Songwriting is like therapy for me

In his seventh album ‘Kingdom’ Ian Yates takes a heartfelt look at the kingdom of God. Ahead of its release this month, Ian took Chris Rolfe behind the songwriting scenes to discover what inspired it

Ian, what’s the overall theme of your new album and what motivated you to write it?

It’s called ‘Kingdom’ and the theme running through it is the kingdom of God and my own journey of rediscovering that.

My last album, ‘Between the Joy and the Sorrow’, has a song called “What does it mean to follow Jesus?” Writing that set me off down a rabbit warren of exploring and finding out more about what God’s kingdom is actually like.

So for me, the past few years been about delving into that and reading the Scriptures – especially the Gospels and the parables – and also what different authors have written about them.

Did your discoveries have a big influence on the songs?

Yes, there were definitely a few highlights. I read a key book ‘In the name of Jesus’ by Henri Nouwen for example. He talks about three temptations: to be relevant, to be spectacular and to be powerful. I thought of my own journey and realised that’s so me! A few of the songs question – did I try to be spectacular? They talk about the times we can get carried away by things or how we can get sucked into what people perceive to be success.

It shouldn’t be that way in the kingdom of God, but those temptations are there all the time. A couple of Bible passages really highlighted that to me, too – how Christians can get things so wrong. In Matthew 21:31 Jesus says “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” I mention this in ‘Do You Know About This Kingdom’. This song talks about the fact that in the kingdom of God the last are welcomed first. The Kingdom is not like this world.

And in Matthew 7:22 Jesus says, “You’ve done all these things in my name but I don’t even k now you.” It really makes you ask what motivates you and what you’re living for.

The Message version also talks about being obedient to what God’s called you to do rather than chasing the things you think are successful.

How do the lyrics reflect your personal experiences?

Most of the songs ask questions and include challenges to myself and to listeners. ‘My World Is On Fire’ is a song about disappointment and deconstruction. It asks about our motives when we show people our accomplishments. It asks what we are living for; are we living for ourselves or for the kingdom of God?

‘Surprise’ talks about how in the kingdom of God the small things are significant and the hidden things are seen. Often I feel like we look at the big things as successful.

‘King Jesus’ reminds us that the Messiah the Jews expected was going to fight and drive out the Romans. But Jesus came to save in a different way. He was humble and gentle, born in a stable not a palace. He was despised, beaten and mocked.

I guess, for me, when you’re involved in worship, music and events there’s a temptation to look at those things and think, “Wow, isn’t that amazing?” But success in the kingdom of God is more about being obedient to what he’s called you to do. In another song I quote where Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, blessed are the humble ones, blessed are the pure in heart.” Often these things aren’t celebrated, but they are so important in the kingdom of God.

Any interesting stories behind the songs?

I watched an interview with Bono from U2 and Eugene Peterson talking about the Psalms. They were encouraging songwriters to look at the psalms of lament. Thinking about that, I realised I do get a bit mad about the injustices we see in the world, or the fact that some of the things or people I thought represented the pinnacle of success in the kingdom of God turned out not to be. So one of the songs is called ‘Lament and Repent’. It looks at repenting our heart and attitudes, when we’ve viewed the wrong things as successful, or perceived the way God works wrongly.

How was it writing for this album compared to your previous releases?

Song writing for me is like therapy – I’m a bit like a mad scientist getting everything out of my head! This project was a bit crazy because I had 300 ideas, some of which came about in five minutes and others had 15-20 versions and took four years to finish. Trevor Michael, who I work with, put 60 of those together then we whittled it down to 12. People always say you need to stick to your genre but I’m bad at that, so musically there are lots of different styles. There are probably two songs you could use in a church service. The rest have a more alternative rock vibe – musically it mixes elements of The 1975, Imagine Dragons and The War On Drugs, and it’s similar to my third album DNA. Some songs are chilled out, some are more full on. I just follow what’s in my head as I write.

Any moments in the studio that stood out?

When I first started getting involved in music aged 16 or 17 I was inspired by seeing Delirious? in Manchester. One of the really special things about this album is that their guitarist, Stu G, plays on it. He’s written a lot about the kingdom of God so it was really great to have him on the project.

There was one song which took four years to finish – it’s called ‘Do you know about the kingdom?’ I’d all but given up on it but Trevor, who produced the album, encouraged me to keep going. I’m really glad he did because that feels like a really strong track now.

What’s next for you? Any exciting upcoming projects?

Always! We have the Elim worship conference next month in Birmingham, then I’m hoping to do a tour of some description. I’m also working on a project with Elim Sound – that’s being recorded at the moment and should be out in the New Year, so that’s pretty exciting.

Ian’s new album, ‘Kingdom’, is released on 11 October

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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