Jars of Clay look forward to the future

Dan Haseltine, singer and major songwriter for pioneering rock, pop and worship band Jars Of Clay, wrote in a blog post around 18 months ago that he was touring because he wanted to "remember what it is like to love music."

NEW VISION. Jars Of Clay are now an independent band – new album Inland is their first release since leaving their old label. Picture: Supplied.

Has he remembered?

“Yes, actually,” he grins.

“With this season of touring and being in the studio, we’ve been able to remove some of the other voices speaking into the situation and guiding us where we didn’t want to go. We’re enjoying playing more and having concerts in venues we love – we’re going where we want to go now.”

How much did this mindset have to do with Jars Of Clay leaving their label (they’ve been with, among others, Essential Records, which is a contemporary Christian music label that’s a division of Sony Music Entertainment) and becoming an independent entity?

“A lot,” says Haseltine.

“There’s a certain bent to the evangelical community that makes you approach music in a certain way, and we’re now freed of that. We knew it would be harder to see our vision through by pulling people along rather than having people who were excited about the product.”

That all sounds good on paper, but does the band have the resources to be both a missional band and a conventionally professional one, as they have been in the past?

“We’re managing well,” says Haseltine.

“There are different expectations now. The music industry has shifted. Radio mattered more when we were younger – that’s why our first hit, Flood, had such a big impact on our careers.

“With pop radio these days, though, most artists are in it to build personal celebrity, which has never been our thing. The need for a major label is therefore less. We can now connect more directly with fans in ways that we couldn’t before. With the label handling everything, there were always 10 extra steps.”

Haseltine is a fairly outspoken character. Does all of the above apply equally to the rest of the band?

“I suppose a fair amount of it is me,” he admits, “but as the voice of the band to some degree, I have influence.

“We’ve been together 20 years, though, so I am careful to not express things in the music they would not be comfortable with. We do get together and agree on various themes and so on. We express things differently, but we’re happy to explore new territory together.”

Haseltine has called his side project The Hawk In Paris “the result of trust, passion and creative innovation.”

Does that same phrase still apply to Jars Of Clay?

“It definitely does,” he affirms.

“The Hawk In Paris has freed me up to not put pressure on Jars Of Clay to make music that doesn’t fit that platform.”

Haseltine’s major criterion when writing, he says, is to never lie. What were the most difficult truths or emotions to expose in new album Inland?

“Inland is about mystery and being comfortable with stories that are not fully written yet,” says the singer.

“Relationally, we’re not putting a bow on anything. We wanted to feel free to not have to say everything, and that’s a tough rule to adhere to. But we’ve found that people resonate with the idea.”

Tags can be a problem – Jars Of Clay being called a Christian band has often seen them pigeonholed in various ways – but actions are another story, and the band’s outreach work with the Blood:Water Mission project and elsewhere has done much good in disadvantaged communities.

“Outreach work is the next step. Artists describe the world – if you’re looking, you’re going to find something you can do to make a difference. I think people are finding that we’re true to what we say.”