United Pursuit

United Pursuit
Also known as United Pursuit Band
Origin Knoxville, Tennessee
Genres Worship, folk rock, indie folk, indie rock
Years active 2006 (2006)–present
Website unitedpursuit.com
Members Will Reagan
Brock Human
Brandon Hampton
Andrea Marie Reagan
Michael Ketterer
Jake LeBoeuf
John Romero
Yoosung Lee
Nathan Fray

United Pursuit (also known as, United Pursuit Band) is an American Christian music worship band from Knoxville, Tennessee, where they started making music in 2008, but were founded in 2006. They have released two live albums, Live at the Banks House (2010), and Simple Gospel (2015). The 2015 album was their breakthrough release upon the Billboard magazine charts. Aside from live recordings, United Pursuit has produced several studio records, the first of which was Radiance in 2008, which was a compilation of music written by several of the United Pursuit artists. Other studio records put out by United Pursuit featured a particular United Pursuit artist. Two of these records, In the Night Season (2009) and Endless Years (2012) featured Will Reagan and were released under the brands "Will Reagan and United Pursuit Band" and "Will Reagan and United Pursuit". The Wild Inside (2014) featured Michael Ketterer and was released under the brand "Michael Ketterer and United Pursuit". United Pursuit is also known for their weekly Tuesday gatherings from which many of their songs were written. These gatherings were birthed in a residence on Banks Ave in a North Knoxville neighborhood. This residence is commonly referred to now as the Banks House. Over the course of several years, these gatherings have grown in number, pushing United Pursuit and others out of the Banks House and into, at one point, a larger living room and eventually other commercial and public spaces. After much transition, United Pursuit's Tuesday gatherings found a home at a renovated commercial space near downtown Knoxville. This space, now commonly referred to as the Fifth Avenue House, continues to grow as a commercial space and currently caters to both United Pursuit and independent events such as wedding, concerts, etc... The music released and the Tuesday gatherings held by United Pursuit over the years has been the product of their humble beginning with a simple desire to commune with God and each other. The name United Pursuit is in itself reflective of the heart of the United Pursuit community, "doing life together as we seek God through both song and relationship with others".

Background

United Pursuit originated in Mozambique, South Africa at Iris Harvest School of Missions led by Heidi Baker. Soon to be band members Will Reagan, Brock Human, and Nathan Fray attended this school together, where they grew in relationship with God and each other. Upon leaving this school, the three purchased a house on Banks Ave in North Knoxville in an effort to be intentional in seeking God in the manner that they had in Mozambique. Will Reagan, Brock Human, Nathan Fray, and several others began gathering on Tuesday evenings at the Bank's House to worship and, in general, be intentional about spending time with God. At some point during this new season of worship gatherings, they felt that there were no longer words enough to describe how they felt about God, given the songs they knew. From this place, Will Reagan and others began making up words to sing over simple chord progressions they had written. These Tuesday gathering would eventually evolve into a free-flowing, spontaneous period of time, where there were no rules and no time limits, but rather a single desire to be in communion with God. As these Tuesday gatherings progressed, the small community in North Knoxville began to grow and new songs continued to be written in the space they made in their lives. In the coming years, the group built relationships with now current band members Michael Ketterer, Brandon Hampton, John Romero, Yoosung Lee, and Andrea Marie who married Will Reagan in 2011. United Pursuit has since released four studio albums and two live albums all under the independent record label United Pursuit Records, which they created, with the exception of Simple Gospel, which was co-released with a publishing deal made with Capitol Christian Records. Despite having no help from any record label during the first several years, the music and story of United Pursuit has reached across the world by both word of mouth and social media.

