These Christmas Lights

For his fourth live-recorded album, Matt Redman knew he wanted to do something different. The most recent live recordings, GRAMMY award-winning 10,000 Reasons and Billboard chart-topping Your Grace Finds Me, were recorded in Atlanta, but Redman had a different dream for Unbroken Praise, his latest live collection that will release with sixstepsrecords on June 16.

“I had the Abbey Road idea because we’ve done a few little things there in the past,” says Redman. “But to record a whole album there is another level and I wondered if it was perhaps a dream too big!” The historic London recording studio is better known for recording bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, and Queen than it is for hosting nights of worship, but after Redman shared his dream with Louie and Shelley Giglio, label leaders of sixstepsrecords, their team began making phone calls. Soon after, the idea began to take shape.

On recording day, a crowd of 350+ gathered in the Georgian townhouse-turned-studio and worshipped. “That was an amazing moment,” recalls Redman. “Partly because it’s an amazing thing to make a record there anyway, but also to have church in that place. To me, that’s even more special. Those in attendance had learned all of the songs to be recorded beforehand. All of the songs except for one: “Unbroken Praise.” That’s because Redman and longtime co-writer and friend Jonas Myrin had only finished writing it at 11:30 p.m. the night before.

In rare night-before-a-live-recording producer form, Nathan Nockels (10,000 Reasons; Your Grace Find Me), wrote Redman an email that said, “We’ve got your back, so even if at this moment you wanted to bring in a brand new song, that would be fine with us. We’ll make a plan.” That’s the encouragement Redman needed. “I remember thinking to myself, I’m sad I didn’t get to finish that ‘Unbroken Praise’ song. It’s just one of those things. I’ve tried my best and didn’t get there. Then Nathan emailed me.”

Redman and Myrin finished up the song just in time for the live recording. “I could see people pouring out their hearts to God through it,” says Redman, “and very quickly it became the title song.” The phrase “unbroken praise” was taken from a verse in the classic hymn “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” referring to the act of glorifying God through praise and acknowledging Him in everything we do.