The Kry
Eventually, every successful band comes full-circle. They spend years discovering their sound, establishing their band, making hit records, and ministering to whomever will listen. When all is said and done though, they return to what comes naturally to them and when they do, a new era begins. The Kry is no exception. After seven albums, The Kry has returned to the very thing that started it all for them—worship.
God of Infinite Worth, the band's first-ever worship album, presents a maturity and intimacy that few worship albums capture. This is the sound of a band that has experienced hardship, hopelessness, joy and victory. This is more than an album of worship songs; it’s a love letter to the Creator of all things. It’s a thank you to the One who saved them from themselves.
The Kry began over a dozen years ago in a Calvary Chapel in Albuquerque, NM. Brothers Yves and Jean-Luc Lajoie were new Christians and had started leading worship with the youth at their church. After officially forming The Kry, their debut album, I’ll Find You There (Asaph Records), won the hearts of Christian music fans throughout the world and laid the foundation for what was to come.
The album spawned a #1 radio single (“Blind Man”) and two CHR Top 5 singles (the title track and “Call His Name”). After joining the Freedom Records roster in 1994, also home to Hokus Pick and Soulfood ’76, brothers Yves and Jean-Luc Lajoie went on to release the wildly successful album You, which brought two more #1 singles, “Everywhere” & “You’re All I Need” and another Top 5 hit, “I Know Everything About You”. Over the next several years the band released What About NOW and Let Me Say, as well as Unplugged, an album that featured acoustic renditions of songs from their first two projects along with previously unreleased material, and a compilation appropriately titled, La Compilation. By the end of the 1990’s The Kry had sold nearly 400,000 albums and had released three #1 hit singles and a countless number of Top 5 favorites. The new millennium brought a new start for the band, releasing the critically acclaimed Undone album in 2002 on Metro One Records, after a nearly three year recording hiatus.
April 2005 will begin another chapter in The Kry’s journey. God of Infinite Worth will be the inaugural release from the band’s own label, Le Kri Music. The album was produced by Eli Thomson (Crystal Lewis, Chris Lizotte) and truly captures the essence of The Kry. If you are looking for an album that follows the formulas common to today’s worship scene, you will not find it here. Invoking the musical spirits of such soul-searching artists as Bob Dylan, Telecast, and Tom Petty, this is an album that quickly sets itself apart from its peers.
“Musically, this album is very different-sounding than what people are used to hearing. The production is somewhat of a newer vibe for worship music,” says Yves. Jean-Luc adds, “I am not sure that we consciously did anything to make it different from everything else. We just weren’t shooting for a ‘radio single’ or to make our music palatable for the Christian industry. Our hope,” he says, “was simply that the music would move and inspire people to worship Jesus.”
“It is often out of hardships and trials that songs are born and that is how many of these songs came together. I have been where discouragement wanted to get the best of me but every time God has been pulled me through,” says Jean-Luc.
Whether it’s the uplifting sound of the album’s first single “Faithful” or the intimacy of the album’s title track, it is evident that this is a band that is both thankful and sincere. “When people hear this album, we hope they feel closer to God, more in love with him, in awe of Him and how big and powerful He is,” says Yves.
God of Infinite Worth is not the band’s only new venture, however. Yves and Jean-Luc have founded a non-profit ministry called “The Max Ministries” as well. The Max, while geared toward all, feels primarily called to do outreaches to French-speaking parts of the world. Working with a team of people from whatever city they will be doing the outreach in, Yves and Jean-Luc arrange the event and provide both preaching and music.
“When we do outreaches, we go to a city for over a week. We arrange everything from A to Z,” says Yves. “This year we will be going to Montreal for two weeks and we will bring a team of over 120 people with us. It takes a lot of preparation but the repercussion of an outreach like that is pretty awesome.” Ministry has always been at the heart of The Kry, and The Max is an exciting and natural extension of the band.
Throughout the past decade, The Kry has literally traveled the world. From Alaska (as part of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) to Australia (alongside Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusades) to Canada (The Max Ministries outreach to the Canadians) to Haiti (alongside Compassion International) to Israel (performing at outreach concerts sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism) to Russia, Albania, and many other Eastern European countries. They have performed in England (as part of the Creation Fest UK), France, and Ghana (as a part of “Lifeline Mission” and many others). Throughout the last few years the band has been blessed to minister through their songs at Cassie Bernall’s funeral and memorial service, just a few weeks after the infamous Columbine shooting in Littleton Colorado and Jean-Luc was privileged to sing for the people of New York City at a makeshift memorial in Union Square shortly after the 9/11 tragedy. The Kry has remained very active in ministry through the years and slowing down is not in the plan!
Throughout the past 15 years, The Kry has consistently released quality ministry-oriented music. This is not a band that struggles to find who or what they are. Their focus is clearer now than ever. They are ministers who happen to be musicians. Yves sums up the band with these simple words, “Whether it is an outreach of The Max or a new Kry album, we pray that—first and foremost—people realize how much God loves them and that He is a God of Infinite Worth.” |
