GBB Podcast: The Music Episode

Hey, welcome back to the God Behind Bars podcast. I'm Jake Bodine. I'm excited about this one because specifically, this is me getting to interview not only a friend, but a team member, talk about an exciting new project that we've been working on over the last year. I got Matt New from God Behind Bars Music with us and we're just gonna have a conversation, share some exciting news with you all. The story of how God Behind Bars Music came about and what the plans are for it. So Matt, thanks for being here, man. Excited to be here, dude. Yeah, well, let's get started. I know that our journey began probably close to two years ago when we started doing our live events inside of prisons and we brought you in as a worship artist to lead at those events and it's kind of just grown from there. What's God done in your heart over the last two years? Yeah, I mean, before that, I didn't have prison even on my radar. I didn't think that I was gonna end up in prison leading worship or any of that and Isaac, good buddy of ours, invited me out to lead worship at an event and I was like, hey man, I'm in. And I've been on pretty big stages in my life and have somewhat chased the thing that a lot of us chase and stepped into a prison in Florida

and I'll never forget just immediately being hit with the real raw presence of God. Some of the things that God did in my heart at that prison, I'll never forget, like it just marked me. I came back and I didn't know how to, honestly, I didn't know how to work through my emotions. While I was there, I was just taking it all in. I was seeing these inmates on fire for the Lord. I saw inmates break over time through that service and that event. I experienced just the presence and grace of God in a place that could feel really, really dark, like I'd never experienced before. And I honestly got back and my wife was like, how was it? We sat, I'll never forget, we sat down for dinner. We went to a Thai restaurant. This is how vivid this is. We went to a Thai restaurant. I'm sitting there next to my son, my wife and my other son and they're waiting for the story and I look up at my wife and I just start crying. And I was like, I'll be right back. I went to the bathroom and just let out a deep soul cry. And that started this journey of God doing this deep work in my heart of, again, I've led in churches. I tried to do the whole artist thing. I've chased so many things in my life. And this took me back to when I was 15, 16 years old and all I wanted to do was just worship Jesus. All I wanted to do was be in a room full of people

who love him and lift and glorify his name. And I've been a part of those, but there's something about prison and you guys have experienced this. What do you think that emotion is tied to? I think for me personally, I always say this, when I walk into a prison, men and women's prisons are different for me and I get different types of emotions from both, but I have to just check myself because I'll just like cry the whole time. Men's prison, I see myself in them. Like I'll never get over that. I'll talk to an inmate sometimes and I'm just like, you know why? Because you matter. And we're all one decision away. Like we're all broken. And I see myself in them and I see them as young boys. I see that their life most likely stopped when the trauma started. And for a lot of them, that's seven, eight, even younger, nine, 10 years old. And there's just an immediate love and grace. I can only explain it as supernatural in me that just automatically just overflows with love for these men. So it's the emotion of love and grace and forgiveness and just wanting to just like embrace these guys. And it's the emotion of just deep brokenness.

I think Jesus weeps at how broken prison is and how broken maybe even our system is. And so all of that floods in. Now a women's prison, not to like belabor this question, but a women's prison is different. And this is really odd to say, but it's that same emotion, but I see my wife. Like I see these women and I'm immediately filled with just this heaviness of this is a female child, a daughter of God who most likely has been wronged or had to fight for something or was never told that she was loved or never told that she was cherished. And so she found that in something else or in somebody else and she ended up there in that prison, in that situation. And so it's a different kind of emotion, but overall I just, why I keep coming back to is when you experience the life change that we get to experience. Experience in prison. I don't know. I Don't know another place that's like it. Yeah, it's my favorite thing, which we've gotten to experience quite a bit of those especially With different revival events. Yeah, where we've taken guy behind bars music live inside of these institutions and done these big yard events and I'd say that the one that really kind of sparked the Official idea of God behind bars music was our event at San Quentin and when we watched literally an entire yard of Incarcerated men Flood forward to our stage literally all day. I think we started at 8 o'clock 9 o'clock in the morning Yeah, I didn't wrap up until about 9 o'clock at night

