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Circadian Rhythm
Biography
Circadian Rhythm
To hear something is effortless. To listen to something takes time, energy and investment. What 40records’ new worship band Circadian Rhythm has to offer is something worth listening to. Moving beyond superficiality, the truths contained within this band and their music are not only genuine, but as real as it gets. “People want what is real, especially this generation. Most people know if something is fake or a front,” says lead vocalist Will Pavone. “The best thing we can do is not done with our instruments; more important than guitars and drums and songs is for people to look at us and say, ‘These guys are real; what they’re saying is real.’ ”
The band’s journey began in 1996 at Virginia’s Liberty University (dc talk, Reality Check, Mark Lowry) where the men of Circadian Rhythm—Pavone, drummer Dan Cuomo, bassist Paul Barber, and guitarists Andy Zipf and Aaron Paganini first joined. Representing cities from San Diego to Long Island, each brought with them a family background in ministry—whether it was experience as preachers’ sons or with youth group involvement. Using their unique brand of intense worship to impact the lives of thousands of young people, Circadian Rhythm has succeeded in reaching out to a generation that’s searching for direction and something to believe in.
“I think we really know how to communicate what people in this generation need to hear. We know what they are going through because we were there only a short time ago,” says Cuomo, speaking on behalf of himself and his mid-20s band-mates. “The message we bring is that they can really have an impact in this world at a young age—an impact for Christ, an impact on people their age. You don’t have to wait until your 20s and your 30s to make a major contribution for Christ in this world. For me, personally, I really didn’t hear that as a teenager.”
More than a song or music trend, worship for Circadian Rhythm is about motivation and intent. Their mission is simple: to direct worship toward God. “God doesn’t need another praise & worship band; what He needs is for us to have a relationship with Him,” says Pavone. “I would much rather hear someone walk away from our show and say they saw God instead of a great band.” The ongoing challenge for the group is to focus more on being worshippers rather than worship leaders. “You can’t lead people to a place you don’t go yourself,” says Pavone. “So, before someone can be a worship leader, they have to know what it means to be a worshipper. It’s something we have to constantly learn.”
Though still learning, the sincerity of the band’s worship was enough to catch the interest of 40records cofounders Bill Gaither and Toby McKeehan. “Circadian Rhythm is five men who worship with their lives,” says McKeehan. “Their music is simply spillover, which is convicting to me as an artist.” Never the intention to get signed to a record deal, the band led worship together for four years prior to partnering with the label. “It was just a calling that we had to go out and minister, and we were going to do that with or without a record deal,” says Cuomo. “So, that’s how we started … and it just turned into something bigger and bigger.”
Those four years together enabled the band to perform at about 150 events annually. From camps and conferences to retreats, Circadian Rhythm developed countless relationships and a loyal following nationwide. They led worship for more than 200 youth in a special hearing held at the U.S. Capitol to encourage the Senate to reinstall the Ten Commandments in public schools. In addition, they participate with Frontline, a Generation-X worship service which averages a weekly attendance of 2,000 and is held at the band’s home church, McLean Bible Church in the Washington D.C. metro area. Sharing the stage with the likes of Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline and Jars of Clay at Xtreme Winter Conferences, this summer finds the band already on the roster for Ohio’s Alive Festival and Inside Out Soul Festival in New Hampshire. Before then, the fivesome will have the chance to reach an even broader audience with the release of their debut album, Over Under Everything, this April.
“We’re really excited about this whole record,” says Cuomo. “Any recording prior to this project was always rushed, and so it was great to take our time on this.” Produced by Incorporated Elements partner and dc talk bassist Otto Price (Sonicflood, GRITS, Knowdaverbs) with vocals produced by Bryan Lenox (Sonicflood, Michael W. Smith, Commissioned), the end result captures the essence of the band’s unique organic rock sound. “The whole process was just great, to be able to work with people who know what they’re doing, plus to really hear songs transform into something that they weren’t,” says Cuomo. “A lot of songs were good, but after doing the vocals with Bryan and music with Otto, many of the songs just really went to another level as far as in intensity and quality.”
Sure to appeal to fans of U2, Delirious, Radiohead, Counting Crows, Sonicflood and Passion Worship Band, the collection promises the listener a different kind of experience with new sounds, words and phrases that encompass worship. “It’s not a record written about God, it’s a record to Him from us,” explains Pavone. “There are some ideas on the record that clearly had to have come from God.” Written mostly by the band members, the record is a call not just to Christians, but to all people to experience God and join in worship.
For example, “Let Us Gather” calls listeners to join the band on their quest to start a revolution in America, while the powerful anthem, “Something Glorious” comes from the ninth chapter of Daniel: a pleading with God to deliver his people from 70 years of hardships. “This song is basically us asking the Lord to bring something glorious to our country that is in famine and drought, and just not living for Him,” explains Cuomo. Other album highlights include the U2 cover, “Gloria;” the modern worship song, “We Are Hungry;” and the guitar-driven ballad, “More Like You,” whose chorus inspires a Christ-like yearning: “I take my eyes off of myself/ And turn them on You/ ’Cause Your love is more than riches or wealth/ I want to live to be more like You.”
“This project is important to our ministry because it is an extension of who we are,” says Pavone. “If some kid on the other side of the world gets a hold of our CD, and his life is changed because we were able to record it and our distributor was able to put it there, then that is success that cannot be measured on a chart or graph. That is success in God’s eyes.”
Living in the nation’s Capitol, the group is also committed to seeking success in other areas. In addition to having their church home, Cuomo and Pavone are married while Paganini is engaged. The men understand the value of keeping their faith and families a priority. Having this foundation in their personal lives helps to strengthen their ministry as a band, as well as challenges them to live up to the meaning of the band’s name. Serving as constant incentive for the group in their personal walk with God, the Latin derivative of Circadian Rhythm means “to die daily,” or to die to one’s selfishness each day, while the physiological definition refers to the patterns and cycles the human body experiences each day. Summing up how their faith fits into that, Pavone affirms, “Our relationship with God and our worship of Him is part of that daily rhythm and cycle.” And for Circadian Rhythm, that relationship is what keeps them as real as they come. |
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