Barnes & Noble

One day he's a hairdressing school dropout fronting a bar band in New Zealand; the next, he's playing before 15,000 as the newest member of Newsboys, one of Christian rock's biggest bands. Things really did happen that fast for Phil Joel. In addition to his contributions to the band as bassist, Joel has continued to express a singular creativity through songwriting of an especially personal nature. His work finds a perfect home on WATCHING OVER YOU, produced by Newsboys frontman Peter Furler. Joel talks to Barnes & Noble.com's Lisa Zhito about going it alone -- albeit temporarily -- and the personal dramas that gave rise to WATCHING OVER YOU.

Barnes & Noble.com: So why do a solo record?

Phil Joel: In writing Newsboys songs over the last five years, certain songs have just popped their little heads up and Peter [Furler] and I have both realized what they were about. I'd be writing about something that happened when I was 14-years-old and they just didn't seem to fit on Newsboys records at that time. It just became more and more evident as the years went by that I needed to make this record.

B&N.com: What's the difference between this and a Newsboys record?

PJ: The main difference is just the lyrical content, in that it's about my life. It's a retrospect on the last 27 years, it's an autobiographical record. I've titled it WATCHING OVER YOU because I look back now at the ups and the downs and the journey and I see that God's hand has been in it the whole time. Even from the point back to my adoption as a little kid up until now being married and about to have my own child in October. So in some ways this record is a diary.

B&N.com: It must have been cathartic in a way to get these things recorded.

PJ: Yeah! I mean some of these songs were written seven years ago, or at least I started them, and only in the last six months or even in the recording process could I finish them. There were certain things that God was taking me through and He didn't allow me to see the light at the end of the tunnel at that stage, and only now in my 20s have I been able to finish those songs from a place of honesty. You know, I could have probably tacked on some cliché ending back then, but I don't want to do that, I really want to write from a place of honesty.

B&N.com: Is it scary to do a solo project, coming from your band perspective? You can't hide behind your band mates!

PJ: Sure! I'm confident in the songs, but you get scared about putting things on the line at certain times, putting certain lyrics in a song that maybe people won't get.

B&N.com: For example?

PJ: There's a song on the record called "Fragile," and it's about someone who is near and dear to me who told me about their terminal illness. I wrestle with that -- why there is suffering in the world; I still don't understand how God allows so much of it. I know that He's in control, still, but there's definitely a bit of angst and frustration in there, and I still get angry with the fact that this person is going to die, probably. I hope people understand that.

B&N.com: Well, talk to us about your adoption and meeting your birth mother, which is a big part of this record, as well.

PJ: That was one of those songs I started writing six or seven years ago! Just about being a goofy kid in New Zealand, growing up in a Christian family, loving and the whole bit, but just being very, very different from them. When I took Heather [Joel's wife] home to New Zealand for the first time, she thought I had gone to the wrong house! Just very different -- you would not put these people in the same room with me. But I did remember making a conscious decision when I was 13, when I met my first guitar and I fell in love, that this was good and this fit. And that, obviously, there were some things in this world that I love to do and that are made for me. But I guess I always had this hope -- I probably placed too much hope -- in one day meeting my birth parents and having a lot of these questions answered: why I was different and why I was this way and not that way.

Eventually I did meet them, and it turns out my dad was a musician from London and my mother was a wig maker. I left high school to become a hairdresser and so it was kind of cool! It was kind of affirming in that sense, but on the other hand it was really unusual because they really weren't anything like me -- still! We're still very, very different and I realized that to become the people that we're meant to be, to become complete, we need to be following Jesus. And I've been doing that since I was eight-years-old.

I only realized this like six months after these people visited, that that's why I've become the person that I've become: not necessarily because of nature or nurture, but because of the commitment that I made when I was eight-years-old! It was kind of a revelation to me.

B&N.com: Did you have to go to a lot of trouble to track down your birth parents?

PJ: PJ: Well, New Zealand is a pretty small country, three million people. It turns out she was actually living in Australia, that's why it was a little complicated to meet, but it wasn't too big an ordeal at all, actually. I know it's a lot tougher here in the States. In some ways I would recommend finding your birth parents if you need to. But otherwise, just keep your eyes on Jesus. You become the person you're meant to be if you follow Christ. It's how we're designed, that's how we're made! So in some ways I encourage kids to meet their birth parents if they need to but otherwise, I probably wouldn't now.

B&N.com: Are you ready for fatherhood?

PJ: No! Who is, you know? But I'm really excited. I'm so into it! I've got names picked out and everything -- I can't tell you, it's a secret. It's a new phase. In some ways, this record too is one of those things where it's finished now, and I've had to go back before I can go forward.

B&N.com: With Newsboy's founder Peter Furler producing it and Inpop Records releasing it, you've kept it in the family somewhat.

PJ: Yeah, and Peter did a great job. He's a pop king. He took my tender, obscure songs and helped me craft them into pop songs. I can only see it helping the band in some ways. I'm sure (like we always do in the band) we rub each other the wrong way at different times, and hopefully this record won't be one of those points of friction. But I can only see it strengthening what we do and strengthening the voice of Newsboys. It's perfect timing to give people a little window into the life of one of us, because Newsboys is so big and grandiose right now, with domes and huge amounts of production and all this sort of thing. It's nice to be able to be given a chance to put a little more humanity back into what we do.

B&N.com: You're known as one member of the band who absolutely loves connecting with your fans.

PJ: I love this job. I love it. I love it, man. We had a meet-and-greet after the show and that's my favorite time. For a lot of musicians, that's the most horrifying time, they just don't want to meet people. Not all people are people-people. But I remember when I was a kid, I met Stryper, you know? A little embarrassing, but hey! But they left an impression on me. Just meeting them and just looking in the eyes of one of these guys and him smiling back at you -- it just affirmed all the things that I thought he was, and I thought I should be. I may have been wrong on all of the accounts, he may have been completely different but it didn't matter, it affirmed to me that the Gospel was good.

It's really important. I just love looking into a little kid's eyes and smiling, giving them a hug or whatever, it's just the best. You just don't know what they're going through.

B&N.com: Bn.com: So you haven't felt that pull to "cross over" to the other side -- mainstream music?

PJ: There was pressure when I started talking about making a record to just do a full-blown secular deal and go to New York and do that whole thing. It's like, well, woohoo, you know, I don't know that I need that! Christian musicians, we all wrestle with, is this really what I should be doing? Here we are in the middle of this Christian sub-culture, and are we really just living in a balloon, in a bubble? Are we making the sub-culture even more of its own closed-off thing? I don't know. Maybe. But I know there's a lot of good that can be done in this subculture. And it's something we in some respects need to protect. The fact of the matter is, the grass is always greener. But I'm realizing that it's not. The grass is pretty green where I am!

 

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