And it was just a day full of worship us getting to bring messages of hope from different speakers you led One of the most famous songs that ever has ever been written called goodness of God and To watch the way that those men inside of that facility embraced Not only the day but that song specifically I think that's where God's kind of started stirring in all of our hearts like hey There's something bigger here that we can do Why don't you talk a little bit about that day and just even getting to lead that song through? The those lyrics what they actually mean and then when we watched men come forward to get baptized as we're Singing that song. Yeah, that meant. Yeah, I think I remember even at that event. It was probably you I think the evening was just and I don't think it could have been a more perfect evening even down to the weather So God's grace on that event was incredible two stories that stick out and I'll be really brief with these stories one I watched a guy All day Sweat on the front row every song we would sing just intense just hands raised Singing to God and and just in it and present and I'll never forget that guy's face another one was Another group that we had brought out. They were leading worship one voice and I was standing on the side and it was one of the first times that I had witnessed No divide racially in a moment Two guys come up one guy has another guy once a Hispanic another black guy and this guy says hey The Hispanic guy was crying and He said hey, he needs help. He needs prayer and I looked at him and I said, what's what's going on in your heart? And he was like, I don't know what this is, but I need it and I said well man what do you what do you know about Jesus like what is when I say that name like what comes to mind and he was Like I mean, I've heard stories when I was growing up I don't really know him, but I feel lost and I was like, well tell me about that lost feeling Like, how do you feel? He's like, I honestly I want to end it all I'm new here. I feel really lost I feel hopeless. I just I know that I need this and I just I shared the gospel. So

every word that I it was one of the first times in my life that sharing the gospel every word just landed and That his soul was so receptive like we didn't have to we'd have to do backflips I didn't have to sell him or persuade him. It was hey, man. Here's who Jesus is. Here's who you are Here's why you feel the way you feel Gives this life to the Lord and then I'm just like on cloud nine and we go through the rest of the day and then that night we're singing goodness of God and It is top three worship songs for me It's if you know of like a dark night of the soul song that is my dark night of the soul when I've gone through my own Darkness, it's the thing that got me through and so leading that song in that environment and then seeing him get baptized That night was I honestly again. I don't know how I made it through that song emotionally And then after that what was really awesome was we were tearing down I don't remember this but we were tearing down and He comes running across the field with one of which you're not supposed to run But he's running across the field one of his friends and he's like he wants to get baptized He wants he wants this and it was like it's such a it's such a picture of the gospel It's all of that wrapped up Brokenness dead to life now commissioned and bringing one of his friends home with him Like I don't I honestly don't understand how it gets better than that So that day all around was special there were so many moments so so many incredible moments But which honestly like I I was just having this conversation With Isaac in fact about how when we're doing these live worship events like you get to almost see Every depiction and story of the Bible like the lame man that's lowered through the room To to the center of the room just so that Jesus would heal him The lady that reached out and just touched Jesus's garment based out of pure hope That she too would be healed all the way to like Zacchaeus, where I've watched guys that just want to hear the message

of hope and be a part of what God is doing in the center of that environment, like literally climb bleachers or stand on an object in order to have a better view. Guys that are literally paralyzed or in wheelchairs, like trying to wheel their way through the crowd just to get closer to what God is doing at the center of all that. And I think that's the coolest part. That's really cool. Yeah. I've thought about that often too. One of the stories I think about when I go to a women's prison is Jesus drawing in the sin. Any of you without sin cast the first stone and bringing in, I don't know if this is one of your favorite things, but one of my favorite things is like bringing guests in and what's it going to be like? Like what's prison like? They have all these like theories of what they've seen in movies and you bring them in. We just did this. We got to bring in a really good friend of ours and he just was a mess. Like he just, he got, when he left, he texted me. He was like, that was life changing. I don't know. I'll never forget this. Well, I think there's like two things that go on there. One is you realize that these people are just people. There's no difference between you, I, maybe our life circumstances look different. Maybe our upbringings look different. Our socioeconomic status may have been different, but at the end of the day, like you peel back all of that and they're just people. Then two is like you said, like many of them you can see yourself in and that I think most importantly I see myself in and they challenge me in their faith, in their belief, in their

