Drew Cline - Worship Artist

Though Drew Cline’s creative road has stretched well over a decade, it’s been a continuously refining journey that’s sought equilibrium between unwavering perseverance and wholehearted surrender with the merger of artistic assurance and a lifestyle of praise. It’s a finely tuned spiritual and musical dichotomy that’s finally found a home in the singer/songwriter/worship leader’s official debut Way of Life, which not only seeks to inspire dreamers, but to remind them to find identity in Christ above all else.“After making a ton of mistakes in high school and doing whatever it took to try and gain everyone’s acceptance, I finally realized that God was my only hope, and in a moment, He changed my heart and gave me real life,” asserts the tunesmith regarding the launch of his long and winding road. “It was Steven Curtis Chapman’s song ‘Waiting For Lightning’ that got me to search my heart and helped me to realize I needed to get serious about my relationship with Christ. From that point on, I knew I wanted to write and record songs that would have that kind of profound impact on people the way Steven’s songs had impacted me.”

“After making a ton of mistakes in high school and doing whatever it took to try and gain everyone’s acceptance, I finally realized that God was my only hope, and in a moment, He changed my heart and gave me real life,” asserts the tunesmith regarding the launch of his long and winding road. “It was Steven Curtis Chapman’s song ‘Waiting For Lightning’ that got me to search my heart and helped me to realize I needed to get serious about my relationship with Christ. From that point on, I knew I wanted to write and record songs that would have that kind of profound impact on people the way Steven’s songs had impacted me.”

And that’s exactly what the newly recommitted Cline did, starting with music business studies at Nashville’s Belmont University, his graduation into student ministry and a move to Houston as a member of The Sound. He recorded two projects with the group in the mid-90s (and produced three additional albums for the act) while logging over 1,000 concerts on the road. Come 1999, Cline assembled the vocal trio As Is, which won the prestigious Gospel Music Association’s Academy of Gospel Music Arts International Spotlight competition in Estes Park, Colorado a year later. The exposure led to shows with Margaret Becker, Fernando Ortega and Jennifer Knapp and a feature in GMA Today Magazine.

“After we won that competition, we had a few record labels interested and it looked like we would sign a deal,” he says of the initially exciting but gradually discouraging time. “I thought my life finally looked like it was supposed to, but those deals never worked out and I got mad at God. Singing had been my focus of significance for so long and I took a lot of pride in that, but I needed to realize who I was in Christ and find significance in who I was in Him.”As the decade turned, he would slowly but surely learn that very lesson, starting when his wife took a job at Word Records in Nashville and Cline returned to church ministry as a worship pastor in Franklin, Tennessee. Besides learning to take the focus off himself and put it back onto leading a congregation in praise, moving to Music City also expanded his network of industry contacts.

One of his first connections came in the form of Grammy Award winning producer Phil Naish, who just so happened to work with Point Of Grace, Jaci Velasquez and Wes King, plus Chapman and that aforementioned song that helped turn Cline’s life around. The two became close friends and often worked together on sessions, which also led to studio time with fellow producers of prominence Michael Omartian, Brown Bannister, Tom Hemby, Chris Harris, Bernie Herms, David Hamilton and many more. The results included CD and concert work with the illustrious likes of Chapman, MercyMe, Third Day, Jeremy Camp, Hawk Nelson, Sanctus Real, Dolly Parton, Sandi Patty, Kathy Troccoli, Don Moen, Todd Agnew, Rachael Lampa, Mark Schultz, Sheila Walsh and the Gaither Vocal Band, amongst countless others.Assisting other artists, coupled with his reclaimed church calling, slowly but surely got Cline even closer to the mark of finding identity in faith rather than fame. Add in extra ammunition from several impressive commercial projects (NBC’s “The Today Show,” Country Music Television, Kohl’s, Chevrolet, Ford and Yamaha) and the hopeful began to regain his goals of making original music.

“By the summer of 2004, Phil and I began work on new material and even shopped it around in what I call the ‘Nashville shuffle,’” he recalls of the eye opening time. “It was very frustrating and some of those old feelings started creeping back in, but God taught me so much about who I was that instead of letting it beat me down, the Lord allowed it to build me up.”Around this time, Drew’s wife Lori (who had since left her marketing position at Word) began a promotions company in 2005, which inspired Drew to take on the record making process himself, joining forces with Naish via Undone Recordings (which landed under Infinity Music Distribution less than a year later). And despite all the false starts and snags along the way, it’s become the perfect match for the highly anticipated Way of Life, which also features special guests Russ Taff and Christy Nockels (of Watermark and Passion fame).

“First of all, this project is clearly a worship project with some of the songs having a congregational appeal and others that are more radio friendly,” Cline relates, citing his dual footing on the airwaves and invitations at mega churches such as Chicago’s Willow Creek, California’s Saddleback and Charles Stanley’s First Baptist in Atlanta. “I really love strong production and this disc is really tight.”“Drew is a powerhouse singer,” adds Naish. “That’s a quality you don’t always hear on worship albums since the focus is more on the overall experience. His voice is distinctive and emotional. Since becoming friends with Drew, I’ve realized his heart for God is even stronger than his voice. He has all the gifts that make him an incredible servant, minister and artist.”

More than just the crisp production or truly resplendent vocal presentations, the clear cut message is the true heart of this project. Though the typical definition of “worship” is either used as a physical church location or state of being, Cline hopes to communicate the concept as the title so appropriately showcases- a Way of Life.“It really starts for me back as teenager when I learned to live two separate lives- bottom line is that I was a total fake,” he continues. “I knew what it took to be somebody involved in worship- I was a leader of a youth group yet was living for myself the rest of the week- but God continued working in me and taught me that I was never fooling Him. Now as a worship pastor and recording artist, I’m trying to communicate to people that it’s much more than just singing. It has to be an overflow into all areas of life, not just worshipping for one hour of one day. It’s about trying to grow people in their walk with Christ and letting our actions back up who we are in our hearts.”

“And just for the record that dreams do indeed come true, Cline’s conversation for this very text is taking place in even more interesting circumstances. The summer before his solo project was scheduled to hit streets, the remarkably gifted singer was asked to be the new front man for the legendary music ministry NewSong (which he’ll continue to purse alongside a solo career). Not only did he step up to the plate and accept, but he recently received a Dove Award nomination for his production work on the group’s latest release The Christmas Hope, and he’s currently on their co-headlining tour with none other than Steven Curtis Chapman.
“There was a time in my life that I thought my ‘making it’ had to include the big record deal and all that came with it. When that didn’t happen God began to teach me that He was more concerned with making me more like Christ than making me an artist,” he sums up. “Only now after a long journey of living and teaching worship do I feel like this record and season of my life is finally a genuine offering of who I am and what I want to say. Accolades are not important, and as the first lyric of the record says, ‘it’s not in the song I sing.’ Hopefully people will get that connection and worship Him through the life they live long before the songs of worship they sing. -- Drew Cline”