The City Harmonic: Band Beginnings, 'Manifesto' And The Meaning Of Worship

In a recent interview with praise.com, The City Harmonic discussed how their band took form, their popular song, 'Manifesto,' and what it means to be a true worshipper. 

The band is from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. "One of the neat things that have happened in Canada in the last ten years, in the fall-out of industry, kind of changing and drying up, has been that the churches in Hamilton have really started to band together and work together in an unprecedented way, through this sort of grassroots movement called True City," explained Elias Dummer, vocalist/songwriter and bassist for the band.

True City a partnership of churches across different denominations and backgrounds that work together for the greater good of the city. It has spread beyond the church in recent years to include businesses and individuals who are looking to help those in need throughout the city.

"So actually, when we made The City Harmonic at first, all four of us went to different churches and were partners in different churches around the city. And so we had been leading worship at a college things that was, again, an expression of this movement, just sort of from the ground up, doing stuff together, wherever we come from as the church" Dummer said.

Then, Dummer went into talking about The City Harmonic's well-known song 'Manifesto.' "We wrote that, basically the guts of it we wrote at our first get-together really. It was a piano idea that I'd had that I'd written on my piano at home and sort of said, 'Hey guys, here's what I'm thinking structurally,' and then they were like, 'cool.' And so we played it out, and [Josh Vanderlaan] had this great groove thing and then Aaron sat over top sort of this driving guitar part, and we were like, 'Oh, great, ok.'" Dummer said. "We didn't write any lyrics and we put it on the shelf and we said, 'This feels like one of those rallying cry type songs, let's call it Manifesto.' And then we put it on the shelf and didn't do anything until we got to the studio to record it, which was months later."

The City Harmonic incorporated the Lord's Prayer, the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed into the lyrics of their song 'Manifesto,' when they were putting it together in the studio. "So Eric and I were in the control room and on the phone with Aaron and Josh going, 'Oh, this, that.' They were trying to pull this sort of ancient creedal stuff to say... And the reason is kind of the same reason that we sort of named the band what we did, it's that, I think so much effort is put in the church into proving each other wrong, instead of starting with, we're the church, this is our common ground," Dummer said. "And so 'Manifesto,' is really just trying to speak to that, to say no matter what stream of the church you come from, you probably start here."

The band then went on to speak about how they try to incorporate worship in, not only their music, but also in everything that they do. "We do sort of perform and lead worship at the same time, and we're comfortable with that, partly because we look at it really holistically, you know. I think worship isn't something special that happens for a few minutes at a concert or on a Sunday morning, that is just the group expression of what we all ought to be doing with every choice we make all day," Dummer explained. "So it's like, for me, the idea of worship isn't limited to this. And so, as a band, it's just one expression of, hopefully everybody that comes to the event is already doing. What the beauty of worshipping together as the church, is that we're doing it together as the church, not that we're worshipping."

Singing proves to be a great way for people to come together in worship and expression, Dummer explained, especially since most North Americans tend to think that chanting together is kind of creepy. "So, singing is a good start, you know, and so we love that, and we enjoy that, obviously or we wouldn't be doing what we do," he said. "But, at the same time, we need to not put worship in the box of singing and in the box of music because how I treat the guy whose job it is to call me at dinner time from the call center is as much worship as me going on stage and singing 'Manifesto.'"

The City Harmonic received the title of Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2011 and has gained a great deal of popularity with their song, 'Manifesto,' which has reached as high as No. 5 on iTunes and have drawn over two million views on Youtube.  The band is comprised of Dummer on vocals and piano, Eric Fusilier on bass, Aaron Powell on guitar and Josh Vanderlaan on drums.  The band will be touring throughout the summer and appearing at various Christian music festivals including, Creation, Spirit Song, Kingsfest, Soulfest, Sonshine, Kingdom Bound and more.