Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Rend Collective Experiment is a Northern Irish experimental, folk rock, worship band originating from Bangor, Northern Ireland. Band members include leader and drummer Gareth Gilkeson, Will Herron and Chris Llewellyn on (lead vocals) and Guitar, Ali Gilkeson on Percussion and Keys, Bridget Herron on EWI, Brass, Accordion and Patrick Thompson playing the (bass guitar). Their first studio album Organic Family Hymnal was released on 28 September 2010, which the second studio album Homemade Worship By Handmade People on 10 January 2012, and both records were released by Kingsway. The single they are known for is "Second Chance", which was released in 2012.
Background
Establishment
Rend Collective Experiment was established in roughly 2002 to 2003 with the concept of trying to figure out the purpose of their lives. So, about 15 people started a Collective to try to reinvent worship in our contemporary culture, but the band comprises six members that tours and makes the albums. The rest are their for support and to encourage the band "spiritually, musically, and missionally." Furthermore, they saw in the enviroment some people have a shear hostility to church and/or Christians, so they sought to create music to draw them in spiritually and get them to come to church just to hang out.
Tour
Rend Collective Experiment was on the And If Our God Is for Us... Tour with Chris Tomlin and Christy Nockels in the Spring of 2011. They also served as the light-up act for the Rock and Worship Roadshow in 2012.
Music
Organic Family Hymnal
Gareth explained the term organic means the music "came from a very deep place with God."
According to Gareth, the most powerful song on the album is "You Bled", which he said "'It came from a point of awareness of our own faults and our own issues then getting to a place of simplicity. In the middle we take the saying from the kids' song, 'Yes, Jesus loves me'. I felt when we first started doing it that it was a bit simplistic for those who are slightly more cynical and 'cool'. It was a bit weird for them. But we came to the point where we thought, 'This is really it, Jesus loves me, this is the simplicity of what our faith is and we don't need to dress it up'.'"
Gareth told the song "Exalt" was "coming from a point of 'I don't know but you might'. Sometimes when we go into worship we come up with so many walls and the first verse is just letting them drop and just saying to God, 'We can't hide from you.' Then the chorus, 'I exalt you, you're the colour of my world,' that just does it for me. Life is grey but with God in our lives it becomes full of colour. The chorus is the important part where we are talking to the Lord, when we are exalting him. Sometimes in some worship songs we get distracted from that. But in this song that's what we focus on."
The song "Movements" is about "a deep commitment song that says we won't walk away after a time of loss and suffering."
Homemade Worship For Handmade People
The song "You Are My Vision" is a translation of the song "Be Thou My Vision", which the Gilkeson said "'as we translated the song from the Irish and the old English, we soon realized the true meaning of the words were starting to get lost in our culture'". Furthermore, Gilkeson said "'This is not a song of longing and asking God to 'be our vision,' but it is a song of declaration and faith. We say to God with strength, trust and humanity that 'You are my vision, You are my wisdom… You are my battle shield.'"
The song "Second Chance" according to Gareth is about the redemptive power of the Cross and not wallow in "failures and personal mistakes", but about seeing the Cross for what it truly represents, which is "about the grace of God and not about the Law of God." Gareth said the Bible verses used in the song come for John 8:10-12.