeah um so we just completely flipped the conversation into let's sign a record let's start a missions organization at the end of the day you kind of like you could be a famous band but like if you're not having an impact like and seeing people come to know jesus like what's the point right you know like why why would you like leave your home for three weeks and travel travel around and like leave kids behind and stuff it'd be kind of a bit i don't know yeah it's like that's not really what i signed up for when i when i followed jesus was to become some famous person and like it's not really what we're in it for if that happens like whatever you know right um if we stop having an impact we should just pack up what we're doing and go do something else i think yeah yeah okay what do you guys do for fun um i play a lot of games games um i have like a nintendo switch i was right on tour so okay what's your what's your game of choice uh zelda breath of the wild oh my gosh everybody says that's amazing no boring no and mario kart that's like your challenge yeah if you if you don't like mario kart just get out of this podcast we love it yeah we just played it we were at my house playing it nice uh so video games what else i've started doing bbc good food like start cooking a bit yeah there's a website bbc good food and you can just go through the recipes and like i've quite enjoyed doing that so it's awesome yeah it's good i'm a bit skinny but oh well i got i got something for you guys at the end but oh i have some uh i i don't know why i only brought one but this is my little the bee farm i've heard about this have you heard about this what is are you stalking me i follow you on instagram i saw you in your your be out i don't think i do please please you have to actually if they want to follow you yeah um the band is just rivers and robots all one word okay yeah and what about individually uh it took me a little while to find yours yeah so mine's j ogden uk which everyone thinks is like jogged a nook and i changed it my name wasn't available on instagram because there's an nfl player called jonathan oh really and like all of the usernames are gone so i had this weird one called og vidius and nobody knew what it was and i was like i'll change it to j ogden because that looks like my name and as soon as i changed it everyone was like who's jogged a nook and i was like no yeah so mine's just nathan sterling yeah he was available wow okay so you guys can follow them you can you can follow what they're doing around the world okay you're finishing up your us tour this will by the time this gets out it'll be over yeah what's coming what's coming up for you here by the way you guys can i said vocal vocal we're going to use that on something we're going to brazil in two weeks yeah no way yeah it's insane it just happened yeah so yeah uh tickets are on sale soon but i guess when this comes out i don't know when it's coming these are this is you guys are going to headline our second seat one of our second season you're the second episode of our second season so i actually don't know if i should be saying that but uh okay so you will you'll have been to brazil how was brazil no i'm just kidding it was great it was so amazing so brazilian uh i've been to brazil over 55 times wow and 20 years one of my favorite nations on the planet yeah you guys are gonna absolutely love it i can't wait to hear yeah get ready because brazilians love like instagram so get your instagame up because it'll explode there's some of the most passionate jesus loving yeah have you you've never been in brazil never been down it is intense it is very intense they know how to worship jesus in brazil wow they're gonna love they're gonna love you guys uh any any projects that are coming up anything you got any secret albums uh any new songs we are we're finishing up this tour then in brazil and then we have a couple of things in europe possibly asia and summer doing some missions work over there and then um i think the second half of this year we're going to start writing and work towards another album so cool yeah yeah you got you got a couple of band members what do you know what your new album is going to be called no literally like i haven't even written any songs yet so you haven't written anything i mean i have like voice memos of bits of ideas but yeah i'll kind of have to scoop them into an album at some point do you do any writing or you just i do some of the writing yeah yeah um so write some of the revision robot songs and yeah got a few on my phone that i'm kind of sitting on at the moment for yourself so do you know when you hit like a song you're like oh man people are gonna stink do you have that moment i some of them take like two years of like refining it and then some of my favorites have been written in like an hour or two and i just write it and like i know when it's good because i want to listen to it all the time and people always say like it's so weird if you listen to your own music and i'm like why wouldn't i listen to it like at night on my own messages yeah but like i write a song that i want to listen to all the time but if i don't then i wouldn't put it on an album so uh is the genre indie yeah it's like oh i never explained the name as well so like yeah oh yeah i'm sorry i've just forgot to do that so rivers and robots is like trying to mix