One of my favourite worship albums this year was a collection of songs from the guys at Awaken Generation in Singapore. If you’ve been following our YouTube channel, you might remember that we visited their worship school at the end of 2018, and recorded a cover of ‘All Creatures Of Our God and King’ in their office space! We connected with one of their members, Stacy Tan, to hear more about the process behind this album:
Q: Tell us about ‘To God Be The Glory’, how did this album come about?
Every year in January, we take time to sit down as a songwriting team for 2-3 days and co-write together. It's not easy seeing as we also run a school and minister at different countries all year long! However, we carve out time every year because this has become such an important part of who we are as Awaken Generation - to sense what the Lord wants for Singapore, the region and the world in the season - and to be obedient in writing songs for people to declare.
This is our 5th year of running both the worship school and music production side of things so we knew the songs birthed out of it would be significant, almost like a turning of a page. Inspired by Joshua 1:9, the school theme this year was "Bold and Courageous" i.e. stepping out into the destiny the Lord always meant for us to live out. Thus, you'll find that many songs in this album carry a bold, majestic sound that is hungry for God. From songs of complete surrender ("I Say Yes") to songs of revival ("Sound of Revival”), all of them are collectively about summoning prayer and seeing what God is doing in all the nations.
Q: Can you describe the creative process for this album? Were there any challenges along the way?
Although the album concept was decided quite early in the year, something else happened in June that helped our creative process come full cycle. You'll notice that the album cover features the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, inverted over a seemingly dystopian landscape i.e. the skyline of Singapore.
In the midst of producing the album, the AG team took a special trip to Israel to conduct a worship camp and minister at several churches and holy sites. There, the Lord allowed us to minister to His chosen people though we were gentiles, to bring revival into a dry land as we simply hosted His presence through worship. Thus, our album concept was built around that - God pouring out His blessings and presence as hearts and entire nations turned to Him.
The major challenges we faced were mostly with timelines! As mentioned earlier, running a school, touring and training AND releasing a full-length album annually is pretty crazy for a small staff team like ours (7 full-timers with multiple roles) so timelines have to be managed very carefully. It was important to line up those timelines to ensure that a) staff don't get overtaxed and b) that the music was released close to our school application dates for 2020.
Q: What were some useful lessons that you guys learnt through this project?
Though we release original music every year, this was the first time that we did it "live worship" style i.e. recording in front of a congregation. This meant we could only have one take or maximum two and thus:
- The band had to be skilled and well-practiced to ensure least number of mistakes on the recording night.
- Maintaining a worshipful atmosphere throughout the recording for the video capture.
To overcome the first challenge, we scheduled twice the number of rehearsals and selected the band carefully. For the second challenge, we had a time of vision-casting, prayer and worship off camera before any of the recording began to really host the presence of God. This really helped people get into the right mindset to worship even if mistakes were made etc.
Q: What’s next for Awaken Generation? How can we support you guys?
If you believe in our cause of unlocking the sound of worship in Asia and equipping local churches in worship, you can support our ministry by partnering in finances. Alternatively, you may also support us financially by buying some of our merch!
We would also love to see more international students at our school! We have specifically designed a one year program because we love to journey deeply with students.
Lastly, pray for us as we start writing songs for next year's recording. We are excited at what is to come!
Thanks Stacy for taking the time to answer our questions! Check out Awaken Generation on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and find out more through their website.
