Joseph O’Brien didn’t place apart a question to to turn out to be a pop-rock artist signed to one amongst the largest names in Christian song. Whilst you happen to had asked him a pair of years ago the place apart he concept his career used to be heading, he might presumably maybe wish mentioned changing into a official tennis player. Or even pursuing a composed existence in song, writing songs within the aid of the scenes. What he wouldn’t non-public predicted? Competing on The United States’s Got Capacity in entrance of hundreds and hundreds or getting signed to TobyMac’s imprint, Gotee Data. However that’s exactly how it all performed out.
“I grew up in a musical household,” O’Brien says. His dad, Michael, used to be a member of the Christian band NewSong, most identified for their vacation single “The Christmas Shoes.” “So I grew up all the arrangement thru the commercial. I loved performing. I loved being on stage. However I also loved tennis. I believed presumably that used to be the trot.”
By age 11, song won out. He started writing songs, consistently gravitating in the direction of Christian subject issues. However breaking into the commercial? That used to be the challenging fragment. Adore most aspiring musicians, he wasn’t obvious the place apart to birth. Then, on a whim, he auditioned for The United States’s Got Capacity.
“The United States’s Got Capacity used to be form of a spur-of-the-2nd thing,” O’Brien admits. “I didn’t place apart a question to to pass far. I staunch concept it’d be enjoyable.”
Stress-free, obvious. However also utterly surreal. O’Brien chanced on himself standing in a line with hundreds of alternative hopefuls in Nashville, vying for a gigantic gamble to arrangement on national television. “There were love 50,000 other folks there. It used to be insane.”
Towards all odds, the producers saved calling him aid. His proper musical skill made him a uncommon contestant. The judges loved him. The viewers loved him. However when the purpose out ended? Nothing took space. No imprint gives. No in a single day success. Acceptable…silence.
“I believed being on AGT would birth doorways staunch away,” he says. “However God had other plans.”
And not utilizing a quick career traction, O’Brien did what any cheap particular person would attain: he went aid to faculty. “I staunch figured, okay, song’s no longer going down staunch now. I’ll accumulate my degree.”
It wasn’t till 2020 that things shifted. A song he used to be working on bought into the hands of TobyMac’s workforce. “I wasn’t staring at for anything else and his workforce seen one thing in me that I didn’t even seek for in myself.”
Goatee Data didn’t staunch signal him—they championed him. Not like routine imprint gives, the place apart artists in overall in fact feel love they have to level to themselves, O’Brien used to be given inventive freedom.
“They weren’t love, ‘Execute your place apart.’ They staunch believed in what I was doing. It used to be the principle time I in fact felt love, ‘Oh, presumably I attain non-public one thing uncommon to provide.’”
O’Brien’s musical influences read love a nostalgic Christian teen’s dream playlist: Coldplay, Relient Okay, Owl City. And yes, he used to be a proud member of the Christian pop-punk scene.
“I was a Reliant Okay, Hawk Nelson and thru,” he laughs. “That stuff used to be my existence.”
His derive sound, however, has evolved. First and foremost, other folks when put next him to LANY or Lauv—your total mattress room pop, vibey gorgeous. However O’Brien realized that wasn’t the place apart he wanted to preserve. “That sound staunch isn’t the article anymore. So I needed to rethink my direction.”
The stop consequence? A fusion of pop, rock and singer-songwriter storytelling. His upcoming album, purpose to launch in September, leans into stay instrumentation. “Many of real drums, electrical guitars—peaceful pop, however extra natural,” he explains. “It feels potentially the most me.”
As he’s developed his artistry, O’Brien has also wrestled with the divide between mainstream and Christian song. Some artists favor to preserve strictly within the relish place apart, while others strive to prick out a space within the broader song commercial with out brazenly spiritual messaging. O’Brien finds himself someplace within the center, writing both explicitly religion-essentially based songs and ones that contact on broader human experiences.
“I do know another folks think Christian artists must fully accumulate ‘vertical’ song, which arrangement songs explicitly about God,” he says. “However being a Christian arrangement having a biblical worldview in all things. I believe there’s room to put in writing about relationships, emotions, struggles—things that don’t must be straight-up relish song however peaceful replicate religion.”
To O’Brien, religion isn’t one thing that have to be compartmentalized into fully relish songs. It will maybe presumably maybe presumably also be point out in every little thing. He sees song as a device to bridge the gap between deeply non-public human experiences and religion-essentially based reality. “I love writing songs about real existence, things other folks are coping with—admire, doubt, struggles. However that doesn’t mean these songs aren’t Christian.”
This tension—between writing explicitly religion-pushed songs and other folks that detect broader subject issues—has fashioned his career. Early on, he concept he’d gravitate in the direction of the mainstream, however he’s chanced on himself leaning into his religion bigger than ever. “I believed I’d lumber extra within the mainstream direction, however truly, other folks might presumably maybe presumably be shocked by how Christian this recent album is. No longer relish, however positively religion-pushed.”
That means permits him to join with a worthy broader viewers while peaceful being reliable to his beliefs. “Christian song doesn’t have to match in a field. It doesn’t have to sound one arrangement or fully converse certain things. I want my song to replicate the truth of living as a believer—now and again which arrangement relish, now and again it arrangement wrestling with mountainous questions.”
For now, O’Brien is smitten by his biggest mission yet. “Lyrically, I believe that is my most animated work. The lines are in fact intentional, in fact thoughtful. I’ve never been this spirited with lyrics before.”
And despite his self-deprecating humor, there’s a composed self assurance within the arrangement he talks about it. Adore presumably, staunch presumably, he’s entering into the artist he used to be consistently intended to be.
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