hope, in their worship. I think it's so easy as a believer to find yourself on Sunday morning, uh, holding your latte in a group of other believers and where this, this has just become routine. Like every time I'm inside of a prison worshiping alongside of these men and women, it is fully abandoned, heart surrendered, everything I have, all I have to give literally in a moment of worship. And it challenges me. Like for instance, this guy, uh, at Angola, uh, just got denied parole and he's one of the, uh, probably the most looked up to spiritual leaders inside of that facility. And his heart was maybe there's the blessing in the waiting, like it would be so easy to become defeated, right? His kids have grown up there, uh, now adults he's missed out on major milestones. Like, Hey God, I've done everything I possibly could do to be different, uh, to live different, to model different. And yet I'm still not granted my freedom. It'd be easy to get bitter. It'd be easy to get angry, but his heart was the blessing is in the waiting. And I'm going to keep that at the forefront of my mind. The hope that God is going to bring a blessing. He's going to bring, I'm here for a reason. Maybe it's one more. In fact, he said that one more. Maybe it's one more, uh, that he needs to, to lead to Christ before he, uh, gets granted his freedom. But either way, he was content and fully trusting that God had his plan and his will, uh, for his life. And so like just those moments is what challenges me every single day, because it's so easy to be like, why, why this, why that look at what I do, look at that. But that's a heart posture and his heart posture was, was pure, it was genuine, it was right. And those are the things that I take away when I'm inside.

Yeah. I leave in my, like that increases your faith. I leave in my faith is increased. Um, and, and another thing too, like what y'all built when I first started coming in being new, there was something so relieving about being a part of something that my name wasn't attached to. If you walk into prison with an ego, it, it's going to get sniffed out pretty quick. Right. And it just doesn't survive. Like it, it doesn't have the oxygen to breathe. It's nothing to bounce your ego off of, or you're, you're with inmates, you're with the, and you're broken yourself. Yeah. That was one thing that I just, I loved. And even stepping into the music side of this is, man, I can't imagine anything better to attach myself to and uplift. It's not Matt News music, right? It's not Matt knew the artist. It's how can I contribute to this thing? That's a collective that's for these people. I honestly, I can't think of a, of a better group of people. I love, again, just to wrap that side of it up. I just, I love being in the room with these guys because my view of them before I went was I'm going to. come across these hard, you know, bucked up dudes that are, man, the first thing you notice when you walk in, man, thanks for being here. Yeah. I can't believe you'd come. Where are you from? Oh my gosh. Everything is just so real. Gratitude is real. Forgiveness is real. Unity is real. Surrender is real. Everything is flipped upside down. You know, I can go on and on about this, but like surrender in a prison, surrender in prison outside of faith is weakness, right? It's vulnerability. You don't, you're not, you're not supposed to be vulnerable in prison,

