Ep 75: Jeff Frankenstein of Newsboys

Episode 75 features an interview with longtime Newsboys keyboardist, programmer, arranger, and even bass player (on synth!) Jeff Frankenstein. He details what it has been like to navigate changes in the music industry over the past decades as well as changes within Newsboys as a band. He also describes how they've found a balance in being a touring band with families back home. Jeff's kindness and enthusiasm shines through in whatever he does and it's worth listening back to the many Newsboys albums in order to pick out his particular contributions to the band's music and performances. You can find tour dates and much more at Newsboys's website.

It is also worth noting that my book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas has now been officially been released, which you can purchase on the Wipf and Stock Publishers website or on Amazon. Those who supported my Kickstarter campaign will be receiving their books soon. I'm also in the process of booking interviews and speaking engagements about the book, so if you are interested please contact me! 




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Music Related Podcast Episodes:
Bonus: Stu G on the Beautitudes Project 

Ep 74: Charlie Peacock
Ep 73: Phil Joel of Newsboys and Zealand

Ep 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus

Ep 55: Singer-songwriter Nathan Peterson

Ep 59: Jeremy Casella's New Album and Kickstarter Campaign

Ep 56: Andrew Osenga

Ep 53: The Mosleys—Husband and Wife Duo
Ep 67: Singer-songwriter John Van Deusen
Ep 70: Glenn Kaiser

Ep 73: Phil Joel on his new book and being in Newsboys and Zealand

On Ep 73 of the PostConsumer Reports Podcast we have Phil Joel, notably of the bands Newsboys, Zealand, and also a prolific solo music career, who has just released his first book Redwoods and Whales. You will need to read the book to discover Joel's inspirational meaning, but essentially it is much better if we end up like a redwood and not a whale (of the beached variety...). You can find links of where to buy the book at his website: http://www.philjoel.com/. While currently gearing up for another Zealand album, Joel is also in the midst of the successful Newsboys United "Greatness of Our God" tour, which finds him reuniting with Peter Furler, his former bandmates, and Michael Tait of DC Talk who has be leading the band for the past several years. In our conversation we discuss the tensions of songwriting in the Christian industry, what led him to write his book, and his reflections on the lates chapter of being a Newsboy.

Please check out these past PostConsumer articles on the Newsboys:
PostHumous Record Reviews: Newsboys' Love Liberty Disco
Record Review: Peter Furler Band's Sun and Shield
Peter Furler: His New Album and 15 Greatest Songs



Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, Google Play, Tunein, and PocketCasts.


Related Podcast Episodes:

Episode 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus

Episode 50: Stu G on the Beatitudes Project

Ep 55: Singer-songwriter Nathan Peterson

Ep 59: Jeremy Casella's New Album and Kickstarter Campaign

Ep 56: Andrew Osenga

Ep 53: The Mosleys—Husband and Wife Duo
Ep 67: Singer-songwriter John Van Deusen
Ep 70: Glenn Kaiser

PostHumous Record Review: Newsboys' Love Liberty Disco

Post-Humous Record Reviews: a personal refection on a long-forgotten album in need of a resurrection. 

Read the intro article.

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The best pop/rock album to come out of the Christian music industry in the 1990's may come as a surprise to people. This is only my opinion of course, but my opinion is going to stand pretty firm:

Newsboys' Love Liberty Disco was the best pop/rock "Christian" album of the 1990's.

5 things I'm wondering about the new Steve Taylor album Goliath

Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil release their new album Goliath today (you can purchase it here on itunes and Amazon). I've very much been looking forward to this album since they announced their Kickstarter campaign last winter. But really I've been looking forward to this album for over 20 years. Taylor's released two songs ("Shortstop" from the Roaring Lambs album and "A Life Preserved" from the Blue Like Jazz soundtrack) since his last proper album Squint from 1993. This means us fans have been salivating unsatiated for years upon years, left perpetually mumbling to ourselves "When Steve, when?". I mean, Taylor even had the audacity to launch his own record label in the mid 90's (also called Squint) and did not even release one of his own records on it. The nerve.

