Christian act The Lads find their niche
A Kiwi duo making Christian music for children are hitting the big time in the US.
By their own admission, The Lads occupy a pretty specific niche. Most Kiwis probably haven’t heard of them.
But they have created two TV shows that screen online in more than 180 countries. And in Nashville, Tennessee – a city renowned as a music centre – Steve King and Mark Millard are making it.
‘‘I kind of feel a little humbled, really, to think we’ve been able to make a career of this here. We’ve been here over a decade and we’re still going, we’re still building and it’s going great,’’ Millard says.
The pair are the only two remaining members of The Lads, a Christian rock band that started in 1993, when they were teenagers in Wellington.
After picking up a couple of New Zealand music awards for Best Gospel Album (in 2000 and 2002), and playing to thousands at Christian music festivals in New Zealand and Australia, the band shifted to the US in pursuit of a bigger audience.
They landed in Nashville in 2005 and found themselves departing from their usual sound and drawn into the sometimes bizarre world of making music for children.
Millard says it was the energy and enthusiasm of kids that drew him and King to the genre.
‘‘For me, it was the kids. It certainly wasn’t the music that was available, because if you’re a parent you’ll know that most music for kids is terrible. It’s so annoying! But as well as being a musician, I’m a dad, and I want my kids to have something great to listen to, something that they can really enjoy, and something that has a positive message – and also something that won’t annoy the parents.’’
In 2008, they debuted their first TV series, The Lads TV, which follows a fictionalised version of the band on their quest for musical stardom. The show, which ran for 17 episodes, was screened in more than 180 countries on online streaming service Jelly Telly. King and Millard wrote, starred in, and wrote the music for the series.
Its success prompted Jelly Telly to commission another series from the pair – this time one aimed at pre-schoolers. Called TuneTime, the show saw The Lads move behind the scenes, writing music and scripts.
They have continued to tour in New Zealand and the US, and have scored gigs writing music for other musicians and organisations, including, most recently, a curriculum company.
King says the pair base their sound around what’s popular in the charts.
‘‘A lot of people think you’ve got to write music like The Wiggles or Barney, like really dinky stuff, but the reality is even my 6-year-old loves like Daft Punk or whatever’s really cool in the Top 40. So for us that’s actually kind of our template for songwriting.’’
Christian kids’ music is a pretty niche genre, and Millard credits the development of social media with part of the band’s success.
‘‘Smaller genres can survive now by having a fan base exclusively to them,’’ he says.
The Lads’ latest project is a compilation music series called Big Big Worship.
The series aims to put out an album of music every four to six months.
Millard and King will write all the songs, with most being performed by other artists.
That output means they are almost constantly writing. They recently drove a nine-hour trip to a conference in Florida, and wrote together all the way back.
They can’t just write rubbish, either; children, King says, can be harsh critics.
‘‘They’re full of life and enthusiasm, but they’ll also just very blatantly let you know if something sucks.’’