acoustic folk type music which is like the riverside with electronic music which is the robot side so um everything is like that makes sense now on some spectrum of acoustic to electronic music um and we could just kind of call it indian worship because it's easier to explain indie worship yeah i love it whatever it is it's spectacular thank you and i i'm super super honored that you guys have come in here hang out i know that you're on your way you're literally just here for a little bit and then you take off to play a show in sacramento tonight yeah but like honestly guys i i uh i am so encouraged by you i just the fact that i get to i don't know i i just have like a little hook into into into you guys yeah from afar and just i'm cheering you on yeah yeah and i've told the world about you guys i really have like actually there was a season right after that right after we met and i was like oh my god this is a thing yeah actually it was a word that i took around the globe yeah you i'm sure people called you you said yeah you're like they're talking about yeah yeah no honestly though i really appreciated the gift that you carry because like when you're in a position where you're gonna leave everything behind and go do this like knowing that the lord's already spoken and told you that means you have more confidence you know because literally leaving an 18k job for nothing yeah is a very scary decision when you don't know if god's saying yes or no but i knew that god had already spoken it so um yeah so thank you for the word yeah i and i was just some kid and you probably forgot all about it i was just a kid i was twenty yeah one maybe yeah i was just a kid i had no idea what i was doing yeah it was my first international thing but yeah i want to get your guys in here yeah because there's uh there's a couple of them hanging up standing out there let me just you guys uh just talk amongst yourselves all right can you guys come on in if we have people no maybe a little bit maybe the left maybe they left i heard a baby let me go there was a pizza place nearby yeah oh you're completely amused sorry about it with our green rooms in a green room outlet sorry guys i was gonna i was gonna bring him on um listen i don't want to put you in a in a in a difficult place please feel free to say no i will edit this out easily oh hello are they here they are hey you guys come in what's up can i have another question oh yeah i'm going to go run out and tell them to come on in yeah of course mention about your website all that stuff okay and your merch what do you have what do you have to sell just all right rivers and robots are taking over yeah so we have a website rivers and robots.com we have a youtube channel all the social media things we have cds we have vinyl we have t-shirts we did have hats but they sold up this feels like some kind of online auction i think right now call now on this number we did it it was it was dead air they're coming in i saw this little number here yes adelia odelia you haven't it's it's got named listen i saw this guitar you don't have to do anything okay but would would would can i have would you like to play here can we do like a little tiny desk npr yeah what do you think let's grab it so this is um we're on tour with a guy called taylor armstrong he's another one of our yeah just come on in guys come on over we're it's super chill yeah so this is taylor's taylor hey odelia oh my gosh she is so cute hi you want to tell us what's your name tell real about talk into this how old are you yeah stage fright i like your jacket it's really cool it's hello kitty there you go okay and this is dad dad come on in here dad what do you do here that dad does guitar and you're uh you're an mk traveler i'm an nkp all the cases do yeah do you because we're a missions movement right do you have that like non-nation thing what is it called yeah um what's it what's the term they put on it i have no idea like i mean but you get this identity crisis when you're a kid yeah obviously but i mean it's really great i mean you got like the upside you know like this kid's gonna have identity christ she's half german half japanese canadian living in britain she's going to talk british english so it's going to be crazy baby you're not i don't think you're she's stunning by the way thank you yeah sure yeah she's a girl so you play guitar yes and you got you got a lady friend here with you i think yes yeah my wife why don't you come on why don't you guys just come on in it's okay we're we're just come on and say hi come on in too man yeah just introduce yourselves here we can you guys can just uh just stay right there we'll just we'll just you can just talking yeah just talk into it what's your name hello eileen hey eileen and you're from germany yes i'm from germany and you decided to marry this guy right here oh yes and i'd do it so do you play any instruments or you just i i do play the piano but uh just you know at home or at church yeah okay yeah and how she does uh on the road she does uh the merch management and then she does photography for all the tour so come on speaking i'm sorry so you're good she does all the merch management yeah and uh she does the photography uh for the tour so it's awesome i've seen it i was looking at your stuff at the instagram yesterday so talented and come on in back what's your name uh so i'm caleb