Plus One - Living Up To The Promise
By Norm McDonald


The girls in the audience were hysterical. Plus One had just finished a short, four-song set at Sam’s Club in Nashville, Tenn. As they exited, two girls, junior-high aged, climbed onstage for a talent show. Blushing and giggling uncontrollably, the girls held up a handmade sign scribbled with the message: “WE LOVE YOU PLUS ONE!” A bewildered Gary Chapman, who was hosting the event, turned to the audience and said, “Never in my entire career has this happened to me.” The boy-band phenomenon has definitely hit Christian music.

During a promotional tour throughout the United States this year, thousands of screaming girls swarmed local malls to see Plus One’s Nate Cole, Gabe Combs, Jason Perry, Jeremy Mhire and Nathan Walters. In June, 10,000 people flocked to a Lakeland, Fla. church to see Plus One perform. They were the only act on the bill.

Plus One’s debut album, The Promise, sold more than 19,000 units in its first week, setting an all-time sales record for a new artist. “Written on My Heart” reached No. 1 on both the Christian Adult Contemporary and Christian Hit Radio charts.

The sudden success hasn’t changed the five members of Plus One. They seem little different than kids in your typical youth group. Before a recent concert, they quoted movie lines, made jokes about each other’s hygiene practices and desperately tried to get their hair to look properly unkempt. They also talked honestly about the screaming girls, their sudden success and the ways in which God has blessed them.

K-LOVE: What were your plans before you were asked to join Plus One?

JEREMY: I knew I wanted to start a boy band! [laughter] I was going to go into broadcast journalism.

NATHAN: I wanted to be in the music industry. I wanted to write and produce and be involved in missions.

GABE: Before Plus One, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I love music and I love performing, so I wanted to do something along those lines. God opened up these doors, so I took it.

JASON: I wanted to be a rock star, so I joined the band. [laughter] I knew I wanted to sing, and I knew I was called to ministry at age 14, so I knew God was going to use me somehow in His work.

NATE: I was called to ministry since I was a young ’un and knew that I liked music, too. If I hadn’t joined this group when I graduated from high school, I would have gone on to Bible college and studied music or pastoral ministry.

K-LOVE: You have worked with some big name producers, including David Foster (Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Boyz II Men) and Eric Foster-White (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys). How did that come about?

JEREMY: Barry Landis, president of Atlantic Christian Division, and Mitchell Solarek, our manager, knew David Foster and that he wanted to get into Christian music. Through him, a lot of doors opened to work with different producers. There was a showcase in Los Angeles and there were a lot of mainstream writers and people who do Top-40 pop music, like Buster and Shavoni, who did the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack. We performed for them. The next day, Jaymes Foster, David’s sister, said the office was flooded with calls from writers and producers who wanted to work with us.

GABE: That was one of our first performances, and we were kind of nervous when they told us who we would be performing for. We got together and prayed, saying, “God, let your will be done at this little performance we’re about to do here.” When David played the piano for us, it was one of the best performances we have ever done. God really came through for us. People were touched. David’s wife was sitting in the front, and she started crying during one of our songs. You could just feel a sweet presence in the room when we sang.

K-LOVE: While recording The Promise I’m sure some of the people you worked with were not Christians. What kind of impact do you think you and your music had on their lives?

NATE: A lot of the people weren’t Christians. When we came into their studio and met them, they were waiting to see what we were going to be like. Were we really going to be Christians? They would bring up a conversation or a joke and see if we would get into it. They would listen to the way we talked. Everyone was surprised to see that we were the real thing and that we weren’t just trying to put on an act. A lot of the people called our label, and our label told us they said, “Man, they (Plus One) were really thankful and had good attitudes.” They said a lot of other artists were rude. They were surprised at the way we got along with each other. Maybe they didn’t tell us at the time that they were ministered to by the way we acted or showed love, but we felt like that was a real experience in their lives.

GABE: We were going to release a pop single, and Atlantic New York wanted to see us. They heard we were a Christian group, and Barry Landis was telling us how they thought we were going to be really conservative. That we would all look like church boys and have our hair cut in the same way — all clean-cut. But we went there, and we showed them we were real and that we really do love God. We’re real kids and we like to have fun. I thought it really made a big impression on them.

K-LOVE: Is there a unifying theme to your album?

JEREMY: Yeah, without a doubt. I think when we got done and looked at the continuity of the album, the common theme throughout the album went along with our name. It was just another way God revealed to us that this was totally Him. Our name, Plus One, is what we want to say — it’s us, plus God. We know we can’t do anything without Him, and we want Him to be a part of everything we do, both musically and in our personal daily walks. The Promise is the title of our album, and that promise is that He’s always there, and He will never leave you. When times are hard, or if you’re going through some struggle, you can turn to so many things. There are so many negative things out there right now, but you know that God will always meet you where you’re at and He is big enough to handle all your problems.