but when Jesus steps on the yard, when Jesus steps in the room, I can get emotional talking about it. It just, it breaks those walls. All of that breaks down. Yeah. No, I agree. And honestly, going back to that San Quentin event, I think that us walking away from that and hearing the way that some of those songs were saying, and in the context in which we were sitting, we all came away from that as, man, maybe we could use music as a tool. Yeah. Like a tool for many, many different groups, but specifically one, this group of people, like why not write worship music that is from their worldview, their perspective, things that we are inspired by through the conversations that we've had with each and every one of these individuals as we walk these yards. But two is like also give them a voice to the world. Like some of the conversations that I've had is with guys, especially the ones that are doing life is like, man, I will never have the opportunity to leave my mark on the world. And I think that what really fired me up through all of our team's discussions was, Hey, this is an opportunity for them to all contribute collectively to having their mark on the world. Like let's bring their voice, their worship to the world. And so that's really where God Behind Bars Music came about two years ago was we want to write music that's for the incarcerated, inspired by the incarcerated, and then echoing their voice to the world. And so over the course of the last year or so, as we've embarked on that journey, why don't you just explain what that's looked like, uh, how we've gotten here, the heart behind it, and then hopefully what's, what's to come. Yeah. Um, and just to touch on that, when we were, when we were first starting and I was even thinking through, like, you know, if I'm going to step into something, what's the why, right? Like what, why are we doing this? And, um, and just to brag on this organization briefly, um, not once have I felt like we're doing this or we're stepping into the music space to prove anything. Like we're not, we're not trying to become the next big thing. Like that's not, that's a, that's a waste of our time. And it, that'd be a real big waste of my time. Um, and I, I've just been so enamored and excited that that's not what we're after. What we're after is you and I have had so many conversations where we might start veering off because of Nashville or the thing or, or whatever, but we always come back to the center of, no, no, no, no. This is about inmates. This is about what God is doing in prison. And coming back to that center has just, it's, it's kept me going. And I know I can, there's so many things that the enemy is just trying to just like trip us up and disunify us and all these things. But, um,

what's happening, I, I am a firm believer. I've said this a lot just personally. I am a firm believer that through what God is doing in prison, what God is doing in prisons will have implications on the church in the West and globally. And it is just like the Lord to use the least of these to do it. It's woven throughout scripture. Um, that excites me. And when you attach music to that, the creative art, the, the ability to put songs and melody to the stories that we're witnessing in the life change that is in the revival that's happening in prison, uh, that's what we're after. And I think in the beginning, as we were trying to, you know, we started this, uh, over a few months ago now. And I think at the beginning we were getting our footing and we were trying to figure out like, how do we do this? Who do we need to get connected with? We found ourselves in a lot of writing rooms that were all incredible meeting all these incredible people. What we, what we realized was a little bit sideways was not the people we were meeting with because they were all incredible and we were falling in love with these guys. It was where we were writing the songs, right? Yeah. And so we got all these songs. I think we got, I think we had like close to 20. Yeah. We have, we were like, these are all great, but I don't think that we're, we've, we've found it yet. Yeah. We, it was just that little bit of like tension that just like lives in your heart, which I'm learning to pay attention to of like, they haven't, in fact, it was more, I think that we realized the writers that we were writing with had not experienced what you and I had experienced. Yeah. We're having this conversation. with them and they're like okay we've got three hours so let's like get a song in and not they're not being facetious it's just like that was the reality and so I don't remember who had the idea I'm just gonna say we all collectively were like okay what if we took the writers that we love and that we're building these relationships with and took them into prison and we tried to write songs in prison yeah where we would spend a day they would get to experience that the same things that you and I get to experience yeah that they would get to have real conversations with hundreds of people hear their heart yeah their view of God view of the world how they feel God views them how they feel the world views them and then we we spent an entire day just doing that in fact a roundtable that turned more into ministry than anything which I absolutely loved but before we ever even got to writing songs it was like experience the

heart of these people yeah experience the heart of this place I think that often prison is is thought of as a dark dark place yeah but there is and it can be but there are people in there that are the light yeah and it's the people that live there it's the people that are housed there that are being the light inside of this dark place every single day and we were like that's that's what we need you to experience because we will never be able to write the right worship song until you experience it yeah it's it really was it was a that day was a day of inspiration I mean I'll never forget sitting in that round group and the ministry that happened there and listening to these guys and asking questions like what's the song you need what was the song that got you through what was the you know and you just we think that we know those songs right we were writing songs and going oh we think it's this one and I think this one will do well no when you're in that situation and asking the subject partly the subject of what you're writing and who you're being inspired from which is an inmate then you get fully inspired to write the song that you need to write yes and these all these writers that we took in they're just incredible guys who the thing going into it was like hey this is gonna be grungy this is gonna be unlike anything you've ever done before treat this like a mission trip yeah if you just if you go in ready to work ready to receive ready to be inspired I promise you songs will come and they all stepped in and still to this day I mean they all left not to go too far forward but they all left and we're like my mind is blown I've never been a part of something like that before this restored so much in me gosh now there the whole time we were there their wheels were spinning well like this and just to bring some context to this this is some of the greatest artists and writers in the entire world like music that we've heard on pretty much every one of our platforms over the last two three decades yeah some of these men and and women have written and so to have their mind be blown on something brand new that's to them is actually pretty awe-inspiring yeah guys that I've looked up to and guys that have been again they've written some of the biggest most successful worship songs ever and again

