Ascend The Hill | Reviving A Generation
ver since our Come&Live! sponsored “Soaking” hour started on Hopecore.com Radio (every Wednesday night at 10pm EST) I have been hooked on Ascend The Hill. There is truth and simplicity and peace woven into their music. And anything good about the music has flowed from the hearts of the guys that make up this band. When we heard they were releasing their Hymns album, we jumped on the opportunity to speak with Joel Davis about the new album, their live performance and what has been weighing on their hearts as of late.
Its so great to see some of these old hymns come back to life in such a unique new way. What made you want to do this?
Joel Davis: This hymns project is something that’s been stirring in my heart for quite a while now. As the worship pastor of my church, Ecclesia Tampa, for over six years I fell in love reworking some of the old hymns to make them a little more approachable for today and really felt like lyrically, and theologically they had so much to teach us about the nature and character of Christ. For Ascend The Hill, the desire to keep these hymns alive from generation to generation played a huge roll in taking on the project, but mostly we all knew the impact they had on our lives, and felt like it was something that more people should have the opportunity to grow with Christ through.
“We basically all came to the table with a handful of hymns that had wrecked our individual lives, put them all together and went from there”How did you go about choosing the hymns?
JD: We all took some time to just read as many hymns as possible; narrowing it down was the hardest part. We basically all came to the table with a handful of hymns that had wrecked our individual lives, put them all together and went from there. It was important to us, to choose some of the less popular hymns that hadn’t already been redone or made popular and couple them with a few that we knew people already loved. We worked very hard at making sure that we preserved the heart of these songs, but asked God to breathe new life into them through us, willing vessels.
We play your tracks a lot on our weekly Soak Hour and people just love it. When you started ATH, did you have a clear vision of what your music would mean to people and the kind of emotion it would evoke?
JD: No I really didn’t. Ascend The Hill came about in such an organic way that I really had no idea what it would ever look like in the end, or just how far our reach would go, or just what God had intended to do through songs that were simply written for our local church and what He was doing in us. When we started, it was just because people were asking me to come, out of relationship, to lead worship for their camps, conferences or worship events and there wasn’t a “band.” Depending on what friends were available I would ask them to come play with me. When God began knitting our hearts together on our first tour in October of 2008 it was becoming very clear that the vision was changing, becoming more clear and these songs were meant for the church across the globe. We are all just blessed an honored to be used in the process. Ascend The Hill is nothing special, we are just willing and available.
Your music is so big and so powerful. Tell us how these songs come about and what your writing process is like at the outset of penning a new record.
JD: Well 90% of the 2009 self-titled release was songs written over the course of about a year and a half for our local church in Tampa. There were a few more we wrote together as we got closer to going into the studio to record but for the most part these songs just came out of spontaneous moments of worship. “Come Like You Promised”, “Return To Us”, “Wind Of God”, all these songs started out as a chorus or anthem in the flow of a worship service and I later went back and added verses or bridges as God led.
The hymns project was a completely different approach. We were taking songs that were written for the church over a century ago and were each so powerful in their own right. It was a matter of “We were taking songs that were written for the church over a century ago and were each so powerful in their own right”everyone bringing their own ideas to the writing sessions and feeling our way through them as a team.
Both writing processes were highly effective, but I don’t think Ascend The Hill will ever have a “formula” for how we write songs. I pray that songs come through intimate times of worship, lyrics in the night when we’re awoke by the Holy Spirit, and through guys who are available and serving the creative call on their lives.
I have yet to see you guys actually in person. What is a typical Ascend The Hill show like?
JD: Real. Raw. Emotional. Engaging. Our desire is that for every time we are given the opportunity to use our gifts, everyone within an ear shot of our music will have the opportunity meet with Jesus in a real and intimate way. The Bible says that if we seek Him, we will find Him…that where two or more people gather in His name, He dwells in the midst of them and we take that very seriously.
Personally, what do you get out of performing this type of music night after night?
JD: You cannot spend every night in the presence of God and not be transformed by the power of His Holy Spirit. We are nowhere near having our act “together.” We’re ordinary dudes just like anyone else on the street. Everyday we have to deny our flesh, take up our cross and follow Christ, as is the call for every believer. But my God does it help to experience genuine, intimate relationship with Jesus every day.
What is one truth that has been weighing on your heart or shaping your life as of lately?
JD: That more than anything we have ever desired on heaven or earth, God desires us. We cannot begin to fathom, or wrap our minds around just how much God desires intimacy and unity with us. He gave his son Jesus to death on cross so that we could experience eternity with Him. He delights in our worship. He pursues you and I. He first loved us! He will receive the glory that is due to His name and the sooner we understand that, the sooner we’ll stop living for selfish gain and ambition. Only Jesus satisfies the hearts of men. 
