FRONTLINE

Beyond the stage, and after the show, is where you can find the true

heartbeat of Frontline. Being known for "The show that shakes your hand",

each service, concert and event is founded around one thing, people.

"In order to affect people you have to be relatable". Frontline is a

culturally diverse group, spanning from the Islands of Samoa to the hills

of Ireland. With a rich blend of not only culture but creativity as well.

Frontline was founded and established in 1987, as the worship team for

Master's Commission USA, under the direction of Pastor Lloyd Zeigler and

has grown into a life changing movement. "Worship is more than something

we do, it's a lifestyle." Since Frontline first started in '87 they have

released nine albums and are currently recording their newest 2disc album

entitled 'The Combination' set to release February 2007. The Combination

is more than just another worship cd, but a tool to help people build

their lives not only in the church but outside of the church as well, by

giving them the right 'combination' of worship and outreach.

Frontline takes their worship into churches all over the nation. Besides

leading worship every Sunday in their home church of Phoenix First

Assembly,

Frontline also leads worship for Pastor Barnett's annual Pastors and

Leadership Conference, as well as Pastor Lloyd Zeigler's Master's

Commission International Conference. Frontline also sends worship teams

out to various churches every Sunday to help out local churches that lack

or want to take their worship to the next level. Frontline also developed

the Music Institute at Master's Commission USA in Phoenix, where they

instill the motto, "Don't let your talent take you where your character

can't keep you".

A vital ingredient to Frontline's worship is their heart for outreach and

discipleship. Not only does Frontline tour around the nation at various

churches and venues but they also have developed outreaches in the

inner-city neighborhoods by filling various needs of the community through

different outreaches such as Junction, snap shot, and adopt-a-block.

"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care".

The other part of this ingredient is discipleship. Discipleship is one on

one time with people, coaching them, teaching them, and pouring into them.

Being apart of Master's Commission USA, Frontline takes every opportunity

to pour into the lives inside of the students that come each year. "If God

is bigger than us, and he lives inside us, we have no choice but to let

him shine through us".

THE KATINAS

In a music industry cluttered with throw away pop that gets forgotten in

mere nanoseconds, rare indeed are artists who go against the grain and

stand for music that has lasting value.

And the Katinas are as rare as they come.

With a lifetime of making music as a tight-knit family, this quintet of

brothers - without question the premier vocal group in Christian music -

have taken the road less traveled with the aptly named Timeless, a

carefully chosen collection of classic Christian songs that have informed

and inspired them, all updated with modern arrangements and the Katinas'

singularly unique melodic and vocal style.

But Timeless - which includes tracks penned by the likes of Amy Grant,

Michael W. Smith, Andrae Crouch, Keith Green, and Randy Stonehill (who

wrote the first single, "Shut De Do") - is way more than a tribute to the

pioneers of Christian music. For the Katinas, it's a musical timeline that

literally traces their faith journeys as individuals, as brothers, and as

a band.

"We grew up listening to these artists," says James. "We lived in American

Samoa, 2,000 miles south of Hawaii, so the only way we could keep up with

what was happening in Christian music at that time was through the

cassettes and records our cousins mailed us from the states. That's how we

discovered these songs; they're the reason for our love of music."

Choosing the tunes wasn't a walk in the park, though. One might assume

that a final lineup with the likes of Green's "Your Love Broke Through"

and Crouch's "My Tribute" was easily attained, but the fellas started with

more than 100 songs in the hopper. "There are so many great ones in

Christian music," Joe notes. "We'd have five to 10 meetings on just one

song choice."

"It was a long process, but it was worth it," James adds. "We're excited -

we feel that the Christian music lover and audience is ready for a record

like this."

And with production handled and overseen by longtime studio vet Brown

Bannister, the Katinas assured themselves that Timeless would contain a

voice and vision that not only spans the decades but also is filled with

power and uncanny consistency despite the disparate material.

"He's probably the most decorated producer in our industry;" says John.

"We have experience under our belts too, but what Brown brings to the

table in terms of stability and wisdom is priceless. This is the best work

we've done so far, and Brown is a big reason why - he's great at making

sense out of everything and pulling out the best performances from each of

us. And when you have five brothers in a band, often with five different

ideas, you need someone to be a sounding board - and Brown was the guy."

"When we put our stamps on these songs, the credit goes to Brown and

[coproducer] Dan Needham for keeping the reigns on and still encouraging

our creativity," says James. "The result is exactly what we wanted to

accomplish - our best record with our most cohesive sound."