One thing that has persisted in the community of United Pursuit is the intentionality of making a place to focus on God. The Tuesday gathering at the Bank's House grew out of this place and continues to grow to this day. An effort was made in 2010 to capture this time that has always been so special to the United Pursuit community. The result was Live at the Bank's House, a live recording that captured the songs and spirit of the Tuesday gatherings. From the release of Live at the Bank's House, in part, launched a worldwide movement of gathering in homes and creating space to commune with and worship God. United Pursuit subsequently released a video from this recording capturing the song "Set a Fire". This video was one of the major factors that played a role in the spread of United Pursuit's music, quickly generating over a million views on youtube. In the wake of the Live at the Bank's House recording and video, the attendance of the Tuesday gathering began to multiply at a phenomenal rate. The Bank's House community began sledge-hammering down walls to accommodate the growing number of Tuesday night attendees. Will Reagan, at one point, said that nearly every non-load bearing wall was removed, and that knocking down anymore walls would have been dangerous. It was at this point that the Tuesday movement outgrew its own birthplace. Soon after, Tuesday nights moved to Michael Ketterer's house on Garden Drive in January 2011. Despite only being slightly larger than the Bank's House, the Tuesday movement survived at Garden Drive for an entire year. Attendees crammed into the Ketterer's house and stacked themselves up the staircase overlooking the living room. In January 2012, it was determined that the Tuesday gathering could no longer reasonably take place at the Ketterer's residence, so plans were made to move the Tuesday movement to a commercial space that could accommodate more people. The first of the five Tuesday movement relocations was to a small event space in a section of Knoxville known as Emory Place. Tuesday nights were held in the small event space for several months starting in January 2012. It was during this time that Will Reagan's album Endless Years was recorded -- the gang choir vocals of which were recorded at Emory Place. Michael Ketterer's song "Pressing On" was spontaneously written during this time at Emory Place along with Will Reagan's contribution to the song. As the season at Emory Place extended into the summer months of 2012, the ever growing Tuesday night crowd began to feel crammed in the now inadequate amount of space that was Emory Place. At one point, the doors of Emory Place were propped open, speakers were wired outside, and close to one hundred people participated from the outside looking in. Seeing the ever growing number of people attending the Tuesday gatherings, an idea was born to purchase a building that could once and for all house the Tuesday movement. It was during this time that United Pursuit began looking at the commercial space located at 119 W Fifth Ave. in Knoxville, Tennessee. This commercial space would eventually become owned by United Pursuit and known as the Fifth Avenue House, more commonly called the Fifth Ave House. Before the transition to the Fifth Ave House, though, the Tuesday movement continued on as a vagabond movement. Once Emory Place was at capacity (January 29, 2013), the Tuesday movement transitioned to Relix Studios for a single night (February 5, 2013), where it subsequently moved to Angelic Ministries for the next several months (February 12 - July 23, 2013). The Tuesday night of July 30, 2013 was held at Victor Ashe Park. Following the time spent at Angelic Ministries, United Pursuit rented out World's Fair Park to house the Tuesday movement during the twilight of the pre-Fifth Ave House era (August 6 - September 24, 2013). Throughout the times spent at Angelic Ministires and World's Fair Park, the already purchased Fifth Ave House was renovated and brought up to code. The Tuesday before the first gathering at the Fifth Ave House (October 1, 2013) was held in the parking lot of Fifth Ave House. Every Tuesday gathering thereafter was held at the Fifth Ave House starting on October 8, 2013.

With a defined space to house the Tuesday movement, the dream to share these moments with the rest of the world via live streaming was made possible. Shortly after the Tuesday gatherings began meeting at the Fifth Ave House, UP Live (United Pursuits' live streaming platform) was launched. Ever since, nearly all Tuesday gatherings have been streamed live and made available via the video on demand link on the live.unitedpursuit.com page. United Pursuit has also brought their live streaming platform with them on the road, streaming live from living rooms and venues across the nation. On top of live streaming, United Pursuit has also begun to capturing their times of spontaneous worship via multitrack recording. Portions of the ever increasing database of multitrack files have been mixed into songs that are released in the form of live EPs at the end of each month with a subscription to a prime UP Live account. The live stream has always and will always remain free of charge.

To date, the history of the Fifth Avenue House is still being written. At this point the main space where the Tuesday movement meets in nearly complete, however, the rest of the building remains unused as it awaits further renovation and modification. Future renovation will equip the Fifth Ave House to accommodate a fully functional coffee shop, a recording studio, and office space for local entrepreneurs and businesses. The Fifth Ave House, being that it contains a large event space and a fully functional sound and recording system, has and will continue to be used for events and concerts independent of United Pursuit.

Music history

The band started music recording in 2008, with their first recording, the Green EP that was released on May 31, 2008, from United Pursuit Records.[1] Their subsequent compilation album, Radiance,[2] was released on March 31, 2009, by United Pursuit Records.[1] They released, Simple Gospel, on August 14, 2015, with United Pursuit Records.[3][4] This album would be the breakthrough released upon the Billboard magazine charts, where it peaked at No. 85 on The Billboard 200, No. 2 on Christian Albums, and No. 6 on Independent Albums.[5] This album was No. 13. on the Worship Leader's Top 20 Albums of 2015 list.[6]

Members

Current members[7]

Discography

Albums

References

  1. 1 2 Apple iTunes music
  2. ↑ Ang-elik-a (November 12, 2010). "Radiance by United Pursuit Band". New Release Today. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ Monger, Timothy (August 14, 2015). "Simple Gospel - United Pursuit Band : Review". AllMusic. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ Akins, Jay. "United Pursuit: Simple Gospel". Worship Leader. p. 76. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  5. ↑ Billboard. "United Pursuit Band : Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  6. ↑ Staff. "2015 Top Albums". Worship Leader. pp. 58–9. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ United Pursuit (August 14, 2015). "Simple Gospel". Bandcamp. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
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