Phatfish on their new album and connecting people with God

It's a busy season for the Brighton-based Christian band, Phatfish. Their latest album, Higher, is out on October 31 and to coincide with its release, they are currently travelling around the UK on a 10-date tour.

The first single release from the album, also called "Higher", is a really beautiful and catchy pop song with a message to anyone who hears that God has so much more for them.

It's a message that characterises the album and one they want all people to hear, not only those who fill the pews at church on Sunday.

Says Joss: "We wanted to write an album that, whether you are a Christian or non-Christian, whatever walk of life you are in, there would be songs in the album that would challenge you and make you question why you believe what you believe and encourage those who are Christians.

"As the songs came together, we saw that there was an umbrella theme in the album that the song 'Higher' summed up. That whoever you are, wherever you’re at, there’s more for you in God and in Christ."

Ben is also excited by the fact that several of the songs on the album are aimed at unbelievers.

“We are hoping and praying that people will be able to connect with that and I suppose that’s a reflection of what’s going on in band members’ lives,” he says.

“God has really woken us up to the whole mission thing and evangelism and sharing life with people who might not have anything to do with church. We are hoping we can bring these songs in a light and accessible musical style but with lyrics that still pack a punch.”

There are quite a few pop songs with a strong feel good factor but they all have truth underpinning them, says Lou. There are also songs that minister and others that ask more theological questions, like who we really believe Jesus to be.

"There's this sense of being Higher, being who we were made to be, because quite often we don’t fulfil what God has given us the ability to fulfil," Lou explains.

Joss and Ben may be relatively new to the band, but Lou has been in it since its founding in 1994. Musical influences may change, the issues to be wrestled with in life may change, but the purpose of the music remains the same for her.

"Musically things are always developing but the underlying tone of wanting to preach the Gospel hasn't changed. We still want to share God with people and hopefully then people will in turn worship God and be impacted,” she says.

Part of that is encouraging people in their walk with God and bringing them to a place where they are worshipping him.

“We want people to meet with God through the lyrics,” she continues.

“We feel the words are important as well as the musical style. If they stop being impacted by the words we would have to address what we are doing.”

Ben agrees: “Each and every one of the band absolutely loves music but at the end of the day we know that the music is there to serve the lyric and the lyric is what actually carries the message and hopefully communicates the truth of the Gospel to people.”

And that’s how they see things carrying on for now at least. The band has been going for 17 years and although Ben and Joss are relative newcomers, none of them has any plans to put Phatfish to bed any time soon.

“We’ll carry on till God says ‘stop’,” Joss quips.

“It still feels like we’ve got things to say and God is still using us to say them and wants us to be out there writing songs, equipping the church, equipping people and challenging people.”

For now, though, their focus is all on the tour and the forthcoming album release. Indeed, once the task of writing their latest songs and polishing them off in the recording studio had been completed, there was nothing the band wanted more than to get out on the road for the tour.

“We want to see what God does with the tour and see what God does with the album through playing it live,” says Ben.

“We've got 11 new songs. They’re fun songs and they’re going to be really fun to play. We can’t wait to see how God will use them.”

Find out more about the tour here: http://shop.phatfish.net/product_info.php?products_id=209