High Street Hymns
By Ashley Andrews, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –ABOUT HIGH STREET HYMNS
High Street Hymns began with Anglican College's music ministry at the University of Virginia. It was founded by singer-songwriter Alex Mejias in 2004, and since then, the local songwriting project has become nationally known. HSH find their inspiration in hymns and combine those lyrics with sounds of folk, rock and hip-hop. Following the footsteps of hymn projects such as Indelible Grace and Red Mountain Music, HSH started out as a team of musicians delving into new versions of traditional hymns. But eventually they found their own voice and began recording songs for local congregations. And now, they can be heard in almost every church across the country. They have become a leader in the new hymns movement with their music be played in churches across the US every Sunday morning. Together the HSH team has helped to reclaim the long forgotten songs of the Church by incorporating them into incredibly diverse worship contexts.
For them, worship music is not simply an expression of faith, but it is also a means of spiritual formation and reconciliation. Each album tells the story of brokenness, sacrifice and redemption, and the music invites the listener into the Gospel narrative. Through diverse musical styles, HSH breaks down barriers and brings communities together in worship. In eight years, the team has produced six albums - "Love Lives Again" being their latest release. And recently, they have even had the help of Christian rappers Shad-E and Timothy Brindle. Their heart is simply to share the power of worship and to be a source of encouragement to other music ministries.
BEHIND THE HYMNS
In an interview, the founder and director of HSH, Alex, shared exactly how the group came to be. "High Street Hymns grew out of the writing partnership between me and a band mate of mine named Ross Byrd. Ross and I were the writers and lead singers for another band Portrait of Another, and we also led worship together regularly. We thought it would be great to toss our hats into the hymn renewal ring and began arranging music together. Since then, Ross has moved on and I've taken up the main writing/singing duties. Along the way we've had the help of some incredible musicians and writers."
While the team has gone through changes over the past few years, the purpose of HSH has always stayed the same. As Alex described, "We really want to outfit the church with a catalogue of songs that fit into both contemporary and 'blended' contexts. Our hope is to inject the Christian music industry with as many new worship songs as we can, particularly songs featuring words that are all but lost to the modern day church. There is great value and beauty in much of what has been written by our forebears in the church. We hope to help reclaim and reintroduce their legacy to Christians today."
Now, for the majority of teenagers in this day and age, a hymn might be seen as boring, old-fashioned. But to HSH, hymns represent truth and reality. "A hymn," Alex commented, "is a song that typically follows some type of narrative (sometimes with a refrain) as opposed to a chorus, which is repeated over and over several times. Hymns are using a bit more dense and poetic language to convey their message. What I love about hymns is that there's so much going on in them that you can listen to them over and over again and still find something new that you hadn't noticed before. I also love that they often acknowledge the brokenness and trials we face."
HSH is unique in the way that they use hymns. They take an old hymn and set it to a hip-hop beat or folksy melody. They add lyrics and present them in raps or spoken word. They think outside of the box, taking what most youth might call "lame" lyrics and giving them a 21st century voice. "Our albums," Alex remarked, "feature our own original music and sometimes our new arrangements of traditional melodies."
Ultimately, they see every hymn as an opportunity to reach today's youth. And they have every intention of keeping their music going. As Alex shared, "We hope to be a well known resource for churches looking to incorporate 're-tuned' hymns into their music ministries...We are so excited about what God has in store for us and really love to interact with people who love him and who are using our music. If there's anything we can do better, we really want to know. Hopefully, we will engage our listeners and help to foster a spirit of unity and creativity within the body of Christ."