MercyMe LIFER Tour Hits Pompano Beach in October

MercyMe will appear with special guests Ryan Stevenson And Unspoken at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater on Saturday, October 28 as part of the band’s LIFER Tour. Among contemporary Christian music’s most celebrated bands, MercyMe’s relentless commitment to faith, music and the gospel reflects the project’s title – LIFER.

The moment you surrender your life to Christ, a checkered flag is waved and you’re off to the races…on the greatest adventure of your life. It’s a race that’s already been won, yet one you’re committed to run for the duration of your existence. And it’s a race the men of MercyMe have been running for a while. After 23 years as a band, Bart Millard (lead vocals), Nathan Cochran (bass), Barry Graul (guitar), Mike Scheuchzer (guitar) and Robby Shaffer (drums) are in it to win it.

The band’s career speaks to the endurance of its members and the timelessness of its music. MercyMe has seen 27 of their songs reach No. 1 across multiple Christian radio formats, in addition to garnering four mainstream radio hits. Their landmark song, “I Can Only Imagine,” was the first digital single in Christian music history to be certified platinum and double-platinum. Billboard named them the Christian Artist of the Decade in 2009. In addition, they have multiple GRAMMY® nominations, GMA Dove Awards and American Music Awards to their credit.

2014’s Welcome to the New proved to be one of the biggest releases of the group’s career, earning them two GRAMMY® nods and four No. 1 smashes at radio.

“Since making Welcome to the New, our whole perspective has changed,” Millard admits. “There was a huge paradigm shift, spiritually for us. The gospel didn’t change, but our perspective of who we are because of the gospel certainly changed.”

Millard grasped the concept of the no-strings-attached grace that Christ offers…and it literally changed him from the inside out. And now, LIFER serves as the next natural chapter. If Welcome to the New’s central message was grace, LIFER’s core message is triumph.

“It’s a reminder that there is victory,” Millard says of the project as a whole. “Life’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon, and no matter what comes our way, we need to be reminded that we should live our life as if we’ve already read the last page of the book and know how the whole thing turns out. Our eternity is set.”

While the band spent the last three years telling fans they can be made new in Christ, with LIFER they wanted to acknowledge that while that is indeed true, it doesn’t always mean life is easy. So, on this album, they set out to explore how a believer can navigate the race with enough perseverance to make it to the finish line.

“With anything, there’s a point where the honeymoon phase kind of goes away. Life will set in. Life is going to stink at times, and it’s going to be hard to remember that I’m brand new. That’s the way it goes,” Millard says. “We’re going to get this wrong a lot, but there’s never a moment in the life of a believer where Christ will ever say, ‘I’m disappointed in you. You’ve let Me down,’ because there’s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

The funky groove of the title track might have stretched the band’s sonic muscles, but the message fits MercyMe like a glove. “We’ve been a band for over two decades, so I think it’s OK to use the title LIFER and nobody question it as far as being in it for the long haul,” Millard quips. “But at the same time, it’s who we are. The term ‘lifer’ is typically used for someone in the military or in prison. In other words, they ain’t gettin’ out. They’re stuck in there. They’re in for life… It’s the same thing with a believer. It’s not something you can turn on or off or walk away from. Christ is now part of me.”

While Millard & Co. are excited about the message behind LIFER, they’re equally excited about the musical direction. LIFER picks up right where Welcome to the New left off, turning the veteran band’s tried-and-true formula on its head and giving them permission to experiment. Produced by Ben Glover and David Garcia—the same duo behind Welcome to the New—MercyMe recorded LIFER in three different studios in and around Nashville, including Zac Brown Band’s Southern Ground Studios and an old barn-turned-studio near College Grove, Tenn.

While the most intensive part of the recording process occurred in the final quarter of 2016, the band wrote one of the album’s standouts early on. “We Win” was written and recorded in record time and essentially became the cornerstone track for the entire album—a rally cry for those in the trenches.

Other selections were an overflow of the abundant writing the band did for Welcome to the New. The breezy, soulful “Grace Got You” is a gift from that cutting room floor. The driving tribal rhythm of “Hello Beautiful” counters the enemy’s lies with God’s truth. While campfire closer “Ghost” speaks to the irony and mystery of the Holy Spirit exposing some of the most creative lyrics of the band’s career.

But it’s the stunning “Even If” that’s LIFER’s crown jewel. It was the last song written for the album and the first song sent to radio. “If there’s a moment on the record to reach people where they are, it’s ‘Even If.’

Millard was thinking of his 15-year-old son, Sam, when he penned the song. Sam has been a diabetic since he was 2, and it’s been an uphill climb for his family ever since. One day, Millard shared his frustration with the ongoing thorn in his son’s side with his friend and fellow songwriter Tim Timmons, who battles an incurable cancer himself. Following their conversation, Timmons sent Millard a demo of a chorus he had co-written with Crystal Lewis years ago. Millard took the idea and ran with it, quickly writing the remainder of the cut through tears.

“The whole point of the song for me is the change that Jesus made in my life is so real and so life-transforming that if He went dark, if He went silent from now on, He would still be my greatest hope because of what He has already done,” he shares.

For more information, visit www.nextlevelproductions.com.

Share this article

Comments