Tony Cummings spoke to JT Murrell about the Christian music charting group SWITCH which has even caused trade magazine Billboard confusion

Tony: If you're the producer you presumably play a bit of keyboard.

JT: "Yeah, some. My main instrument is drums - real drums. You'll hear a lot of programming on the Switch album that comes out February 8th. Me and the guys from my team here - Dameon Aranda - we worked with a producer in LA, Louis Biancaniello. A lot of the drums you hear on this record are electronic drums. My main instrument's drums. Today's world, especially pop music, you've got to be able to do a bit of all of it."

Tony: So you and Dameon and Louis put the whole 'Symphony' project together?

JT: "Yes. Dameon and Louis spent the majority of the time. Dameon is an amazing vocal producer. All of the vocal genius you hear on this record is a result of what Dameon brings to the team. And also the songwriting - Dameon is an unbelievable songwriter. He's a key songwriter with the four that you see in the picture there."

Tony: This is the first recording out to the public for Switch.

JT: "That's exactly right. There's a couple singles out there, but this is the first album project."

Tony: Were the songs on your EP written with the purpose of talking about your faith to young people?

JT: "That's absolutely right. We knew we wanted to write about the kind of struggles that would resonate with a large number of students, but we found that students struggle with a lot of same things adults like you and I struggle with. God's plan, chaos, pain, frustration in life, or believing that God does love us even when we mess up. As we wrote, we had specific people in mind, and that kept us honed in on what we really wanted to share. So I believe these are songs of hope that are declarative truth that catch on quickly. They have connected with our church. Like you wrote in your review, there's some clever pop that really helps them hook really quick. We are constantly inundated with discouraging and negative messages, and from what we've seen so far there is a real hunger for messages of this type of hope and truth."

Tony: I enjoyed the fact that the music wasn't primarily congregational. Although I am a worshipper and I love to worship God through these songs, I find the industry these days is flooded with congregational worship, and there has to be room for other kinds of songs.

JT: "Absolutely. Like every artist, there's a bit of doing what we can to break through the ever-present noise. We've worked really hard to create what we feel like is a culturally relevant sound that bridges the gap between pop and some of the corporate worship thing. We do use these songs in our Wednesday night student services, and they do seem to connect really well, but they're not overtly something you'd think of as big anthem songs."

Tony: You've avoided give-away opening lines like, "Lord, we really want to praise you."

JT: "In Colossians 3.16 Paul says, 'Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you so you can declare songs to one another.' There's a horizontal aspect to worship sometimes that we forget. When we set out to write worship for the church, all of a sudden it has to be, 'Lord, I want to praise you,' like you're talking about. These have been amazing tools the church has used for generations, but we can't forget about this declaration by Paul that there is also a very horizontal aspect to worship. There are truths that we need to sing about God that are meant to encourage each other. I think sometimes the best way to do that is to sing it in a way, or write it in a way, that helps us rise above the thing that is a dead giveaway. That probably is what we set out to do."

Tony: Another thing that's obvious about this project is that you have no problem with people dancing. Some of your music is highly rhythmic.

JT: "Yeah. There are examples throughout scripture of dancing before the Lord. We don't shy away from that."