just as a worship artist like somebody that I've looked up to people guys that I've looked up to for a long time and just just to all be in that space together going on death row mm-hmm like walking through death row getting to see our brother and the story that we shared I don't know if we want to share that now but getting to see getting to experience that again going now I feel like we have to oh gosh we have to share this I mean if you if this if you don't believe that miracles are still happening well we'll leave the the details out of it just for the safety and security of other people but we had an individual who we had met during one of our walks down a death row that had been given his execution date and he was he had a pretty heavy heart over it and we were able to spend the day with these individuals singing worshiping sharing the gospel sharing the hope of Jesus talking about how this life is is just a puff of smoke to the rest of our eternal life and during that time at the end of it we had given an opportunity for those that wanted to make Jesus the leader and forgiver of their life to do so and this individual did and we had had a conversation previous with him as at his cell and I don't believe obviously I don't think he was a believer at all up until this point and we just had a really open and honest conversation just kind of the things that he was feeling knowing that his time here on earth could be coming to an end and after that there was probably about 30 to 40 of us in this area in death row to where we just surrounded him put hands on him prayed that God God would intervene, no matter what, that His will would be done, and that there would be glory brought unto Him. But we prayed for intervention, and we prayed for, specifically, that this man would be given a second chance. And it was the very next day, very next day, that we got the call that some things had happened in his particular case,

and they had overturned his execution, and he was given that second chance. For me, that was a real-life miracle that I got to experience, which is why I love doing what we're doing. To see God on display, and see that He is bigger than every circumstance that we might be facing, and that the verse in Jeremiah, where He has plans to prosper us, even when we look like we are at our end, then it's the dead end to possibly our life, or to our future, or to whatever, that He's still in the midst, He's still working. Even when we can't see Him or feel Him, He is still working, and that's what I love about doing what we get to do. Yeah, and I remember I was on a walk, and you called me, or you texted me, you're like, you called, I missed it, and you're like, call me now, and I was like, oh, Jake's got something, and oh, man, I'll never forget that moment, and seeing him again. And getting to celebrate with him, because we did, and we got to go back a few weeks after that, and to just see his demeanor, and the joy that was in him. Oh, gosh.

And the peace, and I think that the realness that, like, hey, man, this God that you talk about, or did talk about to me, like, He's real. I think it was solidifying for him as well. Yeah, and again, it reminds me, who's, it goes back to the music thing, who's asking on their behalf? You know, Jesus, over and over, you have not because you ask not. If you ask, I will do it. If you ask in my name, I will do it. Who's asking for them? Who's writing for them? Who's creating things for them? So even to go back to the music thing, like that inspired day two, which was taking these writers, and splitting up into writing groups, and we could both attest, we've been writing for six, seven months, up to this point. We're working for songs, it's like three hours, and we're just like, oh, what's that bridge, and fighting for it. These songs were like, handed to us from the Lord. Yeah, I think that literally, I think it was best said, that we went with the expectation that songs were gonna be written. But during that week, those songs were given.