In keeping with the Katinas road-less-traveled outlook, one of the first

tunes they chose for Timeless isn't actually part of the Christian music

canon - "Living Years" by Mike & The Mechanics.

"It's not a blatant Christian song," Joe says. "But it was the first or

second one picked - when we decided on the concept for this album, 'Living

Years' was an immediate choice." With its well-known lyrical plea for

people at odds with each other - especially family members - to forgive

and patch up differences before death comes, "Living Years" addresses

age-old issues that the Katinas have observed not only in their fans'

lives but also in their own.

"As we travel, we're seeing the hurt and pain in peoples' lives that stem

from family relationships," Joe continues. "And as we get older, we find

ourselves going to more funerals and hearing about more deaths, so we just

couldn't do this record without addressing this issue." But "Living Years"

speaks even more loudly to the Katinas' relationship with their dad.

"Our dad was a strict disciplinarian when we were growing up; it was a

relationship born out of fear," Joe notes. "And when our mom died in 1988,

there was a huge vacuum between us and our dad. We know that he has

regrets, but we also know he did the best he could. In 1993 restoration

and healing began - but it's still not always the easiest thing.

"So it taught all of us - because we're all husbands now - that we need to

keep communication open between us and our loved ones as much as we can.

We never had that growing up, so we want to make sure our kids and our

wives get it from us. Like the song says, 'Say it loud, say it clear,' and

do it while you're alive. It's a message we hope that future generations

will continue to carry."

Another tune not found in the canon of classic Christian music (because

it's a brand new tune the Katinas wrote with coproducer Dan Needham toward

the end of the recording process) is "Lifetime."

"We were wanting a more up-tempo track," Jesse explains, "and we also felt

like we needed to say something from our own hearts as a response to all

these great songs, and 'Lifetime' really reflects the album's concept of

spiritual longevity and deep purpose."

And even as the band traced their spiritual journeys during the final song

selection process, the experience of recording the tracks showed took

things to even deeper levels of realization and breakthrough.

"We first heard many of these songs when we were really young," says

youngest brother Jesse, who sings lead along with John. "When you're

younger, you get a sense of the melody, but you don't pay as much

attention to the lyrics because you're not at a place in your life where

you can relate to them as well. So it wasn't until we actually got into

the studio to work on our own versions that we really appreciated what the

songs were saying lyrically.

For instance, Amy Grant's 'Arms of Love' was really familiar to all of us,

but it wasn't until I dove into the lyrics and tried to wring the emotion

out of the words and the vocals that I fully appreciated the song. And

when you read the lyrics for these songs back to back to back, you

understand how powerful they still are."

Joe couldn't agree more: "When you're a kid, the world is awesome. But

then you grow up, you go through things, and you can get jaded about life.

So recording these songs reminded us how we used to look at life and

music, about how much fun it can be, and the love we've shared-but I'm

mostly reminded of God's love.

"Through all the good and bad things we've experienced, the challenges,

God's love brought us through every single thing."

Salvador

To explain the band Salvador’s longevity of seven years in an industry 

where bands fail more often than they succeed, one needs to look no

further than their latest album Dismiss the Mystery due out in the summer

2006. A collection of well-rounded pop songs in the realm of Contemporary

Christian yet with the scope of daring ambitious creativity, Dismiss the

Mystery is more reminiscent of an era when albums were created more

organically rather than songs strung together to make a product.

“When I was writing the songs for the record, I wanted all of the songs to

feel as if it were one collective thought, and that thought being the

ability to give the love of Christ to people without insulting their

intelligence,” Nic Gonzales, Salvador lead singer and founder, said. “I

wanted to show the public and myself that a lyric can be very powerful and

useful.”

Salvador’s sixth studio album marks a seminal point in the band’s history

where it is evident in their work that they are no longer fresh faced boys

off the streets of Austin, Texas, but rather proven young men of

experience who have developed a savvy style of musicianship that is both

equally avant garde and marketable at the same time.

“With each album we have the opportunity to change our sound, but each

time, and especially this time, we chose not to. Along the same lines,

however, we didn’t exactly want to be at the same level as before. I think

it was in our best interest to step up the level of excellence in order to

continue to do what we do best, but also have the ability to bring

something unique to the table,” Gonzales said.

The ability to be familiar yet different at the same time is apparent in

Salvador’s first single from Dismiss the Mystery entitled, “Shine.”

“We distinctly chose to do a song like that in order to put our stamp on

it, which I hope transforms the song into something that is from the heart

and was labored over with great care.”

