LZ7

LZ7 came into being after another Manchester, England-based Christian dance band, the Tribe, split up in 2004. Formed by their former frontman, Lindz West, the following year, and initially working mostly with Christian charity the Message Trust, LZ7′s charge was to work with and improve the lives of schoolchildren across the country. Their debut album, entitled Ruckus, appeared on the Christian label Survivor in the same year, while 2006 saw the group contribute to two Christian youth resources in the shape of a DVD entitled Deep (which won a Gold Award at the 2006 Christian Broadcast Council Annual Media Awards) and an album called Start Something. The band continued to perform throughout 2007, most notably alongside thebandwithnoname and tbc on the 2007 Hope Revolution tour. Their studio follow-up, 2007′s Gasoline EP, featured an early version of “This Little Light,” a song that would later enter the U.K. charts at number 26 and the indie charts at number four, albeit in a remixed version. This version would feature on their 2010 full-length album, Light, launched in conjunction with the Light Tour, in which the band performed across the country at festivals and evangelistic school events. The tour line-up at that time remained the same as on the album, with West on lead vocals, drummer Rob Evans, singer and dancer Nana Ntiamoah, and Nic Scholey, formerly of another Manchester-based Christian band, BlushUK. LZ7 subsequently enjoyed a whirlwind couple of years in which they took in international tours and released another single, “27 Million,” with worship leader Matt Redman, reaching number 12 on the U.K. charts. The 2013 album Aftershow again featured Redman, as well as a rolling lineup guesting on a collection of tracks that took in a variety of genres. In early 2015 the bandmembers announced they had begun work on a new album with the working title #LZ7Album5. The album would go on to be released in 2016 under the title Home, and featured productions by Solomon Olds, formerly of Family Force Five, Phenomenon, and Cassell the Beatmaker, among others. The video for the lead single, “So Good,” premiered in November 2015. The second single, the title track “Home,” dropped in April 2016. ~ Simon Spreyer