The Christian songwriting partnership of MARK PENNELLS and ZARC PORTER chronicled through 20 of their recordings
Continued from page 1
13. Jump5 - Jump5, Sparrow, 2001
Zarc: After the success of "Jumping In The House Of God" in the US
the manager of this new kids group Jump5 rang us up and said could we
write a song like "Jumping In The House Of God", but not a rap, which
is why "Start Jumping" sounds like "Jumping In The House Of God" with
no rap! it was designed for the job really. I reckon it's one of our
songs we're least happy about, but it's one that had a lot of exposure
especially in the States. That's often the way it works. That song and
another one "Throw Your Hands Up" which was a big song in America for
Jump5, they basically allowed us to start Innervation, because when we
started the Trust we had absolutely no money and no momentum. It
basically paid our salary for a couple of years, and enabled us to get
thebandwithnoname going. Without that we would have been in deep
water. It was an amazing blessing to have that window where we were
selling songs in America to acts like Avalon, True Vibe and Jump5. The
royalties were funding all this ministry back in the UK.
14. Avalon - Oxygen, Sparrow, 2001
Mark: I
was going out to the States three or four times a year at that point
to pitch songs. I was sat in a record company exec's room in Nashville
playing the song "The Best Thing", along with a few other songs, to
this record company guy. In came the wife of one of the Avalon guys
and said, "Oh, that's gonna be ideal for Avalon." She, apparently, had
been in the room next door and heard the song through the wall. She
took it to Jody, her husband, and played it him. At the same time I
played it to their manager, Norman Miller, who's a friend of ours, so
it was kind of like we had a double attack on it. They agreed to cut
it straight away.
15. thebandwithnoname - The Blitz, Movation,
2002
Mark: We'd decided to start Innervation Trust. I
think it started with the idea of moving further afield, because The
Message was so Manchester-based, and we wanted to start doing stuff in
other parts of the country, like Shine, which was the root of it. But
since then we've done loads of things with The Message, we've done
lots of projects with them, they even gave us office space for two or
three years.
Zarc: When we're auditioning to put a band
together we might find somebody who's a great singer, we might find
other people who are good singers but they've got great hearts and
they're great at communicating their faith with kids. The thing is to
find somebody who's absolutely brilliant at all those things you end
up looking for Superman or Superwoman. So very often what we'll do is
sort of put a package together - somebody who can communicate really
well, somebody who's a good singer, somebody who's a good rapper,
somebody who's a good dancer. With thebandwithnoname we were very
fortunate in that we had and still have some hugely talented people.
Mark: Even when you've got a band established it's hard to keep them
going without there being a lot of personnel changes. Schools
evangelism is very hard work. It's very hard to do the kind of work we
do consistently for such a long time. Chip K has been doing it for
nine years, which is absolutely phenomenal. I did it for years and did
burn out because it is such hard graft. Because of the nature of the
work, we plan for short term members.
Zarc: Each lineup of
thebandwithnoname has brought something new and fresh to the table and
it's been an incredible experience working with all those guys.
thebandwithnoname have really enabled Innervation to expand and grow
massively since it began and in the process have, of course, led
thousands of young people into becoming Christians!
16. tbc - Talk Of The Town, Movation, 2007
Zarc: Everyone asks about this but we don't know ourselves what
'tbc' stands for.
Mark: Someone suggested 'Three Big Chickens'.
Zarc: They've just done their final concert. They have had a
very powerful ministry. We wrote a ballad about the crucifixion,
"Beautiful". The girls did it at Spring Harvest last year. They sat
down and sang that song and there was a lady at the front who was
crying her eyes out, she was really moved by it.
Mark: What
better subject than the crucifixion can you write about? It's a great
focus. For me, no matter what is happening in my life, the cross puts
it into perspective. I think we have tried to mirror that in our
songwriting over the years.
17. PureNRG - PureNRG, Fervent, 2007
Zarc:
PureNRG were HUGE in the States of course. This was a cover of our
song originally written for tbc "When I Get To Heaven".
18. Pop Connection - Pop Connection, Movation, 2009
Zarc: Andy Silver originally approached us because he
wanted some songs to use in Primary schools in a pop style. But as we
talked the project developed. We originally saw it as a bit of a
sideline, but it has taught us a lot that we never thought about
before. One of the workers will go into a Primary school for a week
and teach a set of songs. On the Thursday, they will then record the
children singing the songs, and the following week they perform them
at a concert in the local Church where they sell their own CDs. It
means that a lot of mums and dads who may never normally go to a
church are getting into the building which gives the church a massive
opportunity to let people know what they can offer them. It really
bridges the gap between church and their local community.
Mark:
There have been some amazing stories that have happened as a result.
The song "Every Day Every Night" deals with bereavement. We were
unsure because it is a subject so difficult to address. But it has
been used to offer support and encouragement, allowing the children to
express themselves and grieve. There have been a few stories like that
which encourage us and have widened our thinking. It's a more gentle
project because you work alongside the kids. It's great being full on
or a bit more thoughtful.
19. thebandwithnoname - The4Points: The Best Of
thebandwithnoname, Elevation, 2010
Zarc: The support
base these guys have built up over the years are really going to miss
them but I really don't think people have heard the last of Chip,
Straf and Leon! It's been a privilege to work with such talented
people. We're very pleased that the guys are going out on a high.
People are telling us that "The4Points" track is one of the best
things they've ever recorded and having LZ7 on the track adds
something to their sound. The rap was written by Sammy G and is one of
the cleverest raps you'll ever hear. Presenting the four points - that
God loves me, I have sinned, Jesus died for me, I need to decide to
follow God - was never going to be easy to make scan properly but to
do it with such clever rhymes is something else. I think it was Mark's
idea to use the bridge of "Oh Happy Day" on the track - we'd done a
version of Edwin Hawkins Singers' classic on the Pop Connection album.
But everyone says it works well.
20. BeBe Vox - All This Time (feat. Ad-Apt),
OceanFall/Movation, 2010
Zarc: Down the years we've
always relied on sales of our albums in Christian bookshops to help
finance our evangelistic activities. But sadly for everyone the
contemporary sales aren't anything like they used to be. Take
thebandwithnoname. Their debut sold really well but each one has sold
progressively less and less as the band has got bigger and bigger. We
basically couldn't compete with illegal downloading. In some ways you
could argue illegal downloading is a good thing because the message is
getting out there more. But it was becoming a big problem for us
trying to make the finances work.
Mark: We needed to go into
the digital market, which can't be a separate Christian market. A
download gives us some profile and will hopefully help with
recruitment for future Innervation projects. We found the perfect
singer for a pitch at the pop charts with BeBe Vox. We have been
working with her for over a year now, developing her in the
background, after seeing her win the Hope Academy Competition. We
released the download single "All This Time" on 26th April after BeBe
played nearly 100 schools. She's a fantastic girl with a fantastic
heart for God.
Zarc: Just recently, the Rev Alistair Kent - the man behind the
Facebook campaign that got Delirious?' "History Maker" into the Top 40
on Easter Sunday has decided to back BeBe's single which is obviously
a huge bonus! We know that an electro-pop single with influences like
Lady Gaga, Taio Cruz and 3Oh!3 etc is very different from a Delirious?
classic but hopefully Christians will appreciate the ministry purpose
behind the BeBe single and support it.
Mark: We want BeBe to
break into new markets and be a witness there. We also hope that we
can eventually generate some funds to put back to put into the
evangelism in schools.
Thank you so much for all of this. I've been influenced by their music from "Danceplanet" by wwmt onwards. Great to get to know so much about this power-duo. God bless them. (And there's finally a recent picture of Zarc.)