These were given from God. In fact, in one day, on average, we would write one and a half songs in a full day. And in one full day, we ended up with seven. And it was like, they just flowed from everyone's spirit, everyone's heart. It was just, they flowed out of us. And I think that was extremely special to watch. And then the coolest part was being able to write those songs, capture those songs, which, unless you're in the music industry, or an artist, you don't realize how hard this is, is within less than 12 hours, all of us collectively going back into a room full of 800 men, and sharing them live with those men the very next day. Yeah, I mean, to write the songs, and then the third day, to go in and share those with these guys, that was a miracle in and of itself, because that's a very hard feat. And all in all, to see how the inmates there responded to the songs, we just, this was all an experiment, right? This was all just faith. It really was, it was faith. And to see how the guys responded, and the ability for us to say, hey, these are your songs. The worship leaders in the room

that are inmates saying, hey, y'all get to lead these songs. We're gonna give y'all the music to these songs to lead them yourselves. These songs are coming from this place. You said it earlier, like the whole point, and the whole vision of this, is that songs are inspired by inmates. It's for the first time, they're a part of something that's actually bringing change to the world. And, I mean, gosh. It's flipping the script. It's often we feel like, hey, we gotta go and do ministry to those that are in prison. But I believe that there's many in prison that have a voice, a heart, and a testimony that could be giving ministry to the world. And that's really what this is about at the end of the day. And there's very little difference, we say this too, there's very little difference between spiritual imprisonment and physical imprisonment. So the fact that these are coming out of a physical place like prison, and going to reach people who are imprisoned in their heart or in their mind, or enslaved or in chain to sin, or they can't get out of the rut. Like I said, and I truly believe this in my heart, it's just like the Lord to use the least. these to bring that change and that hope to the world. And so

that's what I'm just so excited that we get to be a part of, of this. And let's well, I know that I know that other people are excited too. And so why don't we just officially announce right here on this podcast for the first time ever? What's coming on October 24? I think no, I want to give you the honors. But I think there are people out there that are like, dude, how do I experience that? Can you show me more? Can I hear more? All of that? What's happening this month? Yeah, October 24. We are releasing all of those songs that we wrote from Angola live in Angola, we are releasing to the world. Come on our very first volume one live from an EP. I love it, man. Yeah, it's it's mind blowing. What's your what's your prayer for this EP? My prayer is two things. One that churches would lead them. I think there's something powerful about I just have this picture in my head of a mom in church on a Sunday. And somehow through this song that was written in a prison, she is by the words and hearts of inspired by the prison. Yeah, inspired by the inmates that she is led to the throne room and she's worshiping next to an inmate. Come on. Think about that. Like flipping the script that's different. It's it that doesn't happen. But it's going to. My prayer is that churches lead these songs. And my other prayer is that inmates it brings hope to inmates because these songs will start through the Pando app. These songs will start making their way all throughout Pando and other prisons, a prison in California leading one of the songs, a prison in Florida, leading one of these songs and soon to come potentially a prison in Columbia. Like who knows where that ends up? But yeah, that's that's my those are my two prayers. What about you? Like

what are you? I think that's for me. That's that's that's it, man. It's can we inspire the world through the hearts and minds of these individuals that are incarcerated? Yeah, what God is doing in his their lives, continuing to tell the story of what God is doing behind prison walls, but also give these men, these women, something that they can sing in worship, that is tied directly to their heart and mind, the things that they've been feeling the things that they've been seeing, the way that God's been working in their life, the things that they've come from all of that encompassed through music, and letting that be their expression, that they get to go to the throne in worship. And so yeah, I'm excited about this EP dropping on October 24. In fact, if you're listening in the mainstream market, I want to encourage you just to go to GodBehindBars.com and pre save the EP because I promise you it's going to bless you. And then those of you that are listening on the Pando app, I want to encourage you in fact, I want to challenge you to tell your friends and family members about it and to go and pre save the EP as well. You can do that at GodBehindBars.com. They can do that at GodBehindBars.com. They'll see it right on the homepage. As soon as they get there, they can click the link, pre save. It doesn't cost any money. It's just a pre save. And it's unbelievable way for you guys to connect not only through the music, but spiritually being able to worship together and allowing your voice to be heard to the world. And I'm excited, man. I really am. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome.