Ben Cantelon: Soul Survivor worship songsmith running after God

Wednesday 12th August 2009

Ben Gilligan and Tony Cummings report on Canadian-born worship leader and songwriter BEN CANTELON



Continued from page 1

Travelling with Tim was a profound learning experience for Ben. "I learnt a lot in that time. But again the great thing was I was travelling around with Tim and just being able to watch him lead worship. I didn't realise at the time but I was learning how to lead worship by just being a part of it. It was funny because about a year into it I came home from a trip to Australia and Tim and his wife stayed there. I came back and had a time of worship, I was just playing my guitar and I really sensed God saying, 'Ben, why aren't you leading worship, why aren't you doing this?' I just thought, well there are so many great worship leaders and I love what I'm doing, I like being the music guy. There were so many people doing a great job of it already that I didn't feel I was needed. But it just didn't get out of my head. God just really put it on my heart.

"A week later Mike called me and said, 'Mate, this is the weirdest thing, but I was on the flight home and I just heard God say that you're supposed to lead worship'. It was an 'oh my goodness' moment and you know from this that it must be a God thing. There was definitely a confirmation there. I started to lead and Tim and his wife Mary moved to Holy Trinity, Brompton. Somehow I then ended up in leadership and became the worship director, alongside Lex Buckley. When that happened I wanted to try and keep the worship fresh for our church. I think for every worship leader's sake we need to take a stab at writing and go for it. I felt there was a need to start writing myself. I really started to take songwriting seriously and pursue it. My first couple of songs were called 'Love Came Down' and 'Celebrate' and they were on the 2006 Soul Survivor live album. The album was actually called 'Love Came Down'."

In 2007 Ben had a chance to record some more of his songs for Survivor Records. "I had a couple of songs, so Mike came to me and said, 'What do you think about doing an Emerge recording?' At first I was a bit sceptical but on the other hand I saw it as a challenge. It was a really good way to push my songwriting. So I said yes."

Recording worship in a studio as opposed to leading worship in a live gathering was a whole new experience, as Ben found. He commented, "It's a completely different process, you're trying to capture something in the studio that's quite hard to capture. I mean, live you can flow with what God is doing, you have the people and also the energy. This is quite hard to recreate in a studio. It's a very different experience, I've learnt loads doing it. It was produced by Dwayne Larring, he's from Los Angeles and was once a member of SonicFlood. It's kind of funny 'cause I saw him and was like, 'Oh, hi!'. I'd actually met Dwayne the first time I came out to Soul Survivor, he was there playing guitar. We did some of the recording in Eastbourne, just drums and bass, then finished the rest off in America. He did a great job on the 'Daylight Breaks Through' Emerge CD."

With Ben's admiration of Dwayne's copious production skills clearly evident Dwayne was a no brainer to produce Ben's debut full length album. The singer/songwriter spoke about some of his favourite songs on the project. "The song 'Coming Back' came about when I was having a time of worship. I wrote it about coming back to this first love and tying in the story of the prodigal. The song itself is a real journey, musically and melodically. It goes from 4/4 into 6/8 and then back to 4/4 again, it's a really different song in itself. The lyrics are talking about being broken, one of the verses goes, 'I'm broken, there is nowhere left to hide/I'm drowning in need of your lifeline/I'm on my knees again surrendered.' It then says, 'I've had all the riches in the world/But they could never ever take your place.' It is a song about surrender and coming back. The riches of this world isn't just being wealthy, it's having a roof over our heads, food and water on our tables. All these things that we take for granted, they really are the riches. It is really important that we come back to our first love and don't forget that he is why we are here."

Ben was asked whether it was slightly odd being a professional worshipper. How did he feel about being paid to worship God? "It's strange that nowadays you can make a living out of being a worship leader. But we need worship leaders to model worship so that other people can become worship leaders. You see, in the Bible when armies go to war the musicians would be at the front of the line with their trumpets and drums. Music has a really important part to play within the Church. I think we need to see worship take more of a stand and for musicians to write songs that push the boundaries."

Ben finished his interview by talking about what is needed in today's worship songs. "I think what people are looking for today is something real, honest and true. There is so much stuff out there that can be manufactured. You find nothing really changes and it repeats in a cycle. I think we need to have songs that are real, raw and authentic. Within worship music we've found a style that works within the Church and reaches God's people. Despite this we need to make music reach out to those people who are going through stuff, non-Christians who can find a real truth within worship music. Music that will make them think, 'I don't know what that is, but I believe it and it feels real.'" CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
About Ben Gilligan
Ben Gilligan is currently studying music journalism at Staffordshire University.


 
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Reader Comments

Posted by dina in saudi arabia @ 12:17 on Jul 29 2010

i'm so blessed with your life ,your testimonies, the way God called you with a real purpose. you are really a blessing.!
may you be an inspiration to all the worship leaders..keep on going brother!
GOD BLESS....



The opinions expressed in the Reader Comments are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms.

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