and i play drums in a bad yeah yeah you can move it don't worry like you play drums yes sir you know that i have a drum uh label named after me no way i do yeah yes fun fun fact that's so cool you play drums i don't i do i so i used to be in hardcore bands i had two hardcore bands when i was growing up so i play guitar i play bass i can play a little bit of the bagpipes uh yes didgeridoo player like yeah and fun known fact i don't know if we should send this out to the world but uh i was in like a prophetic dance and arts troupe for about like exactly i felt the same way it was a prophetic dance in our shoot for like six months after right after i got saved yeah they're great they're still around eagle and dove you can look them up matt gloucester massachusetts eagle and dove nice so good yeah so so good it was a it was a season um so you play drums the the drum kit that i was talking about was their pursuit drums i think they're out of texas a dude came to my conference i think i prophesied over him something and he named his drums after the the conference were you there corey yeah pursue drums oh i don't know if they're any good but you can look them up that's so cool quite often where people come to you like you probably said to me i'm going to give you this now not as much as i'd like anybody watching if i've ever given you a word or you've listened to me preach i love things free things give me your free things and i will enjoy them his mailbox is right here just sorry address and uh i did give you guys as a band uh you can squabble over it i don't know but i have uh i have some beehives so that's fresh i squeezed i squeezed each bee individually wow there you go this stuff's uh you can't get it anywhere that's amazing they have like a couple gallons left so i really this is ours wow that's so good do you like honey it's amazing so thank you yeah yeah thank you so much dude super great for you guys coming in thank you for for sure for swinging in thanks for coming and saying hi thanks for having us really oh i love it well i i uh me and this guy go way way and so it's an honor it's really a privilege i love i love what you guys are doing i really do and uh i think it's really cool that you're here and you take some time but i i we how are you doing over there yeah we're going to try to do a little uh just a little song maybe right yeah there's no pressure and what i'll do is i'll send this to you guys before we put it out and if you guys don't like the way it sounds or anything yeah i understand that we will you guys just say no and we won't and we won't and we'll uh yeah we'll just end the podcast now [Music] so i cling to the lamb who has purchased me with his own blood and i stand in his righteousness washed by his mercy and love though i feel a thousand times lord your mercies are new every morning so wash my heart clean let my spirit be steadfast and strong [Music] and all my sins like scarlet will [Music] scarlet will be white as snowing though they're red like prince and they will be a broken and contrite heart you do not despise so wash over me clean [Music] and all my sins like scarlet [Music] [Music] scarlet he will be [Music] [Music] oh thanks for having us thank you guys yeah yeah thanks man yeah white is snow that was amazing thank you yeah for reals thank you so much i it's such a privilege and an honor to have you guys in here i know that what god is doing with you guys is just going to continue to grow i think the heart of purity the heart that you have for missions i mean at iris i mean that's all that we are i think you you said the word musicianary i just i love that i love that so much and i think it really speaks to the purity of your heart for jesus for the message of the gospel getting out to the poor the sick the needy and the broken if there's anything we can ever do to help you guys please let us know yeah um i i'm just so encouraged uh by watching you guys so thank you listen uh this is rivers and robots these guys are amazing go to their instagram go to their youtube channel follow them i listen to these guys on spotify um just follow them and buy their merch as you could as you heard uh today they don't um they're not doing this for ticket sales they're they're living by faith which i love and they're going after jesus with all of their hearts so go and support them like just buy their stuff it's amazing it's not even it's not even like buy their stuff just no like i've seen it your merch is amazing uh buy their albums support these guys as they go around the world hungry for jesus hungry for the gospel yeah and uh and follow them go see them live in person i just got to see them live uh and it blew my mind so love you guys thank you and uh we'll see you guys maybe not you guys we'll see you guys on the next green room like subscribe lance on that subscribe button corey hates that line hit that bell thingy i think there's a bell you can hit that bell and you can follow us if you like this podcast make sure you just send it share it somebody this is all free we do this because we love you guys and uh yeah share it with somebody else and i will catch you on the next uh iris global green room love you guys

Channel: Iris Global

Views: 1,789

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: U4Q9VHahf4k

Length: 62min 29sec (3749 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021