INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST
Building 429's Jason Roy "Won't Be Shaken"
By Hannah Goodwyn
CBN.com Senior Producer
CBN.com
– Debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's Christian Albums Chart with their new release, We Won't Be Shaken, is a first for Building 429. Coming off the heels of success with their hit song, "Where I Belong" (which just got named BMI's Christian Song of the Year), Building 429 is ready to reach the hearts and ears of fans with a new message.
Frontman Jason Roy recently spoke with CBN.com about We Won't Be Shaken, the scripture that inspired the title track and popular new single, and how he hopes it will push believers to be bolder about their faith.
On Building 429's new album, We Won't Be Shaken…
Jason Roy: What was interesting about "Where I Belong" is if you watch God move and you watch Him show up and do things that are ridiculous and impossible… that is really what that last record felt like it was. It felt like it was God saying, "I got this, guy." You know what I mean? Like, "This is not going to be possible without Me." That's the one thing we knew for a fact when we finished. What it does, though, is it gives you a different level of confidence walking into the next season.
For this new record, I don't know, it's one of those weird things where there's never a doubt of what we were trying to accomplish, there was never a doubt that we were going to make a better record than before, never a doubt that "Where I Belong" was not going to be a hindrance. It was not going to be like a life suck on us when we were making this record. It was actually going to be power and energy to move forward.
So when we got into [We Won't Be Shaken], what we felt like we were called to do with it was, basically, stop talking about who we were before. Even in our life of faith, oftentimes we spent so much time talking about who we were before Christ and how broken and desperate and hurting, and all of that kind of stuff that we were, we felt like what God was calling us to do on this record was to talk about who we are in Christ, which is more than conquerors. And "Where I Belong" was a song that really kind of cut that loose in our hearts, you know what I mean? We kind of realized, wait a minute, what we did in the past doesn't even matter anymore. All that matters right now is who God is, and what God's called us to be.
On how the sentiment "we are more than conquerors" plays a part in the new record…
JR: It's like the life float of the whole record, it really is. "We Won't Be Shaken" being the first single on the record is this song that says, no matter what comes our way, we're not going to be moved, because we know who you are, God. We will trust you, we will not be moved, and that's the whole sentiment of the song. Actually, "We Won't Be Shaken" interestingly enough is kind of the part two of "Where I Belong."
With "We Won't Be Shaken," we attempted to write a song that said, this is what we do with the time that we have now. And again, it's just this holy confidence not in ourselves, but in God, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness that comes through in "We Won't Be Shaken."
The same thing is true of "Bonfire." On first listen, "Bonfire" sounds like this kind of A.D.D. crazy rock song that really doesn't have any point to it, but it actually really does. That song talks about the things that my mom told me when I was a child. She told me that I was born to be a flame, that I was going to set the world on fire, and my stubbornness, and all that, God was going to use for good. So I wrote this entire song with this thought process, "If I was born to be a flame, then I want to light a bonfire." That's just not even I want to, but I'm going to light a bonfire. That's the kind of mentality that we carried into this record; if you listen through the whole thing, you'll find that over and over again. There's a confidence that is portrayed in this record. We're hoping that it's an inspiring, encouraging record that calls believers to become confident in their faith and confident in the truth of who God is.
On what stops us from becoming "conquerors" of our pain, our sins, our struggles…
JR: We replace God with some weak, wimpy version of God, and we replace God with doing all the right things. We replace a relationship with God with just kind of doing what we know we should do. We replace a real relationship with the Lord, where it's a constant conversation back and forth, with the rules and regulations that we think are going to draw us nearer to God. When we do that, we become less and less accustomed to the heart of God, and we forget the things He's done in the past.
For me, there were times when I was the front man of this Christian band and I had forgotten how good and how faithful God had been. I wrote songs that were constantly talking about, "Where are you God? What's going on?" This time, for me right now, is a time of remembering and trying to remember all of the amazing things that God has done, bringing me to this point. The Bible says perfect love draws out all fear. Well, you can't have a love relationship with a rule. The same thing with my wife. I can wash the dishes for her, but that's an act. That's not really love.
So it's really important that we kind of embrace the relational side of God and spend a lot of time remembering all the good that He's done in the past and knowing that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He's done in the past, He's going to repeat again. He'll continue to do greater things even until the day that we meet Him.
On the connection between "We Won't Be Shaken" and Psalm 62, and what Building 429 wants to say to believers in Christ…
JR: 'The Lord is my rock, my refuge, my fortress, where I will never be shaken.' If you look through Psalms, over and over again it says, I will never be shaken. I will not be shaken. I will never be shaken.'
A part of this record is telling this generation of believers to rise up. When we look at the world at large, we look at all of the things going on in the world, it seems to me that we see a lot of believers who are almost scared to even say they are believers because of all the negative connotations that comes with that. But we're not serving the world, the problem; we're serving the world, the solution. When we wrap our minds around the fact that Jesus, not Christianity, not the church, not religion, but Jesus is the answer to so many of the problems in this world, not the problem, but the solution, I think we find ourselves in a place where we're much more willing to be at His hands and feet, and then therefore also to watch Him do amazing things.
 Hannah Goodwyn serves as the Family and Entertainment producer for CBN.com. For more articles, visit Hannah's bio page.
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