Phil
Joel Biography
Watching Over You
Most albums take a matter of months to complete, at most a year or
two. But for Phil Joel - best known as a member of the formidable pop
band, Newsboys - Watching Over You
has been 27 years in the making. The ideas and emotions contained in
it are retrospective of Phil's life up to the present. The result is
a solo album in the truest sense of the word because it's a story only
Phil could tell.
Produced by his bandmate Peter Furler for inpop,
Watching Over You is a testament to one grown-up kid's journey to self-discovery,
toward understanding that the steps of a good man are, indeed, ordered
by the Lord.
Adopted at birth, Phil grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and was brought
up in a Christian home. Although he made a commitment to Christ at the
early age of eight, he still struggled with his identity. At the age
of 13, he came to an amazingly mature decision: "I decided for
myself that it was okay that I didn't exactly fit, and I determined
that I would become the person I was meant to be, regardless."
As providence would have it, around that same time, Phil discovered
an integral part of his missing piece. "When I picked up a guitar,"
he says, "it felt like a third arm, it was just such a natural
extension of me. And for the first time ever, I realized that there
were things out there that would fit me."
Like teens the world over, Phil struggled with image in his teenage
years, but he found strength in God's promises, in the companionship
of Christian friends and in music. When given the ultimatum, "Do
your homework or get a job", He chose the latter and left school
to become a hairdresser. At the same time, He spent every spare moment
in his "off-time" as lead singer and guitarist in his band
Drinkwater. Five years later, after being offered a position with Newsboys,
Phil found himself in Nashville - his long lost home away from home.
Knee deep in the music business, Phil met Heather, the girl of his dreams,
in Kansas and married her a year later. All these experiences sharpened
and matured him, but the questions he's always wrestled with, about
himself and his place in life persisted.
The past two years, however, have been a revelation. Having learned
more about his biological parents-his birth father is a London musician;
his mother, a wigmaker from Perth, Australia-Phil had the opportunity
to meet his birth mother. The reality, as you can only imagine, could
never have matched the high expectation. But some major pieces of his
life-puzzle came together during their visit. "For the first time
in my entire 27 years," he says, "I realized that I had not
become the person I am because of nature or nurture. While those things
have their place, I realized that I had become who I am because of the
commitment I made to Christ when I was eight and the continuing commitments
I have made to God, to myself and to others in my life up to now."
It's easy to forget, he says "that the steps of a good man are
ordered by the Lord. Not that I'm trying to say that I'm a good man,
but my commitment to Christ has always been central.
Or to put it in the words of American essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared
to what lies within us." Such a revolutionary lesson is worth repeating.
Which
brings us back to the present. The point to all of this is that Phil
Joel's Watching Over You is not your typical first solo effort. This
is about as autobiographical as an album can get, with lyrics that speak
directly to the questions most young people, especially most Christian
youth, spend years asking. Questions about self-image and purpose, about
love and devotion, about God. About the fragility of life. "Some
of these songs," Phil says, "I started writing five or six
years ago, but I was only able to finish them in the past year or two.
Everything here is something I've been through and wrestled with. It's
the good, the bad and the ugly. And it's like therapy. It's been good
for me. I needed it. You have to go back before you can go forward."
From the awkwardness of youth in "Strangely Normal" to pain
of seeing his boyhood friends lose their faith in "My Generation"
to the life-changing experience of "El Salvador" - all of
these things continue to shape him into the man God meant him to be.
"I've become who I am and am becoming who I am because of my relationship
with Christ, not necessarily because of my parents or my genetic makeup.
God will take care of your life, but you've got to be open to Him. You
can't force His hand, anymore than you can force an ending. That's why
we call this record Watching Over You. God is watching over us in everything.
Just looking back now at 27 years and seeing how the road was up and
down, here and there, and more than a little bumpy, but still His hand
was on my life the whole time. It's amazing."
Phil has high hopes for this album, and we're not talking about sales
or radio charts. He simply hopes his life story will resonate with his
generation. "Its like that whole diamond in the dirt sort of thing,"
he says. "You've got to dig to discover the truth. And I think
kids are way more like that than we imagine. We think they need to be
told exactly how to think and what to think, but if you can express
something through your personal experience then that is 100 times more
powerful. That's how I like to learn, and that's how I think most kids
learn today. Watching Over You is what I've felt and how God has carried
me from point A to point H. I'm nowhere near point Z. I am 100% called
and passionately excited about doing this because I feel I really have
something to say to my generation."
Musically, you can expect the same innovative, modern pop Phil has
contributed to in his work with the Newsboys-with whom he'll continue
to work - but with a different edge to it. And although it's somewhat
subjective, there is a certain vulnerability that courses underneath
the lyrics here. It's not as polished as one might think, not as predictable
as one might imagine. It's real, but it's good. It's what it's supposed
to be.
Come to think of it, that's life.
