Redeeming the Katy Perry pop culture

There are very few occasions when a Christian rock/pop band debuts with fire and Royal Tailor has certainly ignited the stage.

With the recent launch of their debut album, Black & White, they have already made their mark as No 1 on the iTunes Christian & Gospel Albums charts, No 21 on the overall iTunes Top Albums chart and also No 6 on SoundScan's Current Contemporary Christian Overall Chart.

But what is so attracting about Royal Tailor?

Their music is described as a blend of fun and energetic rhythm carrying the perfect dose of pop, rock, R&B, hip hop, and worship while maintaining a strong lyrical depth. The band members, Tauren Wells (lead vocals,) Blake Hubbard (bass guitar,) Jarrod Ingram (drums,) and D J Cox (guitar) aim to infuse dance, prayer and meditation over God's message through their music.

Frontman Tauren Wells shared with The Christian Post that because they are still young, they relate to issues students deal with. They use the age factor as an opportunity to send a message through their music of hope and trust in the Lord and "to do what God has called you to be, not being an imitator of culture but an influencer".

"So we're just empowering people to search for themselves and discover who they are in Christ," said Wells.

The band is big on encouraging Christians "to step out of the role as Christian spectators and into the church of the 21st century that God has called us to be", he continues.

"There's never been a greater time to live and serve God and we don't have to take our ball and go home."

Rising to the surface in any field such as film, fashion or music is a tremendously important role every Christian should aspire to so that they can be the cultural influencers and "make Christ known in these last days", says the 25-year-old.

"The church used to be the cultural influence and that's what our songs are really about – it's a song where we use lyrics from our record titles and song titles form artists like Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga. We actually use those messages against their message so that we can establish the fact that we are not going to let the poison of the culture sweep into our lives."

Their song "Control" referencing popular artists says: "It's all plastic and I can't be a fake/ it's all static, every word that they say…Life is short, baby tik tok/Ain't got no time for you blah blah blah (nah nah nah)/'Cause girl we don't need your drug/No, no, we don't want what you're calling love/'Cause I believe that you're either yes or no/You're hot or cold/No teenage dream could ever be worth your soul/ Never worth your soul."

Royal Tailor originally formed at a Bible college in Indianapolis three years ago. During Wells' stay he realised that he didn't have to fit a particular mould such as youth ministry, preaching, mission or evangelism to reach people. He realised that "God had uniquely gifted us to make a powerful impact in the world because what makes us unique makes us powerful".

Before their hit album, Black & White, they performed over 300 shows in two years and spent one of those years working with a student ministry. While they were immersed in music as well as ministering to students, they began to pen down some of the songs for their first record.

A week before the Gospel Music Association week, they were invited to attend and were introduced to Jason MacArthur, the vice president of A&R at Provident Label Group, their current record label.

"We have seen God's favour, unmerited favour. We are just humbly following His purpose of life for us but of course we are looking with great anticipation to the future with this new record being out."

Royal Tailor will begin touring with Building 429 starting July 14.