If you love indie-alternative music even half as much as me, then you’ll be stoked to hear about an up and coming band that fits these qualifications. But what makes this band more special than a standard Kings of Leon, Foster the People, or Radiohead (while nothing about these bands is quite standard at all), is that they come together as a group to worship the Lord.
What started as a project in Phoenix, AZ back in 2013 became Wild Earth, and the group just released a new album that you absolutely must listen to, titled Era Regnum.
“‘Regnum’ is latin for ‘kingdom,’” Micah Bentley, one of the band’s founders explained. “We began releasing songs that were all part of an era of our music that was focused on and inspired by thoughts of the ‘kingdom of Jesus.’ Each song is a thought or prayer into the reality of God’s present kingdom of love that is here and now, at work in our world, and is a radical alternative to the other kingdoms of this world.”
This is not the band’s first rodeo, however. The band’s formation began with Bentley partnering with his friend Jason Richard in order to create music and worship that was both honest and provoking.
“[We wanted to] create music that reflected the wild, creative, and counter-culture life with God in his creation and could exist in the space of tension between ‘secular’ and ‘sacred’ divides,” Bentley said. “The two of us formed this band with some other musician friends around us, and I’d say that’s when the project truly began.”
Bentley described one of the early victories being able to release the project to God and to fully entrust it to him without being concerned about the success or failure of it.
“This took away any need to be competitive with other artists, but instead be a blessing to other bands and people in the music community, allowed us to give some of our work away for free, and just be open to opportunities God provided as they came,” Bentley said. “Being reminded of the purpose and vision of the band definitely encourages us to press forward creatively and authentically, not feeling like we have to do things the way others have done them, but doing things with intentionality.”
Check out Wild Earth’s new album Era Regnum below, and it’s also available for purchase through Apple Music!