Steve Taylor Helped Me Grow Up (and he used humor to do it)

Today the legendary Steve Taylor released his long-gestating new album Goliath with his something of a supergroup backing band The Perfect Foil (Peter Furler, Jimmy Abegg, and John Mark Painter) [you can purchase it here on itunes and Amazon]. Thus, it's obviously time to do some reflecting on Taylor's past work.

As a kid Rich Mullins taught me how to lose myself in the wonder of God but Steve Taylor forced me to grow into a mature Christian. And the funny thing is he usually did so by making me laugh.

Feeding My Kickstarter Habit: a spring music preview

I don't buy as much as I used to. This has mostly to do with having three kids, a house, and a long stretch of future to think about.  So, when I do make the choice to purchase music it is somewhat of a bold step in that I want to be sure my decision will be backed up with something high quality.  Well, over the past couple of months I have made a number of music purchases and looking back at those decisions I realized there was something pretty unique about all of them: they were all either promoted and funded on Kickstarter or released independently (the Kickstarters are also all independent releases). Adding to this, at the moment I have only received the actual music to one of these releases, meaning I "purchased" the music well in advance of the actual release and sometimes in advance of its actually being recorded.

Record Review: Peter Furler Band's Sun and Shield

All I have to say is I sure am glad they're still making Newsboys records.
And by that I mean I am glad Peter Furler is still making music.

Whereas Furler's first solo effort, 2011's On Fire was fully a dance-pop record with tinges of rock thrown in, his current album Sun and Shield is a rock-pop record with some hints of the previous album's dance tunes thrown in. Dance and rock were always the ever-shifting yin and yang around which Newsboys pop music was based. At their best they always merged the two so that you would not be able to say one way or the other whether their songs were rock or dance or pop—they had somehow merged them all into their own unique sound (follow this link to hear some examples of this). Furler's current album, which released on March 11, while never quite reaching the height of Newsboys in their prime, is still packed with compelling musical ideas and the clever lyrics (mostly co-written with Steve Taylor) he has come to be known by.

Peter Furler: his new album and 15 greatest songs

Uh huh. That's my very own autographed copy right there.

Today Peter Furler releases his latest album Sun and Shield, a solo record under the moniker of Peter Furler Band.  For those who do not know Furler fronted and played drums for the band Newsboys throughout the 1990's and on into most of the 00's. He was also one of their chief songwriters, along with Phil Joel, Steve Taylor, John James, and Jeff Frankenstein. Throughout his tenure in Newsboys Furler composed more of the music than anybody else, and should be credited with shaping the idiosyncratic Aussie-tinged dance rock that became the classic Newsboys sound. Furler was his most prolific lyrically with Steve Taylor and musically with Phil Joel, but he was the creative anchor through it all. Leaving Newsboys in 2009 (which is now fronted by Michael Tait), Furler took some time off to regroup, simplify, and get some direction. Since then he has gone on some bike trips (a much-loved hobby of his), explored the visual arts, and (now) released and toured two solo records. He is also in Steve Taylor's new band (Steve Taylor & the Perfect Foil, something of a Christian music supergroup) which will be releasing an album later this spring, and is currently on tour with Third Day and Skillet as an opening act (he will be touring with Taylor this summer).

Furler on a bike trip to Baja in 2013

You can read my review of his new album here, but today I wanted to give a survey of some of Furler's greatest songs. In my opinion, as someone who has ingested years of pop/rock music, both "Christian" and "secular", Furler deserves to be put in the same category as some of the all-time greats.  He may never be considered part of the upper upper echelon of the demi-gods of pop/rock/folk music—the Lennon/McCartneys, Paul Simons, Michael Jacksons, Keith Greens, and Rich Mullins (sorry Dylan) of the world—but he should be the first guy they let in should anyone in the pantheon shed their deity and become a mortal.  

Here I will make a statement that borders on hyperbole: of anyone in the Christian music world (a muddled term, I know) and perhaps in the general music market, Furler has consistently crafted the catchiest, most hook-laden music in both quantity and quality. His work is an example of pop music at its finest. I hesitate a little to say this, but the man's a bit of a genius when it comes to crafting songs. Let me put it this way: out of all the music I listened to as a kid (which was mostly "Christian), other than Rich Mullins Newsboys is the music I continually return to for enjoyment and to mine new meaning from. That is, I haven't got sick of the music yet. To me this is telling.