Newsboys spreading the word through God-focused pop music

By Eric Lochridge, Journal staff | Saturday, April 12, 2008

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Paul Colman of the Newsboys is excited to get to Rapid City for the band’s April 14 performance. He once lived in Billings, Mont., and drove here with a friend just to hang out.

“It’s lovely. I love that part of the country,” he said last week from Pittsburgh on the third leg of the Newsboys’ “Go” tour.

The band has been touring since releasing “Go,” its first pop record in four years, in 2006.

A well-known Australian singer-songwriter, Colman had worked with the band for more than a decade before officially joining in the fall of 2005.

“I’m sort of the new old guy,” he said. “I’ve traveled with them a lot.”

Even on the third leg of a long tour, Colman, who plays guitar for the Newsboys, said he’s not tired of it yet.

 “That’s the difference between when you’re just doing a job and when you’re traveling with your mates,” he said.

Life in the music business has taught him what the boredom of touring life can do to people.

“I’ve been playing music since I was 11. I can fully understand why people get into recreational drugs and recreational relationships,” Colman said.

The Newsboys strive for a different focus, though.  

“Every day is not too much about the show. It’s about the people, and it’s about God,” he said.

The band’s focus on God has infused its music throughout 14 albums over the past two decades. That commitment to the message of God is still a mainstay for the Newsboys, but Colman names three other elements that have contributed to the band’s success.

First, he said, are great songs — “the currency of the music industry.” Second, the band has always had a “killer live show, as good as anything out there.” And third, the band has a keen business acumen.

“They’re real good at keeping money flowing in,” Colman said. That ensures that 16 to 20 people on the band’s payroll get paid each month, and it keeps experienced engineers and technical staff on board.

Above all that, Colman acknowledges God’s influence, saying he believes the Newsboys was “God’s idea, something God wanted to do.”

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as secular and sacred. You either spend your life with God or without. If you spend your life with God, everything is sacred,” he said.

With their reputation preceding them around the world, the Newsboys seem poised to follow other Christian artists into the mainstream of the music world.

They have opened for performers such as John Fogerty, James Brown and Styx, and continue to build a wider audience.

But Colman said the band simply plays wherever it can. “We believe God will put us in front of the people he wants us in front of.”

The Newsboys have played for muslim audiences in Morocco, a New Age festival in Israel and even a show in China. Lead singer Peter Furler has talked openly about his Christian faith in all of those places.

“Rather than think crossover or not crossover, it’s just one of the bands that can play anywhere in the world,” he said. “There’s not many bands that can do that. I think all of us are pretty amazed at that.”

If you go

What: The Newsboys in concert, featuring Article One, Newworldson and Rush of Fools

When: 7 p.m. Monday, April 14

Where: Rushmore Plaza Civic Center arena

Tickets: $12.50 to $47.50, available at the civic center box office, The Silverado in Deadwood, by phone at 394-4111 or 1-800-GOT-MINE, or online at www.gotmine.com.

Contact Eric Lochridge at 394-8321 or eric.lochridge@rapidcityjournal.com.