An Interview with the Newsboys

About a year after dcTalk's Michael Tait began his journey as newsboys' new frontman, gmc.com caught up with Tait and bandmate Duncan Phillips at a stop on the 2010 Winter Jam tour to see how things are gelling.

Duncan Phillips: It's become this thing that is far greater than the sum of its parts. dcTalk and newsboys were these two iconic figures, for want of a better term. And now coming together, they're more than just one plus one. It's one plus one equals five! There's this momentum that started in the summer of last year, and now that we've hit Winter Jam - like it was when we first came over - we had times it was Beatle-esque. We had times when people were rushing the tables, and it's happening all over again!

Michael Tait: You can actually physically die in the newsboys! Some of the stunts we do are actually dangerous. CCM used to have the reader's poll: Best Live Show. Back then it was newsboys and dcTalk. I think newsboys might have won a couple more times because they had the spinning drum kit. But we came to this Winter Jam tour with the mindset to work our little tushes off, not only to make a show that is spectacular and extraordinary, but to make it a statement. Not only to minister - that's a big part of it - but also to be fun as heck and full of life. We've got lifts going on, I'm jumping off of things...crazy!

Phillips: It's just fun. I think as you get a little older, all those things that you kind of held onto as securities...the old stone has fallen away now. The people are really seeing our personalities now, not for the first time, but more than ever. People are seeing who we are. I don't care about being rich. I don't care about being famous. I just love doing what I do, and that, Michael, comes through!

Tait: When we do it successfully...

Phillips: Right, obviously you want to do well, but that was never our motivation. I'm probably happier in my skin now today than I've ever been. I think there's a freedom in that that projects forward. I just want to be me, and when you have that freedom I think it's very appealing.

Tait: My dad was a hobo, a guy who would catch a train going 10 miles an hour with a little bag on the back of a stick. I 'hobo'd' at 80 miles an hour! The newsboys still are and always have been the 'A train,' in other words, A-level, always doing the best festivals, amazing shows, and known for their live shows, so I knew that it was no small feat to hop on this train. The first few weeks to a month, it was kind of like trying to ride a bucking bronco. I was like, 'What is going on?' Every night, the lights would go down, I'd be like, 'okay, what am I going to do?' Just consumed...

But all of a sudden, the calm broke and the waters went from crazy rough to smooth. I started gliding just like a sailboat. I'd go on stage with a confidence, not cockiness. I absolutely had a ball. I relaxed, sang to the crowd, watched the little kids' and their parents' faces, and really started to enjoy what I do. To the point that I'm convinced that it's my favorite time ever in my musical career (as far as being with something for awhile). Including dcTalk, including "Hero," to a Santana thing I did for awhile, to Tait solo, it's no mystery that this is the most fulfilling, because I'm the proper frontman of a proper rock band!

I miss Toby and Kevin and flanking them, but as far as being the speaker, the 'tip of the spear' as they call me, and carrying home the momentum for newsboys as a unit and being the mouthpiece...there have been nights when I've walked off the stage and gone to the bus to cool down after the show and I just start bawling! I'm like 'where has this been? I love this!' I just pour my heart out and to see moms crying and think, 'Oh my gosh! I'm gonna lose it in the middle of the show!' It's a blessing. It's gelled incredibly well. It could have easily been a karaoke show: 'Michael sings newsboys songs.' But God took me inside these songs.