UNITED NEWSBOYS TO HEADLINE WINTER JAM
Newsboys reunite with former members to revive old story, write new one
Jeff Frankenstein, keyboardist for Christian music icons Newsboys, says the group was working on a new song nearly two years ago when it hit an impasse.
The group’s manager, Wes Campbell, suggested reaching out to the band’s former singer Peter Furler, who despite leaving Newsboys in 2009, citing burnout, had remained close with the band, co-founding its former record label Inpop with Campbell and even writing on its 2014 album “Hallelujah for the Cross.”
Frankenstein said Furler not only completed a version of “what he thought it could be,” but sent it back with his voice as the practice vocal.
“And it sounded pretty good,” Frankenstein says in a call from Grand Rapids, Mich., where Newsboys was setting up for a show. “We were kinda like, ‘Well cool, maybe it’d be a nice throwback or whatever for him to guest on the song.’”
The song, “The Cross Has the Final Word,” became a Top 20 Christian chart hit.
“And you know how it goes,” Frankenstein says. “One thing kinda leads to another, and next thing you know, we’re talking about possibly doing some type of tour together.”
That led to Newsboys United, a sort of super group of members from the band that, in a career of more than 30 years, has had 20 Top 30 Christian albums (including six at No. 1) and nearly 50 Top 40 Christian singles. It also includes bassist Phil Joel, who played with Newsboys 1994-2007.
Newsboys United at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14 will headline the 10-act Winter Jam, now in its 23rd year as Christian music’s biggest tour.
And now Newsboys United is releasing its first new music as a combined group.
Since Furler left Newsboys, which he helped start and toured with for 25 years, its lead singer has been Michael Tait, former singer with the popular 1990s Christian rap-rock group DC Talk.
Frankenstein, who joined Newsboys in 1994, said Furler was excited about the opportunity to rejoin.
“I think he was pumped — he was definitely in,” Frankenstein says. “I think Pete now is in a different place than he was back then. Before he left, you know — you’re on the road for 25 straight years, and under that constant pressure of trying to put out a new record every 18 months, and radio and all that kind of stuff.
“I mean, people don’t realize it, but it can be real cutthroat almost. And so Pete coming back on board after just getting a break and looking at life from the outside, a different perspective, he’s kind of a different guy now, too.”
Frankenstein credits Tait with making the transition as easy as it was.
“Michael, I have to say, was very gracious about the whole thing,” Frankenstein says. “When we first got started, everyone was wondering what the heck was gonna happen.
“But I think that what a lot of people don’t realize is that Peter and Michael actually go back longer than Peter and I, and I’ve been in the band for 25 years. When DC Talk and Newsboys were starting out, they toured together for
years … So they have a friendship and history that goes back even further than mine, and have been in touch for all those years.
“So it wasn’t like, ‘Hey, we’re bringing in this stranger guy; these guys don’t know each other.’ It was familiar. And all credit to Michael, because he is a people person; he loves people. And I think it’s really a great example, too, to people in this day and age. … These guys can work it out, anybody can work it out,” Frankenstein says with a laugh.
He says Joel returning to the lineup was even easier. Frankenstein says he and Joel had been so close that each was in the other’s wedding, and “we held each others’ babies. We did all those life things, you know?” But Joel had been out of the band a dozen years, and they had fallen “out of touch a little bit,” he says.
By coincidence, they ended up on a plane together, “and we sat next to each other on the Southwest Airlines flight for, like four hours, and caught up and started talking about things. And one thing led to another, and we went over to his house for New Years and blah, blah, blah — kinda got back in touch again and it felt really great.”
But in the years Furler was gone, Newsboys also had changed. Tait led the group from its early more rock-influenced pop hits “Shine” and “He Reigns,” when it was nominated for four Grammy Awards and won four Dove Awards, to the more R&B and urban influences of hits such as the platinum “God is Not Dead (Like a Lion)” in 2011 and the gold “We Believe” in 2014.
“The biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to put a show together,” Frankenstein says. “You got, like, 20-some years of material, a couple lead singers. Like, how do we approach it?”
Newsboys ended up largely having Furler sings songs from his years in the band and Tait from his, then joining for the big songs at the end of the show.
Frankenstein says the group was surprised there were “a lot of fans who just know us from the 10 years with Michael, and don’t know anything, and haven’t seen Phil or Pete — ever. And know nothing about it.
“So you have those people coming to the show and being introduced to Phil and Pete and this whole era of music that they didn’t even know existed, and be, like, ‘Wow, I had no idea.’
“And then you had the reverse, where people came to see Phil and Pete again, and had never heard us with Michael. … And they see all the new stuff with Michael, and are, like, ‘Oh, this is really cool, too. I didn’t know that existed.’ So it really turned out to be a win-win for everybody.”
On the Winter Jam tour, that type of show will be compressed, Frankenstein says. The group has just 42 minutes to present what was a three-hour show, and with Winter Jam presented this year in the round for the first time this year, all the members will be on stage throughout the set.
“We had to rethink that whole thing,” he says. “So we went into the rehearsal room for a few days before we headed out on this tour and just made, like, a super power-packed set that kind of covers a little bit of everything.
“So if you like the second verse to any of our songs, I apologize. You probably won’t hear it,” he says with a laugh.
The reunion started as a three-month summer tour, but it was extended into last fall, totaling 100 shows before Winter Jam approached the band.
“We were all kind of pleasantly surprised that there was a lot of people that were interested in the whole concept of hearing those songs again,” he says.
“And during that time, it was like, ‘Well, we’re all here together let’s just make a record together.’”
Newsboys did just that, recently releasing the single “Greatness of Our God.” A full album is due out in May, Frankenstein says.
“There are 13 new songs kind of ready to go,” he says. “This will be the first time we release new music with all; six of us together. So it’ll be interesting to see how it’s received.”
Frankenstein also forsees the Newsboys United configuration lasting a while longer.
After Winter Jam, the group will tour with Christian artist Michael W. Smith, and “I would imagine with the new record coming out, that there’s something probably in the works for the fall,” Frankenstein says.
“I would say it won’t be the end of the road, ‘cause I think we’re all having too much fun to stop,” he says.