As For Me

Tell Me Ma (Belfast City)

Plans

Let It Roll

Whosoever

Hallelujah Anyway

Rejoice

FOLK!

Better Than I Ever Thought

Silver Or Gold

Reap That Joy

Abide In Me

Fight Of My LIfe

Fight Of My Life

The Prayer Of St. Patrick

Build Your Kingdom Here

Blessed Are The Ones (feat. Jess Ray)

No Grave

Raise Me Up

Burn

You Will Never Run

As Family We Go

Joy Of The Lord

Every Giant Will Fall

Live Alive

Campfire II: Simplicity

My Lighthouse

Oceans (Where Feet May FaiI)

The Art Of Celebration

Burn Like a Star

Ultimate 50 Worship Collection

You Are My Vision

King Of Wonders

Too Much

Rescuer (Good News)

Nailed To The Cross

Resurrection Day

Counting Every Blessing

Good News

Yahweh

YOUR NAME IS POWER

REVIVAL ANTHEM

CHOOSE TO WORSHIP

I CHOOSE TO WORSHIP

To understand what makes Rend Collective so unique and special among worship artists, you have to go back—way back. Some 1500 years ago, the Irish missionary St. Brendan sailed from the Irish coast without maps or any clue where he was headed. “The only thing he knew was that God had called him,” says bandleader and drummer Gareth Gilkeson. And so Brendan chose to “go”: a bold act of faith that not only echoes the album title As Family We Go, but also speaks volumes about the songs.

It also tells you a lot about Rend Collective, a Northern Irish band that has ventured from its native land at the beckoning of an invisible hand. And they’re doing it differently than most other artists before them, living and working—singing and sharing the laundry duties—as a tight-knit family. It’s just the foundation to foster faith and community through music, and forms the heart and strength behind their latest effort.

And my, how this musical family has grown. This young, freewheeling band has seen so much recent success: from opening for the likes of Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Kari Jobe, to landing Christian radio hits such as the revival hymn, “Build Your Kingdom Here.”

The next logical step, then, was to hunker down in their private studio and work at a brisk, breathtaking pace—cutting the eleven tracks on As Family We Go in two weeks. As Gilkeson puts it: “There wasn’t much time for sleep—just going for it.”

In this case, sleep deprivation yielded divine inspiration. Then again, how many bands brave a family pilgrimage the way Rend Collective does? Or proudly present themselves as examples of a self-styled genre, “celebration music”?

Though that describes the sound on the new disc—a joyful mélange of foot-stomping acoustic grooves and full-on pop pockets worthy of U2—it only hints at the spiritual thread that pulls everything together.

“We want to make music that is journey music,” says singer Chris Llewellyn. “We notice that sometimes music is seen as the end goal, that a worship encounter is having a music experience. But that’s not really it; it should be the soundtrack to mission: community living, the soundtrack to a meaningful worship experience.”

Popular tracks by Rend Collective