K-LOVE: Fans bought 19,000 copies of The Promise in the first week of its release. “Written on My Heart” hit No. 1 on Christian radio charts. Has your success come as a surprise to you?

GABE: It’s been a very big surprise, for me personally. It’s kind of weird seeing the charts and seeing our name up there at No. 1. I have to sit back and say, “Wow, this is truly amazing.” God has really blessed us. We do not take for granted what God has given us.

NATHAN: We were working with David Foster, one of the best producers in the world. The tracks were obviously amazing, because of the people who worked on the album. I knew it was going to be good. God opened up so many doors at the beginning, so why would my expectations drop? I expected God to take us far and He had been blessing us all the way up to that point, so I was saying, “God, you have ordained this group, you have put it together, just take it far.” I feel tremendously blessed and it’s an awesome opportunity. God’s hand is definitely on this group.

K-LOVE: How do you keep your focus with all of this success and attention?

NATHAN: Three of us are pastor’s kids. I’m not one of the pastor kids, but my parents are very heavily involved in my life. They keep me accountable, spiritually. It’s the same with all the guys in this group. We’re really close to our parents. I know we’re away from our parents and people say you can always fake something, like how you’re doing, when you’re on the phone with your parents. Our manager, Mitchell Solaris, and Barry Landis are very involved in our lives. We have Bible studies with Barry Landis, who is the head honcho at Atlantic. He’s really keeping us accountable. The other day, he said, “Guys, I know you’re having fun, but let’s make sure you’re coming to the point in your concert where you’re getting across what’s in your heart and you’re bringing the focus on Christ.”

GABE: To be honest, it’s very easy to become prideful. Every day we have to continually ask God to humble us. We go into concerts and all these people are saying all they are here to see is you. You can’t take that and say, “OK.” We have to ask God to humble us continually and work through it day by day.

NATE: Prayer and reading the Bible has helped the whole group. The basics, you know. It keeps your mind grounded and your whole life grounded. Prayer and reading God’s Word really affects your life more than I have ever realized. I’m realizing now how much of a difference it makes in the way you act.

K-LOVE: How do you deal with the screaming girls?

NATE: We reach out for their hands and just squeeze them tight. Just kidding! [laughter] It’s the weirdest thing, we would go to malls on the promo tour and we would say, “Who is going to come see us at a mall?” When we would get there, there would be thousands, sometimes 3,000 girls. It’s true the vast majority are girls at our concerts. We hoped there would be more guys, but that’s the way it goes. As far as how we handle it? A lot of times it’s fun. It can be fun when we’re doing a fast song and everyone’s hyped up and everyone’s screaming. Then sometimes we will go into a ballad where it’s supposed to be more serious and ministry focused, and we’re thinking, “Are you listening to the words of our song?” I think they will eventually get the message about what we are.

NATHAN: I think we’re growing more on the stage. At first when we were new, we would be thinking, “Ahhh! How do you do this?” Now, we’re learning to control the crowd and say, “Hey! We have something to say.”

JEREMY: Obviously, pop music is big right now and people are drawn to this kind of music. So, with that being the case, if you listen to a certain kind of music and there is a message in the music, whether or not you’re concentrating on it, (if you listen) long enough, it will end up getting through. Whether or not they (fans) are there at first because they like the sound of the music or they think Nate is good looking, or whatever, we pray that, in time, the message will soak in by osmosis.

JASON: You said all that to say the word “osmosis,” didn’t you?

JEREMY: No, I didn’t!

K-LOVE: The song “Last Flight Out” talks about leaving someone behind. Who do you feel like you have had to leave behind?

NATHAN: The song is actually about “going to.” It’s weird, I guess it can go both ways. It can be like you’re leaving the person, so you’re sad and you want to take the last flight out so you can be with her as long as you can. Or it can be that you don’t want to take the red-eye flight, but hey, you love this girl so much, you’ll do what it takes to get there.

GABE: Everyone asks us, “What does that song mean?” It’s along the lines of I will do anything for the girl. I will take the last flight out.

NATE: As far as the question: Who do we feel we have left behind? I would say my parents, my family, home, and the whole scene of being at my home church and growing up in the same church for so long. I have left some friends behind, but I still keep in touch with my friends and family. That’s been the hardest, my family. We’re so busy that my mind is not dwelling on that the whole time, but there are times I wish I could go back to the normal routine of living at my home.

NATHAN: I know all of us feel the same way. We really have left behind a way of living that we will never go back to. When you go back home, it’s totally different, and it’s never going to be the same. I have never experienced this before. It’s hard. Sometimes I miss the times when I would go to church on Wednesday night and go on outreaches and activities in the mountains and camping. That’s part of growing up too, because we’re getting out of high school. I do miss growing up and having that normal life, but at the same time, God is blessing us. I would never trade what we’re doing.