News From the Boys
From left: newsboys Duncan Phillips, Jeff Frankenstein, Michael Tait and Jody Davis
By Jenny Bennett, contributing writer, gmclife.com
About a year after dcTalk’s Michael Tait began his journey as newsboys’ new frontman, gmc.com caught up with Tait and bandmate Duncan Phillips at a stop on the 2010 Winter Jam tour to see how things are gelling.
How is ‘the new newsboys’ working out these days?
Duncan Phillips: It’s become this thing that is far greater than the sum of its parts. dcTalk and newsboys were these two iconic figures, for want of a better term. And now coming together, they’re more than just one plus one. It’s one plus one equals five! There’s this momentum that started in the summer of last year, and now that we’ve hit Winter Jam – like it was when we first came over – we had times it was Beatle-esque. We had times when people were rushing the tables, and it’s happening all over again!
What are your live shows like today? What can fans expect?
Michael Tait: You can actually physically die in the newsboys! Some of the stunts we do are actually dangerous. CCM used to have the reader’s poll: Best Live Show. Back then it was newsboys and dcTalk. I think newsboys might have won a couple more times because they had the spinning drum kit. But we came to this Winter Jam tour with the mindset to work our little tushes off, not only to make a show that is spectacular and extraordinary, but to make it a statement. Not only to minister – that’s a big part of it – but also to be fun as heck and full of life. We’ve got lifts going on, I’m jumping off of things...crazy!
Phillips: It’s just fun. I think as you get a little older, all those things that you kind of held onto as securities...the old stone has fallen away now. The people are really seeing our personalities now, not for the first time, but more than ever. People are seeing who we are. I don’t care about being rich. I don’t care about being famous. I just love doing what I do, and that, Michael, comes through!
Tait: When we do it successfully...
Phillips: Right, obviously you want to do well, but that was never our motivation. I’m probably happier in my skin now today than I’ve ever been. I think there’s a freedom in that that projects forward. I just want to be me, and when you have that freedom I think it’s very appealing.
