Listen To The Sound

Christian rock band Building 429's seventh studio album, Listen To The Sound, was released on May 10, 2011 through Provident Music Group and its title track was released as the disc's lead single. The band's guitarist/vocalist Jason Roy is also a pastor at the Grace Community Church in Clarksville, Tennessee. He told us about the song: "'Listen to the Sound' actually was written, as most of the songs on this record were written, out of my small group, literally just kind of walking through daily life with my own people. I was getting ready to write this record, I ran into some people at church who made major, major mistakes in their lives, but people who, on the outside, seem to have everything together.

To be honest, when you're on the road as much as we were, and busy as much as we are, you don't get to really get into the real details of life. You kind of just get by and say, 'God is good. May he bless you and keep you. We'll see you next time.' But as a worship pastor, I'm in the middle of real life with real people every single day. So I got into a place where I was with these people, and their marriage began to fall apart. It was because of some sin issues in their lives. I remember getting really mad as one of the pastors going, 'Now, what's the deal with this? I don't understand why they would do something that dumb.' And my pastor was like, 'Jason, you're not that much different from them. One choice takes you just a degree off the straight and narrow path, and before you know it, you're way off and you have no idea how to get back.' What occurred to me was that he was right, what I had missed was the fact that it's just one decision that leads to another. And so every single day it's a war to hold into this faith that we desperately need."

Parts of the spiritual "Amazing Grace" are integrated into this song. Jason Roy told us why: "What I really was thinking about more than anything else on 'Listen to the Sound' was the fact that all the mistakes that I've made in my lifetime, the beautiful thing was that God, every single time, is always faithful to say, 'This is home. This is hope. This is it. Right here in my arms.' And to me there is no greater hope in the world than 'Amazing Grace,' right? I mean, that's the song that, for the rest of time, will be a song that people rest in when everything falls apart. So it really made sense to tie the two things together and that's why 'Listen to the Sound' was written the way it was."

Regarding why Building 429 named the album after this song, Jason Roy explained: "It's the title track of the record for many reasons. It's a catchy little tune, but it also embodies the thought process of the record in many ways. This record is realistic, yet hopeful, honest, yet fun, and if there was one phrase that we felt brought the most hope in our current lives, it was the title of this song. Why listen to the sound? Because most of us are so busy talking, social networking, and working that we have lost the ability to hear the voice of God. Not because He's not talking, but maybe because we just don't shut up long enough to hear what he has to say. Economic downturns have put our world into a frenzied pace that leaves little time for solitude and listening. But if we could stop for just 15 minutes, slow down and listen, maybe we would be able to hear the voice of God saying, 'my grace is sufficient for you.' Isn't that just the thing we need? All of our hard work and building a better life for the last 20 years brought us to... economic crisis? Aren't we the wealthiest country in the world? Isn't there an American dream out there? It's interesting that even with all of our prosperity we still want more. There's a line in this song that God blessed me with that I think is HUGE. It says: You'll never know what faith is, till you don't understandSometimes it takes the silence to finally hear HIS planSo listen to the sound of Hope that's risingThat's what this record is about."