Rock and Worship Roadshow fun for fans, performers alike

The influential Christian rock group Newsboys began in 1985 in Australia, the songwriting project of musicians Peter Furler and George Perdikis. And while the two founders have long since departed, Newsboys soldier on. The band’s lineup has changed several times over the years, but three of its current quartet have been playing together since the ’90s.

“When a guy leaves, there’s a feeling of loss, and it can take a moment when you get a new guy to get your groove on together,” said drummer Duncan Phillips, who originally joined the band as a keyboardist. “Even though we’ve had some member changes, the core of the band has remained. It’s been the same core of guys for 22 years.”

This weekend, Newsboys will come through Spokane as part of the Rock and Worship Roadshow, an annual tour started by the band MercyMe which last visited the Spokane Arena in March. Newsboys has never participated in the touring spiritual music event before, and Phillips says the experience has been a positive one.

“Backstage, it’s just like a big family,” Phillips said. “We get together and hang out. You basically get to live the life of a teenager and hang out with all your buds for three months. It becomes something that’s great for the fans – if you don’t like the band that’s playing right now, just wait around half an hour and there’s going to be another band that you might like better.”

Phillips describes the band’s upcoming album “Love Riot” (it’s scheduled to drop in March) as the closest thing to a mainstream pop record that Newsboys have yet recorded. It represents a stark contrast from the band’s previous record, 2014’s “Hallelujah for the Cross,” which was a collection of traditional hymns.

“We did that just to mess with everyone,” Phillips said with a laugh. “That (last album) was like a sidestep for us. We didn’t have a studio record yet, but we’re going to take all the songs that your mum and dad grew up with and put our spin on them. It was to give ourselves a bit of breathing room to focus on this record. … This album represents our version of pop music in 2016. We went outside the box on this went as far as our songwriting and producers went.”

For the “Love Riot” sessions, the band teamed up with producers who had previously worked with popular acts like Imagine Dragons and the Killers. The new songs still deal with themes of worship and faith, but Phillips says the band wanted the material to feel as fresh as anything on mainstream pop radio.

“It’s very easy to work with guys you’re comfortable with,” he said, “but sometimes, to get something different and new and fresh, you’ve got to go outside your comfort zone. And that’s what we definitely did on this one. … Even if you’re not necessarily into what we do, I think you’ll be able to appreciate this record. Obviously it’s still Newsboys, but I think it’s the Newsboys 2.0 version of who we are now.”

The current music industry, including the world of contemporary Christian music, is almost unrecognizable from the scene that first brought Newsboys prominence. Phillips says he and his band mates throw all of their energy into their live performances, because “it’s the only thing you can’t download these days.

“Obviously you do your record and make it the best you can,” he continued, “but then you have to put just as much effort and time into the live show. My biggest fear is people walking away from Newsboys shows saying, ‘Ah, they were better the last time I saw them.’ So that drives me on a daily basis to do what we do better than we did last year. It’s like with every record and every tour you’re re-applying for your job, and it’s a good pressure.”