Mawcore on How their New Album Helps Listeners to Become Bearers of Light

Mawcore is an alternative modern hard art rock band, from America, driven to "flood our world with hope-driven fearless rock." They have just released a triumphant collection of songs with full-length album War Cry, available now through on Spotify and Apple Music, or at www.mawcore.com/store. The album follows the release of the lead single and title track earlier this season.

We are honored to be able to catch up with Mawcore's lead vocalist Joshua Redding for this exclusive interview.

Q: Thank you for doing this interview with us. Who is Mawcore?

Mawcore is a Modern Hard Alternative Art Christian Rock band, but more than that we are also vessels through which the life giving hope of Jesus can flow through. Mawcore is more of a movement that includes all who embrace the truth that we are all "Mawcore"

Q: What's the significance of the name "Mawcore"?

This leads out of the last question. Mawcore is Hebrew for Wellspring. The wellspring is the core source where life flows from. In Christ, we all become a core source which Christ's hope and life can flow from. In Christ we are all wellspring, we are all Mawcore.

Q: Congratulations on the release of your new album. I have read that it has taken four years to make this record; why did it take so long?

Thank you so much. We are so happy to be able to finally get to release it. There are many layers that play into it taking so long. When we look back, we just see that it was in God's timing. We had to learn to be patient and content with what God was doing in us and through us. Much of the delay was financially related, but there were changes in musicians and even changes in songs. We say 4 years, because the songs started taking shape with one of the original line-ups of musicians, but life changed and musicians had to follow God's leading in their lives. So, with the change of musicians, there comes some new ideas and new ways of seeing a song and that means re-writing and re-recording. It was definitely 4 years of so many hurdles and set-backs, but thank God we are here at this place and this time. We are trusting that it is the time He wants for such a time as this.

Q: What were some highlights for you in making this record?

One of the coolest highlights was how the lyrics just fell into place at just the right time. It is definitely God thing with us, because many times we will be writing the music and as the song develops God will place the song title on our hearts. Well, as we were getting to the end of the songs for this album, we had a bunch of songs with titles, but no lyrics. That is not actually common for us. We may have a few songs without lyrics, but not a whole album.

But this time around, we were in a place of really not knowing what would be said in the songs, but during a little vacation time, Joshua, was listening to the songs and praying for the words to come to him. It was all at once, God just started pouring the story into each song and lyrics started coming. Such a cool moment in the process of writing. Other than that, it was really cool how God brought such a great team of mixing and mastering engineers that just got it and were able to really make the album's story come alive.

Q: As I listened to the record, many songs deal with overcoming difficult times by leaning on God. Why is this theme important to you?

The history of the band comes from a place of devastation. A few of us come from the former band, Blushing Well, which played a ton of shows with almost all the well-known bands in the Christian world, been offered many record deals and had a future that felt to be pretty bright, but pride comes before the fall. It's a long story, but a series of life events brought everything crashing down. It was such a crash we just gave up on music for a while, but God had other plans.

It wasn't an immediate thing, because healing takes a while. Healing can be painful. God had to walk us back to a place where we could trust Him. We had been given the gift of starting over, but with starting over, things feel awkward. We had to find our voice and sound. We had to let him show us what His plan was for us. The world is hurting. The hurt has come from a variety of things. Knowing deep pain and being in a place that felt hopeless, we feel we were commissioned to be the bearers of God's hope.

We are living in some very dark times. The enemy wants to take our failures and beat us down with them. The enemy wants to magnify our short-comings and make them blast louder than anything else in our lives. The enemy wants to sell us lies and deceit in the hope that they will overcome us and leave us running in retreat, but in Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors. We feel we are called to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, calling to all who have been left beaten and broken and let them know they are valuable, loved and formed with a great purpose.

Q: Can you recount a trial you have been through where God has proven faithful?

Well, I guess we maybe sort of hit on that in the last one, but to re-state things, during a time that seemed pretty dark, He never let go. God was patiently and gently guiding us. Yes, we had to go through that time, but we didn't have to go through it alone. He never left us. He never forsook us. He was moving us into something new. That coolest and most amazing thing about God's plans, is that they don't stop. From what we understand and see, God's plan continues even when we fail Him. He works through our failures, during our failure, knowing He has great things in store for our lives. He is good in all seasons. 

Q: How will these new songs help listeners in their walk with Christ?

Well, when we work through songs, we come at it from a personal approach. It may sound selfish, but the songs are for us first. Each time we get to compose a song, it is us walking through our journey with God. It is God pouring into us and bringing us to a place He wants us to be. We all need to be reminded that God can and will provide victory. He will not stop working on our behalf. He is in the impossible moments. God uses the weak things to confound those who think they are wise. He takes the things that seem foolish and does things that are beyond our understanding.

No matter what situation you are in, God will make you victorious, if you let Him. If we give it all over to Him, He will do much greater things than we could have ever imagined. We pray and hope that each person, who takes the time to listen through each song, will come away with the courage to face whatever they are up against, with the courage and strength they need to push forward. We pray that they will realize they are the wellspring, capable of being the source for God's hope to pour through. We pray that this will inspire a new generation to rise up and be the bearers of Light that will prevail over the flaming arrows of the enemy.

 

 

 

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