Cool. Now two of the songs that struck me were "Outside Your Window" and "Take it to the Streets" because they both seem to focus on reaching out to others with a message of hope and a practical helping hand. Right.
When you're going through something difficult, it's so easy to focus solely on yourself. Is it a big focus for you guys to reach out to other people? Absolutely. I think the biggest part for me. . . Growing up, my brothers and I were raised to help each other and help other people. The whole idea of look out for number one was never really like a big thing in my family. If we were caught looking out for number one, we were in trouble.
(laughs) So it was never instilled in us to be that way, to make sure you go to college and get your degree, get yours, do your thing, make sure you have this much money, make sure you do this thing. My parents were never like that. They believed in what we did. They believed in our dreams and asked what God wanted us to do, what He called us to do, what our purpose was and that kind of stuff. That was huge in my life. Luckily we were so blessed with parents who felt that way and taught us that way, but a lot of kids don't have that. So it's big for us, especially when we do shows and when we really get a chance to talk to kids one-on-one, we tell them that you have a calling, you have something that you can do, you could be standing on stage just like me. You could be doing something. . . Whatever it is God called you to do, you can do it.
I feel like it's important for people who have realized that and who realize their dreams to tell that to other people. So, yeah I think that's why it comes out in a lot of our songs. There's no reason to keep what you have hidden. Just like that whole verse about hiding your lamp. . . Why would you hide it? Why would you hide what you have? It's important to share it. And that's a big part of why we don't just do Christian events. It's a huge part of why we are a crossover group or whatever you wanna call it. We just wanna be a group that has something to say, regardless of what stage we can say it from. We still want to be able to do it. We still wanna say it. So I think that's a good thing.
Yeah, it is. And you're also part of the Dare2Share SURVIVE Tour. . . We are.
I guess that's kind of a similar message. Can you tell us a little bit about that tour and what it's all about? Yeah sure. That tour is amazing. We've only done two or three dates on the tour now, but just from the beginning, it was an amazing thing for me. From the very first show, the kids that come to this tour. . . A lot of them have been coming to it for years prior to this year, so they already know what it's about and they're just pumped from the get-go and it's all about equipping them and sending them out to go do [ministry]. . . So it's amazing to me.