The newest member of Inpop Records, Consumed by Fire, has their first release on the label later this month. The new release is entitled Giving Over. If you want to sample some of the band, check out this great sampler on Noisetrade. Check out my interview with the drummer of the band, Jordan Ward!

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Gabe: You guys had an EP sometime last year and now you guys have a new full length record coming out soon. What can you tell me about this new record Giving Over?

Jordan: Man, we noticed there’s a theme in the record. More than anything, I think it’s a message of surrender. So we decided to name the title Giving Over. People may think that’s an interesting way of putting it. And maybe it is because we are a bunch of Southern guys (laughs). But I think it’s just a way of us saying that we are surrendering to something bigger than we are. Every song on the record has a common theme of surrendering.

Just look at the song on the record “Lean on Me“. It’s a call to surrender yourself. It’s a call to be your brother’s keeper. It’s important to look out for the least of these. Lean on Me was all about Galatians 6 where Paul said “when we carry each other’s burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ.” So I think that more than anything we just gotta love each other the way Jesus loved us. So in that, there’s the commission to surrender to love.

Consumed by Fire

Overall, I think my favorite line on the whole record is on the pre-chorus of the title track.”I had a heavy heart. But I laid it down. There was bitterness but I’m better now.”

So if any point you’re going to surrender, you’ve got to soften your heart. And I think when you do that, you allow surrender to set in. If you’ve got a stoney, heavy heart, you have to allow the Holy Spirit to soften it before you can ever be used by Him.

We’re kind of in a new chapter in our lives where we’ve just had to say, “Okay, God. Whatever you’ve got for us next, we’re not going to be stubborn anymore. We’re just going to surrender.”

Gabe: So what is this about a new chapter in your life? What exactly has inspired these lyrics of surrender?

Jordan: We’ve been a band now for ten years now. When you find out our lead singer, my younger brother Caleb, just turned 23. You figure out he was about 12 when we started. We did about 120-150 days on the road our first year. We convinced our parents to homeschool us. They’re pastors so it was cool. We did a lot of Midwest dates. Before Caleb was even 18 years old, we were facing burn out. At that point, we had played well over 500 shows. We were in debt ten of thousands of dollars from investors.

In this chapter of our lives, we realized that God is so faithful. Just look at our band name: Consumed by Fire. It’s the name we had when we started. It almost sounds like a little kid’s band or even a metal band (laughs). But it comes out of Jeremiah 20:9. It sounds like when you read that verse, Jeremiah was in a state of burn out. “When I say I won’t mention Your Name anymore… When I say I’m done, Your Word burns in my heart like a fire. And I am weary of holding it in. And I cannot.”

That’s the place we are in right now. We are past the point of saying we are done. We know that we can’t quit. We know that’s not gonna happen. Josh, the oldest member of our band, and his wife just had their first child last December. Caleb and his wife are expecting in June. It’s a new chapter in our lives. Examples are just something we have to set. This is really a defining moment for us as a band because God has called us to do this.

Consumed by Fire

There’s a saying that “If God has called you to something, nobody should be able to talk you into it and nobody should be able to talk you out of it.” I think in this new chapter, we’ve got all this new life. We’ve got all this new stuff that is happening. And what we do as a job is not exactly easy. So, we’re just surrendering to the call more and more every day. “Less of me and more of You, Lord” is really where we’re at.

Gabe: How is that dynamic of being siblings in a band together? It’s gotta be kind of tense at times! (laughs)

Jordan: (laughs) It just goes back to surrending, bro (laughs). We joke about it a lot on the road and in interviews. It’s so funny when  you have all 3 of us in the room interrupting each other while telling stories. Man, we love each other. My older brother Josh said something pretty funny: “If any of us think we’re gonna quit, all we have to do is call Mom and she’ll straighten us out.” (laughs) We aren’t going anywhere.

One of our radio promoters, Matt Ingle, always says, “They’ll rip each other apart. They’ll say things to each other that would cause most bands to break up! They would not have a chance at surviving after some of the stuff I’ve heard them say to each other. And then an hour later they’re hugging and kissing each other and saying they love each other as they head into the radio station.” That’s an outsider’s point of view but I think that sums up the answer to that question. We’re gonna be doing this until Jesus comes back so we just gotta get over ourselves (laughs).

Gabe: One thing I heard you say that I found interesting was that you all are pastor’s kids? 

Jordan: Yeah!

Gabe: What kinda stuff did you listen growing up to with that background?

Jordan: Well, that’s one thing we’re thankful for. We had all the typical music that pastor’s kids would grow up on. We had Carman and Amy Grant…. almost all the stuff that pastor’s kids in the 90’s grew up with. But we’re thankful because we were very well cultured. My dad loved Chicago, John Denver, and James Taylor. My mom’s side of the family introduced us to The Eagles, Bob Seger, and Lynard Skynard. So we got almost every angle you can think of. We listened to all of that growing up. We didn’t grow up in a legalistic home. I’m so thankful for that because that influenced our music even to this day. Even the Amy Grant stuff when she crossed over impacted us. We were influenced by both sides of the spectrum.

Gabe: That’s so awesome. Do you have anything else you’d like to say about the record?

Jordan: I hope people hear it and are inspired to the callings that God has put on their lives. When we dream sometimes, we don’t always feel like we can accomplish it on our own strength. But that’s the whole point. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So we hope that people hear that in some of these songs. We hope there’s a surrender and giving over to the callings of God. I hope that the message of that is blazed into every song.

Gabe: Thanks for your time!

Jordan: Thank you!

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Don’t miss Giving Over releasing this month! And follow the band on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cbfmusic/