Robbie Seay

There is no time like the present. That phrase rings especially true for discovering the music of Robbie Seay Band. If you’re new to the world of their Euro-influenced epic pop/rock, you’re ignorant to a soundscape of immense beauty and honesty. Lately, they’re hoping you’ll tune in while they’re on the road on the Hope Coffee Melody tour with Alli Rogers and Chris Taylor. Also included is pastor/author Chris Seay - Robbie’s brother - who speaks each evening on the night’s topic of living missionally.

But if you don’t catch that, at least grab Give Yourself Away, the band’s most recent collection of pastoral ballads and swelling builds. Robbie spoke to us from the road recently about all of this and in Part One of this interview he gives us some details about their upcoming recording plans. Be sure to stay tuned for Part Two coming soon where he tells us why Christians should be creating the best art and wrestling with deeper questions than most take the time to. It’s a conversation worth reading, familiar with the band or not.

Soul-Audio: How is the Hope Coffee Melody tour and how is it being out with your brother?

Robbie Seay: It’s been great. My brother and I started a church about nine years ago and he’s the pastor of the church. We’ve led worship and we also travel and have played, so it feels natural to be out together and be able to share evenings together. A lot of what we’re talking about is what we’re talking about in our music as of late, which is how we really serve and love and give and call ourselves believers and wondering what that translates to. It’s about our story and community really.

That gets fleshed out in a lot of ways. We’ll be at a church in San Diego this weekend that is inspired about clean water, so we’ll focus on what they’re doing. Then we’ll also bring some angles about what we’re doing globally with groups like Compassion International and Living Water. So the night is just bigger than us playing music and Chris sharing. It’s something about how we really become the hands and feet of love and grace and to be what Christ has called us to be. So it’s going great and we’ve played 20+ cities so far and there’s another 7 we’re doing before Thanksgiving. It’s been a real joy.

SA: What’s the format of the night?

Robbie: These last few dates, we’ve had some people opening up for us. We’ve had Chris Taylor from BEC who is just fantastic. He and a singer/songwriter Alli Rogers, who is out of Nashville, will open the night and then we’ll take a break. Then Chris will get up and present what we’re doing and why we’ve gathered and done the thing like this. There’s been some videos in there. And then Robbie Seay Band does a full set of 50 minutes maybe. Then we come back and interact together and talk about some of the things, some of the missional efforts that we’re inviting people to join us in. Then we close the night in worship and then a couple more of our songs.

SA: As a band who is touring all the time, how is that to stand behind a message of planting yourself missionally in a place? Is that a difficult tension to be on the road?

Robbie: Well, ‘tension’ is the right word. In the absence of that tension is a dangerous place. When we started the church nine years ago, we told the church we’d be there half of the Sundays in a year. Sometimes we won’t tour as much as like, but that means we don’t go tour 40 shows in a row. We’re going to break that up like we’ve done this fall over three different runs. But there are tensions.

We’ve got a family, a church community and we do want to be intentional about putting ourselves into a community and actually letting folks know and love us no matter if we’re playing music or not. In some ways, God has blessed that for both Chris and I. We don’t have to be gone to tour that much in a row and we can actually break that up, staying home and loving our families and our church.

SA: I know that you’ve been touring on these songs for a bit, so what kind of life do these songs have left? And what are you doing next or are you even thinking that way?

Robbie: Yes, we are actually. We’re recording in February, so we’ve been writing for the last year really. You know how it is, you lead up to a record and you think you know what you’re doing, but then you do a 180. So it’s hard to say what will end up happening. But we’ve only released two singles and the second single has only been out for a couple months. There will be another single release and I think the next record will come out in August or September of next year. We’ll be playing these songs another 10 months and I feel like there’s still a lot of folks who will be introduced to the record who haven’t been.

So we’re working hard to make sure that folks find out who we are and that we’re doing what we’re doing. I think there’s still some life. Plus we’ve got some songs that have come out of our church and out of my life relationally, so we will see how those come together. That’s the excitement of making a record because you don’t know how they all play out. You’re not sure where you’ll end up. [Laughs]

SA: So you have tangible recording plans in February then?

Robbie: Yeah, we’re recording in February and March really. We’ve set aside those two months. We’ll do another run in January for seven or eight shows. Then we’ll record in February and March. Then in April, we’ll do about 10 shows in the Midwest. That’s how our spring shakes out with a few conferences in there. We might be working with Tedd T. who is a great friend of mine and he did all the Mute Math stuff. But we’re also meeting with some other guys out west. We haven’t settled on anyone for sure.

• www.robbieseayband.com
• www.myspace.com/robbieseayband

↓ 2 comments

#1 Soul-Audio » Features » Robbie Seay on November 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am

[...] Robbie Seay - Thursday Nov 13th, 2008 [...]

#2 tommy on December 1st, 2008 at 6:13 pm

I am interested in becoming a reviewer. Tell me more please.
I have a gift for knowing what the public likes and I have a good ear for music. I know that I would make a great talent scout in the music industry.

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