CAPTION: The song 'Prodigal' was written and produced during the pandemic
Exeter Band Release Original Song Based on Bible Story with Vision of Reaching Out
Devon Christian band, Damascus Road, with vision to reach out to non-Christians with first original song has been met with emotional responses.
The track ‘Prodigal’, available on Spotify, is based on the Bible story of The Prodigal Son who after being distant from his father, returns and is welcomed with open arms.
Gideon Griffiths, who plays keyboard in the band, said, “We chose the story of the Prodigal son as inspiration as it linked into a couple of our testimonies of what God has done in our lives and writing and producing the song felt quite personal.
“It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster anyway just by nature of it being recorded over a pandemic.
“We ran into all sorts of issues so when it was finally released it was joyous that it was finally out there.”
The band of three include Gideon Griffiths, Emmy Jones and Jacob Smith who met at Exeter Network Church and formed Damascus Road in January 2020.
It didn’t take long before they started playing covers of popular secular tracks at local gigs.
Over lockdown they took to Instagram (@damascus_rd) and started building their following.
They then decided they wanted to write their own songs.
In October 2020 the band went on a song writing trip to Cornwall and wrote their first track Prodigal and began recording.
The band called themselves Damascus Road in reference to the passage in the Bible where Saul is on the road to Damascus and has a transformation. They are hoping that through listening to their music there will be an opportunity for God to go into people’s lives and transform them.
Gideon said, “The vision and prayer behind the band was to write songs that had Christian messages but were accessible to people who were not Christians. We wanted to reach out to non-Christians and for them to listen to it and ask questions.”
The band invited their friends to be guest musicians on the new track Prodigal bringing in the sounds of drums (Simeon Taylors), electric guitar (Joth Taylor) and bass guitar (George Griffiths).
The song was released on 8 October 2021 and the responses to Prodigal so far have been positive and, in some cases, quite emotional.
Gideon said, “The song for me is a reminder of that story that it doesn’t matter how far we stray away from God, we know that when we turn around and go back towards Him He is running towards us and welcomes us home.
“For me the most profound bit of the song are the lines:
before I speak you call me name,
you say my child you are welcome here,
Don’t be afraid,
Your arms around me where I belong you,
you say to me ‘you’ll always be my special one’,”
Gideon, Emmy and Jacob are going away on another song writing trip this weekend hoping to begin the process of another original song.
