for KING & COUNTRY on writing their fifth studio album

Grammy Award-winning and platinum-selling duo for KING & COUNTRY celebrated the release of their fifth studio album, What Are We Waiting For? last month, which sees the brothers Luke and Joel Smallbone gather their common take-aways from their isolation periods to offer social commentaries, lift-me-ups, and arena-filling hooks in thirteen new tracks.

Luke describes the album as their most relatable, spirited project yet: "I'm killing a lot of birds with a single stone," he says. "What's fascinating about music is that these songs mean something to us, and they're special to us, but at the end of the day, music becomes alive when it becomes other people's songs."

As personal as Luke and Joel get on this record, there is a bigger picture behind everything once it's out in the world. Luke elaborates: "My hope was that as we come out of these very crazy two years with the pandemic, this album could be the soundtrack for people's lives as they enter into this new season of life. It's thrilling for us to essentially have these songs become other people's songs.”

The conceptual theme can be divided into three parts, as Luke tells: global, family, and spiritual. "This album is a global album. It's written about all the things that we have been journeying through over the last several years. It's also a family album. In some cases, there are people that haven't been able to see their families for years. You start to realise the value of family when you don't get to see them. It's pretty easy to take things for granted. I think the pandemic forced us not to take things for granted.”

In terms of the spiritual aspect of What Are We Waiting For?, Luke mentions the comfort of faith in situations when life gets challenging: "We've got songs like The God Is With Us and Benediction that are the most spiritual songs that we've ever been a part of writing. I think when you go through things as we've gone through the last couple of years, life suddenly becomes very fragile and challenging; it is helpful to turn to your faith.”

In regards to the core theme of the record, for KING & COUNTRY attempts to tackle existential and identity questions that arose during the pandemic for most of us. "What are we actually journeying through as people? What are we trying to journey through as individuals?". Luke remembers working on a track, way back, that helped put things into perspective. "I wrote something many, many years ago, the first album that we ever wrote, there was a song called Praise, and it was the first song that I was ever proud of, that I had written. I remember thinking that even if this song doesn't mean anything to anybody else, it means something to me. The lesson that I learned through that was that actually what we should be doing with music is we got to make it mean something to us first because ironically enough, music, if you make it real to yourself, it inherently becomes real to others because most of the time, people go through the same things as you are", Luke explains.

He continues: "So to me, it's less about, okay, here's the album's blueprint, What Are We Waiting For?. It's more of what we are, what is real to us, and what is resonating, encouraging, sad, and hopeful to us. I think this album feels so personal because these are the stories that we're going through and navigating ourselves as individuals.

"We've got songs like Unity and Relate, which are social commentaries on where we find ourselves as a globe, as a world. But then you still have very personal songs, like Unsung Hero and Cheering You On. And some others that are more introspective, but they're still introspective in the sense of realising a little bit about what matters to us during this crazy season of the last two years.”

With the excess of free time useful for album brainstorming and writing sessions, for KING & COUNTRY was surrounded by family and their family homes while recording the record. Luke talks about the process and describes it 'as the most enjoyable album': "It's definitely different from the previous records, just because the other ones, we were making on the back lounge of buses, walking off buses, going into the studio in between shows, walking off the stage, and come back and write a verse or a bridge. This was a little bit more settled. We are basically entirely at home and really grateful for that. It’s really the most enjoyable album that I think we've ever made.”

One of the more emotional tracks out of the album is Unsung Hero, which carries heartwarming visuals featuring the Smallbone parents. Luke talks about the driving force behind the theme: "I can say that Unsung Hero is 75% dedicated to our mother and 25% to our father. I think for my mom it was particularly moving because she's done the really hard work that no-one sees, but that hard work is the very thing that has shaped us.”

for KING & COUNTRY will be performing this new material for the first time across 34 cities in the United States: "Burn The Ships came out over three years ago; we came to a point where it's just a joy to be able to present and sing. For the visuals, we're building a new show that's obviously exciting and thrilling but also a bit daunting, but we will just enjoy every single moment of it,” says Luke.

The fifth studio album by for KING & COUNTRY, What Are We Waiting For? is out now.