Growth

Over the past seven years in which Salvador has toured throughout the

country and at times outside of it, a fan base began to rapidly grow.

According to the members of the group, no matter how huge the fan base

gets, they are still surprised and grateful to be a part of that

environment, and even more surprising to them is that their fans keep

coming and supporting.

Not only has growth been among the fans, but also within the group as

well. Adding to the existing members of Nic Gonzales (lead vocals and

guitar), his cousin Josh Gonzales (bass and background vocals), Chris

Bevins (co-producer and keyboards), and Jared Solis (trombone and

saxophone), the band completes its family with brass man Edwin Santiago

(trumpet and flugelhorn), drummer Ben Cordonero and percussionist Robert

Vilera. Nic Gonzales calls the three men Salvador’s “valuable

acquisitions.” Cordonero, a Nicaraguan from Miami, not only plays the

drums but also traditional Latin percussion such as congas, timbales and

bongos. Santiago is a Boricua – of Puerto Rican decent -who brings not

only amazing talent but an unending work ethic as well. And Vilera, an

established session player who’s worked with Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan

and Celia Cruz (to name a few) also brings more of the sonido Latina to

the music and, ultimately, their fan base.

Freedom

Dismiss the Mystery is, like the band itself, a self-made and contained

endeavor. Along with Nic Gonzales as producer, who co-produced Salvador’s

last record, the band’s keyboardist Chris Bevins stepped in for this album

as co-producer. Although having a band produce their own work may be a

risk for some record labels, the worth in taking that risk is not lost on

Salvador’s own members as attested to by the band’s bass player and

co-founder Joshua Gonzales.

“I really haven’t experienced the chance to flow and create as I was able

to on our very first record, and like all things, you expect everything to

be like it was the first time,” Joshua Gonzales said. “Being in the

business as long as we have, you begin to realize that time is money and

songs sometimes have to be recorded as quickly as possible, so I’m used to

being kind of locked down on my playing and creativity in the studio.

However, this time around, because our producers were Nic and Chris, my

cousin and band mate respectively, as well as friends, there was a level

of trust from producer to musician and I was encouraged to just let the

creativity flow.” 

What also helped out in developing their sound, according to the members

of the group, was being able to record the album in their hometown of

Austin. To a further degree of inspiration, the majority of the album was

tracked at Willie Nelson’s studio, a personal favorite artist of Nic

Gonzales. To bring it all together as a family affair, a huge part of the

album was also developed and recorded at Nic Gonzales’ studio at his home

church, King of Glory, where his parents pastor.

Set Apart

What is it that sets this record apart from other Christian albums and

even Salvador’s previous ones? Three words: horns and percussion.

According to the producers of Dismiss the Mystery, there is a greater

reliance on horns and percussion to take an already existing tapestry of

excellent vocals, rhythm and strings, to a higher level of excellence

creating nuances and gravitas that exudes a timeless capability.

Along with Bevins, who shared horn arranging credits, the band’s

trombonist and saxophonist for the past three years, Jared Solis, was also

instrumental in arranging the horn lines for this record. “The process was

very creative and true to Edwin and Jared’s artistic expressions of what

they wanted to play,” Bevins said. “Jared would come into the studio from

a long night of developing ideas, and it was just really fun to let an

idea grow like a classical composition where the hallmark of it is a

certain theme and variations are construed upon it throughout.”

Another factor to the success of Dismiss the Mystery, according to Nic, is

the skill and creativity of Vilera’s percussion work. “Robert is a very

creative percussionist who doesn’t settle for the standard way of

playing,” N. Gonzales said. “He did something really interesting where he

would insist on recording all the congas first on every song leaving space

for the bongos which he would record next and then the timbales. In

essence he was creating an interaction with his own playing that turned

into a musical conversation. It was a remarkable thing to witness.”

Inspiration

Inspiration for the album stems from the group’s usual proclivity as to

what good music should and shouldn’t sound like. The horn lines in songs

such as “Can’t Find the Reason” feel organically integrated into the song

as if it could not exist without it. Songs like the sole all-Spanish

track, “Te Enaltezco,” bring a refined tranquility to the ear that is

aesthetically pleasing without being overbearing.

Regarding the future of Salvador’s ability to keep creating in the face of

growth, change and an unstable marketplace, one thing is for certain:

after seven years of hard work culminating with Dismiss the Mystery, it is

impossible to dismiss their undeniable musicianship, and the only mystery

left at this point is what can they possibly do next to top it.